I was no match for his strength.Helifted my arms, andItried to move back, but then he reached around and grabbed me by the waist and pulled me back kicking and screaming.Eventually,Igave up fighting and just melted into him, sobbing.
I couldn’t lose him now.Itwas an awful moment to have that realization, butIknewIlovedArcher.Hewas my one and only, and everything he had ever done—including divorcing me—had been out of love.
Would fate truly be cruel enough to take him from me twice?
* * *
Two hours.Ithad been two hours since they whiskedArcheraway in the ambulance.
Vince had come in shortly after the cops and feds had invaded the vape shop’s basement.Kerriganand another officer asked me a few basic questions at the scene, but after begging for twenty straight minutes, they finally agreed to finish questioning me at the hospital.Iwanted to be there whenArchercame out of surgery.
Vince, not being a cop and mostly in the way at the scene, offered to drive me to the hospital.Saraand her boss were planning to meet me there as well for questioning.
On the drive over,Vincehad called his dad as well asJackto fill them in on what happened.Vince’sdad,Frank, had told him he and his wife were jumping on the first plane available, despiteVincetelling them it wasn’t necessary.
When we’d arrived at the hospital, we’d been directed to the second-floor waiting area.Sarahad come in a little while later to go over the questions the police would ask and coached me on how to answer so thatIcould maintain my cover while still giving them what they needed.
A short time after, two police officers arrived to take my statement, andSaraleft to meet with her supervisors.Theofficers directed me to a small private waiting area.Vinceassured me he would come get me if the doctor came out.
The questions were simple and went exactly asSarahad predicted, butIwas itching to get out of there and back to the waiting area withVince, and the cops could tell.
Even as simple as the questions were, they took almost an hour, and there was still no word from the doctors on howArcher’ssurgery was going.
By the timeIreturned to the waiting area, it was to seeAxelandHectorsitting nearVincetalking in low tones.Theyall looked up whenIwalked into the room.
“Nothin’ from the doctor yet,”Vincesaid asIwalked over to the chair across from him.
I sighed and slumped my body forward asIsat down.
The longer we stayed out here, the moreIworried that something had gone wrong with the surgery.Iwilled myself to keep a positive attitude and mindset and looked back up at the men.
“Anna, what do you want to drink?Iwill find you something,”Axeloffered, andItook him up on it becauseIcould certainly use some caffeine right now.
AfterIgaveAxelmy drink preference and he left the room,Iturned toHector. “Thankyou,”Itold him and then watched his face change to confusion, as though he couldn’t understand whyIwas thanking him.
“You just saved both our lives,”Itold him. “Notjust fromGiovanni, but from thePaganoFamily, thoughI’mthoroughly confused as to which one was the threat.”
“From one undercover to another?”Isaid toHectorquietly, my nice way of begging him to tell me what he knew.
Hector looked toVince, who mouthed back to him.She’sanNOC.
Hector looked around the room and realized we were the only three in this little waiting area.Thenext closest person was easily fifty feet away.Thatmust have been enough distance for him, because he decided to share.
“From whatIgathered whileIwas inside and the new information thatIgot today, it seems the olderPaganobrother,Matteo, is who put out the hit on you andArcheras a way to kill two birds with one stone,” he said. “FromMatteo’sstandpoint, it gets rid ofArcheras revenge for smearing the family name.Butit also puts a target onJoey’sback because it would look like he was the one who took out the hit sinceArcherput him in prison.”
Holy crap.Hisown brother would backstab him?
“WithMatteoandJoey’sfather very ill and near death, it appearsMatteowanted full control of the family business and didn’t want his fuck-up brother messing it up now that he was out of prison and back in the fold,”Hectorcontinued. “IfJoeykilled you andArcher, it would send him back to prison, clearing the path forMatteo.Giovanniwas in charge of the operation and askedRoccoand me to take the hit out onArcher, but he requested to remove you on his own,” he said, pointing to me.
I had already toldVince,Sara, and the two cops who interviewed me about the “fan mail”Ihad been receiving at work from someone namedGiovanni, and they promised they would look into it to see if they were, in fact, the same person.
“I reported the info about the hits to my handler, butGiovannistarted acting weird around me, andIhad to go to underground for a bit just in case anyone was on to me.”
That explained the fact thatKerriganandColemantold us he had gone quiet.
“I didn’t know aboutGiovanni’sseparate plans for you until two days ago,”Hectoradded. “That’salso whenIstarted to put together the pieces aboutMatteo, because shit withJoeyjust wasn’t adding up.”
“Howdidyou know?”Vinceasked him.
