When Twilight Comes Page 2

  Lorenzo smiled as he stepped to the bar and leisurely wrapped a wet cloth around his hand, all the time keeping his gaze on Franco, considering the best way to teach the two-bit thug respect for his betters—and the value of being on time.

  “I’d take a drink if you haven’t broken all the glasses,” Franco said, clearly irritated himself.

  Lorenzo smiled at the idiot’s attempt at humor. Franco hadn’t liked being ordered to come through the service entry. Too bad.

  Without being offered a drink, Franco stepped to the bar beside Lorenzo. Franco was a good-looking guy, not really big, but strong. His one great flaw was that, because he was taking Lorenzo’s place in the organization, he thought Lorenzo was powerless against him.

  Franco was so clueless. He reached behind the bar and wrapped his thick fingers around the neck of an expensive bottle of bourbon. Taking a glass—the wrong kind for bourbon—he sloshed some of the amber liquid into the expensive crystal with arrogant abandon, spilling enough fine liquor on the bar to make Lorenzo wince.

  Franco turned to face him, raising his glass in a mock salute. After drinking it down, he sighed and smacked his lips, smiling at Lorenzo, almost daring him to comment as he reached for the bottle to pour himself another. After tonight, Lorenzo wouldn’t have any power in the organization. And Franco would.

  But the night wasn’t over.

  Lorenzo grabbed the back of Franco’s neck and slammed his face down on the bar, into the spilled booze. He heard the thug’s nose break like a twig even over the howl of pain.

  “Shut up. You’ll wake my daughter,” Lorenzo snapped as blood poured from Franco’s nose, a stream of bright red.

  Franco staggered as he let go of the bourbon bottle and fumbled for his weapon.

  Lorenzo could feel himself losing control, and tried to pull back as he snatched the bourbon bottle off the bar and brought it down sharply, dropping the thug to his knees. It would have been so easy to finish him right there and then.

  Franco had his gun in his hand, trying to find the trigger through the blood pouring down his face. With a swiftness born of survival in the dog-eat-dog, violent world Lorenzo lived in, he reached behind the bar and came up with the sawed-off shotgun.

  Jamming the end of the barrel against Franco’s temple, he brushed his finger lightly over the double triggers as he met the man’s gaze. It was all Lorenzo could do to restrain himself. If he didn’t, he would definitely waken Alexandria.

  Franco glared at him, clearly caught between an irrational desire for retribution and the need to stay alive.

  Lorenzo watched the ignorant thug weigh his options, and smiled to himself when Franco slowly dropped his gun to the floor.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” he demanded as Lorenzo lowered the shotgun. The thug plopped into a sitting position and leaned back against the bar to cup his hand over his broken nose. “Are you crazy?”

  Lorenzo put the shotgun back behind the bar and poured himself another drink, glad he hadn’t pulled the trigger. It wouldn’t have just awakened his daughter, who was sleeping upstairs, it would have added to his problems with their boss, Valencia.

  After tonight, though, Lorenzo would be free of Valencia. All he had to do was keep his cool, get the money he owed Valencia and give it to Franco. Just a few more minutes and it would all be over. He would have bought his way out of the organization and would soon be on a plane to another country. A new life. What did he care if Franco was acting too cocky? Or if Valencia was determined to stay legit now and thought he could run things without him? Let Franco try to take his place.

  Lorenzo downed his drink. He unwrapped his hand and tossed the bloody bar cloth on the floor next to Franco. “Clean yourself up while I check to make sure you didn’t wake my daughter.”

  “Just get the money.” Franco glared up at him, then angled a look at his gun, lying on the floor within reach.

  Lorenzo cut him a smile. “You’ll get the money. If you live that long.”

  Franco gingerly picked up the bar rag and held it to his nose, leaning his head back, closing his eyes—disappointing Lorenzo by not going for the gun. “Valencia isn’t going to like this.”

  Lorenzo considered kicking the thug, but feared he wouldn’t be able to stop once he started. He walked past him, his expensive Italian shoe brushing Franco’s calf, making the man draw his legs up and open his eyes. Lorenzo was rewarded by the fear he saw shining there. Maybe Franco wasn’t as stupid as he’d thought.

  But Franco was right about one thing: Valencia wouldn’t be happy about this. Lorenzo didn’t know what had gotten into him. He’d never liked Franco, never trusted him, and he sure as hell didn’t like the idea that Valencia had picked Franco to take his place in the organization. Lorenzo didn’t like what it said about him that Valencia thought someone like Franco could replace him.

  As Lorenzo climbed the stairs to Alexandria’s room, he felt his blood pressure start to come down, along with his temper. By tomorrow he would be on his way to a new life. No more Francos. No more Valencias.

  And to make his new life even sweeter, he would have his daughter with him. He smiled at the thought of his ex-wife and how much pain that would cause her. Jenna deserved much worse. It would be all he could do to leave the country without killing her first. But he took pleasure in knowing Jenna would die a slow death just knowing he had Lexi, and that she would never see her daughter again.

  At the top of the stairs, he glanced down the hallway, immediately on alert. The door to Alexandria’s bedroom was partially open. He was positive he’d closed it earlier. Had she gotten up for some reason? She’d been upset earlier, wanting to see her mother. He’d had to spank her to get her to quit asking for Jenna. Was it possible she’d run away, thinking she could find her way to that awful apartment Jenna had rented after the divorce?

  Or had someone taken Alexandria?

  His step quickened as he told himself he had to be wrong. But even before he grabbed the doorknob and turned it, he knew.

  AS SOON AS JENNA WAS fairly sure that Franco wasn’t coming right back out to his car, she pushed open the laundry room door, sneaked down the hall and slipped out the rear door of the estate. She knew she wouldn’t get far on foot carrying Lexi and the cat.

  “Mommy?” Lexi whispered. “I’m cold.”

  “I know, baby. Hang on.” The child was growing heavy. The cat started to squirm. Jenna knew she couldn’t put Fred down. He might run off. She had to do something and fast.

  She glanced toward the four-car garage. What choice did she have? She’d have to take one of Lorenzo’s vehicles.

  But when she opened the side door she saw that the garage was nearly empty. Lorenzo had sold all but one car: his large black SUV.

  Of course he would have sold the cars. Because he was planning to leave the country. She should have known. He’d been too calm during the divorce, too agreeable. True, she hadn’t asked him for anything but Lexi. Still, it hadn’t been like Lorenzo to give up anything that he felt was his. He’d never planned to let her get away with Lexi.

  Jenna stared at the large black SUV. Lorenzo always left his keys in it, as if daring anyone to steal it. Her heart leaped at the sight of Lexi’s car seat in the back. Did she dare?

  The ridiculousness of the question made her laugh. Lorenzo was going to kill her for stealing Lexi back. It wouldn’t matter what else Jenna took.

  She opened the rear door, set Lexi in her seat and Fred on the floor. The cat jumped up on the back sat beside Lexi as Jenna snapped the child in, before rushing around to the driver’s side and slipping behind the wheel.

  Once she opened the garage door, she would have to move fast. She reached for the key.

  LORENZO DANTE LET OUT a howl of anger and pain at the sight of the empty bed, the covers thrown back, Alexandria gone.

  He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He glanced around, checked the bathroom, ran down the hall to his bedroom. No little girl.

  Letting ou
t a string of curses, he charged into his daughter’s room and ripped the covers from the bed, whirling them into the air in a rage as he crushed the fabric in his fists the way he would crush his ex-wife’s throat when he found her.

  It had to have been Jenna who took the child. Part of him still couldn’t believe it, though. Jenna knew what he would do to her. She was smart enough to fear him. He’d made sure of that as soon as they were married. He’d gotten her young so he could train her to be the wife he wanted. She’d bent to his wishes from the start, because she’d had no other choice.

  Until Alexandria had been born a year later.

  That’s when Jenna had started to change, he realized now. The pregnancy hadn’t been her idea. In fact, he was almost certain she was entertaining thoughts of leaving him when he’d decided to change her mind by getting her pregnant. Foolish young woman that she’d been. As if he had ever planned to let her leave him.

  She’d thought he didn’t know about the birth control pills she had started secretly taking. He’d simply replaced the contraceptives with sugar pills, and was pleased when she’d quickly gotten pregnant.

  He’d thought he had her exactly where he wanted her. Now she would obey him. Now that she was tied down with a baby. And it had worked for a while. He’d tried to act the loving husband and father.

  But he’d learned the hard way that she, too, had been acting. He’d come home one day to find her gone. She’d filed for divorce, gotten a restraining order against him. She couldn’t have thought he would ever allow her to leave him, let alone take his daughter.

  Unfortunately, he’d gotten into some trouble inside the organization and needed to keep a low profile. At Valencia’s urging, Lorenzo hadn’t fought the divorce. He’d let Jenna think she’d gotten away with it—and sole custody of Alexandria. He’d even let Valencia think he wasn’t going to cause Jenna any trouble.

  But no one walked away from Lorenzo Dante. No one took anything of his, either—and lived to tell about it.

  Jenna had stolen his daughter. First in court, then again tonight. Just because he’d let her think she’d gotten away with it the first time, now she thought she could do it again? He blamed Valencia for tying his hands and keeping him from taking care of Jenna right away. If he had killed her the moment she’d taken Lexi and filed for divorce, he would have saved himself a lot of aggravation.

  He flung the blankets back onto the empty bed, wanting to trash the room to relieve the anger that had started building downstairs with just the thought of seeing Franco tonight. Then Franco had been late….

  Lorenzo reminded himself that the thug was still downstairs. Waiting.

  It would be impolite to make him wait, Lorenzo thought with grim humor.

  Wanting to finish his business with Franco so he could deal with his ex-wife, Lorenzo started out of the room, then heard a car engine.

  He ran to the window and looked out in time to see his black SUV come tearing out of the garage. In the glow of the garage light, he saw Jenna behind the wheel. She’d taken his car, too?

  Fury tore through his veins like a grass fire in a stiff wind. What did she think she was doing?

  He started to charge out of the bedroom after her, already thinking he could take one of the other cars, chase her down, run her off the road and—

  He stopped as he remembered. He’d sold the other cars because he was skipping the country. Just as he’d sold the house and everything in it. Because he planned to fly out as soon as he settled up here tonight. He didn’t want any hired killers coming after him. That’s why he was buying his way out of the organization.

  The realization that he wouldn’t be able to catch her hit him like a blow. He’d made Franco come to the service entry to show contempt for him and his new job. Even if he took Franco’s car, he wouldn’t be able to catch Jenna. She was on an entirely different road, was getting away, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  He slammed his fist into the wall three times in quick succession. Franco called up an inquiry, which Lorenzo ignored as he tried to calm down.

  That’s when he remembered. All the air rushed out of him. The money. The money to pay off Valencia. He’d left it in a duffel bag in the back of the SUV.

  No! He felt his knees go weak. He had to sit down on the edge of the bed to keep from falling. The room blurred in a haze of red as his rage sent his blood pressure soaring. His money.

  No, not his money. Valencia’s money. As if taking his money wasn’t bad enough, she’d taken the money he owed a man who could crush him—and would.

  He’d kill her. If Valencia didn’t kill him first. Lorenzo swore and dropped his head into his hands. He’d never dreamed Jenna would come to the house and try to take Alexandria. She knew what would happen if she did. What the hell was wrong with her? The woman he’d married had been so shy and quiet, so submissive, so malleable.

  Even during the divorce, Jenna hadn’t asked for a penny of his money in court, refusing even child support when the judge had tried to insist on it.

  So what had happened to that woman? A woman who would never have taken his daughter, let alone his damn car, and worse, his money.

  He pushed himself to his feet. He couldn’t call in his stolen car to the cops. Not with the money in the back. Nor could he send the cops after Jenna for taking their daughter. She had sole custody. Not that he’d ever put much store in handling things legally, anyway.

  His hands began to shake.

  He would get the money back. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was Valencia. Unfortunately, Valencia expected the money tonight. It was the reason Franco was waiting downstairs. Franco and his broken nose.

  Lorenzo’s mind raced. Valencia wouldn’t believe that the money had just gone missing. Even if Lorenzo told him the truth—that Jenna had taken it along with Alexandria—Valencia wouldn’t cut him any slack.

  No, the boss would be furious that Lorenzo had taken Alexandria. Valencia had ordered him not to fight the divorce, not to seek retribution. That bastard had never even shown any sympathy for what Lorenzo had been going through with Jenna. It was one of the reasons Lorenzo had decided to secretly take his daughter, settle up with the organization and leave the country. And there had been a couple of previous disagreements over money with Valencia that had already caused some bad blood between them.

  Lorenzo didn’t need this.

  Valencia had been willing to let him walk away from the business, from the past. But now Lorenzo might be considered a liability, someone who knew too much and couldn’t be trusted, and therefore was expendable. Valencia might feel forced to kill him.

  For an instant Lorenzo thought about just taking off, skipping the country tonight, running for his life. He had a passport in a new name and enough money hidden around the country to live on for some time.

  He pushed himself off the bed and hurried down the hall to his bedroom. He reached behind the nightstand on his side of the bed, instantly realizing the weapon he kept hidden there was gone.

  His gaze fell on his suit jacket. He grabbed it up, knowing before he searched the pockets that the tickets and passports were gone, as well.

  He wrung the garment in his hands, wanting desperately to rip it to shreds. But even before he’d found the passports missing, Lorenzo knew he wasn’t leaving the country.

  Valencia would hunt him down like a rabid dog. Plus, Lorenzo knew that just the thought of Jenna getting away with not only his daughter, but also all that money, would drive him insane.

  He swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat. No, he would have to stall for time until he could get the money back. But he would get it back. The money and his daughter. He could always get new plane tickets, new passports.

  But he couldn’t leave without making his ex-wife regret ever being born.

  “Hey?” Franco called from downstairs. “Hey! Valencia’s waiting for his money. He’s going to be pissed enough when he sees my face.”

  Lorenzo nodded to him
self in the empty bedroom. Franco had a good point. Valencia wouldn’t be happy on either count.

  As he left the room, Lorenzo stopped at one of the heating grates, pried it open and took out another of the weapons he kept hidden in the house—one that even his dear wife hadn’t known about. He shoved the gun into the small of his back and descended the stairs.

  Franco never knew what hit him.

  Chapter Two

  Jenna Dante had been driving for hours through the pouring rain and darkness when she came around a corner in the narrow road.

  She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Water. It tumbled down the hillside from a rain-swollen creek, flooding the road ahead. The raging water ran over the highway and on down the mountainside like a river.

  She slammed on the brakes, her fingers gripping the wheel. The SUV began to skid on the wet pavement, directly toward the deep water flowing onto the highway.

  She wasn’t going to stop in time, and once she hit the moving water…

  She cranked the wheel, felt the SUV begin to spin out of control. Lexi! It was her only thought as the car crashed into the side of the mountain. There was a terrible sound of metal ripping, then silence.

  For a moment, Jenna couldn’t move. Her gaze shot to the car seat in the back. Lexi was awake and looking at her. “Are you all right?” Jenna cried.

  “What happened, Mommy?”

  “We just went off the road. It’s all right.” She peeled her fingers from the steering wheel, shaking so hard she had to grip her hands together in her lap. “But we’re fine.” They were fine. Her air bag hadn’t even deployed. But she could hear the water rushing by not feet from them. They wouldn’t be fine for long.

  The car engine was still running. She shifted into reverse, praying that the car wasn’t damaged badly, that she could drive out of here.

  But the moment she pressed on the gas pedal, she realized they weren’t going anywhere. Not in this car.

  She shut off the engine and unhooked her seat belt. The rain seemed to have lessened as she climbed into the back and hurriedly got her daughter out of her car seat. Grabbing her purse, Jenna opened the door and climbed out, reaching back to lift Lexi and her rag doll in her arms.