Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Gio

Not at any of the local bus stations. Nor the train station. I'd shown her picture around everywhere that I could think of. I had police officers trolling the streets looking for her. Every one of our men that I ran into while I traveled what felt like the whole of New York City was now on the lookout for her.

And nothing.

I even went by her precinct for a second time to check in.

No one had seen her since she'd left.

It was like she'd turned into a ghost.

I came stomping back to the house at dinner time, still holding the black cat that had been with me all damn day. For some reason, I didn't feel like I could put him down. Like, if I put him down, I'd lose that connection with her.

I'm going to find you.

It didn't matter if I had to tear up the whole city, the whole state, the whole damn country… I was going to find my wife. One way or another. And then I was going to spank her until she couldn't sit for a week and fuck her raw, in every hole, so that she remembered who she belonged to. But mostly her pussy. I'd fuck her pussy over and over and over until I put a baby in her belly.

See how easy it was to run from me when she was good and knocked up.

Fuming, I made my way back home as the streets began to darken, people rushing home for the day from their jobs. Maybe she'd said something to Hailey this morning while they'd been whispering. Some kind of hint. Some kind of clue. If she had, Jack would get it out of her. I should have gone home earlier to try to find out, but I'd been hoping to return with my wife… not empty-handed.

The guys were going to give me so much shit about Clara running away. Even more so that she succeeded.

I'd take it all out on her ass once I found her.

Stopping in front of the house, I took a deep breath. Scowled. It wasn't going to be fun, admitting that I'd lost track of my wife on the very first day of our marriage. Even with imagining the payback I'd eventually get, it was going to be rough getting through the razzing.

Especially from Jack. Though at least my wife hadn't actually tried to off me. So, I had that going for me.

On the other hand, Hailey had been completely unsuccessful, whereas Clara had managed to disappear while I was fucking with her. Despite my anger, I felt a strange sort of pride in my wife. I might be pissed she'd flown the coop, but I was also reluctantly impressed by her ability to do so.

Gathering myself, I went up the stairs and let myself into the house.

Feminine laughter rang through the house as I walked in, coming from the parlor on the left. I recognized my mother's laugh and my aunt's, and the other two were familiar… but…

I frowned, sure I was mishearing.

Light spilled from the open door into the darkened foyer. The parlor was brightly lit by multiple lamps, giving me a clear-as-day view of my wife sitting on a couch between my mother and my aunt. Though I couldn't see her over the back of the chair, I could hear Hailey, which meant she was sitting across from them.

What…

My mother lifted her head, alerted by something, and saw me standing there in the doorway.

"Gio! There you are. We were wondering what was taking you so long."

Despite the fact that my mother was talking to me, my eyes were locked on my wife. She lifted her guileless gaze to me, smiling, and lifted the little glass of champagne she had in her hand to her lips.

"Taking me so long…" I repeated, trying to understand what the hell was happening. I'd been caught flat-footed, and I didn't like it.

I'd been ready to roust the household to go looking for Clara with me, to interrogate Hailey as to where she thought her friend might go, to rage and pace and gnash my teeth… and instead, my wife was sitting in the parlor with my mother and aunt, sipping champagne and nibbling on what looked like cookies. My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn't eaten since breakfast, too busy running around the streets of New York City, searching for my runaway wife.

Who had run all the way back to our house.

I still wanted to rage, but I couldn't do so in front of my mother and aunt, who clearly didn't realize anything was amiss. And I couldn't do so until I knew what was going on.

"Yes, Clara was back by lunch. We thought you must have gone to help Jack, but he returned nearly an hour ago." My aunt shook her head at me as I stepped forward into the room. "What is… oh! You found a cat!"

At her words, Clara's eyes lit up, and she jumped to her feet. It was only then that I realized the black cat in my arms had blended into my jacket, helped along by the shadowy doorway I was standing in. Now, the light was shining brightly on both of us to make it clear what I was holding.

"Oh, look at him…" Clara said, coming toward me with outstretched arms. Not outstretched to me, of course. To the cat. The other three women were right on her heels.

I ground my teeth as the damned cat took up all of her focus after I'd been the one searching for her the whole fucking day. The damned cat practically leaped for her as she came closer.

"Oh, it's Faithful!" Clara's head tilted back, blue eyes widening as she looked up at me in appreciation. "Hello, good boy… hello, sweet kitty, yes, I see you." If the cat had been friendly to me, that was nothing compared to how he greeted Clara. His purr was like a motor as he writhed in her arms, butting his head against her chin.

"Faithful?" My mother asked.

"Yes, he's always waiting for me outside the police precinct," Clara replied, rubbing her cheek against the top of the cat's head. "Sometimes, he would follow me while I was making my house calls."

"What a sweetheart," Aunt Serena crooned, scratching him under the chin.

From behind all three of them, Hailey beamed at me, as though I'd done something laudable. Somehow, that helped soothe some of the restless anger stirring inside me. I'd brought Clara a cat, and it made her happy.

I studied my wife as she cradled the cat, smothering him with compliments.

She'd run today.

Back here.

Back home.

She hadn't run from me… She'd run to me, in an odd way.

Even though she could have escaped. I would have hunted her down, but she had no way of knowing that.

She'd freed herself, then chosen to return.

She'd chosen me.

The anger that had built up disappeared in a rush as a fierce possessiveness, a hot need, rose up inside me.

* * *

Clara

He'd brought Faithful home with him.

Had he been carrying the cat all day?

It only made sense. Unless he'd gone back to the precinct at some point. But even then, he'd brought the cat with him. And Faithful had been more than comfortable in his arms.

Waiting for him, my nerves had been more than a little on edge. Wondering if I'd made the right choice. Wondering if I should have run while I could. Seeing him walking into the room, cradling Faithful, the decision had settled inside me.

"Are you keeping him?" Maria, Gio's mother, asked, glancing back and forth between us.

I was pretty sure she'd picked up on some of the undercurrents between Gio and me. She'd been curious when I'd returned without Gio, though she hadn't questioned me. Everyone had assumed he'd gone to help Jack, up until Jack returned. Then she'd been watching me even more closely, with some confusion, until Gio finally appeared.

Now, she was still confused but more relaxed than before Gio had returned.

I looked at Gio pleadingly. I'd always wanted to bring Faithful home with me—I'd wanted all my kitties, but I had the softest spot for Faithful—but Mrs. Cunningham wouldn't even allow one. And if I could have chosen one, I would have chosen Faithful. He was the one who was most attached to me.

"Yes, of course we'll keep him." Gio looked slightly baffled, as if it had never occurred to him to do otherwise.

The rush of emotions that flooded through me made me clutch the cat tighter. Faithful didn't protest; he just purred harder.

The warmth I felt for Gio… it made no sense. I shouldn't feel any warmth for him. Not after everything he'd done to me. Not after forcing me to marry him.

But I'd returned for a reason.

Mad love.

That's what Hailey had called her love for Jack. I suddenly understood it a lot better now than I had before.

"Gio." Jack appeared in the doorway that Gio had come through. He turned to look at his cousin. "Heard you were home. We're ready to question Leonardo if you want to come."

"I want to come," Hailey said before Gio could answer, stepping around Serena, whose expression immediately pinched in disapproval.

"That's for the men to handle," Serena said, keeping her tone mild, despite her obvious feelings about it.

"I want to see him," Hailey insisted, clenching her fists at her side. Her face had gone dead white, tears simmering in her eyes, and she stared at Jack, her husband, not her mother-in-law. It was for the men to handle; therefore, she was appealing to him. "I want to hear him say that he killed my parents. I want him to explain it to me, to my face."

I moved closer to her, and Serena stepped back, allowing me to, when Jack didn't answer immediately. He was clearly thinking.

"You're probably not going to get the answers you want, you know," I said softly, hefting Faithful with one hand so I could reach out and take hold of her other. Her fingers curled around mine. "He's not going to feel remorse. He's not going to apologize."

"I know." Her chin jerked upward, the tears in her eyes drying up as anger threaded through her voice. "But I want him to face me. I want him to see me and where I am versus where he is right now. I want him to know this isn't just Jack, not just a man deciding his fate… I want him to know it was me."

She said the last part fiercely, like a warrior.

I turned to look at Jack.

"Then I want to go with you." Because she would need someone afterward. Someone to lean on. A friend. And Jack would likely be a little preoccupied. Behind me, I could hear Serena huff a sigh and Maria's soft chuckle, presumably at Serena's reaction.

Gio frowned, but he was not going to try to stop me, apparently.

Jack threw his hands up in the air.

"Fine." He gave Hailey a stern look. "But you leave when I tell you to leave."

"Fine." She nodded, a short, sharp movement, before lifting her chin in the air again. She squeezed my hand before letting go.

"Here, dear, let me take him." Maria came up beside me, reaching for Faithful, who mewed in protest at being taken from me but didn't try to fight it. "Serena and I will get him settled. I'll have Mrs. Valachi make him some dinner, and we can put together a little box and a bed for him."

"Thank you."

I was truly going to get to keep him. My heart was so happy, but I felt almost guilty because I knew Hailey was struggling right now, and I was happy. Happy that Gio had brought Faithful back. Happy that I was going to get to keep Faithful. Happy that I'd been rewarded for my decision to return.

I wanted to drag Gio back to our bedroom and thank him for bringing Faithful home.

But I hid all that because…

We had a murderer to face first.