Once he's done washing my body and hair like he worships me, he lifts me out the bath, soaking his suit, and carries me to the bedroom. He dries and dresses me before ever so gently combing and blow drying my hair.
Once he's tucked me into bed, I watch him change his wet suit for a dry one, Royal blue with a black collared shirt and silver tie. God, he's handsome. I can't believe he's going to be my husband. How did I get so lucky? I never thought I could be this lucky.
The one thing that could make this scene perfect is the one thing I will never get back if Draven kills my brother. Peter is the only link I have left now that my father is gone. Without him, I will never be able to make my family complete. The only reason Peter is still alive is the fact Draven didn't want to leave me alone this whole time.
I should have found the courage to tell Draven before now the secret I hide, but I haven't, I don't know how he'll react. I'm a damn coward, but I'm scared to tell him now because it's been too long, he'll be angry that I kept it from him. However, my heart is in bits over it all.
I did try to tell him a couple of times, but something kept stopping me. I feel like the worst kind of coward and failure all at the same time. A failure is precisely what I am.
As I watch Draven splashing on aftershave, fastening his cufflinks, combing back his black hair, and then slotting his gun – which scares the hell out of me – into the holster at his side under his jacket, I know I have to say something, because I know tonight is the night he's going to finally sort Peter.
Brooke told me how Peter showed up the night I was rushed into the hospital, and how he admitted what he'd done, to me and how Draven's men dragged him away. She told me how Draven told her in no uncertain terms that Peter would not leave wherever they have him locked up alive.
How horrible is that? My older brother is locked up somewhere, having God only knows what done to him, waiting to die, and I'm not even bothered that he will. I am annoyed that I can't get to him first. I only want to get to him because I need information from him. It's going to kill me if I never get it.
Maybe if I told Draven, right now, the secret I hide from the world, he'd take pity on me and make Peter tell him what I need to know before doing what I can't talk him out of. As angry as he'll be with me for not telling him sooner, I know he won't let me go another day without knowing. He'll move heaven and earth to find them and bring them home to me. That much I do know without any doubt.
“Draven?” I swallow hard. How am I going to get him to listen to me? Start with family. Family is everything to him, right?
“What is it, il mio amore?” I love it when he calls me, my love, but it gives me the wrong idea about him loving me when I know he doesn't.
“Do you really have to do this? I mean, killing my brother?” How wrong does that sound? I'm talking to him about killing another person, one who shares my blood, like it's something we talk about every day. It isn't.
I should be scared of a man who kills. I mean, cold-blooded murder? I like to think he kills only those who deserve it, and as bad as that sounds, some people really deserve it.
“Marnie, that bastard almost killed you. He wanted our baby dead! He was going to drag you back to that piece of shit motherfucker, who would have done God only knows what to you, and God knows how long it would have been before I found you!”
“I know!” I yell, just to stop him from getting angrier. “I know,” I say more calmly, but as I do, my heart sinks. Nothing I say to him now will change his mind about this. He will kill my brother, and I know I will never see them again, and my heart is beyond broken.
How am I supposed to let go? It feels like I'm drowning with no hope of breaking the surface.
Draven takes my face in his hands and sits beside me, facing me. “I know this is hard for you, he's still your brother, no matter what he's done,” My eyes scan his face, his dark eyes. He really has no idea what this is doing to me, and not for the reasons he believes. “But it's time you learned to cut the dead weight out of your life. I will not let him go. God only knows what he'd do to you next time if I did. I have to keep you and the baby safe, Marnie.”
This baby means everything to him, and that's exactly what I wanted for my child, to have a father that would love it more than anything and anyone. But at what cost?
“I know.” I try to plaster on the smile, so he doesn't know something is wrong. Even if he does, he'll just think it's because of Peter.
With one final kiss to my lips, Draven leaves me alone for the first time since this whole thing happened. But not before telling me not to do anything until he comes home. Three hours max, he said. I won't hold my breath, and I'll be asleep before he gets home. As sad as I feel, I'm usually asleep early these days.
I wipe the tears from my eyes. What good will crying do me now? So Peter's gone, I'll just have to pluck up the courage to talk to Draven about my big secret. Even with Peter gone hope is not lost. If anyone can find lost information that has been hidden from the world, it's Draven. Nothing is ever as bad or as hopeless as it seems. Well, that's what Brooke tells me, anyway.
Yes, I have to keep my spirits up. All is not lost.
“Everything will be okay, baby,” I tell my unborn child while stroking my stomach. “We'll all be together soon, Mommy promises.”
Chapter Sixteen
Draven
I'm standing in front of the piece of shit who hurt my girl. He's tied to a chair after being beating the shit out of, waterboarded, electrocuted, etc. The sleeves of my shirt are rolled up to my elbows. I beat the shit out of him myself without asking him a damn thing. I'm an ex-cage fighter for fuck sakes, and I could've killed the prick with one punch. Luckily for him, I know how to throw a punch. I know what will cause the most damage and what will merely stun a man.
My men have been working on him for days, ever since they took him from the hospital — no way out for him. Paul escaping was a fluke, never to be repeated.
There's nothing to ask this motherfucker. I know everything I need to know already. I want the cunt to suffer before I finally put him out of his misery — nothing more, nothing less.
It hasn't stopped him mouthing off, however. I'm not listening. He's got nothing to say to me that I need to hear. People will say anything to buy time.
“Kill me, and she'll never find them!” His words are slurred. They would be with everything that's been done to him over the past few days. I don't suppose his head meeting the butt of my handgun once or twice has helped. I cock it in place and aim it at his head.
Peter spits blood from his mouth to the floor. “Those poor little girls, all alone and wondering when their mommy is going to finally show up and hold them. All those promises Marnie made to those little girls, and she chose you over them.” He shakes his head, laughing.
Motherfucker has my attention.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“He's stalling for time, Boss.” Lorenzo's right, he is, but I want to know what he means.
I have a clue what he's getting at, but I need to hear it. If I don't and what he's spitting at me is the truth, and I kill him before I get the answers, then I know I'll regret it. I don't do regrets!
“Kill me, and Marnie will never find her daughter's.”
And there it is, but he's lying. He has to be. There's no way on this earth Marnie would have kept something like that from me. I've seen the way she is with our unborn baby and how she'd die for it. There is no way she'd give up her child, let alone two. No way! No way would Marnie have kept that information from me. She would have asked for my help to find them!
Plus, when I fucked her at that wedding, I saw how perfect her naked body was. There was no sign that she'd ever been pregnant. Don't women get stretch marks and all that crap? Especially after two kids?
Definitely lying to buy time.
“You're lying.”
“Am I?” He smirks at me, his swollen eyes sparkling with glee. Cunt is loving this. “Ask her. Ask yo
ur precious fiancée about her daughter's and why she had to give them up. Ask her why I am the only person that can take her to visit those kids!” He yells, and my blood is boiling.
I don't fucking understand this shit! Were those children taken from her? If this is true, then why were they taken from her? I don't believe she gave those kids up willingly. I just don't buy it.
“Ask her about the kid's dad. Ask her about my dad and how he ripped those babies from her arms while she screamed in agony!” And there it is, she didn't give her children away willingly. The children were taken from her. If there even is any kids.
“Ask her how since my father was killed, I am the only person in this world who knows where her precious kids are, the kids she is allowed to see only twice a year. Without me, she will never see them again!”
Bullshit!
If Marnie does have kids out there, then I'll find them, without this cunts help. I can find anyone. I'm Draven Vidal, for Christ's sake!
“He's bluffing, Boss.”
“I don't give a shit, Tony!” Tony nods slightly. He of all people knows I am not the kind of man to take something like this lightly. Not where a child is concerned. This fat sack of crap is talking about two little girls that came from my Marnie's body, two little girls that are part of the woman I love. I want them home where they belong, with their mother!
“You,” I point to the fat blob in the chair in front of me. “What are the kid’s names?” He says nothing, just laughs through the wheezing of his chest, caused no doubt by his broken ribs. I'm surprised he can even speak after what we've done to him here over the days. “Where are they? Why the hell was Marnie forced to give up her children?”
“Go to hell, you filthy dago!” He spits at my feet. There's not much effort in it; he's fighting to stay conscious. He's a tough SOB; anyone else in his position would have passed out or even died from their injuries by now.