“Let me explain,” he said, deflated.
“You made a choice, Aiden.” I inched backward, preparing myself to run from this fucking place. “I never thought you would choose them over me. We’re done. I’m done with all of you.”
“Lexie, wait! Hear me out.”
I bolted across the front lawn. Aiden followed, his long legs closing the distance between us, but he wasn’t fast enough.
“Leave me alone, Aiden,” I shouted as I rushed down the hill, using the steep decline to pick up speed. “I can’t do this right now.”
Luca was right about me.
Whenever shit got tough, I ran.
“Lexie,” Aiden yelled, out of breath.
A black Mercedes van barreled up the hill toward us. My heart slammed into my chest, my pulse racing so fast I thought I would spill my guts on the pavement.
Luca found me.
I tried to run past the van, but the driver swerved, cutting off my path. Before Aiden could reach me, the back door opened. A man got out of the van. I tried to run away from him, but he scooped me into his arms.
The door slid back into place.
Another man grabbed me from the back seat and covered my mouth. His skin stunk of cigars, and for a moment, I hoped it was Luca, even though I had defied him. I struggled, kicking my legs, and two men pinned me down on the bench. The man moved his hand to put a damp rag over my mouth.
“We have Salvatore’s wife,” a man said into a cell phone in broken English.
I struggled against their grip, fighting the scented cloth assaulting my senses. Before my eyes slammed shut, I heard Aiden call out my name over the pounding in my ears.
Aiden was alive.
I found him.
And I would never see him again.