Page 7 of Sweet Revenge

“Right, got it. So where the fuck are you?” my brother wanted to know. “Do we need to come get you?”

“Nah, I’m fine.” The last thing I needed was for my brothers to leave the warehouse unattended and come looking for me. “Just stay there and keep an eye on things. We don’t need any more trouble right now. Elisa is with me. She took me someplace to get me patched up, so I’ll be fine in a day or two, but I’m going to lay low while I heal. Then we’ll come up with a plan to take this bitch out and see what else we need to handle.”

“Sounds like a plan, boss.” In the background, I heard other voices and recognized Dezzy and Mikel. My other brothers had to be just as worried about me as Vin had been. “I can’t wait to cut the bitch’s head off and put it on a pole.”

He was a psychotic bastard, that Vin. I was glad he was on my side. “Yeah, I’m sure you’ll get your chance for that. How are things back there? Any action?”

“Nope, all is quiet on whatever fucking front this is. Maybe a little too quiet. We expected a big deal after all the trouble we’ve been causing lately, but so far, nothing much is going on. We’ve heard a little bit of backlash after the wedding and the robbery, but for the most part, we’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Good. You’re right. This is probably the calm before the storm, but that’s okay. It’ll give me some time to figure out what’s going on with La Rosa and heal up a little. I’ll be back in a day or two, and we can sort the shit out then. In the meantime, I mean it, Vin. Nothing stupid. Nothing goes down. Circle the wagons, be careful, and make sure no one else gets hurt, all right?”

“I am the king of caution,” he said in a sarcastic tone that made me laugh. “No one will be harmed on my watch, boss.”

“All right. I’m gonna go. Talk soon.” I hung up, shaking my head, and set the phone down on the bed next to me. Elisa had been following along with my conversation, and I could see the question marks in her eyes. “What?”

“Are you actually going to do what you said? Take a break for a few days and heal?” She bit down on her bottom lip again, letting me know she was nervous.

I nodded. “I figure I don’t have much of a choice right now. I need to recuperate a little bit before I get back to it. You’re right. They’re not gonna stop coming for me, so I have to be ready. In the meantime, I need to be off the radar so that I don’t get anyone else hurt.”

She nodded and leaned down, pressing her lips against mine. As long as we were together, I’d have everything I needed.

CHAPTER5

ELISA

Blood dripped from a red velvet cake in my dream, running down the glass enclosure of the bakery and onto the white tile floor. No matter how badly I tried to turn and run away from the horrific scene before me, my feet were rooted to the ground.

Daemon lay next to me, his eyes open, seeing nothing, and the door behind the bakery counter swung with an unnerving squeak as Raven disappeared out the back of the shop, unharmed.

“Elisa?”

The sound of someone whispering my name, coupled with the shaking of my shoulder, broke me out of my dream. I started, gasping and looking around the room. It took me a moment to remember where I was. Part of the fun of living the mafia lifestyle was waking up in places somehow shittier than the last.

The clinic wasn’t so bad, though. I’d definitely been in worse. Drake looked down at me, his eyebrows raised, as he waited to see if I was actually awake.

“What?” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, carefully rolling off the bed I’d pushed up right next to Daemon’s after he’d fallen back to sleep. We’d had a conversation that left me confused and upset. I had no idea what we were going to do next, or if he was even going to stay with me or leave my ass and run off, but I had to hope that he’d learned by now that we were better off together than we ever were apart.

“Come here.” Drake beckoned me with his hand, still whispering. He walked toward the door that led into the adjoining room.

My legs were stiff from being curled up on the gurney. Carefully, I swung them over the edge and followed my brother, but when I heard a strange sound from Daemon, I paused to look back at him. He grunted a little, his eyebrows furrowing, but he didn’t open his eyes. He had to be in pain.

On the other side of the door, Drake waited for me impatiently. He had his arms folded across his muscular chest, rocking back and forth on his heels. Dressed in an old pair of jeans and a black hoodie, he looked more like a hoodlum than the gifted doctor who’d saved Daemon’s life the day before and founded this clinic.

“What’s going on?” I stifled a yawn, not wanting him to know I was still half out of it.

Before he answered, he pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and extended them to me. The two silver keys on a keyring that read, “white van,” clued me in that he’d been up to something. “You guys need to get the fuck out of here.”

I knew he was right, but driving a white van like a kidnapper didn’t quite seem like the perfect solution. “Why? Did someone lose their puppy?”

He snorted at me and shook his head. “It was the best I could do. I figured you needed a vehicle where Daemon can lie down, and the van has seats that will accommodate that.”

It was actually quite clever. I should’ve learned by now not to assume my brother ever did anything without giving every detail careful consideration. That was probably why he was able to break away from my father much more efficiently than I could. “Thank you, Drake. That was thoughtful of you. But I don’t know what to do.”

“You need to get as far away from here as possible,” he said, shrugging like it was just that simple. “The van’s in my name, not yours or Daemon’s, so no one will be able to track it. I bought some groceries for you and a few changes of clothes. It’s gassed up and ready to go. Hit the backroads and get to someplace far enough away that no one will be able to find you.”

“You make it sound so easy, Drake.” I heard the exhaustion in my voice. I’d been trying to run away from this life forever, so why did he think it was as simple as me getting in a van and driving until we ran out of gas?

“It is easy, Elisa. Listen, I’ve put a hell of a lot of thought into how to run away from our lives over the years, so I know what I’m talking about. Get in there and drive away, and never look back.”

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