Chapter 3

"Fucking stupid," Mateo muttered darkly.

Raina gritted her teeth and sat as still as she could while he worked to patch her up. She'd woken up in a room she didn't recognize. It was filled with empty cages and smelled like antiseptic. Mateo explained to her that he brought her to an animal hospital that was closed for the night. He couldn't risk taking her to a regular hospital, not with the Italian Cosa Nostra hot on their heels.

"My people are looking for ways to get us out of the country. Airspace is being carefully monitored, as are trains and buses. The family you chose to cross have their fingers in everything." His voice was devoid of emotion, but she could feel the accusation and anger swirling around him.

"I didn't choose to cross anyone." She flinched as he pressed an alcohol-soaked gauze pad to the wound on her back. She was sitting on a metal exam table, leaning forward with her back to Mateo. He'd pushed her shirt up. "I was ordered to work on documents for Antonio Savino. Not my fault the asshole didn't want any loose ends."

His hand dropped to squeeze her hip. "Watch your fucking language, Raina."

She twisted around to look at him with a laugh. "You watch yours, gangster."

Mateo's sharp gaze softened. He reached up and pushed Raina's pink glasses up her nose. "I forgot to say happy birthday," he said softly.

Raina's smile faded as her heart fluttered at his unexpected touch. "I was sort of passed out. It's not a big deal."

"Yes, it is," he said seriously, then got back to work.

It felt good to be near Mateo again. It was as though the years faded and they were back in Sotza's garden together in Venezuela, Raina trying to read a book while Mateo stalked and bullied her. Tried to get her to go back inside where he deemed it was safer.

Two years ago, Sotza had ordered Mateo to kidnap Raina and bring her to Venezuela to meet her birth mother, Elvira. As much as Raina had resented being taken against her will, she didn't actually hate her time there. In fact, she loved a lot of it. Venezuela was beautiful. Sotza's mansion was high up in the mountains; practically a natural fortress. She definitely wanted to go back someday.

But not today. Not tomorrow, and not anytime soon. She was enjoying life too much. As nice as it was to see Mateo again, she wasn't ready to go back to that life permanently.

Raina suspected that Mateo wanted permanent. He was older than her, he was looking to settle. He was far more serious. And when he looked at her... he stole her breath. He made her heart pound. He terrified her. The things that he wanted from her were not things that she was willing to give him yet. She didn't want a home, a family and babies. She didn't want the mafia.

Maybe one day, but not today.

Yes, Italy might have been a mistake. It would have been a fatal mistake if Mateo hadn't stepped in. But that didn't mean the rest of her time on the run had been a mistake; she'd had so many new experiences and made wonderful memories. She'd visited the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, gone dancing in Edinburgh, met a hacker in Jakarta and learned some awesome new digital printing techniques that would keep her up to date with her forging business. She wasn't willing to give that up. Not yet.

"You been taking your medications properly?" The question was so unexpected, spoken in a gruff tone of voice, that she almost asked him what he meant. Then she realized he was talking about her immunosuppressants; her antirejection drugs from the kidney transplant she'd had when she was twelve.

She pulled her purse closer and nodded. "Yes, I never forget them."

He gave her a piercing look. "Be sure that you don't."

Her temper flared. "Don't treat me like a child, Mateo. I'm well aware of the sacrifice made to me by my mother. I wouldn't be alive if she hadn't donated her kidney."

"Wasn't talking about your mother. I care that you survive, and you need that kidney to survive. You only have one functioning kidney left, you need to be more careful. Stop being so reckless with your health. The bullet could've easily taken out the kidney, killed you."

She twisted on the table to glare down at him where he'd pulled a chair up to the table to work on her. "Thanks for the reminder, I nearly forgot."

He tilted his head until his eyes met hers. They were a beautiful velvet brown, but serious. "You won't be given the opportunity to endanger yourself again."

Raina didn't respond. Mateo was convinced she didn't take her health seriously. She wouldn't convince him otherwise until he saw her taking care of herself, taking her pills regularly, eating healthy foods, exercising. But that wasn't in the cards, at least not right now.

"How do you plan on getting us out of here?" she asked.

Not that she actually intended to go with him, but talking to him, having him talk to her, distracted her from the pain.

When she had woken up, he told her that he managed to pull the bullet out while she was passed out. Thank the fucking gods, because the patch job on her bullet wound hurt so bad, she couldn't imagine anyone digging around inside while she was awake.

Raina was used to pain. She had gone through some of the most painful treatments of her life as a child. Pretty much anything else, including a gunshot wound, was child's play compared to a kidney transplant.

"We'll probably drive out," he said. "Then take an airplane from a neighboring country. It's the only way I can think of to get you out safely without the Italians coming after us."

She smiled to herself, looking down at the table that she was sitting on. She tapped her fingernail against the stainless steel. "Yes, my safety. It's the most important thing, isn't it," she said drily.

They all wanted to treat her like a precious pampered princess. In reality, she was raised a farm girl, became a college drop-out thanks to Mateo and Sotza, and was now a career criminal, making some of the world's best forged documents. It was almost laughable that these tough guys wanted to lock her up in a tower and surround her with guards and bubble wrap.

He grunted. "You haven't seen what your stepdaddy is capable of. Yes, little girl, your safety is the most important thing here."

That comment sobered her. As much as she loved her family, she couldn't forget for a single minute that they were involved in organized crime. And that some of them, Mateo and Sotza most of all, were determined to push her into the life too.

Her mother was equally as determined to keep her out. Raina was on her mother's side. She couldn't imagine spending her life that way. She had too much to live for, too much she hadn't seen or done yet. The mafia felt like a cage, she just couldn't do it.

"So we drive out," she echoed his words. "Sounds good."

She tried to sound listless and pathetic as she thought of ways to escape. She didn't think Mateo would be overly vigilant with her right now. He'd come to her rescue; he wouldn't expect her to run away. Not in her current shape.

It took another half hour before Mateo finished with her. He cleaned the wound, stitched it shut, taped gauze over it, then wrapped more gauze around her middle, holding everything in place. She sucked in a breath as his knuckles brushed the bare skin of her belly, burning a path of sensation where he touched. Mateo didn't seem to notice. He was quick, calm and professional.

He helped her put her shirt back on, rolling it over her head and then one at a time pushing her arms through the arm holes. Raina wrinkled her nose at the dried blood all over the shirt, but she didn't have an alternative.

Mateo gently slid her closer and helped her stand, taking her hand in his and easing her off the table. He didn't back away immediately, just held her loosely in his arms. Raina leaned in closer, enjoying the human contact. It felt good being held by him, feeling his strength against her body. She felt safe.

For a brief moment she considered staying with him. Allowing him to take her home. She'd come to know him well enough, from their time in Venezuela and some of the things her mother had told her about him, to understand that he was a man with integrity. Though he was a mob enforcer, he held himself to a standard of ethics. It was a twisted kind of ethics, where murder was okay, but lying was wrong.

If he took her home, if she allowed the seemingly inevitable progression of their relationship to continue, she knew he would take good care of her. Forever. It was a thought that was almost irresistible.

But so was the lure of the whole wide world at her feet. And she wasn't willing to give it all up to become a young bride. Not yet.

Taking advantage of the moment and the fact that Raina wasn't pushing him away, Mateo touched her lightly, running his fingers from her waist up her arms. Tingles ran up and down her sides even though he was touching her through her shirt. She ignored the blatant chemistry, stepping to the side and breaking his hold. She didn't have time for that right now.

Mateo picked up her leather coat and held it open for her. She turned around giving him her back and put her arms out while he carefully slid the sleeves on and tugged it over her shoulders. She groaned as she twisted and her back twinged.

He put a hand on her shoulder and said in her ear, "I'm sorry, it's going to hurt for a while."

"You know what it feels like to get shot?" At first the question was said with sarcasm, but then she realized given his profession he might actually know what it felt like.

Mateo confirmed her suspicion. "Si, I do."

Raina forgot her dilemma for a moment. "When were you shot? Where were you shot?"

He gave her a long look. "Now you're interested in me?"

If only he knew. Raina was always interested in him. Not a day had gone by in the past two years that she hadn't thought of him. Especially when she was alone in her bedroom, late at night, remembering each and every encounter with him. The way he'd looked, smelled, sounded. Those memories had kept her close company.

She shrugged. "I guess we finally have something in common."

He pinched her chin between his fingers and tilted her face up to his. He towered over her. She wished she wasn't so short. She hated looking up to virtually everyone she spoke to. "We got plenty in common, little girl. And once we're back home you're going to have all the time in the world to get to know me better."

That last comment jarred her back to reality. No, she wasn't, because she was getting the hell out of there.

She scooped up her purse and pretended to walk with him to the door, but before they reached it, she grabbed his arm and stopped him. "I have to go to the bathroom."

He glanced around the room and then shook his head. "You can wait until we get to the hotel."

"I have to pee right now, Mateo. I've had to go for a while, but, well, the hole in my back sort of took precedence."

His face hardened but he glanced around the room again then opened the clinic door and growled to one of his men, "We'll be right out, get the car started."

Taking her arm in a firm grip he walked through the clinic, mindful not to jostle her too much. He found the bathroom door, pushed it open and looked inside.

"You expecting to find shooters in the toilet?" she asked sarcastically.

"I haven't stayed alive this long by getting lazy." He opened the door wider for her to go in and then closed the door behind her.

Raina turned the water on so he wouldn't be able to hear through the door. She surreptitiously locked the door, careful to slide the bolt as slowly as possible so it wouldn't click and alert him to what she was doing. She breathed a sigh of relief. There was a decent sized window in the bathroom, most likely because no one expected a person to crawl through it in an animal clinic. She was about to test that theory.

But first, she really did have to pee. She did her business quickly, washed her hands in the running water and grabbed her purse. She slid the window open as delicately and quietly as possible while still trying to be speedy.

It was a bitch crawling through that window with a gunshot wound. She tried to do it without pulling any stitches, but a sharp pain went through her ribcage when she was forced to drop a few feet from the window to the ground. She hit hard and almost lost her balance but managed to catch hold of the side of the building. She gasped in pain and reached around to touch her back. She brought her fingers up in front of her face, but it was too dark to see if there was any fresh blood. Hopefully she hadn't torn the stitches.

She glanced around and didn't see anyone nearby. All of Mateo's men were at the front of the building waiting for them. No one expected her to try to escape.

She melted into the shadows, running as quickly as possible while trying to be invisible to anyone who looked. As she left the scene, her quick brain came up with a few possibilities of what she could do next. Staying in Italy wasn't an option. But leaving Italy was going to be really difficult on her own with the Italian mafia after her.

One very stupid plan kept popping into her head as she mulled over the possibilities. Perhaps it was time to finally use her stepfather's name, show the Italians why it was a colossal mistake to fuck with a Sotza.