Chapter 22
Luke
I managed to get Anna to sleep early that night. She was still panicking about the back SUV, and her emotions were all over the place. I didn’t know who her father was or what he had done to her to make her this scared, but it was bordering on dangerous for her mental health if she was in a state of panic like this the whole time. I had seen people go mad with fear, losing all sense of reality, and it was impossible to ground them once that had happened.
Anna wasn’t there yet, but she was so much more unstable than she had been when she’d arrived. I was starting to wonder what was up. Was there more to her story that I didn’t know about, that she wasn’t telling me?
When I was sure she was sleeping tightly, I walked back to the living room and built up the fire more. When the cabin was warm, I took a beer out of the fridge and popped it. I switched off the lights so the only light in the cabin was the orange glow from the fireplace and walked to one of the windows, looking out. The night was heavy outside, the world tinted in black and gray, and I kept my eyes open for movement. I had told Anna I didn’t think they would find us here, but I wasn’t so sure.
How had they known that I was the one they had to follow to get to Anna?
The only people I knew with resources like that, with the means to track people down when it had nothing to do with the government or anything official, was the mafia. Could Anna’s father be in the mafia? She was a Santora.
I shook off the thought. There was no way they could have found her out here so easily when they had been looking for me for a year and hadn’t found me. Maybe her father had managed to track her phone after all or her friend had let it slip where Anna was.
It couldn’t be the mafia. I shivered. I had been running from them for so long, and before that, I had been so caught up in who I was to them and who they were to me, it was all I could think about. Not all the people who were after each other were involved with the mafia.
I kept my eyes open for movement between the trees outside, for shadows across the snow. I half expected people with guns to creep around the cabin, surrounding us. But the night was peaceful and quiet, the snow around the cabin remained undisturbed, and I knew I was being paranoid.
I turned around and sat down on the couch, sipping my beer and staring into the fire. There was something nostalgic about staring at the flames that always made me think about the bigger things in life, things I didn’t think about during everyday life.
Anna was a one of a kind girl, a person I hadn’t expected to fall for so hard and so fast. I was worried about her. Lately, something was wrong, and I didn’t know how to help her. The appearance of the black SUV didn’t help matters. I wished I could keep her safe, that I could protect her. I cared for her more than I had ever cared for anyone.
Usually, I saw getting emotionally attached as a liability. My time in the mafia had taught me that being attached to anyone only gave you a weakness, that having people you cared about gave the mafia leverage to hurt you if they wanted to. Because of that, I had kept the people I cared about to a minimum and the ones I wasn’t willing to sacrifice I made sure only to see on the odd occasion when the mafia would least expect it.
Like my parents. I had missed the days when I could go to my parents whenever I wanted to without worrying that someone would find me and realize I had pressure points they could exploit.
With Anna, it was different. I had had women in my life before, but they had only been one-night stands. They hadn’t been worth the trouble to have a weakness over. This time, I was willing to do everything and anything to be with Anna and keep her safe. I was willing to accept her as a weakness in my life because I wanted to be with her more than I had ever wanted anything. I didn’t believe in the bullshit about true love and destiny until I had met Anna. But how did the perfect woman land on my doorstep in the middle of a snowstorm when I had been in hiding for a year without fate being involved?
I looked at the beer in my hand. Earlier, while we had eaten dinner, I had offered her a beer, and she had declined. I had hoped the alcohol would help her take the edge off, but she had refused.
When I had asked her how she had known it was her dad, she had said she’d recognized him through the tinted windows. My heart ached for her that her own father was someone to fear. I loved my mom and my dad. My parents were beautiful people, and I knew I could trust them no matter what. Frankie Santora, on the other hand, had become the man of my nightmares when I had realized how fucked up the mafia was, and I couldn’t imagine. If he had been a father figure to me, I might have been in a far worse position.
To think that the person that made your life hell and your dad could be one and the same explained why she was as emotionally unstable as she was right now.
I stood up again and looked out of the windows, moving to each of them one by one. I was still unsure about no one finding the cabin. When I had lost them in the labyrinth of roads the first time, I had been sure that no one had seen me turn back into the road that led to my cabin. I wasn’t so sure about the second time. I had managed to lose them again, but I hadn’t known for a fact that they hadn’t turned back the moment I had turned into the maze of roads. I didn’t know for sure that they hadn’t been watching me, and for all I knew, they had managed to find the road to the cabin after all, and it was only matter of time before they came looking for Anna.
When I had made my rounds through the cabin, checking every window and there was still nothing outside, I walked to the kitchen and put on the kettle. I had finished my beer, and I desperately wanted another one, but I wasn’t going to drink more and allow the alcohol to dull my senses. So instead, I made coffee.
“Luke?” Anna said in a small voice as she stood in the door, her skin pale against her dark hair and her eyes sunken. She looked sick and scared. “Is everything okay?
I nodded. “I just checked all the windows. Everything is fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Anna nodded. She looked forlorn, unsure.
“Come here,” I said and held my hand out to her. She came to me, padding silently across the cabin in her socks and wrapped herself around me. I held onto her, feeling her against my body, and I vowed that no matter what, I would keep her safe.
“We’re safe here, right?” she asked again.
I nodded. I didn’t want to tell her about my doubts. I didn’t want to scare her unnecessarily. She was already terrified. There was no reason to make it worse.
“We’re safe here,” I said. “And I’ve got you.”
She looked up at me, her eyes shimmered with tears. When Anna cried, she looked so soft and vulnerable, and it always broke me. I hated seeing women cry but seeing Anna cry was so much worse. She was a strong woman with a strong personality and to see her reduced to fear and broken emotions like this made me hate whoever hurt her this much. A beautiful person like Anna didn’t deserve to be in such a state.
I rubbed her back. “It’s going to be okay,” I said softly. Sometimes, that was all we needed to hear.
“I’m sorry I’m crying again,” Anna said after a moment, wiping her tears with her sleeve. “I’m such a mess lately.”
I shook my head. “It’s understandable. A lot is going on. Don’t be sorry.”
“Thank you for everything you’re doing,” she added. “I don’t say it often enough, but I really appreciate that you’re going out of your way from me, whether it’s to drive me to town or to watch my back or make sure I’m comfortable. You’re sharing your private little space with me, and that means more than you know. So, thanks for that.”
I nodded and wrapped my arms tightly around her. “You’re welcome,” I said.
Anna tipped her head up, and her face was beautiful in the soft glow of the fire, her delicate features softened by the orange light and her dark eyes large and soulful. I wanted her. I couldn’t help it. This wasn’t the time to think about sex, but I wanted all of Anna. I wanted her in a way I hadn’t ever wanted anyone else.
“You can kiss me,” Anna said when I turned my head away from her.
“I don’t want to push you into something when there’s so much going on. Sex must be the last thing on your mind.”
Anna shook her head, and when I looked into her eyes, they were filled with desire.
“Sometimes the best way to escape is to get lost in each other,” she whispered. I looked at her for only a moment longer before I gave up my self-control and kissed her. I pressed my lips against hers, and she melted against me, sighing into my mouth.
Kissing her never got old. Anna was an amazing kisser, not only because she was naturally good at everything she did but because she gave herself to me with such reckless abandon no matter what we did. It made everything with her that much more sensual, that much more intense, and this time was no exception.
She kissed me as if there would be no tomorrow. And perhaps, if everything fell apart and they found us, if they took her away from me, maybe there would be no tomorrow.