Page 32 of Stolen Vows

"Not that I saw," she replies. "There were two in the car that drove us off the road—killed my driver. I made a run for it into the woods and they started shooting, I managed to take one of them out, and the other one..."

She glances past me, to the heap of the body on the floor in front of us.

"Yeah. He’s gone now."

"Are you alright?”

She nods. She is shaking slightly, but I can tell that she is telling the truth. She turns to me.

"You?”

"Yeah. Fine."

"What about the girl?”

"Back at the cabin. Come on. You need something to eat, and we need to figure out if there’s any more of those fuckers on the way."

She nods, and I reach out to put an arm around her shoulders as I steer her back in the direction of our home base. My eyes dart back and forth, the hair on the back of my neck standing up as I consider what the hell is happening here. Who were these men? How did they figure out where we were hiding? Has Cara got something to do with it? That call I accidentally answered from the number I didn’t know? I have a million questions, and I doubt that I am going to find answers to them anytime soon.

We reach the cabin, and Veronica pauses for a moment, pulling away from me and catching her breath.

"I’m sorry," she mutters to me, glancing up at me out of the corner of her eye. "I didn’t bring any supplies. They were in the car, and?—"

"Shit, Veronica, I don’t care about that," I reply, as I plant a hand on the door. "Get inside. Let’s regroup. I’m just glad you’re alive."

We head into the cabin, and once we step in, I double check that all the doors and windows are locked, that there is nobody watching this place from the outside. Whoever those men were, there is not a chance they weren’t sent by Lucio Leone. I know that bastard too well to imagine it could be anyone else. He just underestimated us, thought that we could be dealt with that easily with no pushback. Two men aren’t enough, not by a long shot—not for something that we have been working towards for so long.

"Sit down," I tell her, gesturing for her to sit down. "You need to rest."

"I know," she sighs. "Got a coffee or something like that? I need to call your father. Make sure he knows I’m here safe, even if the driver didn’t make it."

She winces as she says that part. No matter how long she has been part of this life, part of this world, I know there is always a sliver of her that feels bad for how far we have to go, for the lives we have to lose in the process. You can’t bring down a man like Lucio Leone without being willing to put yourself at risk, no matter how much you might like to think otherwise.

I am about to make my way back to the kitchen when I hear a sudden banging on the door from inside Cara’s room. I shoot a look over there, frowning. Why the hell is she making such a fuss? At least I know that she hasn’t somehow made a break for it when I was handling the emergency outside.

I stride over to the door, unlock it, and pull it open swiftly, meeting her with raised eyebrows.

"What is it?”

"I heard gunshots! And another voice. There’s someone else here," she shoots back as she looks past me, peering towards the living room. I step in front of her. Though I doubt that laying eyes on Veronica before I have a chance to catch up with her would make much of a difference at this point; that doesn’t mean I am going to just let it happen.

"That’s got nothing to do with you."

"I heard a woman’s voice," she snaps, crossing her arms over her chest.

And for just an instant, I am sure I can see something in the way of jealousy in the expression on her face. I almost smirk, despite everything. I know that whatever is happening here between us is complicated, more complicated than it needs to be, but I am not going to deny the fact that in between worrying about everything, I enjoy it.

I step aside. If she wants to see Veronica for herself, maybe it will help bring all of this home for her—make her see that there are real people involved in the hell that her father has unleashed on women in this world. She might not want to believe he could be capable of something like that, but Veronica, of all people, knows better. She survived it.

Cara brushes past me and towards the living room, and I follow her. But, to my surprise, she comes to a sudden halt when she realizes who is sitting there in front of the fireplace. I hear her draw in a sharp breath, shock coursing through her faster than she can make sense of it, faster than she can even think.

"Oh my God," she gasps.

I glance between the two women. Veronica seems just as surprised as me that Cara is reacting in such a way. Veronica pushes a strand of wild red hair away from her face, tilting her head at Cara as if to saydo I know you?

But Cara seems certain in the way she’s looking at Veronica. This isn’t some case of mistaken identity; whatever she is seeing before her right now, she is not acting as if Veronica is a total stranger.

She moves a little closer to Veronica, as though waiting for her to snap out of existence right as she sits there before her. But, asshe stares, Veronica just looks back blankly. Cara’s face is paler than I’ve ever seen it, like she’s looking at a ghost.

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