Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4) (9 page)

Damian cursed severely.
“Where are you right now?”

“A couple blocks
away from the club.”

“You’re not with
him?” Damian roared.

“He made me go! I
didn’t want to!”

“Of course, he
did.” Damian laughed a bitter, angry sound that cut Abriella straight to her
core. “He’s so fucking in love with you that he’s stupid. Do you realize that,
girl? He could be on the ground dying, and he would still think about you
before himself.”

Abriella’s sobs
caught in the back of her throat. “I know.”

“Why do you have
his phone?”

“He told me to
call you.”

“And you’re just a
couple of blocks away from the club?”

“Yes. I heard the
sirens just before I left. He’ll be okay, right?”

“I fucking hope
so,” Damian grumbled. “Do you have a street name or something to help me out
here?”

Abriella could
hear the sound of tires screeching in the background of the call. Obviously,
Damian had still been driving.

“I’m in the alley
beside the pizzeria two blocks away.”

“The one Tommas
likes?” Damian asked.

“Yes.”

“All right. Stay
out of the weather. It’s cold as hell.”

Abriella’s shaking
only increased at the reminder of the chill in her body.

“I didn’t want to
leave him,” she said again.

Her chest hurt
something fierce, and her fingers ached with the need to hold Tommas again. She
had never been any good at praying even though she went to church every Sunday.
Praying wasn’t meant for people like her, because Abriella’s religion had very
little to do with a God up above, but rather, a man two blocks away.

“I’m sorry,
Damian.”

Damian sighed.
“I’ll be there in fifteen, Ella. Stay out of sight like he told you to.”

Damian reached
over, aimed the vents toward Abriella’s vibrating form, and turned the heater
on high. Thankfully, the car was already warm. It didn’t take the vents long at
all to begin blowing hot air on Abriella.

“Shit, look at
you,” Damian muttered to himself.

Abriella wouldn’t
look the man in the eye. It was bad enough that he had come into the club
earlier when she was waiting for Tommas. There were very few people that knew
about her relationship with Tommas, and she preferred it that way. The one
thing Abriella never wanted to be seen as was a whore. She was terrified of
being looked at like her mother had been.

“Just don’t say
anything, okay,” Abriella said.

“About what?”
Damian shook his head and pulled off his coat. He handed the item over to
Abriella and said, “Put that on. You’re going to catch pneumonia. Tommas would
kick my ass all the way back down to the other side of Chicago if he thought I
let you get sick.”

Abriella took the
coat and practically hid under the weight of it. The thick tweed did help to
warm her up. “Thank you.”

“How in the hell
am I supposed to get you home without your brother knowing?”

“I was staying
with Alessa and Adriano for the night.”

“That makes things
easier,” Damian said.

“Okay.”

“Tell me
everything that happened.”

“About the bomb?”

“Yes.” Damian’s
gaze narrowed as he pulled the car out onto the road. “And things that may have
been happening lately at home with your brother. Has he been difficult, or
different in any way? Things like that.”

“Yes, more so than
usual. And yes, but sometimes he does that.”

“How so?”

“He’s spent a lot
of time in his office. He makes a lot of private phone calls. He’s moodier than
normal, and quick to lash out at me or my parents if they get in his way. Even
the cook has asked for some time off because Joel is unbearable.”

“Have you
overheard anything that might suggest Joel had been planning something like
this on Tommas?”

“Other than Joel’s
normal nonsense, no.”

“What does that
mean?”

“It means that
ever since Riley died, and even before, Joel hasn’t trusted Tommas. He hasn’t
trusted him since the night that Adriano was caught in Tommas’ club, and the
Artino guy was killed in the fight that broke out.”

“So?”

“When Joel doesn’t
trust or like someone, he gets increasingly paranoid about them and what
they’re doing. Eventually, he goes after them. Like our grandfather, for
example.”

Damian’s jaw
clenched. “I can assure you that your brother did not kill your grandfather,
Abriella. I hate Joel, make no mistake about that, but he was not the person
who went after Terrance.”

“Then who did?”

“Me.”

 Abriella’s gaze
cut to the man and she froze in her seat. “What did you just say?”

Damian cleared his
throat and repeated louder, “Me.”

“You—”

“I had to protect
myself and my wife. I made a bad decision and your grandfather suffered from
it. I regret it, but there is nothing I can do about it except to protect the
people that my wife and I care about now. That is it, Abriella. I’m sorry, but
you asked. I’m so tired of keeping secrets for other people and for myself. So
yes, I did it. And trust me when I say that your anger is nothing compared to
my guilt.”

Abriella felt the
tears well and slip from the corners of her eyes. She didn’t know what to say,
but her heart clenched in her chest, taking away her air and making her feel
like she was burying her grandfather all over again.

“I know you two
were close,” Damian said. “I know Terrance cared for you a great deal.”

“I loved him. He
was a good man in his heart.”

“I know. Tommas
doesn’t let me forget it.”

Oh
.

Abriella’s bottom
lip quivered. “Tommy knew?”

“I had to talk to
someone. I needed to make sense of what happened and what I did. Tommas is one
of the only people I trust. So yeah, I went to him.”

“He didn’t tell
me.”

“Tommas wouldn’t
hurt you if he had a choice about it, Ella.”

She wanted to be
angry that her lover had hidden something as important as the killer behind her
grandfather’s murder, but she couldn’t be mad at Tommas. Nothing Damian had
said was a lie.

Abriella wiped the
mess of tears from her face. “So you went into his home and …”

“Yes.”

Anger swept her
under the current, but she kept control.

Somehow.

“Why?”

“I trusted the
wrong person,” Damian admitted quietly. “I did it because I didn’t have a
choice in the end. It had already gone too far.”

“He must have seen
you coming or known it was you.”

Damian nodded. “He
did.”

“What did he say?”

“He forgave me.”

Abriella wasn’t
surprised to hear those words. Terrance Trentini was not a perfect man, but he
was a forgiving one.

“I can’t say the
same,” Abriella said through her haze of anger and pain.

“I don’t expect
you to. I am sorry.”

She did believe
that.

Damian’s phone
rang in his lap. He picked it up and checked the screen before answering the
call. “Damian Rossi speaking.”

Abriella watched a
rush of relief wash over Damian’s features.

“Thank you,”
Damian said after a moment. “I will be right there.”

Once the call was
ended and the phone had been forgotten in his lap, Damian shot Abriella a small
smile.

“Who was that?”

“Presbyterian ER.
I am Tommas’ emergency contact on his medical file and there was a secondary
card in his wallet with my name on it. They just brought him in.”

Abriella’s air
rushed from her lungs in a whoosh. “Yeah?”

“He’s stable. You
can’t risk going, though. Not tonight. If your brother did this, and we both
know he did, Joel will be watching, Ella. You need to stay safe. That’s what
Tommas would want.”

“I will.”

“Good. I’ll get
you back to your sister’s place before I head over to the hospital.”

“Tell Tommy
something for me, please?”

Damian shot her a
look. “What is that?”

Three words stuck
like glue to her tongue:
I love you
.

It should have
been simple.

Obvious, even.

Easy
.

It was true. She
did love Tommas.

Why couldn’t she
say it?

“Tell him that I’m
sorry,” Abriella mumbled.

Fumbling with
keys, Abriella managed to stick the right one in the lock and open the door to
her sister’s apartment. She wasn’t concerned about someone seeing her arrive
back to the building.

Adriano was always
particular about enforcers watching his place when he was home, and he didn’t
like it. Alessa wasn’t one to be followed now that she was a married woman. Her
husband only asked for her to have guards if there was significant danger. It
was one of the reasons why Abriella hadn’t been worried about going out to see
Tommas.

She wasn’t quiet
when she got inside the apartment. Her heels smacked the wall loudly when she
kicked them off. She dropped the keys and her clutch on the floor with a thump
before her back hit the closet wall.

Abriella’s face
met her palms, and she cried.

Hard.

Loud.

Unrelenting.

Her tears flowed
freely, and her pain came out in catching sobs and gasps of breath. She
despised weak women who cried at every little thing. She never wanted to be one
of those women, but life wasn’t giving her much of a choice lately.

Before she knew
what happened, Abriella’s backside met the floor and her tears just kept on
coming. One by one, the lights in the apartment started to turn on. She didn’t
bother to try and hide her presence or fix the mess that her face was.

“Ella?”

Alessa’s soft
voice traveled down the hallway. Abriella waved a hand blindly, hoping her
sister would take it as a hint and leave her alone.

She didn’t.

Alessa padded down
the hallway quickly and dropped down to her sister’s level. Abriella found her
hands pulled away from her face, and then she was buried in a tight, familiar
embrace. Alessa’s rounded stomach kept her from pulling Abriella in too close, but
it was still good.

Safe.

Home.

Good
.

“What in the hell
is going on?” came a grumbling voice.

“Shut up,
Adriano,” Alessa said.

Abriella sniffed
away her tears. “I’m okay.”

Alessa forced
Abriella to look up at her. “You sure?”