Buttons and Pain (Buttons 3)

“He’s good. Misses you.”

“He said that?” That sweet man always took care of me, and he did so with a smile. He’d become an essential part of my life in Italy. I saw his face every morning and every night.

“Not in those words. But yes.”

“Well…I miss him too.” I missed everything about that place. It was a magical gem in the middle of nowhere. The vineyards were just as beautiful as the glorious sunsets over the hillsides. The smell of grapes always entered my nose when I opened the window in the morning. The food was always perfect but nothing could beat the company of Crow Barsetti. “How’s Cane?” He told me Crow loved me but that turned out to be a cruel joke. I hated him all over again.

“A shithead, like always.”

I chuckled at his choice of words. I never heard him say something like that before. “And work?”

“The winery is doing well. We just had our harvest so that was a big project. My business with Cane is the same. We had a shipment last Monday that was a success.” He stirred his wine before he took a drink.

“Any news on Bones?”

“Cane and I have been trying to track him but he never stays in one place too long. He must know we’re after him.”

“Who was that woman who snatched me?” When I left Italy and got on the plane I never called Crow to tell him I was okay. But then again, I didn’t have his number. I didn’t even have his address. There was no way for me to get in touch with him. And I had to admit, I was hurt when he never contacted me.

“A bounty hunter. Bones dispatched a ton of them to find you.”

I shivered involuntarily at the thought. That man was obsessed with me in an unhealthy way. I’d been gone from his clutches for a year but he still searched for me. “I see.”

He rested his fingertips around the stem of his glass as he watched me. He examined every reaction that I gave, seeing the emotions underneath. “When I found them I killed them. You don’t need to worry about them.”

He read my mind, like always. “You didn’t need to kill them.”

“If I didn’t, they would have told Bones where they found you. It had to be done.” He spoke with no remorse, like it was just business. “I don’t mean to scare you but Bones will never stop hunting you. He’ll figure out where you are, and when he does he’ll take you again.”

I covered my unease by taking a large drink of wine. I’d rather die than be imprisoned again. If I had to go through that torture again I’d put a gun to my head and pull the trigger. I lived through it once but I couldn’t live through it again. “I’m not going to live in fear. If that happens, I’ll kill myself.”

That wasn’t the response he wanted to hear. His eyes narrowed in offense. “No. That’s not the solution.”

“Then there is no solution.”

“If you come home with me you’ll never have to worry about it.”

I stared into my glass.

“Button.” His voice came out gentle, the exact opposite as it sounded just a moment ago. “I’ll keep you safe. You have my word.”

“Like how you kept me safe from those bounty hunters?”

“I would have gotten you back. I was just a street away when you ran for it.”

“Why didn’t you stop me at the airport?”

“There wasn’t time. Airports have strict security. For someone on the run, that’s the safest place you can be.”

A part of me hated him for not stopping me. A part of me hated him for letting me go. His indifference hurt just as much as his cold rejection. “Why haven’t you contacted me?”

“I assumed you didn’t want me to.”

“But then you show up when I start seeing someone…”

His expression didn’t change. It was just as cold as stoic as before. “For the past two months I’ve...been lost. When I sleep at night, I still stay on the left side of the bed even though you aren’t there. I stopped taking my meals in the dining room because you weren’t sitting across from me anymore. I still haven’t gone into your bedroom since you left. Lars had the window repaired but I haven’t checked. When I go to work I can’t concentrate. I kept telling myself this feeling would go away. But it hasn’t.”

I held my breath as I listened to every word. It was a confession that I didn’t expect to hear. He actually felt something for me—whatever it was. He wasn’t indifferent to my absence. Our time apart was difficult for him like it was difficult for me.

“Lars said something to me…and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. And then I watched your GPS coordinates obsessively. Based on your movements I figured out your routine. When you spent every weekend on Park Avenue I started to figure it out…and I couldn’t handle it.”