The Woman at the Docks (Grassi Framily)

Only if you come alone she told me.

I couldn't give her that. Technically. It was wrong. There was a hierarchy. I answered to my father. He made the decisions.

I couldn't tell her I could go there alone.

And yet...that was exactly what I did.

Chapter Ten

Romy

Anyone watching these events unfold would likely think I was wishy-washy, flip-floppy, like I was someone who couldn't make up their mind, couldn't stick to any one decision.

To that, I had to admit that it certainly seemed that way. Hell, I even sat there looking at the texts, cursing myself out for being swayed.

I couldn't come to a conclusion about why I felt that way either.

If I was alone and scared and without a proper ID or money or way to get money. Even if I decided to scrap all of this today and go home, I would have no way to do that.

Not that I had any intention of running away from this.

But it wasn't even a possibility.

It was scary to be completely without options. I didn't even have a place to go.

Originally, I thought I could go to an all-night coffee pla

ce.

But there had been a sign on the door saying that you had to buy something to stay.

I found myself sitting in a well-lit park near a pier beside a massive hospital, figuring that I was safest in public, and that no one would question my presence near a hospital, figuring I was there with a loved one, and needed to step outside for a minute.

I also figured it wasn't somewhere the Grassi family would come looking for me.

That said, this was as far as my plan could go, wasn't it?

Without the proper identification, without access to money, without my car, I had no way of doing anything.

What was my other option? To go to the police? That would sign my death warrant for sure.

I could feel hopelessness tightening around my throat.

And then the first text came in.

- I never would have left Matteo or Lucky in charge if I thought one of them would accuse or threaten you. I understand why you ran under those circumstances. But they do not have the power to make that call, to follow through with those orders. I believe you, and that is all that matters right now. Come back. I give you my word that you're safe. And I don't give people my word, Romy, so you can put your faith to rest in that. - Luca

Of course, my gut instinct was to say he was lying, that he would say anything he could to get me to come back, to question me, to see if I was telling the truth, to punish me if I wasn't.

Family over everything, that was what I'd been told.

That said, there was another voice inside my head, one that said Luca was an honorable man, that he wouldn't offer his word if he didn't mean it. Even if that went against rules and traditions. Even if he might pay the consequences for disobeying them.

I sat there for a long time listening to the waves crash, smelling the salt water and the slight, but unmistakable, fishy smell to the water, trying to decide which option would be the least likely to have me dead in a ditch somewhere.

And then the second text came in.

Different.