Twisted Minds Book 4
Автор
Cassandra Rock
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“I’m your guard,” Nico says. “Don’t touch me.” So Ariella touches him anyway. With her mouth. 😇 She’s been doing grief, diapers, and family meetings in heels since her mom died and her dad never woke up. She should get one thing that’s hers. Then her brother assigns a gorgeous new soldier to “protect” her, and he follows her like a shadow with good arms and better restraint, which is infuriating. You’ll love how she talks big and still shakes when she visits the hospital. Nico keeps calling her “ma’am” like that’s going to stop her. It doesn’t. She leans across the SUV seat and tugs his collar. He grits out, “Ariella… no.” Then the window explodes. Luca’s flashlight hits their half-undressed bodies.
A New IV
ARIELLA
Our lives had been a mess since the attack on Mom and Dad. It had been four months since an attacker had planned an attack on my father, Valentino Acerbi, and killed my mother in the process. Luca had found them lying on the floor in our family home in a pool of blood.
I knew nothing of the sort until I was called by my brother and informed that our father was in critical condition after being shot in the chest. Apparently, the bullet slid just past his heart, and he was lucky to even have the chance to fight for his life. My mother wasn’t so lucky. She died instantly.
From what I was told, Luca arrived at the house to discuss business with our father when he found them, not long before my father’s right-hand man, Al, showed up.
Luca was frantic and cradling our mother’s body when Al entered the room. Al had told me that he wasn’t even sure if Luca would have been able to call 911 if he hadn’t shown up—that’s how devastated my brother was.
I had never seen him show weakness before, but his love for our mother was endless and it tore him apart when she died. I spent the past four months visiting our father regularly, bringing him flowers or sitting beside his bed reading him a book.
He hated books, but it wasn’t like he could tell me to shut up, so I took advantage of the silence while we had it because I was certain that our father would wake up from this.
He was the strongest man I knew, after all. Once again, I found myself entering my father’s hospital room and putting my purse on the side table. I looked over my father and noticed a new IV on his arm.
“What is this one for?” I asked Rebecca, the nurse who had been taking care of him since he was admitted to the hospital.
The beautiful blonde managed a little smile at me before walking over to the bed. “Your father’s blood pressure was rising rapidly overnight. This is just Nicardipine to help lower the blood pressure.”
I nodded my head and watched as she left the room, closing the door behind her. As I reached for my father’s hand, I squeezed gently and whispered, “We’re going to find out who did this to you, Dad. Luca is searching endlessly, and… I promise you we won’t give up.”
A part of me wondered if my father could actually hear what I was saying to him, or maybe he was so drugged up that he couldn’t hear a thing. The doctors always encouraged talking to him, saying that it would give him a reason to fight, but how would they actually know?
I had never seen my father in such a vulnerable position before. He never showed weakness, so this was completely unsettling to me. All my life, my father had been invincible in my eyes, and now he was lying here, completely unable to protect himself or us.
The room door opened again, and a police officer walked in. I had seen plenty of those in the past four months, but this one was a new guy, though I was still not interested in answering any more questions. Not when it was the same questions every time, and I always needed to be wary of the information I gave.
My father wasn’t able to protect our family’s secrets right now, so Luca and I had to do that ourselves.
“You must be Ariella,” the officer said before extending his hand toward me. “I’m Detective Ethan Ridge. Do you mind if I speak to you for a few minutes?”
I looked at his hand before giving it a gentle shake. “Where’s Officer Hernandez?”
“He picked up another case, so your father’s case was transferred to me, and I want to start by getting fresh information in my own writing. It’s very important that we do this so we can find out who assaulted your father and murdered your mother,” he explained to me.
I flinched at the word murder.
My mother was dead, and I still hadn’t completely come to terms with it since my time was usually focused on making sure my dad would get better and that his attackers would get caught. Detective Ridge had dark brown hair, and as kind as he seemed right off the bat, one could only be cautious given the situation.
“Ariella, I understand that it was your brother who found your parents. Correct?” Ethan asked me, and I only gave a small nod in return. “Did he say anything looked out of place? Was there forced entry into the home? Anything stolen?”
“No, nothing stolen that we’ve noticed, and no forced entry. But my parents have housekeepers who let people inside. In the event that one of them allowed these attackers into our home, I assume they wouldn’t come forward due to fear of being fired.”
As I explained that to Detective Ridge, he wrote it down in his notebook and walked toward the window, where there was a chair for him to sit down. As he scribbled in his notebook, I watched him quietly. “Are you going to share your thoughts?”
Ethan lifted his head, looking up at me through his dark eyelashes, and a small smile appeared on his face. “That isn’t how this works, Ms. Acerbi.”
“Let’s stick to Ariella,” I suggested before continuing. “Hernandez went through this with me dozens of times already—I know nothing more than I already told him.”
As Ethan stopped writing, he closed his notebook and kept his eyes on me again. “I do appreciate how cooperative you’ve been with both Officer Hernandez and myself, but you can only give us so much information, Ariella. We need to talk to Al and Luca.”
Shrugging my shoulders slightly, I took out my phone and began to look for Al’s contacts. “I can get Al to come here, but Luca is out of the country on business.”
“What kind of business would that be?” Ethan asked me.
“None that I know about,” I lied.
Whether it was family business or his constant search for Caroline, Luca had been gone for weeks, and I had been the one caring for Stefan with the help of Sofia. After Sofia had Lorenzo, we became closer.
I helped her as much as I could, and I knew she had been dealing with a great deal of depression between postpartum depression and Luca becoming a loveless man to her. On top of the lack of love that Luca provided, she still went to extraordinary lengths to help take care of his child with Caroline.
“You’re going to need to get your brother to come back to town, Ariella. It’s crucial that we talk to him about this since he is a big part of the puzzle, and without his words, there’s a chunk of this story not adding up.”
I ran my fingers through my dark hair and sighed heavily. “I’ll talk to my brother.”
I meant it too. I would talk to Luca, but it wouldn’t go far, I was sure. Luca had been a different person since Caroline disappeared. He stopped caring about anything and everything—his children included.
However, I needed him here now, though I wasn’t sure if I was reason enough for him to come back.
Ethan nodded his head and motioned his hands toward me as though he were waiting for me to call Luca now. I laughed quietly.
“You’re kidding, right? God only knows what time it is in…whatever country Luca is in.”
“No harm in finding out—I’m sure your brother would agree that it is extremely important to find your parents’ attackers.”
“He does,” I snapped before taking my phone from my pocket once again and pressing Luca’s contact on my phone. It rang three times before Luca answered, and I sighed, a part of me wishing it had gone to voicemail this time around, but of course, this time, Luca decided to answer.
“What do you want, Ari? I’m busy.”
“Luca,” I said into the phone before looking over at the detective who was watching me like a hawk. “I’m here with Detective Ethan… Um…”
“Ridge,” Ethan reminded me.
“Detective Ridge,” I repeated into the phone. “He has taken over the case for Officer Hernandez and thinks that speaking with you could help us better understand what happened that night when you found Mom and Dad.”
Luca groaned. “I don’t have time for an interview. Nothing I say is going to bring Mom back, and it isn’t going to heal Father, either. Maybe he can start by looking in the right place, checking for DNA around the crime scene. Shouldn’t he know this already? It isn’t my job to tell the guy how to find answers.”
I could tell that Ethan was curious as to how the conversation was going, and he stood up from his chair and walked over to where I was standing. “Mind if I?”
Holding my phone to my chest, I furrowed my brow before rolling my eyes and putting Luca on speakerphone. “Luca, I have you on speaker.”
“Wonderful, let’s make it a party,” Luca commented dryly.
“Luca, this is Detective Ridge speaking. I’ve had a lovely chat with your sister, and it is very important that we meet in person to discuss what happened the night your mother was murdered.” Ethan’s voice was cool and calm, but professional at the same time. “The best I can do is give you a week to return to Illinois, or I will have no other choice but to send out a warrant. It would be much easier if you cooperate with us and just come back. I’m sure your vacation or business will be waiting when you return.”
There was silence, and I could only imagine the cussing Luca was doing in his head right now. Being in the mafia and dealing with the police didn’t go hand in hand. It was like enemies meeting in the war zone.
Finally, when the silence was broken, Luca replied with a brief, “Okay” before hanging up.
