Pria didn't know how many days she laid abed in her old room at Mama's house. It felt like forever, but it couldn't have been that long. The hickies Drew had left all over her body were only just beginning to fade.
Her parents were away on vacation. She didn't know where Sal was, but she figured he was probably with Drew. Niki laid with her, alternately consoling her and giving her pep talks, making sure she ate and drank water. Pria reached for her phone several times, wanting to call him and beg him to come back, but neither her pride Niki wouldn't allow it.
Pria's heart leapt in her chest when her phone pinged with a text. Niki picked it up and chewed her lip before glancing at Pria. "I'm not sure if I should let you read this or delete it for you."
"Who is it?"
"I think it's the douchebag," Niki said, frowning down at the phone. "But the number is blocked."
"Delete it."
Niki chewed her lip some more, re-reading the text. "Hm, no. I'll leave it."
Pria sat up and took the phone.
Blocked Number: Break ups are hard, aren't they? Your timing in ending things with me is almost comically psychic. And there's so much going on right now. I told you I needed you to be strong enough to keep yourself whole, that hasn't changed. I'm proud of you for taking the stand you did. What you don't know is, I've never been strong or even smart where you were concerned. I'm definitely not being smart now. Whatever you think of me, or come to think of me later, I want you to know that I do love you. I love you, Pria. I love you so much, and I wish that made difference, but it doesn't. It had to be this way. Please, keep being strong. Hate me if you have to, but don't lose your smile. Your smile will be the one thing that always stays with me.
Pria chucked the phone away, chest heaving from the rage burning inside of her. How dare he tell her he loved her now? Asshole! Pria curled against Niki. "Tomorrow, you and I are going apartment hunting. I want my own place. I can't stay here anymore, knowing Sal will have him hanging around. I won't be able to breathe."
Niki took her hand. "Then that's what we'll do."
Pria nodded, struggling to keep her anger, but sorrow broke through and the tears came again. She cried against Niki until day darkened to night.
***
Sometime during the night, the sound of her bedroom door crashing open made Pria and Niki jump from the bed.
"Oh my God!" Niki cried.
"Sal, what the hell?" Pria yelled as Sal grabbed her by the neck. His fist connected with her face.
"Are you fucking happy?" he shouted into her face. "You always have to be the good girl, don't you?" He jumped on Pria, hitting her again.
"Sal, no!" Niki yelled as she jumped on his back. Sal threw her off, pulling out his favorite Glock. He held the muzzle to Pria's head. Niki went white, paralyzed with fear.
Pria stared at her brother, wondering what the hell was happening. Her face throbbed, her body trembled. She couldn't move. Didn't know what to say. "S–Sal ... W–what—"
He burst into sobs, hugging Pria to his chest. "I'm sorry, bimba. I'm so sorry."
Pria tried scrambling out of his arms, but that only enraged Sal more. He slammed her up against the nearest wall. "Why couldn't you keep your fucking legs closed? If you wanted me dead, you should have done it yourself, you conniving bitch."
Pria fought back the nausea, desperate to keep her senses. "I love you, Sal. I'd never want you dead."
"Liar!" He struck her again, making blood squirt from her nose. He thumbed the blood oozing from her nose, even as tears continued to spill from his cold eyes. His face contorted, then he pulled Pria to him again, his chest heaving as he cried into her hair. "I'm so sorry for not being what you needed me to be. I could've been a betta brother. In so many ways. I'm so sorry."
"Sal, what's wrong?" Pria tried again.
He shoved her away to grip her by her shirt, pushed her up against the wall, and smacked her. "You!" Sal yelled as he slammed her against the wall again, making her head snap back and bang against it. "You always had shitty taste in men."
"Sal, please!" Niki sobbed. "Stop."
Pria was crying too. She looked into Sal's eyes, praying he'd come back to himself.
He fell to his knees, hugging her legs like a repentant child. "I'm sorry, bimba. I'm so sorry."
A loud bang and shouting from downstairs made the three of them jump.
"Clear!" a voice yelled.
Sal stood, grabbing Pria by the hair, disgust written all over his own. Sal held the gun to his own head this time. "Is this what you wanted? You wanted to fucking end me?" He offered her the gun. "Then do it, you fucking bitch. Take it."
"Clear!"
Once again, Sal softened and hugged her to him, and Pria was more frightened by his Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde routine than she'd ever been of anything else.
Footsteps could be heard clamoring up the steps. "Clear!"
As the racket drew closer, Sal roared, slammed the pistol grip against her face, hitting her so hard that he lost his grip on the weapon. Dazed, Pria fell to the floor right as armed men filed into the room. One tripped over her body and he went down hard.
In the chaos, Pria fought blindly against the hands that grabbed her. She escaped the hands trying to hold her down by kicking and twisting. She tried crawling to Sal, who was reaching for the gun he'd dropped. Pria wanted to reach it, too, hoping to protect her brother against this attack.
"Pria, don't!" Drew shouted.
She stilled, hand inches from the gun on the floor. There was no way she could ever mistake that voice. Mechanically, she turned around to face Drew. His weapon was drawn on her.
Her mouth tried moving, but forming words was impossible.
Her eyes went to the three-letter designation on his bulletproof vest, but her mind was too far gone to register what that meant. All she understood in that moment was that Drew, her Drew was pointing a gun at her.
"On your belly. Now."
Pria met his steely, determined eyes, the trauma of the situation clearly visible on her face. She couldn't think, couldn't move. Someone put a hand on her shoulder, pushing her down.
Numbly, Pria dropped to her knees, eyes never leaving Drew's merciless features as she lowered herself onto her belly. The roughness of the rug brushed her cheek. Somewhere in her disjointed thoughts, she wondered if it had been vacuumed recently. Hands grabbed her wrists, cuffing them behind her back. She didn't fight. She was pulled to her knees and told to stay still. She did.
She let her gaze wander over to Drew, who was busy cuffing Sal a little too roughly.
Her ears buzzed. Her vision narrowed. The room dipped and wobbled under her.
"She's going down!" someone called out right before she pitched forward and everything went black.
***
"Hey, brother," Giannini, his handler, said. "Your girl's awake."
His head shot up and he made his way over to the ambulance, his stomach still in a ball of tension and barely restrained aggression. He'd been hoping for more of a fight from Sal. If Pria hadn't been present, he knew he would have gotten one.
As he made his way over, he heard Pria's voice telling the EMT to piss off and leave her alone.
His lips twitched. So spicy!
As he rounded the ambulance, he found them. They were standing just outside the ambulance door, one combative, the other exasperated.
"What's going on?" he asked the EMT.
"I'm trying to get her to let me take her in. She's got a concussion."
Pria snarled at the EMT. "I told you, I'm going in. I just need to make sure my brother is alright."
"Give me a few minutes. I'll get her back to you," he said as he eyed Pria.
"You guys have me here at your discretion." The EMT inclined his head and walked a few paces away.
Before he could say anything else, Pria was off, heading toward the house.
"Wait." He took hold of her elbow. "I can't let you in yet."
She shook off his grip, refusing to look at him.
"Pria—"
She whirled on him, the flats of her hands slapping against his chest. Giannini reacted, reaching for his cuffs at her abrupt attack, but was waved off.
He barely felt the blow since she only struck Kevlar.
Shaking her hand as if it stung, she glared at him. "This whole time you were using me?" Her voice was quiet. He could see the hurt in her eyes. The disillusionment. The disbelief.
She folded her arms protectively in front of her. "Answer me, Drew!"
His name wasn't Drew. But she didn't realize that. Not yet. Oddly, he couldn't bring himself to tell her. He also couldn't take his eyes off her as he worked to clear his mind of the last two years.
He reminded himself that whatever she thought of him now was no longer his business. It was time he started behaving like Special Agent Brogue Raffaele Donati again. It still hadn't sunk into that keen mind of hers that he wasn't who she thought he was. Even as the red and blue lights from the surrounding vehicles played wildly on the scene around them, her eyes were wide, denial evident.
Knowing he was about to speak to her for the last time without an audience, he wanted to take her in, to soak up her beautiful golden eyes, pert little nose, and that soft mouth that had traveled over his body and whispered words so dirty he doubted he'd ever get them out of his head.
"Well?" she asked, her voice that odd, steely tone he wasn't used to. In the last two years, he had heard every range of emotion in her dulcet tones. In fact, he'd instigated many emotions from her as he'd learned and studied her. This harsh tone though? He'd never heard it. Certainly, never directed at him. His jaw clenched as he fought the urge to defend himself. He wanted to tell her everything, tell her he was sorry, that he hadn't meant to hurt her, that he lo—
He cut himself short, hoping the sentiment was part of the fall-out from having been undercover for so long. It was better to keep his mouth shut. He'd done his part, played his role, gotten the information he'd needed, and had been the one to personally put the handcuffs on her brother. Mission accomplished.
But damn if he hadn't nearly lost his cool when they'd found Sal in her room. He'd been furious seeing Pria's bruised and bloody face, and when Sal had struck her to the floor? He'd nearly pulled the trigger. And when Pria fought against an officer trying to reach for her brother's gun, he'd nearly shit himself thinking he'd have to shoot her. Arresting Sal was one thing. It was the goal he committed two years of his life to, but aiming his gun at Pria had been one of the most difficult things he'd ever done. What if he'd had to pull the trigger? He pushed the thought away. As it was, he didn't think he'd ever forget the look of her shell-shocked face.
The look of betrayal. The realization of deceit.
In that instant, he hadn't just arrested Sal. He'd lost Pria. He'd lost her family. The family he'd spent two years being a part of. Two years of holidays, birthdays, barbeques, anniversaries, and endless family dinners. Two years of getting to know her paranoid brother through her, working his way into Sal's life, befriending him, earning his trust, and easing into the lifestyle the other man thrived in. The Collati family was tight knit, loving to an almost intrusive degree, and devoted to each other. All except for Sal. Sal? Yeah, he was a complete piece of shit. But Sal had learned to trust him, and it was all because of the golden-eyed Capriana Collati.
"Why are you here? You were supposed to be at Niki's." He'd hated seeing her leave their home; the same apartment he'd never step foot into again.
His eyes traveled over Pria's pale face. Her eyes were glassy and red rimmed, which was not surprising considering she had been traumatized by the raid at dawn. He checked his impulse to touch her, to pull her close, and kiss her lips one last time. He put his hands firmly in his pockets, hiding his balled fists.
Pria's eyes lowered to his chest, where the three-letter agency he worked for was displayed on his bulletproof vest. "Well, Mr. FBI-guy, since I'm sure this information is so vital to your investigation..."
He almost winced at her biting tone, but managed to keep his features impassive.
Her eyes swept over the scene unfolding around her. Through the open front door, detectives and FBI agents could be seen combing through her family's home, touching and disturbing things, causing a look of disgust to cross her face. Lifting her chin defiantly, she looked back at him. "Her roommate was home, so we decided to come here instead. Do you need to speak to her? To prove what I'm saying?"
Brogue was grateful for the semi-darkness, knowing that it would help disguise his minor reactions. "Someone already is."
She gave a bitter laugh. "Oh, I'm sure they are."
Her eyes were searching, looking at him as if she'd never seen him before. Which, in many ways, was accurate. The silence stretched out as they eyed each other, lost in their own thoughts.
Giannini made his way over, taking in the awkward moment. He cleared his throat. "Ms. Collati, we're about to bring your brother out. Would you like to say goodbye?"
Pria ignored him. "Tell me what you're doing right now is worth it. Tell me he did something horrible. Tell me anything to make me understand why you turned my world upside down."
The crack in her voice was his undoing, and he moved toward her. Giannini used his last name in a short, clipped tone of warning. "Donati."
Brogue straightened, understanding the message. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card, then handed it to her. "It's a support group. In case you need someone to talk to."
Her eyes flared, but he turned away, half-expecting her to fly at his back. He knew Giannini expected it too. She never did. As much as he wanted to, he didn't allow himself to look back. It wasn't the first time he had gone under; it wasn't even the first time he'd played a Romeo. Although, it had been the first time he'd done so to an innocent person, making it difficult to settle into his role. He didn't care about betraying hardened criminals, male or female. But Pria? That was hard.
It wasn't until he stepped off the front stoop and onto the pavement for the last time that he realized the sun was out. As he walked to the black SUV, he could hear Pria arguing with the EMT. Good luck, bro. She'll give you a run for your money.
"You good, man?" Giannini asked, with a shrewd look in Brogue's direction.
Brogue took a breath. "Yeah, it's the whole let down. You know how it is."
Giannini's mouth quirked. "Kind of like you've been caught cheating on your wife."
It was an accurate description, but it wasn't one he would dwell on. There was still work to be done. When Giannini kept looking at him, Brogue rolled his head, then faced his handler candidly. "You know me. I handle these things pretty well."
Giannini turned his attention to the road. "No judgment here. She's a good girl. I know this one wasn't easy for you."
Brogue saw the sincerity in the other man's eyes, but had to look away. "Let's just wrap it up."