Page 74 of Queen of Misfortune (Shadows of Redemption)
I shrug. “I followed you, remember?”
The vehicle slows, turning into an abandoned lot. The car stops, and my mother opens her mouth, surely to make demands, but before she can, her door flies open. Donovan’s large hand reaches in and hauls her out. His eyes meet mine for a heartbeat, and a sense of peace washes through me.
"Out," he orders, his tone leaving no room for argument.
My mother struggles and curses at Donovan. “Did you do this, Lucia?”
I exit the car. “I thought you might like to meet my husband.”
Donovan and the driver subdue my mother, binding her hands and legs with swift efficiency I know too well from when he’d kidnapped me from the airport when I first arrived back in the States.
“If you settle down, you can ride in the back seat. Otherwise, it’s the trunk,” Donovan tells her.
“You’re a dead man.”
“Trunk?”
My mother growls but stops fighting him.
Donovan puts her in the backseat and shuts the door. “See you in a few hours,” he says to the driver.
They pull away, and Donovan puts his arm around me. “You were brilliant. You okay?”
“I didn’t recognize the driver.”
“I’m sorry.” His hand cups my cheek. “Were you scared?”
I shrug. “Maybe a little.”
He laughs. “My fiercely brave wife.”
His use of the word wife fills my chest with warmth I’m too afraid to feel. At the same time, it replenishes my resolve to see this through, to confront my mother for the horrible person she is.
“I’ll drive you back to the penthouse and then deal with?—”
“I want to go with you. I need to be there.”
Donovan studies me and then nods. He guides me to his SUV and helps me in. Then we start on the two-plus hours back to Manhattan. The entire way, I play in my mind what I intend to say and do to my mother. Justice is nearly mine.
The last time I was in the room in the basement of Niko’s pizzeria, I was the one tied to the chair and acting defiant. Now it’s my mother, and I can’t deny the sweet feeling of revenge I’m feeling that she’s the one with zero control.
"Even if you whip my skin from my bones, Giovanni will remain a ghost." Her words slither out like the snake she is.
My heart hammers against my ribcage. I lean in until our noses nearly touch. "Maybe death is the only freedom for someone like you. After all, what value are you if you won’t talk?" I scan her the same way she would me. “You don’t have your beauty, and I doubt you’ve ever had charm.”
Her eyes widen for a split second, the smallest crack in her armor, before they harden. "Lucy, dear, don't be dramatic." The mockery in her tone irks me, but I remind myself that I have the power here.
"Am I?" I step back, glancing over at Niko and Donovan who are standing near the door. Both men have their arms crossed,but Niko seems amused by the situation. Donovan watches me with concern.
"Your threats are empty," my mother hisses, struggling against the ties. "You don’t have it in you."
I shrug. “Maybe. Maybe not. There’s a lifetime of resentment in here.” I press my hand over my heart. “Then there’s the fact that Elena and I, and those we care about, will never be safe with you and Dad alive.”
She laughs. "You're your father's daughter, after all."
It hits its mark. The last person I want to be like is my father. But I regroup. “How is it that you don’t despise him? He treated you as badly as the rest of us. Tell us where he is and you can be rid of him too.”
She sneers at me. “Your father knows he’d be dead and buried, his business under the control of some other Boss if not for me. He has the violence down, but not the brains.”