Dead Man’s Hand by Giulia Lagomarsino
Antonio
Strong. Beautiful. Dangerous. I had no clue who this woman was, or why the hell I brought her back here. I thought it would be okay to bring her home with me, but I never could have predicted the woman that would wake up in my home. She had to be trained in some way. The way she moved, the way she spoke…it was like she had lived a hard life, one where she already knew what it was like to face down the barrel of a gun. I thought I had moved away from that life, but only a year later, here I was again with someone I couldn’t trust under my own roof.
And what was I supposed to do with her? I couldn’t kick her out in the snow. She wouldn’t last five minutes. Hell, she wouldn’t even last thirty seconds in her condition. I was torn between being gentle with her and interrogating her. She seemed to genuinely not remember what happened, but she could be a very good actress. People did desperate things when they were about to die.
I watched as she lay passed out on my couch. There was nothing familiar about her. If she were from my world, wouldn’t I at least recognize her? But what were the chances that anyone from my world would come after me? The Family had crumbled, all but decimated. I was the only living member left, aside from my sister, who nobody knew about. There might be a few foot soldiers that escaped, but they didn’t know enough to be of any use to another family, and they wouldn’t try and rebuild what was clearly gone.
Taking the supplies to the kitchen, I grabbed some things to make a splint for her wrist. A slight moan had me reaching for my gun, but she was still passed out. Either she was moaning in pain or she was dreaming. Tucking the gun into the back of my pants, I carried the supplies over to the couch. It would be best if I could do this when she was asleep.
I grabbed for her elbow when she suddenly came awake, jolting upright, her hand going right for my throat. I blocked her easily, slamming her hand down as I covered her body with mine to keep her from writhing all over the place.
“It’s just me,” I said, trying to sound soothing.
Her eyes were glazed over, obviously still confused and in a lot of pain. Something in my chest twisted painfully. I wanted to take care of this woman, to help her, but this could all be an act. Despite the fact that I lived out in the middle of nowhere, and I had left my old life behind, there was still a chance that she could be here for other reasons. I had to find out more about who she was, and even then, I wouldn’t really trust her. No one was innocent.
“What’s your name?” I asked again.
Her brows furrowed as she stared into my eyes. My thumb was pressed firmly over her pulse, feeling for any signs of an increase in her heartbeat, but if anything, the longer we stared at each other, the more it slowed down.
“I—I don’t know.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Really? You don’t know who you are?”
She shook her head slightly, almost a lost look covering her face for the first time since she woke up. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but I can’t remember.” Her eyes shifted away from mine and she stared off in space. I wanted to ask her so many questions, find out something, anything that could tell me just an ounce of information, but she was in no condition, and that was increasingly clear. “My head hurts,” she mumbled, letting her head drop back to the arm of the couch.
I slowly released her, climbing off her and letting her wrist go last. For some reason, I liked the feel of her pulse under my thumb. I shook off that thought and sat back up, clearing my throat.
“I need to wrap your wrist.”
She didn’t protest as I grabbed her right arm at the elbow and pulled her wrist closer to me, grabbing my supplies.
“You don’t remember,” I repeated as I started wrapping up her wrist. “Yet you came at me with a knife.”
“I woke up naked and in a strange place,” she croaked. “I didn’t…” She frowned again. “Who doesn’t know their own name?”
I glanced up at the gash on her head, wondering if it was possible she had really hit her head hard enough that she didn’t remember. I thought back to the fear in her eyes last night when she realized she wasn’t going to be able to make it out of the car. That kind of fear couldn’t be faked. She could have made herself crash on purpose…I had seen people fake accidents before to cause a distraction, but what distraction would that have been? No one was waiting for me. No one tried to kill me. So, if she was here for me, she was all alone. Unless this was all part of her plan. She might have intended to get close to me, and this was the perfect excuse. She was in my house now, where she could find out whatever she wanted, if I was stupid enough to tell her. It was almost too perfect. Her car crashed, she claimed she couldn’t remember anything, and suddenly, she was planted in my life in the middle of a fucking snow storm. There really couldn’t be better conditions to go in under cover.
But who would send a woman all alone to kill a man like me? Besides, everyone that knew I was alive worked for Reed Security, and they weren’t going to admit they broke into the Scavuzzo compound and killed a bunch of men. Not to mention, they did it for my sister.
I shook my head. I couldn’t be so trusting, though. Even if Josh had a kid with my sister, that didn’t make him, or anyone he associated with, trustworthy. Anyone could be turned. Look at my uncle, the man I trusted most in the world aside from my father, and what he led me to do to my own family.
“Ouch!” She flinched, pulling back her arm. I hadn’t realized I was squeezing so hard as the anger poured through me.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, finishing up the wrap. Resting her hand on the back of the couch, I stood. “You should keep it elevated. When the storm lets up, I’ll get you to the hospital.”
She nodded and leaned back against the couch, shutting her eyes. Her face was creased with lines of pain. I recognized them because I’d been there before. Standing, I walked to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack. The second it touched her forehead, she flinched, her eyes flying open.
“Keep that on your head. It should help with the pain.”
I stalked away from her, needing my space. I needed to think. I needed a plan. If she was as innocent as she claimed to be, then I needed to find a way to get rid of her. I could drop her off at the hospital and she would no longer be my problem. I saw her crash. I took care of her until the storm passed. There was nothing suspicious about that, except for the fact that I held a gun on her. I asked if she was sent to kill me, and if she told the police that, it would rouse suspicion. My peaceful life I had created here would be over.
On the other hand, if she wasn’t who she said she was…or wasn’t, considering she claimed to not know…I glanced over at her laying on my couch, eyes closed as she rested. Woman or not, I would have to get rid of her. It wouldn’t be the first time. Hookers were paid all the time to get close to me, to try and kill me. This would be no different. Except, she didn’t look like a hooker. She just looked like a normal woman, someone that was on her way somewhere and hit some bad luck.
In your back yard?
What were the chances that this happened down the road from my place? I glanced out the window at the storm and sighed. There was nothing I could do about it now, but when the storm let up, I would have to go search her vehicle for anything that could tell me who she was.
* * *
I pulledon my snow gear and put my gun in the holster on my hip, covering it with my jacket. I’d left nothing out in the open that the woman could take or dig through. I had everything hidden well.
“Are you leaving?” she asked, sitting up in a panic. She still looked like shit, even two days later. She had slept most of the day yesterday, but every time she woke up, she was on edge, like she was looking for danger. I watched her carefully, waiting for her to mess up, but so far, nothing she did was particularly suspicious. Unless you counted brandishing a knife as suspicious.
But her body was too banged up to do anything, and I suspected that’s why she hadn’t tried to hold a knife on me again. The cuts looked harsher with every day that passed, and her face was even more bruised than before. But it was her leg that looked the worst. I started to see signs of infection the last time I cleaned it. Not to mention that her lack of memory meant that at the very least she had a bad concussion.
“I’m going to check out the roads, see if they’re clear.”
“I…You can’t just leave me here!”
I stopped what I was doing and turned to her with a death glare. Nobody told me what to do. I may not be in the mob anymore, but that didn’t mean I would start taking orders from someone else. I had done that before, and look how that turned out. “I can do whatever the fuck I want. Besides, you’re in no condition to go out.”
“But…what if something happens to you! Nobody knows I’m here! At least out there I have a fighting chance.”
“If you come with me and something happens, you’ll freeze out there. I won’t be gone long. I just want to check the roads and see if we can get you down the mountain to the hospital.”
Not to mention, I was going to stop at her car and see what intel I could gather. She shifted on the couch, her leg exposed to me. I clenched my teeth in irritation. The gash on her leg was bad and she needed some antibiotics. I wasn’t sure what pissed me off more, the inconvenience of needing to take care of her, or the fact that I actually cared that if I didn’t get her help, she would get really sick.
I slammed the door to the house, pulling on my gloves. I shouldn’t care about the damn woman. She was a pain in the ass, someone that I had to worry about when I didn’t worry about anyone. But I still remembered the way her pulse slowed from my touch, and I couldn’t forget what it was like to lay on top of her body. Banged up or not, I couldn’t deny that there was something that pulled me to her.
Pushing her from my mind, I walked to my truck and focused on the task ahead. I didn’t need to worry about her leaving the house. If she tried, she’d end up dead within the hour. Cranking the engine, I slowly pulled out onto the road. Someone had come through with a plow, but it was most likely a local with a plow attached to the front of his truck. It took forever to get the county out here to clear the roads. By the time I pulled over to where I thought she had spun out, I was sweating bullets. There was no way we were heading down the rest of the mountain today. The roads were just too dangerous, and I couldn’t risk getting her killed before I even got her to the hospital.
Grabbing the rope out of my truck, I started the trek down the mountainside. This time, I was prepared for the snow, dressed in proper snow gear. The drifting made it difficult to safely get down the mountain, and by the time I got to the cliff her car tumbled over, I had to wonder if this was really worth it.
Sighing, I tied the rope to the tree and then around my waist. It was an easy drop down to her car this time, but the snow had covered the back window, and that was going to take some time to dig out. After a good ten minutes, I had access to the inside of her vehicle. I found two suitcases inside, one of which I had already dug through.
There was so much crap tossed around the vehicle that it was nearly impossible to find her purse, but when I did, relief poured through me that it was zipped closed and I wouldn’t have to dig further for all her crap. Dragging everything out of the car, I climbed back in for one last look, but didn’t see anything important. I turned to go when something shiny caught my eye dangling from the rearview mirror. I wasn’t sure why I went back for it, maybe out of hope that it would trigger something in her mind. I studied it for just a moment, taking in the Celtic cross. From the looks of it, it was pretty old, heavier and bigger than what you usually saw nowadays.
Frowning, I tucked it into my pocket. I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t ready for her to see that just yet. Maybe if I knew more about her or something, but I had a feeling this had some kind of significance.
Hauling everything back to the truck took a lot longer than I thought it would, and was a huge pain in the ass. Someone passed me, white-knuckling it the whole way. Shaking my head, I put the truck in drive and headed back home. By the time I got there, I was starving, having not eaten much before I left. I hefted the two suitcases and the purse from the truck, but the lady was already swinging the door open before I climbed up the steps to the porch.
She opened the door, glaring at me when she saw the scowl on my face.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“You’ve been gone for hours—” she snapped.
“You should be laying down. I don’t need you breaking open your stitches and bleeding all over my fucking cabin.”
She stood taller in my kitchen, trying to prove that she wasn’t afraid of me. And sadly, the more I tried to scare her, the tougher she got.
Narrowing my eyes at her, I ground out. “Did you hear me, or are you deaf as well as oblivious to who you are?”
Glaring at me, she grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer and limped back to the couch. She hid it well, but I could see the lines of pain creasing her face. I needed to get her to the fucking hospital.
I put her shit down on the floor by the couch and glared at her. “I got as much as I could.” Tossing her purse at her, I tilted my head. “Maybe you’ll figure out who you are when you look in there.”
I watched as she stared down at her purse. I couldn’t read her. Was she fucking with me and just pretending to not know who she was? Maybe she thought I wouldn’t find her purse, and then she could go on pretending that she couldn’t remember a thing. Turning on my heel, I headed into the kitchen to grab some food, watching her out of the corner of my eye.
She slowly opened the zipper of her purse, first pulling out some chapstick, examining it like it would give her the answers of the universe. I rolled my eyes in frustration. At this pace, I wouldn’t find out who she was any time soon. I got to work cutting up some meat and tossing it in a pan, always watching her. By the time the food was cooking, she was finally opening her damn wallet. All her other shit was spread out on the table in front of her.
She flicked the wallet open and stared down at the license. Her brows pinched together as she studied the photo.
“Well?” I snapped.
She swallowed hard and looked up at me. “My name is Ciara. Ciara Donnelly.”