Griffin took me to a small apartment in Florence, a one-story place right above an art gallery. He was the kind of man that didn’t say much, focusing on the road ahead of him without asking me any questions. He seemed disinterested in my existence altogether, and he didn’t have a perverted vibe humming around him. Most men I met were sick, wanting to hurt me for their own pleasure.

He looked at me with complete indifference.

His presence was innately dangerous, like he could yank a tree directly out of the ground. His muscled arms were covered with endless ink from his tattoos, and he seemed like a man from the streets.

But the second he spoke to Vanessa, he was a different man altogether.

Sweet, gentle, and obviously in love.

That’s when I finally let my guard down.

He didn’t care about me because he had someone special to care about.

Griffin walked into the apartment first, where he was greeted with a loving kiss from a petite brunette. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rose onto her tiptoes to feel his mouth. His powerful arms wrapped around her slender waist and squeezed her tightly.

Their affection made me think of Carter.

I wished he were there now.

Griffin seemed like a strong man capable of anything, but Carter put me at ease like no one else. He’d proved his loyalty to me, proved that he had a heart under the rock-hard chest. His dark eyes made my body flush with heat.

When Vanessa finished greeting her lover, she turned to me. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mia.” Instead of shaking my hand, she hugged me. It was full of affection and friendship. “I’m glad you’re here. I hope you don’t mind taking the couch. We only have one bedroom.”

“And we need the privacy.” Bones carried his bag down the hallway into the bedroom.

Despite her olive skin, she blushed slightly. “That’s why I rarely take him anywhere.”

“I think it’s sweet.”

She smiled. “So you guys got along okay on the drive? I know he’s a bit intimidating.”

“He was wonderful. Didn’t say a word to me or look at me. It was really nice.” It was nice to be treated like a regular person, not some beautiful woman with sex between her legs. There was no attraction on his part. It was nice to be viewed as a person instead of an object.

She raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like he was pretty rude.”

“No, not at all.” I stepped farther inside the apartment and looked at the couch. “Thanks for letting me stay here. I didn’t mean to get you two involved in this.”

“Don’t worry about it. There’s nowhere safer in the world than right here, with that guard dog down the hallway.”

I took a seat on the couch. “Seems that way. But I still feel bad getting you mixed up in this.”

“Don’t.” She sat beside me. “If a Barsetti asks for a favor, you do it. Carter needed us, and of course, we were there. I have to admit I was surprised when Griffin told me everything, but…I guess I’m not surprised at the same time.”

“It’s not how it seems. Carter is a good man.” I didn’t want his family to think he was a bad person. After the sacrifice he’d made, he was nothing of the sort. Egor was the evil one.

“I never thought otherwise.” She got up again. “Something to drink? Eat?”

Griffin came back into the room. “How about I make us something? So you don’t make the poor girl sick.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Want me to slap you?”

“Ooh.” He smacked her ass as he walked by. “I hope you do, baby.” He opened the fridge and pulled out a few ingredients.

It seemed like I’d walked into a house of newlyweds. “Water is fine.”

“Coming right up.” Vanessa poured me a glass and returned to me as Griffin started to cook in the kitchen. She set the glass beside me on the coffee table.

“You guys are really cute together.”

Vanessa smiled but didn’t reply to what I said.

I took a drink. “I hope Carter is okay. I wish I could call him.”

“He’ll call when he can.” Griffin didn’t look up from the pans on the stove. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

“Carter is a really smart guy,” Vanessa said. “He’s the smartest Barsetti, actually. All through school, he had unusually high marks. His parents thought he was cheating because they didn’t know where his intelligence came from. He went to school for engineering and started his car company right away. Really impressive.”

“Yeah…it is.” He also knew a lot about the female anatomy, how to make me come without even trying. Was that skill? Or was I just that hot for him?

“I work in the gallery during the day, so you can join me if you’d like. Or stay here. It’s up to you.”

“Sure. That would be great.” I liked the way Vanessa and Griffin treated me like a normal person, not some poor victim who’d just endured a lot of pain. I’d been a prisoner for so long, and this was the first time I’d ever truly been free. If I really wanted to, I could walk out the front door and go to the coffee shop down the road. I could hop in a taxi and go anywhere. It was the greatest feeling. “I’m not sure what else to do with my time except sit here and wait for him to call.”

“Been there, done that,” Vanessa said. “It’s no fun.”

Griffin glanced at her from his spot in the kitchen, catching the look on her face before he returned to his work.

“Well, maybe you can tell me some stories about Carter,” I said.

“Like, embarrassing ones?” she asked with a smile.

“Yes. Especially embarrassing ones.”

“Get comfy,” she said. “Because I have quite the list.”

The next day, Carter called Griffin.

Griffin was sitting on the couch with the TV on while Vanessa and I played checkers at the coffee table. He took the call, his muscular arms practically ripping through his t-shirt. “Carter, what happened?”

I was about to put down my piece when I heard what Griffin said. “Is he okay?”

“What happened?” Vanessa said. “Did Egor leave?”

Griffin held up his hand before he put the phone on speaker and set it on the table. “Hey, I put you on speakerphone because the women were pestering me with a million questions.”

“The women?” Vanessa asked.

“You are women, aren’t you?” Griffin asked with a straight face.

She narrowed her eyes with menace, but there was a note of affection in the look.

“Carter,” I said. “Everything okay?” I wished I could speak to him privately, but this would do.

“Yes, sweetheart,” he said, speaking to me in the same tone he always did. “I’m fine.”

Vanessa’s face turned back to the phone, her eyebrow raised.

“Did he believe you?” I asked, slightly afraid of the answer.

“Yeah, I think he did,” Carter said. “He was suspicious in the beginning. Came into the house and examined the body himself. But he seemed to find what he was looking for. Said he wanted to bury the corpse at the sea because he refused to bury you properly. We parted on decent terms.”

“So, you think it’s over?” I couldn’t let myself believe it unless it was actually true. I would hate to be that happy only for my hopes to come crumbling down again.

“It would be stupid to assume that, but I think so. I’ll keep laying low for a bit. I’ll have the house repaired while my real estate agent finds me a place in Tuscany. I’ve also found someone to adopt your son and take him out of the orphanage.”

Even though I was sitting with two complete strangers, I became overwhelmed with emotion. The tears sprung to my eyes. I didn’t care that Carter asked me to bed him in exchange for my freedom. It seemed like more than fair after what he’d done for me. “Oh my god…”

Vanessa stared at me, her eyes softening.

“I’ll just need his name so I can get started on the paperwork,” Carter said.

“Okay,” I whispered. “Luca Moretti…” I hadn’t said my son’s name out loud in so long. It felt so good to feel that name on my tongue, to picture his beautiful face. I missed holding him in my arms, missed taking him to the park to play with his friends. I missed everything about being a mom.

“Alright,” Carter said. “I’ll get started on all of that. I’ll check in when I can. Thanks, Griffin and Vanessa. I appreciate what you’re doing for me.”

“No problem,” Vanessa said. “Mia is lovely.”

“Let us know if you need anything,” Griffin said.

“Alright,” Carter said. “We’ll talk later.”

“Wait.” I didn’t want him to hang up, not yet.

“What’s up, Mia?” Carter asked.

I grabbed the phone and took it off speakerphone. “Excuse me for a second…” I took the phone out the door to the staircase. I sat down at the top and held the phone against my ear. “I just wanted to talk to you…alone.”

“You alright?”

“Yes, your family has been wonderful to me. I really like Vanessa.”

“She’s pretty cool. I thought you two would get along well.”

I sat in silence with him, just appreciating his presence. After he’d decided to help me, my feelings for him had changed. They immediately deepened into something much heavier. I saw him as a hero, as the man who saved me. “All of this doesn’t seem real…the idea of seeing Luca again…doesn’t seem real.”

“I know, sweetheart. But it is real.”

“Because of you…all because of you.”

He was quiet.

“Carter, thank you.”

“You shouldn’t thank me,” he whispered. “I’m getting something out of this. My hands aren’t clean.”

“I don’t care about that. Doesn’t change my opinion of you.”

“It should.”

It didn’t. He would always be kind to me. He would always listen to me. He would give my son and me a life we couldn’t have had before. I was broke, without a single penny to my name. I had no way to provide for my son…without Carter. “I’ll never be able to repay you for what you did. I miss you so much.”

“Miss me?” he whispered. “I didn’t think you could miss me, not after what I did to you.”

“I do miss you. I wish you were here now.”

He sighed into the phone. “It’s strange…what those words do to me. Because I miss you too. I wish you were in my bed tonight.”

“Me too…and not just for sleeping.”

He sighed again, like I was pushing his buttons.

“When can I see you? Vanessa and Griffin are in their newlywed phase. I don’t want to burden them more than necessary.”

“Maybe a week,” he said. “Depends on how quickly the real estate agent moves.”

“Okay…”

“But it won’t be much longer than that.”

“And my son?”

“That will be a little longer. The paperwork always moves slowly for those sorts of things. They’ll have to do a background check and a bunch of other stuff before he’s released.”

“Okay…”

“But it’ll be soon. I promise.”

“I know.”

After a long pause of silence, he spoke. “I’ll talk to you later, sweetheart.”

“Alright, Carter.”

“Good night.”

I didn’t want to say good night to him. I didn’t want to get off the phone. But I let him go, knowing I needed to be patient. “Good night.”