Stephan

Isabella rocked the church, disrupting the funeral service with her accusation about her brother. The crowd erupted into gossip. All eyes were on Senator Parisi and his wife after Isabella ran outside. Some of the people in the crowd seemed to understand she was having a hard time and wanted someone to blame. But I knew better. An accidental death in that family had the Senator’s name written all over it.

Whether he shoved Mark over the ledge or not was irrelevant. He pushed his children, and now that I knew Isabella better, I was more aware of the constraints he put on them both. It would have been easy for her brother to take too many drugs and then get the courage to walk along the ledge and trip over his feet. But I doubted that was what had happened.

I was standing at the edge of the roof with Nino when the incident occurred. Though I didn’t see him fall or even hear a possible altercation between Mark and someone else, the entire thing was suspicious.

I followed after Isabella and found her in the middle of the parking lot of the church, hidden between cars. Sitting on the asphalt in her long black dress, she looked like my perfect raven, all made up with dark hair and bright red lips that parted for me.

“Stephan,” she said under her breath, relieved to see me. “How much of an ass did I make of myself?”

I sat next to her and slid my jacket off my shoulders. “Here, take this.” I offered my jacket to her, and she sat up enough for me to place it under her.

She laid her head in my lap, staring up at me. “Help me. Please. Get me out of here.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere. Mark was going to give me the money. He had agreed to it that night, and then an hour later, he was dead. My brother was a drug addict, but he didn’t kill himself. I know it deep down in my heart he didn’t.”

I twisted my fingers through her hair and sighed. “Your dad will come looking for you. No matter how much you want to escape, you will never be free.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “You know a lot of shady people.” Her voice was accusatory, but I wasn’t offended, because she was right. “Do any of them know how to smuggle people?”

“Do you really want me to answer that question?”

On occasion, I aided my cousin Damon in his private auctions. They were legendary in the criminal underworld. If you had specific tastes, Damon would find the right girl for you and have her hand delivered. For a hefty fee, of course. Sometimes, I assisted him in scouting the girls and arranging their movements to Europe. From there, our grandfather and his men took over. All of the girls were there of their own free will, some in desperate need of money, where others just wanted to be dominated by a rich man who could give them the life they’d always wanted.

“Yes, I do.”

I wiped away her tears with my thumb, and she smiled up at me. This girl was in love with me. I knew it without her saying the words aloud. And I felt something for her. I wasn’t sure what, but it was enough to want to protect her.

“Do you understand what you’re asking of me?”

She nodded. “I don’t care. Just get me out of here.”

“The conditions are not the best. You would be around people who will make you wish your life was over. I can’t promise anything. But I can make a few phone calls. It’s not that easy to make someone disappear.”

She tugged on my shirt to pull me to her. I closed my mouth over hers, and her lips parted for me. I slipped my tongue inside, tasting every inch of her. My forbidden girl smelled of vanilla and sex. Without reaching between her thighs, I already knew she was soaking wet for me.

When our lips separated, she whispered, “Will you go with me?”

I shook my head. “I can’t. This is where I belong. With my family. If you decide to do this, it will be on your own. You’ll be by yourself with people you don’t know, some of which don’t even speak English. Are you sure this is what you want?”

“I want to be wherever you are, Stephan.” She touched her palm to my cheek. “I don’t want to lose you, too.”

“You’ll never have me,” I confessed.

She sat up, her face twisted in anger. “Then why are you even here? Why would you offer to help me?”

“I wanted to see if you were okay.”

“Because you care about me.”

I turned away from her for a second, not wanting to meet her intense gaze. “I feel the need to protect you. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“But you can’t be with me.”

“No,” I muttered. “I can’t.”

“Because of your family.”

I nodded, and she let out a long, exaggerated grunt.

Her father was the real reason for all of this. I wanted to rip out the heart of the man who had caused her so much pain. But I wasn’t sure what kind of fallout plan he had in place in the event of his death. Senator Parisi was always ten steps ahead of everyone at all times. I would never underestimate him. He was capable of anything.

“I need to know something…” her face was full of tears, dark makeup running down her cheeks, “… did anyone in your family have anything to do with Mark’s death? All of you were there that night.”

Angry with her, I snapped. “How dare you accuse my family of killing your brother? He was a junkie. Not long before he died, Nino and I had to track him down to a crack house in Brooklyn and bring him home.”

Her face writhed in pain. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t want you to get involved.”

“I can handle the truth, Stephan. You don’t have to hide it from me. I’m a big girl.”

I blew out a puff of air, annoyed. This conversation had taken a turn for the worst. I couldn’t believe she had the nerve to blame my family for her brother’s drug problem.

“The truth is my family does things for your dad. We’ve cleaned up after your brother every time he’d gotten out of line. When he would go off the grid, on another bender, we would find him and bring him home. Your brother wasn’t stable. He wanted everyone to think he was okay, but he was far from it.”

“I know all about it, Stephan. It was hard to hide Mark’s issues. I tried to conceal them, too.”

“Just so you know, my family wouldn’t come to a charity event to kill your brother, when we had just saved his life. If we were going to kill him, no one would even know about it. And we wouldn’t do it in front of a public audience.”

“But my dad would.” She rubbed her fingers along my neck, staring into my eyes. “I’m sorry. I want someone to blame. I don’t believe my brother did this. He didn’t want to die.”

I twisted one of her curls between my fingers. “You don’t always know people as much as you think. I’ve learned that over the years. No one in my business is what they seem. Your brother had his demons. He used drugs to make them go away. Maybe he just wanted to end it all. We have no idea what was going on inside his head.”

“Yeah, but he’d just offered to give me money to run away. Why would he do that if he was planning to jump?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I wish I had an answer for you.”

Holding onto her, I pulled both of us up to our feet and hugged her against my chest. “Are you ready to go back inside?”

She held her hands up to her face and sobbed. “No, not really. I don’t want to deal with it all. My dad is going to have a stroke when he sees me. I made a scene in front of all his friends.”

“I’m sure he’s smoothed it over by now. He has a way of charming people.”

“One more thing,” she said, pressing her palms to my chest. “If I find out someone killed my brother, will you make them pay? For me.”

I stroked her jaw with my fingers, the pain evident in her eyes. “Yes,” I promised. “For you, Isabella, I would do anything.”