Savage Redemption (The Caraksay Brotherhood #10)

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

R osie

“Are you sure you’ll be all right? I don’t have to go to this jolly.”

“We’ll be fine.” I give Eva a reassuring smile. “I was thinking of a stroll along the cliff path, then maybe a swim.”

“Well, it’s half-decent weather for a change.” She peers out of the window. “We should be back by late evening. It depends how long it takes Ethan to seal this deal.”

“Dad’s going with him, and he likes to get all the details right,” I remind her. “Don’t worry about us, we’ll manage to amuse ourselves somehow.”

She grimaces. “Nathan knows I hate these sorts of events. I don’t see why I have to go.”

“Because you were invited,” I state. “Be sociable. At least Cristina will be there, too, so you can chat to her if it all gets too technical.”

“I can handle technical.” She snorts. “It’s the plain boring that bothers me.”

“Go. Enjoy yourself and stop complaining.”

She’s still muttering about being dragged from her work for an entire day as I strap Erin into her buggy. I accept Eva’s offer of help to get her down the main stairs, and we part company in the great hall where the rest of their little party is already assembled.

It’s some sort of land deal, requiring a meeting between Ethan, my dad, and the vendor, to be followed by a business dinner at some posh hotel. The land is in Dundee, on the other side of the Scottish mainland, so they’ll be gone all day and evening. As well as my dad and Eva, Ethan Savage is taking Cristina with him, along with his second-in-command, Jack Morgan, and four more of his men who are apparently required for ‘security’. That just leaves Tony, the next in command to oversee security here on the island while they’re away. Tony Haigh is frankly scary, not a man to be crossed or encountered on a dark night. He has a contingent of half a dozen men to assist him, so I daresay we’re in good hands.

Tony ambles up beside me. We watch their departure together, from the main steps. Both the island’s helicopters are required to transport everyone. I shield my eyes when the two aircraft soar into the air.

“Shall we wave to Grandad and Eva?” I crouch beside Erin and waggle her little hand. She giggles as though it’s the funniest thing ever.

“Do you need anything, miss?” The deep voice comes from behind me.

“No,” I reply. “I was just planning a stroll down on the beach, then we’ll go to the pool, if it’s free.”

“I’ll make sure it is, miss. If you need me, I’ll be in my apartment, got some paperwork to tackle. Most of the men are in the cinema. Apparently, we have a download of the latest James Bond.”

“We’ll be fine. I may drop in and say hello to Faith after.”

He inclines his head. “Aye, you do that. But I gather she’s up here, in the nursery all day, filling in for Magda.”

Magda is a sort of a nanny but also works as a helicopter pilot. She’ll be flying Ethan to and from Aberdeen.

Tony bows politely “I’ll see you later, then.”

He disappears back inside the castle, and I bump the pushchair down the few steps to the cobbled courtyard. It’s about a twenty-minute hike down the cliff path to the beach, but I’ll enjoy the solitude. Erin’s not known for her witty conversation.

The cliff path is steep, but Ethan had a handrail installed, and there are no steps, so it’s safe enough and manageable with a pushchair. I’m thinking we might collect some shells and maybe stick them onto a sheet of paper to make a collage. At fifteen months old, Erin’s at a stage where she can fling glue about so that should pass an hour or so later on.

We reach the flat, pebbled shoreline where a colony of seals are basking on rocks close to the water. I point them out to Erin.

“We need to be quiet or they’ll all swim away,” I tell her.

She seems less than impressed and continues to chunter to herself as we make our way over the terrain. I keep pausing to pick up any likely-looking shells and drop them into the plastic bag I brought for the purpose, and which is now dangling from the handles. The wind is picking up, so I lean down and fasten the top two buttons on her jacket and tug a knitted cap down over her ears. I wish I’d brought a pair of gloves with me; my hands are starting to feel cold.

“Shall we begin making our way back, sweetheart?”

She claps her hands enthusiastically. My little girl is easy to please. I turn the buggy round and start back the way we came.

“ Buenos días, Rosa. Te ves bien .”

I whirl. The scream escapes before I can stop it. A dark shape materialises from the rocks alongside me.

I take a step back, shoving the buggy behind me. Where the fuck is Tony?

“Who are you? How?—?”

“You don’t recognise me? I’m wounded, querida .” He takes another step towards me.

“Stay back. I don’t know you, but?—”

“Ah, but you do, mi amada . I know it’s been a couple of years, but I haven’t changed that much, surely?”

A couple of years…? I’m baffled and utterly terrified. I briefly contemplate the chances of grabbing Erin and sprinting to the cliff path. Could I outrun him?

Not a chance. I could scream at the top of my lungs, then, and hope I can be heard from the castle. Equally unlikely. Or I could fight. I don’t much fancy my chances with any of my options, but I settle on screaming.

The first screech has barely left my throat before he darts forward, grabs me, and slams his hand over my mouth.

“Tranquilizarse. No te haré da?o.”

His tone is low, and vaguely, achingly familiar. And it occurs to me, belatedly, that he’s speaking to me in Spanish. It’s been nearly two years, but the memories flood back. He’s telling me to calm down, that he won’t hurt me. His assurances don’t work. Sheer terror overwhelms me.

I fight. I fight as though my life depends on it, which it well might. My life and my daughter’s.

He lets out a curse in Spanish when I succeed in biting his hand. It gives me a moment’s respite in which I let out another scream, but it dies as a sort of strangled croak in my throat. I’m kicking, squirming, desperately fighting to be free while Erin watches the unequal struggle from the safety of her pushchair.

The man wrestles me to the ground and pins me there. His face is close, his breath on my cheek. He leans further in to murmur in my ear.

“I mean you no harm, Rosa.” English, now.

Rosa?

I inhale, the scent of him sort of familiar. I force myself to calm, to think clearly.

When I go silent, motionless, he speaks to me again. “Ah, perhaps you remember me now, querida . If you will remain quiet, I’ll move my hand. Do we understand one another?”

I blink, try to gather my wits. I need to protect Erin, at all costs.

“Rosa?”

That name again, that old name I so hated… Still, I nod. I have no other option.

He’s as good as his word. He slackens his grip and shifts his hand from my mouth, but I’m still unable to move.

“Please, don’t hurt my baby…” I manage.

“I have no intention of hurting her, or you. I just want to talk.”

“Talk? I don’t understand. Who are you?”

He relaxes his iron grip a little more and props himself up on his elbows. “Look at me, querida . Look at me, properly, and then tell me you don’t know me.”

I turn my head, meet his dark-chocolate eyes. Eyes I gazed into so many times before, at first fearfully, but later… less so. And, at last, the truth hits me. The impossible, unbelievable, inescapable truth.

“Adan,” I whisper. “But, how…?”

His sensual mouth curls in a smile. “It is good to see you, Rosa.”

“I thought you were dead. They… they shot you.”

“Alas, they did. In the leg. It was very painful.”

“But you were a prisoner. I saw them drag you away.” I’m incredulous. Until a year ago, I never doubted that he had died that day, or soon after, at the hands of Kristian Kaminski. Then I learned he was free, somehow, and stalking me and Erin. We’ve been in hiding for months.

“Yes, I was a prisoner, but no longer. As you see.”

“Let me go,” I whimper. “Please.”

He rolls off me and lays beside me, on his back. “I am sorry I scared you.”

“Erin? Is she…?”

He shoots a glance in the direction of the buggy. “She’s fine.”

Erin gazes at us, wide-eyed but seemingly not unduly alarmed at the commotion. She’s far too preoccupied by her small collection of cockle shells to bother about me.

Adan sits up, then gets to his feet. He offers me his hand, so I take it.

He helps me up with a wry grin. “You are okay?”

I dart past him to kneel in front of the pushchair. “Sweetie, are you all right? Mummy is fine, there’s no need to be upset.”

She gazes back at me, giggling and not the least bit upset. Then she shifts her gaze to Adan. A small frown creases her little brow, and she lets out a small, mewling cry.

I unfasten the straps and snatch her to my chest. “Don’t worry, darling. Don’t let the nasty man scare you. He’s going.” I turn my head, glare at him. “You need to leave. Now! Before anyone sees you.”

Again, that rueful smirk. “No one’s going to see me. Ethan and half his men are three hundred miles away. He’s expecting to meet with me, actually, but alas, I must disappoint him.”

“What are you talking about? He’s gone on a business trip. And if you’ve been free for… how long is it? A year? Where have you been until now?”

“In Hong Kong, actually. I had other pressing matters to attend to.”

Pressing matters? Hong Kong? What the…?

I hug Erin until she quietens, trying to make some sort of sense of all this. And the penny drops.

“You set it up. The land deal or whatever it was, and the invitation to dinner.”

He inclines his chin. “I needed your host away from his little empire for a while, and to take his architect with him, and for both to bring their wives along. I prefer us to be… undisturbed for our reunion.”

“It’s not a reunion,” I snap. “It’s… It’s… an assault. You attacked me.”

“I have apologised for any distress caused. But I wished to speak with you alone, and of course to meet my daughter.”

I whirl away from him and stride across the shingles. Every instinct screams at me to put distance between him and me, and especially between him and Erin. “She’s not your daughter.”

He keeps pace with me easily. “We both know she is, but if you insist on a paternity test, I have no objection.”

“There’ll be no test. No nothing. Go. Away.”

“That will not be happening, querida .” He sprints to get in front of me. “Wait, please. I just want to talk.”

“Well, I don’t. I hate you. Leave me alone.”

He continues alongside me, matching me step for step. “You left your buggy behind.”

“Fuck off.” The cliff path is only a few paces ahead. If I can just get there, get back up to where the first cottages are. Maybe someone will be around…”

He reaches the path ahead of me and blocks my way. “Just talk to me,” he pleads. “Nothing else, I swear.”

“I don’t believe you.”

His brow furrows. “Did I ever lie to you before?”

I back away, desperate now for a way of escape, any way.

“You, you kept me a prisoner,” I accuse him. “You… raped me.”

His frown deepens. “No, I did not. Why would you say that?”

“I couldn’t leave. I wanted to go home, but you… you…”

“Yes to the first, but no to the rest. I did not rape you. You had a choice. Always.”

“What choice?” I moan. “I was scared for my life.”

“Were you?” He seems genuinely surprised. “I never threatened you. I was never violent, not with you at least. And yes, I wanted you in my bed, but I never forced you to be there. I… I cared about you.”

“You cared about having a slave, someone at your beck and call.”

“It was not like that,” he protests.

I swing back to confront him. “Would you have let me go? Ever?”

He rakes his fingers through his hair. “You never asked me.”

“Is that meant to be some sort of defence? A justification for what you did?”

He has the grace to wince. “No, not entirely, I accept that. You were badly treated, abused, and yes, you were raped. Before, earlier, but not by me. I would not do that.”

Oddly, at my heart, I believe him. Admittedly, by then, my standards were pretty low, but he did treat me decently. I was a prisoner, but I wasn’t ill-treated by Adan, not in the great scale of things.

He continues. “I truly did care about you. I enjoyed having you with me…”

“I bet you did. What man wouldn’t enjoy having a helpless female to use as he liked?”

“Rosa, I?—”

“Rosie!” I yell my name at him. “I’m Rosie. ”

“Rosie. I apologise.” He raises his hands, palms out, and backs off. “I genuinely do only want to talk. Nothing more. I needed to know you are well, and safe. Both of you.”

“Well, it took you long enough if you’re really so concerned. And you can see that we are. No thanks to you.”

“Not entirely true, querida . My prolonged absence is what kept you safe.”

He appears sincere. He really believes this weird tale. “That’s crazy. I’m here hiding from you.”

“You are in no danger from me. You never were.”

“But—”

“Why would you think that?” His tone has softened. “Who told you to fear me?”

“Mr Kaminski, and Mr Bartosz. They told my dad that you knew about Erin and wanted to snatch her.”

“Why would I do that? I’m her father. I want to be in her life. But snatch her? Take her from her mother, her home? No, I would not do that. Why would you think it?”

“Because… that’s what you do. Men like you, who want their own way.”

“Men like me? You mean, men like Savage? Or your father?”

“They’re not like you,” I insist. “My dad is… honest. Kind.”

He inclines his chin again, in partial agreement. “Very well, not your father, exactly. But Savage and me? We’re cut from the same cloth. Do you imagine him abducting a baby?”

Of course not! He’s a good father.”

He remains silent, lets me arrive at the inevitable conclusion.

I resort to pleading. “Please, don’t take her.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t want to do that.”

“But you said you wanted to be in her life.”

“And I do, but not in that way. I want to share. I want to be there, to support you. Support her.”

“It’s impossible. Too much has happened. My family…”

“Your family love you. That much is obvious. They love Erin, too, and they will want what is best for her.”

“You think that’s you?” Surely, he can’t be serious. “You’re a criminal. A… a Mafia boss.”

“Actually, I am not. Not any longer.”

“What…?”

“You might say, I have retired. I am a respectable businessman these days. Well, more or less respectable. And I believe I can help, with Erin.”

“I don’t need help. We’re fine.”

“I do not doubt that. Nevertheless, she is my daughter, and I wish to get to know her. Starting now. May I?”

He holds out his hands, silently asking me to place my baby in them.

“You won’t hurt her? Or try to take her?”

“I have said so. She is my daughter, I love her.”

“You don’t even know her.”

“How does that make any difference? I have loved her since I learned of her existence.”

I gape at him, unable to argue with that. I felt just the same, the moment I gazed at that blue line on the pregnancy test. “Okay, just for a minute. And you have to give her back if she gets upset.”

“Of course.”

So, I pass her to him. “She can sit up on her own, you just need to hold her like this…”

His smile is dazzling. I’d forgotten — nearly — just how devastatingly handsome Adan San Antonio was. Is. He gazes down at Erin, adjusts her so she’s comfortable. And mutters something to her in Spanish. Any remaining fears disintegrate. He does love her. Incredible, fantastic though that may seem, it’s true.

I’m mentally sifting through the series of bizarre claims he’s made in the last five minutes. “You said something earlier, about you keeping her safe.”

He meets my gaze. “I did.”

“Can you explain?”

He nods. “It was Kaminski and Bartosz who said I was dangerous?”

“That’s right. Baz spoke to my dad. He told him we needed to go somewhere safe. He arranged for us to come here.”

“I know.” He sighs. “I did a deal with Kaminski to get my freedom. Bartosz set it all up. There was a ransom, and my family refused to pay it.”

“Oh. But why?”

“I assume they didn’t especially want me back. One of my cousins had taken over the Domingo family and saw no reason to change things. They were happy for me to simply disappear.”

“That’s awful,” I blurt.

“That’s business,” he replies. “Murky, brutal, but business even so. Bartosz came up with the proposal that I could pay my own ransom. I wasn’t always a Mafia boss, as you put it. Before Alejandro and Mateo died, I was the moneymaker for the firm. I was an entrepreneur, and I had a flair for it. I made millions of euros to pour into the Domingo coffers. Frankly, I was better at that than I was at leading a Mafia family, but circumstances changed, and needs must. There was a vacancy suddenly. It was expected, so I stepped up. You know how that worked out.”

“Yes,” I whisper. “I do know.”

“So, I spent a year in Kaminski’s dungeon while he tried to screw some sort of a deal out of my family. It wasn’t happening, so he had a problem. What to do with me. Killing me would have been Kaminski’s preference, but Bartosz had other ideas. He came up with the plan that I should work for them. Making money and paying it to them, in lieu of a ransom. In exchange, I hung on to my life and got my freedom.”

“You took the deal?”

“Of course. Would you not have done the same?”

“I suppose I would. But how did that concern me? Or Erin?”

“I owed Kaminski five million euros, and he wanted some sort of insurance to make sure I paid. What was to stop me simply disappearing and paying them nothing?”

“Would you have done that?”

“Actually, no. I have always honoured my deals, even those made under duress. And I had my eye on a longer-term strategy. Kaminski would make a decent business partner, in other circumstances. It was always my intention to pay off the debt, then continue to do business with him. We could both make good money from such an alliance.”

My head is reeling. How could he seriously consider a business arrangement with a man who shot him and imprisoned him for year? A man who actually wanted him dead.

Adan continues. “I can see from your face you find all of this… astonishing.”

“Yes. Just a bit.”

He chuckles. “As I say, business is business. But, as I mentioned, Kaminski and Bartosz did not trust me to keep my side of the bargain. So, they threatened to harm you and Erin if I did not comply. If I missed any payments, or otherwise defaulted on the deal.”

“But he said you were the threat.”

“He lied,” Adan replies simply. “He was relying on that threat to keep me in line, and it worked. I was not sure if he would carry out the threat or not, but it was a risk I could not take. So, I worked, and I paid.”

“I still don’t understand…”

“My guess is this. He knew I’d track you down easily enough, and I had a motive to do that once I knew about Erin. It would make sense, or so he thought, for me to snatch Erin to keep her safe from him. Maybe he even genuinely believed I would do that, and he took precautions to put you out of my reach.” He pauses, gestures to the rugged scenery around us. “And, here you are.”

I can only stare at him. “You, you’re saying he tricked us? Made my family think you meant us harm, when all the time, it was him?”

He shrugs. “As I said, that’s my guess. It makes sense.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing, but he’s right, there is a weird logic to it. I reach for Erin. “I need to think. Get my head straight.”

“Yes.” He hands her back to me. “And I need to get back to the construction site. Before I am missed.”

“The… Oh, that’s how you did it. How you got here. You’re pretending to be a builder?”

His dazzling smile washes over me once more. “Carlos di Santo, plumber. At your service.”

“That’s not your name. And are you really a plumber?”

He winks. “What do you think, querida ? And now, if you will excuse me…?”

He starts up the path.

“Wait.”

He pauses, looks back at me over his shoulder.

“Will I see you again?”

“Oh, yes, querida . You may rely on that.”