Ruthless Heart

I look around. The place is sparsely furnished, but I’ve done my best to make it feel like home:thrifted furniture, books, and blankets. I painted the kitchen sunbeam yellow and did a mural on the bedroom walls: Jungle vines twisting up to a blue ceiling, tropical and bright.

But a part of me always knew it would be temporary.

A part of me always knew, the day would come when I would have to leave it all behind.

Once it would have been for him. With him.

Now, Nero is the one burning it all to the ground.

Slowly, my pulse comes back to normal. I wipe away my tears, and straighten up my clothing, turning over every possibility in my mind. I could run. Pack a bag, hit the road. Find another city to get lost in, another shitty job to keep my brother’s college tuition paid. Spend every waking minute looking over my shoulder, searching the crowd for a familiar face.

But I already know, it’s not an option. Not anymore.

Now that Nero Barretti knows I’m out here, he’ll stop at nothing to find me again. He’ll hunt me down, no matter what, and he won’t care who he has to hurt to get to me.

Teddy.

My brother is safe in college in Indiana, attending lectures and meeting other freshmen at Friday night pizza parties. Oblivious. Happy. I’ve spent the past ten years raising him, making his life as normal as possible in the wreckage of everything that went down.

He’s my reason for everything, and there’s nothing I won’t do to protect him.

A knock echoes through the apartment.

I flinch.

It comes again, determined.

He’s found me.

I get to my feet and take a deep breath. Slide the deadbolt open and throw the door wide.

But it’s not Nero on the other side. It’s his enforcer, Chase, standing there—with three of his guys, menacing in the dim light. I try not to notice the bloodstains on his shirt, probably the last trace of that drunk guy anyone will ever see.

“Chase,” I greet him, pretending it’s not a shot of disappointment I feel. “Come in.”

He looks surprised, like he was expecting to have to break the door down to get to me.

“Where is he?” I ask. “Where’s Nero?”

“He flew back to New York. Business.” Chase replies. “He left me to deal with you.”

Terror strikes hard, but I hide the shiver. I know how Chase deals with people.

Instead, I draw myself up to my full height and give him my most imperious stare. The one I used in my former life, when I was pampered and privileged, and the whole world leapt to give me whatever my heart desired.

When Nero Barretti was the boy I loved, and not the man who wants me dead.

“Take me to him.” I say, offering up a final prayer. Because there’s only one person who can save me now, and there’s no way to run from him. Not anymore. “Take me to the boss.”