Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War (74 page)

Out of the corner of her eye, Carter saw a few of the Salerno men come forward, as if to stop her from coming to Carter, but she quickly told them to let the girl come to her. Releasing Nathan’s hand, she walked forward to meet the girl, who threw herself into Carter’s arms.

Surprised, Carter tensed. However, when she heard Isabella’s weeping, her motherly instinct kicked in full force and she wrapped her arms around the young woman protectively.

“Isabella.” Carter held her tightly in her arms, comforting her while she cried softly. “Shh … Calm down, sweetheart. Tell me what it is.”

Isabella pulled back and cupped Carter’s face. “You’re a goddess” she whispered, shaking her head. “I don’t want to be weak anymore. I don’t want to be trapped. I want to be free, like you. Help me.” She released Carter’s face and backed out of the embrace. “Teach me,” she whispered with a smile. “I’ll follow you wherever you go. Please, teach me …”

Carter reached up and took the girls hands in hers, bringing both of them to her heart. She looked into Isabella’s childlike eyes and asked the question that had been running through her mind since the moment she’d laid eyes on the girl. “How old are you, Isabella?” Carter tightened her grip on Isabella’s hands in effort to calm the fear she saw flash through the girls eyes. “Tell me, sweetheart. Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m eighteen” she cried, and Carter couldn’t suppress her shocked gasp. “But I’ll be nineteen in three months …”

“Isabella why—”

“I’m sorry” she whispered, pulling her hands from Carter’s grip. “I have to go. He’ll see that I’m gone if I don’t get back now.”

Without another word, she turned and ran back to the house.

Carter had the strongest urge to reach out and grab the child’s arm. She wanted to put Isabella in her and Nathan’s car and take the girl back to the estate where she’d be safe. Why the fuck was Niko married to an eighteen year old girl? Carter’s stomach twisted even more when she remembered that Eliza Bonaducci had said Niko had brought Isabella home years ago.

Carter could do nothing but stand motionless as the young girl’s words replayed in her mind over and over again. Isabella was a child, she felt trapped, and longed to be strong, be free. Carter remembered a time not too long ago when she’d wanted the same thing.

Her phone ringing interrupted her train of thought. She turned around to Nathan—who was still watching her intently—and she motioned for him to answer it.

Nathan nodded, pulled her phone from her clutch, and put it to his ear. “Hello?” he answered. “Oh. Hi, Anastacia. We were just about to call you …”

Chapter 28: It was a dark and stormy night

“You didn’t check in like you were supposed to. I thought we agreed to check in with each other from now on? Where is your father?”

Anastacia navigated down the road, headed to her small country cottage with a deep frown firmly in place on her face. She couldn’t believe how inconsiderate Nathan and Carterina were being tonight. They’d all decided to check in every hour, but it had been three and she had received no word from Carterina, Nathan, or Angelo.

“I apologize, Anastacia, a lot has happened tonight—”

“No excuses, Nathan!” she yelled, cutting off his sentence. “I’ve been worried sick. You and Carterina know how much I detest fear, so why do you always insists on upsetting me like this? Do you seek to give me a heart attack?”

Was she being dramatic? Maybe, but Anastacia didn’t care. She would be dramatic all the damn time if she had to be in order to get them to at least call her and confirm that they were okay. One damn call that was all she wanted.

She heard Nathan sigh. “We’re sorry. We meant to call, we should have been more considerate. We’re okay. Right now we’re standing outside waiting for Shadow to bring the car around. Pop is already gone. You should give him a call and yell at him, too.”

Smiling, Anastacia shook her head in amusement.
Dear Nathan
. The young man always knew how to make her smile even when she was mad. She loved him to death. “I will. Get in your car and get home now. I’m coming by before I go home.”

“All right.”

“All right. I love you both.”

“We love you, too.”

Once she ended that call, she swiftly moved on to the next one. As usual, he picked up the phone with an attitude.

“Wow, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?” he asked in mock disbelief.

Anastacia rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Angelo, you know we’re supposed to be checking in with each other.”

“Honestly,
bella
, I didn’t think you cared for my safety this much. You keep this behavior up and I might start thinking you like me again.”

“Stop being a jackass and tell me where you are.” She hated when he played his stupid games. How were they supposed to build a good friendship if he continuously teased her with his sarcastic flirting? It was infuriating.

“Bossy,” he muttered, chuckling. “I’m on the highway, love. I’m going home to my big, empty house, to sleep in my big, empty bed alone … again. If only I had someone to join me …”

Anastacia groaned in frustration. “Can’t you just be serious for one second, Angelo?”

“I am being serious, Ana. Come home with me.”

The moment his voice had dropped to that familiar deep, husky baritone, Anastacia knew he was indeed being serious. She called on whatever Gods would listen to her for strength. No matter what he said or how he said it she would not give into temptation. She was a new woman. Plus, she was in love with an amazing, perfect man.

“I’m hanging up now.” She’d said the words, but she didn’t hang up … even though she really should have.
Hang up Anastacia! What the hell?

“Stop threatening to hang up and come home with me, Ana. You know you want to.”

No, she didn’t … well, not really. Okay maybe just a bit. But for Anastacia, that was improvement. It meant that slowly but surely, she was getting over her addiction to sin, and sin was Angelo fucking Salerno.

A hard, determined expression masked her face. “You’re an arrogant ass. I have no desire to go home with you,” she semi-lied. Maybe a part of her was a little interested in going home with Angelo … just maybe. “I’m not single anymore, remember. I’m not lonely or horny.”

He laughed, which pissed Anastacia off even more. He was such an ass.

“My goodness, Ana. You almost sounded convincing that time. Go ahead and keep trying to convince yourself that you don’t want me. One day you may actually believe it.”

“I don’t want you!”

There was a moment of silence before he sighed. “Of course you don’t, bella. And I bet you don’t love me either.”

Anastacia took a deep breath and swallowed before she replied, “I don’t.” She hated herself for how weak her denial sounded, even to her own ears. She arrived to her cottage and turned into the driveway. Shutting off the car, she slumped back in her seat and groaned. “I hate you, Angelo.”

It never failed. Every time she told him she hated him, it hurt like hell. She was pathetically trying to force herself to believe something that wasn’t true. She didn’t hate Angelo, and she never would. But that didn’t mean they should be together.

“I know, Anastacia,” he said with a bit of somberness in his voice. “And I deserve it …”

And just like that the arrogant asshole that she needed to remain determined was gone. Anastacia closed her eyes and willed herself to reach forward and hang up the phone, but she couldn’t move.

“Ana?”

He had said her name softly, but she didn’t answer. Instead, she continued to stare at the phone, hating herself, detesting the stupid woman she was. What the fuck was so hard about letting him go? She was with Cesare for heaven’s sake! He was perfect. He was … everything to her.

“Ana, will say something? Please … at least give me that.”

She looked away from the phone with a frown. “I don’t know what you mean by that.”

“I mean you’ve been torturing me for over a year now.”

“I’m not torturing you, Angelo. I’m happy. I love Cesare.”

“More than you love me?” he asked in a pained voice.

She didn’t answer that. She didn’t ever want to have to answer such a question.

“You love him enough to hurt me like this, Ana?”

“What about the way you hurt me?” she argued, shaking her head firmly. “This was your choice, not mine.”

“No it wasn’t, stop saying that!”

“It’s true!” she yelled, emotion causing her voice to shake. “We finally had a chance, Angelo. A real chance to be together again after so many years of being apart, and we spent most of the time fighting!” She glared at the phone as if it were his face. “That’s all we do. Don’t you remember what I said the night of Carterina’s birthday?” she whispered. “God made a better you, and a better me, then he put them together to fix his mistake.”

“So loving me was a mistake?” he asked softly.

Unable to fight it, Anastacia covered her face and let the tears fall freely. She knew no one was around to see them, but she still hated that she was crying. She was supposed to be over him. She wasn’t supposed to love him this much anymore, but he had this unbreakable hold on her. It was so ridiculous because she was happy. She was in an incredible relationship with a man she loved almost desperately, and was deliriously happy for the first time in her life. She didn’t like that Angelo still effected this much.

“Ana—”

“Angelo, stop,” she whispered, removing her hands from her face. “I’m sick of this.”

“Sick of what, Ana, loving me? How do you think that makes me feel?” he asked angrily. “I love you to the point of physical fucking pain and you just want to hate me—”

“I don’t hate you, okay,” she sighed. “I don’t. And loving you wasn’t a mistake. I’m sorry” she whispered. “I know that our separation has been hard, and I’ll admit that it’s still not easy for me either. But we have to figure this out for our children, and grand-children. Our romance is over. I’m not leaving Cesare. I just … can’t. He’s my …” God, she didn’t know how to say what she needed to without hurting him.

“Your love for him is greater than your love for me …”

He’d said the words with so much hurt in his voice. Anastacia’s heart twisted into a painful knot. Shit. She hated this.

“My love for him isn’t greater, Angelo. It’s just different. I love you both, but I would never leave him to be with you, just like I would never have left you to be with him. I can’t betray him. Losing Cesare would destroy me …” She meant the words with everything in her heart. She and Cesare had only become closer in the past year. She couldn’t even imagine going through the rest of her life without him. He was her soul-mate.

“Tell me where you are, we need to talk face to face” Angelo said, sounding upset by her words.

Anastacia shook her head no. “No, we don’t, Angelo.” She had nothing else to explain to him. She belonged to Cesare, plain and simple.

“Tell me where you are Ana. We need to talk this out.”

“Nothing else needs to be said. I’m not leaving Cesare.”

“Tell me now, Ana. You can tell me, or I’ll just call Claude and ask him.”

Claude was one of her men. Angelo could call him if he wanted to, but Claude wouldn’t tell him where she was anyway. Plus, he wasn’t even with her tonight. “Claude’s not even with me, Angelo. He’s protecting Carterina and Nathan’s home. I’m alone.”

“Alone? I don’t like that, Ana. You should have someone with you.”

Anastacia rolled her eyes as she unlocked her front door and opened it. She walked into her dark little house and shivered, closing the door behind her. It was freezing—

“Ana!” Angelo yelled, making her jump.

“What?” she asked with a frown. “Why the hell are you yelling?” The damn phone was against her ear, so it wasn’t like she couldn’t hear him.

“Why would you go somewhere without protection? Where are you now? I’m coming there with you.”

“I’m nearly forty-six years old, Angelo. I can take care of myself. Plus, I’m only at my house. Calm down.” As she felt the wall for the light switch something caught her eye. The light in the kitchen … it was on. Frowning, she muttered, “What the hell?”

“Ana! Jesus, will you say something.”

The frown never left her face as she walked toward kitchen. “Angelo, I need to call you back—”

“No you don’t—” His words cut off abruptly when a noise sounded through the phone. “Ho–hold on, Anastacia,” he said, sounding distracted. “There’s something going on at the S.O. building. I’m going to send some men over there to see what’s going on, then I’m coming to you. Where are you—”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Angelo” Anastacia whispered. “I don’t need you to come out here with me. I’m fine. Go check on your business. I’ll call you later, and we’ll finish talking.”

She hung up the phone before he could protest any further.

After slipping her phone in her pocket she continued to walk toward the kitchen. She hadn’t wanted Angelo to come over because there was some secrecy as to why she was at her little home in the first place.

“Hello,” she called. “Robert, are you here?”