Chapter 28
Luke
When I woke up the next morning, I was ready to face off with Frankie. I had a whole life to fight for now, a woman and a child that completed me in a way I had never felt complete before.
Anna was worried that I would end up dead. And the possibility was there. I was aware of it. But I wanted to fight for her, and I knew Frankie. I knew what he wanted and what was important to him, And if I could show him that those things were important to me too, maybe he would reconsider. It was worth a try.
Anna was worth a try. She was worth a hell of a lot more than that.
Frank arrived exactly twenty-four hours after he had left and hammered on the door. Anna wanted to open for him, but I insisted and walked to the door, opening it.
“Where is she?” Frankie asked.
“She’s not going with you,” I said.
Frank raised his eyebrows. “Do you have a death wish?” he asked.
I shook my head and stepped outside, closing the door behind me. Frank and I stood in the snow, the cabin at my back, and it was colder than it had been yesterday. But the adrenaline pumped through my system and I barely felt the chill.
“I want to have a word with you,” I said. “Your daughter means the world to me. I love her, and I want to marry her. I didn’t take her virginity and get her pregnant only to run away. I have always had honorable intentions toward her, and I ask for your blessing.”
Frank chuckled. “What makes you think I’m going to give it to you? What makes you think I’m going to let you live?”
“Because you know me. You know what kind of a man I am, how loyal I am.”
Frank shook his head. “Running away from your people and your duties is not loyalty,” he said.
“Yes, I left,” I said. “I admit it was wrong. But you wouldn’t let me out. I told you I didn’t like who this made me.”
“So? You should have sucked it up. I did.”
The words shocked me. Did Frank not want to be who he was, either. What were the chances he was stuck in a life he hated the same way I was? How much worse would it be for him as the mafia boss?
“I know what it means to step up to the plate and accept responsibility, just the way you’re doing,” I said. “I want to do that, too.”
Frank shook his head. “You see, that’s all fine and dandy. But someone else is already doing that.”
Frank looked over his shoulder, and Sam climbed out of the car. The son of a bitch was as smug and shady looking as ever. His light brown hair was buzzed short, his green eyes were dull, and he was thin and reedy, but I knew it made everyone underestimate his strength. Sam’s strength didn’t only lie in his natural physical strength but also in his ability to switch off his humanity. Sam could do gruesome things to people without blinking an eye or feeling bad about it, and that made him dangerous. The one thing that stopped us from being monsters was our conscience. Sam didn’t have one.
“You brought him here?” I asked.
“I brought him to fetch his bride.”
Of course, he did. Frank was a bastard, and Sam was right up there with him. Now that I knew who Anna’s dad was, I understood why she had run away. I knew what she had been trying to do.
“So, let’s talk about this little stunt you’re pulling,” Frank said. Sam started walking through the snow, scoping out the area. I tried to keep an eye on him, but he moved to the back of the cabin, and I lost sight of him.
“It’s not a stunt,” I said. “I’m trying to level with you. Anna will never be happy with Sam, you know that. Don’t you want your daughter to be happy?”
“I want her where I can see her. There are a lot of people that will hurt her to get to me, and if I keep her close, she will be out of harm’s way. I don’t care about her being happy. I want her safe. I already lost a wife. I won’t lose a daughter, too.”
He was worried about losing her, I realized. Frank’s intentions were not to control her but to keep her where he could see her, to keep her from slipping away. But it was like a handful of beach sand. The tighter you held onto beach sand, the more it slipped out of your fingers. It was when you held it loosely in a cupped had that it stayed.
Frank was squeezing the shit out of Anna, terrified of letting go and losing her all the same.
The door opened, and Anna stepped out.
“Get back inside,” I said.
“Don’t tell me what to do. This is my life we’re talking about.”
She was stubborn, and I understood why Frank felt the need to tame her. Anna didn’t make things any easier.
“This is all very touching that you’re here to fight for her,” Frank said to me. “But I don’t approve of her choice in a man.”
It was supposed to be an insult. But before I could respond, Anna spoke up.
“That’s not for you to decide,” she said. “I don’t care if you don’t approve. I can do whatever the hell I want, and I’m going to keep doing it.”
The words were barely out of Anna’s mouth when Sam appeared from behind the cabin and grabbed her. Anna yelped, looking frantically over her shoulder, and she paled when she realized who had grabbed a hold of her.
“Sam,” she said in a panicked voice. “What are you doing here?”
She was scared of him. It was plain to see. How could Frank push her to marry a man she so obviously feared?
“Let her go, Sam,” Frank said, but Sam shook his head and pulled a gun out of his pocket. Things had escalated very quickly.
“Sam,” Frank barked. “What the fuck are you doing? Unhand my daughter.”
Frank had lost control of his boy, and that was never a good thing.
“I’m so sick of Luke being a pussy, talking shit like life is a problem that can be solved. Anna is coming with me, now. You can stand here and chat as long as you like.”
“Sam,” Frank warned again, but Sam shook his head and pressed the barrel of the gun against Anna’s temple. She whimpered, her eyes squeezed shut, her hands clawing at the arm that was slung over her shoulders.
“Let me go, Sam,” she cried.
“Not until you agree to come with me,” he said.
The man was crazy. He had a wild look in his eye, and I didn’t trust that he wasn’t going to pull that trigger.
Frank didn’t trust him, either. The situation was new—he had always seen Sam as a son. But Sam had clearly stepped out of line in a big way. “Put the gun down, Sam. We’re going to take care of this.”
Was Frank going to give Anna to Sam for the sake of keeping her alive? I knew now more than ever that Anna couldn’t go with Sam. He would kill her. Maybe not physically but he would snuff her out until she was only a shell of what she once used to be.
Frank and I were suddenly on the same side, trying to get Anna back alive and in one piece. We both stood, facing Sam.
“You can’t play the game this way, son,” Frank said, and his voice was low like he was trying to talk someone down from a ledge. “Let’s think about this.”
“What is there to think about?” he asked. “You’re fucking around with small talk when you should have shot the bastard and gotten it over and done with. That doesn’t sound very boss-like to me.”
“Careful, Sam,” Frank warned. The mafia boss had to be respected by his men. But Sam laughed.
“Careful? I have a gun pressed to your daughter’s head, and you can’t do shit about it, and I’m the one that has to be careful?”
He had a point. Frank glanced at me and something passed between us. I had to save the situation. I had to save the woman I loved.
Sam was talking to Frank, monologuing about the power of persuasion. I inched closer to him. Frank moved in the opposite direction, so Sam faced further and further away from me. As soon as I was able to get close enough, I jumped forward and knocked Sam off his feet. He let go of Anna and the gun fell into the snow. I pulled Anna against me and held her close.
“Thank you,” she said letting out a gasp of air.
Frank walked toward Sam. I saw it all happen in slow motion. Sam reached for the gun that hadn’t fallen too far. He picked up the gun and aimed at Frank. I lunged for Frank at the same time Anna jumped toward Sam. Anna hit Sam, knocking him so the gun pulled to the right. At the same time, I jumped in front of Frank.
A loud sound echoed through the trees, and I fell to the ground, my arm burning like a bitch.
“Oh, my God,” Anna cried.
Frank blinked at me on the ground and at Sam who had just tried to shoot him. Something came over him, his face changed, and I knew there was hell to pay.
Frank marched toward Sam and picked up the gun that had fallen out of his hands when Anna had tackled him. Frank lifted the gun and pointed it at Sam’s face.
“No, no, no,” Sam said. “Please.” He was begging for his life.
“Honey, look away,” Frank said to Anna. “Sam,” he said to the dead man. “Begging is for pussies.”
He pulled the trigger and the second shot rang through the trees, the splatter of blood a bright crimson in the snow.
Anna ran to me, stumbling through the snow and falling next to me on her knees.
“Oh, my God, you idiot,” she said. “You jumped in front of a bullet. What the hell were you thinking?”
“He wasn’t thinking,” Frank said, kneeling next to me, too. He studied the wound on my arm. It was bleeding and it hurt like something else. “He acted out of loyalty, and he was willing to take a bullet for me.”
Frank looked at Anna.
“It looks like I misjudged him,” he said. He looked at me. “I’m sorry. You have proven your worth to me and my daughter. Thank you.”
I nodded.
Frank stood and walked away, calling 911.
“Are you okay?” Anna said. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“It’s a graze. You knocked him off balance and saved my life.” I lifted my hand to Anna’s cheek and wiped away the tears.
“Don’t cry,” I said.
She shook her head and more tears spilled onto her cheeks.
“I’m not,” she said.
She hugged me, and I groaned through the pain, but I held her to me because it was all over. We were safe. She was alive. I was alive.
“The ambulance is on the way,” Frank said, walking back to us. “But you’ll be fine. Made of tough stuff.”
I grinned up at Frank. I had come out here to talk to Frank, to convince him I was good enough for his daughter. Nothing said loyalty and respect as much as taking a bullet for someone. Drastic times called for drastic measures.
That, and I wouldn’t have been able to let Anna and Frank lose each other.
“Honey,” Frank said to Anna, and she looked up at him. “You have it all wrong. I’m not punishing you because you’re so much like your mother. I’m not angry with you for her death. Sometimes, you look so much like her it hurts. But everything I have done was to keep you safe because I can’t lose you, too. You’re my angel.”
Anna started crying, and I had a feeling this was something that went a lot deeper than I would ever understand.
“I know you miss her,” Anna said.
Frank shook his head. “I will always miss her, but I miss you more. Come home, honey. Both of you, come home.”