Page 67 of Ties That Bind Us

I ran my fingers through my hair roughly as I paced back and forth. None of this shit felt safe.

“You gotta trust me, man.” Leo put his hand on my shoulder. “We’re all in this to make sure Ava is safe. Let Vince do what he’s good at, and you focus on getting Ava better. Alessandro isn’t going to get away with this, I promise you that.”

I was silent, deciding whether or not I was going to go against my better judgment and hand the reins to Leo and Vince.

“Nick, I had more stake in that shop than you did. My mother . . .” Vince stuttered, his voice breaking slightly. “All three of my sisters were in there. I could’ve lost any one of them. Trust me, I’m not going to let anybody get away with anything.”

I hoped I wasn’t going to regret this. “I want to be kept up to date on everything.”

“Of course.” Leo nodded.

“And the second you find out what Alessandro is trying to pull—” I gritted my teeth.

“You’ll be the first to know.”

“Fine,” I said reluctantly. I wasn’t usually one to let go of things so easily, but if it meant keeping Ava safe, I was willing to try just about anything. I wasn’t used to working on the same side as Vince, but I had to admit it was a nice change of pace. The guy had his faults, but he was passionate and he loved Ava almost as much as I did.

“You just focus on taking care of Ava.” Vince slapped my back. “We’ve got this.”

“Oh, I’ll take care of her all right.”

We were going on vacation, and when we returned, she would be Mrs. Nick Caponelli.

Chapter 26

Ava

“Ava?” Nick called, shutting the door to the penthouse quietly. Every move he made around me was quiet lately, as if he expected anything too harsh or loud to send me into hysterics. For all I knew, it would. For the last couple of days, I had been reliving that day over and over in my mind, barely able to think about anything else. It was on my mind when I got up in the morning, the last thing I thought about before going to sleep, and occupying most moments in between. Images of the tattered dress shop and the shredded wedding dress on my body, and the look on the saleswoman’s face when she’d been hit plagued my nightmares.

Neither of us had gotten a good night’s rest since the shooting. Nick refused to leave my side, no matter how restless I was, and every time I had a nightmare, I woke up cradled in his arms. I don’t think I had slept a solid hour in the two days since the shooting.

Nick had gone into the office today, but only at my insistence. He was walking on eggshells around me, and while I knew he was only trying to help, the way he treated me like I was made of glass was driving me crazy.

“Ava?” he called again.

I didn’t even bother moving from my station on the couch. I had been lying here since morning, having only moved from my bed to the couch when Nick’s housekeeper insisted on washing the sheets.

“Hey!” He came around the side of the couch and sat in the curve of my body. “How are you?”

“I’m doing okay.” I smiled, hoping to convince him. I couldn’t take another night of him placating me.

“Good,” he said. “You look better. Did you get outside today?”

“Mhm,” I lied. I had gotten to the window and opened it, that counted right?

He didn’t respond, just bent down and kissed my cheek. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“Oh yeah?” I said, sitting up a bit.

Nick smiled. “Go change, we’re going out.” He offered his hand to help me off the couch.

Suspicion clouded my eyes. Leaving the house was about the last thing I wanted to do.

“Don’t look at me like that, we’re going.” Nick chuckled. “You need to get out of this house and don’t tell me you went outside today. I know you’re lying. I watched you lie here all day.”

“You watched me?” I narrowed my eyes at him. What was he talking about?

Nick pointed to a frame on the mantel, smirking just slightly, as if he didn’t want me to see he was finding humor in this. “There’s a camera in there.”

---