2. Sebastian

“Is he going to be a problem?”

I ask Carter the only question that’s been eating away at me as we drove down here. The hate, the anger… the fear, it’s all mixed into a deadly concoction that’s been destroying my sanity for days. Ever since I left Chloe, all I could think is that this prick would go after her. That Romano would take her away from me.

Even though I knew she was safe, I couldn’t sleep not having her right here by my side where she belongs. I don’t know how we lived so long thinking we’d get away from it forever, but we can’t. I’m not running away; I’m not going anywhere. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“Romano’s a dead man and he knows it,” Carter answers, the early morning light filtering in from the large window behind his desk.

“While he’s still breathing, he’s a fucking problem,” I respond and run my thumb along my jaw. “I thought about how we could do it on the way over to pick up Chloe and then that cop had to show up.”

“Officer Walsh is a menace. He thinks he can question everyone and wait in parking lots for shit to go down and that he’ll somehow be the hero? He doesn’t know shit. Not about how things work around here, or about how deep these cuts go. All he’s doing is delaying the inevitable.”

“He has damn fine timing.” I blow out the statement, sitting back farther in my seat and hating that this new cop had to come down here and force us all to wait for what’s rightfully ours. Even though he’s former FBI from New York, all we have to do is wait until he turns his back, just like they all do. He’ll learn what it’s like down here and how far a piece of paper and a badge will get him.

“Romano’s not going to make a move or leave that gaudy piece of shit he calls home. Not unless he has a death wish.”

Fuck, just hearing his name causes adrenaline to rush through my veins and I have to sit up straighter, gripping the arms of the leather chair as I struggle to stay still. “I hate doing nothing.”

“You and me both,” Carter answers.

“You didn’t screw him over, though. He didn’t send out a hit order on you,” I tell him. Chloe is everything to me and I would do anything for her. Leaving the mafia behind and being marked was a risk I was willing to take for her. But I’m back now, and I’m not going anywhere. Not when so much is at risk. The fucker has to die. No one is coming after me or my family.

“I heard about his guys going to Chloe’s when I didn’t show up and he realized I’d left that morning after we got the hell out of here when we were kids,” I say. The sickness burns up my throat and I have to swallow it down, along with the hate and the rage. “Romano didn’t try to kill someone you love.”

I take my words back when I remember what Jase, Carter’s brother, told me last week. The little bit of information that changed the reluctant relationship the Cross brothers had with Romano. “I’m sorry. I heard about your brother.” I’m not the only one Romano went after. I’m the only one to get away though.

Carter reacts more strongly than I thought he would. He’s younger than me by only a few years. In a lot of ways, he was the younger brother that I never had. But back when we were just kids, he never liked to talk about his emotions. Never. He’d always preferred to just be alone.

“Romano will pay for what he did—to you, and to the rest of my family.” His statement is strained. I don’t miss that he says “the rest,” which means he still sees me as his family too. Even though I haven’t been at his side through all of this bullshit.

Some blood you’re born with. Some blood you choose.

He leans back slightly and a grimace mars his face as he touches his chest. He’s still healing.

“You all right?” I ask him and he nods, still taking a moment to process the pain. To process all of it.

“I miss him,” Carter confesses after a minute and his eyes get glossy. He coughs it away, pretending to be nothing but cold on the outside. But with no one to fight in this cold war, you can only look inward.

“Aria’s changed you,” I comment, knowing it has to be her who’s brought out this new side of him.

Carter grins at me, not denying it. He knows it’s true.

“I’m sure Chloe’s changed you too.”

Chloe. Just hearing her name does something to me. My Chloe Rose. “You could say that.”

Carter chuckles, a knowing grin growing on his face. “What’d she say about coming back?” he asks, the smile never wavering even though every trace of humor vanishes from me instantly.

I have to look away, feeling a hint of shame that she didn’t want to come back. She fought me on coming back. “She doesn’t know what it feels like being away and missing it, you know?” I finally settle on that truth. “She hates this place.”

Carter’s smile dims, but the corners of his lips kick up at the last comment. “Don’t we all.”

“She doesn’t have anyone left here.”

“You think she’ll come around?”

“I fucking hope so.” The temperature of my blood drops and I tap my foot restlessly against the leg of the chair as I watch the early morning sky turn darker with the gray clouds moving in. I stayed away for as long as I could. I needed to so I could keep her. The only worry that keeps me up now that I know she’s safe is whether or not she’ll stay with me. She was always meant to leave me, she’s too damn good for me and for this life. But I’ll be damned if I let anything happen to her, whether she stays with me or not, she’ll be staying here, where it’s safe and she’s protected. We had to come back; I have to end Romano.

“Does she know? Does she know about what you did before you left?”

I hold his gaze, letting the memories of the life I used to live, the one I’m walking back into, play before us. The violence, the murders. It was an exchange I had to make, one I don’t regret because it means Chloe’s by my side.

“No.” I answer him in a single word, spoken so firmly that it practically ricochets off the walls of the room. “She can’t know.”

Carter gives me a single nod of acknowledgment.

“And what about Marcus?” I ask Carter, quick to change the subject so I can get rid of this revolting churning in the pit of my gut. I know where I stand with Romano. One of us will kill the other, but he has everyone foaming at the mouth to end his life. I don’t know where I stand with Marcus, though. No one ever knows where they stand with him until it’s too late. “Is Marcus going to be a problem?”

Carter’s eyes are assessing as he stands from his desk, turning around to look out of his window as the snow starts to fall. I know somewhere beyond those trees Chloe is in bed still, sleeping, safe and sound.

“Marcus is always a problem.”