Dark Castle by Shanna Handel
13
Santo
This time,Stefano’s picked the right brother to protect his girl.
I grab Willow’s arm, pulling her through the woods. “Let’s go.”
“No.” Her fingers clutch at mine, trying to break free of my hold. She glances over her shoulder at her father. “We can’t leave him.”
“He can hold his own. Chances are it’s his people creeping around these woods.”
She hesitates.
“Willow.” I cup her face in my hand. “Come with me.”
Her gaze plows through mine, a look so trusting it hits me in the center of my being. “Okay.”
We move slowly, our feet quiet as they pad over the fallen needles. We take care not to snap any dry twigs. We follow the creek back toward the castle.
“How long?” I ask.
My voice pulls her from her thoughts. She glances up at me. “Huh?”
“How long have you been meeting him?” I ask.
“A few weeks? Months? I’m not sure.” She shakes her head like she’s in a daze. “Crazy. Isn’t it? All of this…”
“It’s pretty wild. I guess love does that to some people. Makes them do crazy things. Like your love for your father. It made you put your life at risk to meet him.” I cock a brow at her. I’m still pissed she was sneaking around. I understand why she was, but still…I’m pissed.
She sighs. “I had to meet him, Santo.”
“I know.” I tilt my chin at her. “But…”
Her brow furrows. “What?”
“But I want to spank your ass again for disobeying me.” I grab a low branch, raising it up for her to pass under.
She shoots me a wry look over her shoulder. “My ass is still on fire from your belt.”
We move quietly, both processing the long, sordid story Stefano shared with us. We’re almost to the rear castle wall when I hear the sound of our alarm go off. The one that means they’ve secured the door to the basement. It’s our safe house, where we send our women and children when there’s a threat.
My muscles tense. “Shit.”
Willow tugs on my hand. “What was that?”
“Let me call Aldo and see what’s going on.” I slide my phone from my pocket.
He picks up on the first ring. “Brother. We’ve got trouble.”
“I heard the alarm. What’s going on?”
His voice rumbles through the phone. “It’s Demi’s men. They’ve surrounded the front of the castle. We’ve got the bridge up and all the children and women in the safe house.”
“What does she want?”
I picture my brother running his hand over his beard as he answers. “Stefano’s gone missing from her compound. She’s convinced he’s here.”
“He’s—” I stop.
Willow’s watching me carefully. If I give up her father to my brother, her father is a dead man. There’s no way Aldo will protect Stefano over the castle even when he finds out its his very own father-in-law who’s in danger.
I stare at Willow’s face. I can’t hurt her like that. I need more time to make a plan. “He’s hard to nail down, isn’t he?”
“You can say that again.” Tension creeps into his voice. “Where the hell were you?”
I run a hand through my hair. I won’t lie to my brother. But I can’t hand him Willow’s dad on a platter. “Willow was sneaking out again.”
He gives an annoyed laugh. “What’d she take this time? The Maserati?”
“No. She went on foot. To get a little air.” Willow gives me a smile of gratitude for my bending of the truth. “We’re just beyond the back wall.”
Aldo snaps into leader mode, barking orders. “Get the hell out of here. Head north and keep moving. Take one of the bug out cars we’ve hidden around the woods. Keys should be in the ignition, along with directions to a place Po found where you two can hide. It’s that abandoned castle not far from here. He found it awhile back when he was scouting for new turf for if the worst happens. You two lay low till you hear back from me the coast is clear.”
It goes against everything in my nature to turn away from the castle, to not be with my brothers. Family first. But I won’t draw Willow into danger. “Are you good there?”
“We can take care of ours. You just take care of Willow.”
“Are Briar and Posie safe?” Willow whispers to me. Her eyes are filled with worry.
I hold her gaze as I ask Aldo. “And the girls? Where are they?”
He gives a gruff laugh. “Oh, brother! You know how I put that redhead, Talia, on guard duty so Briar could do her afternoon sunning in the garden?”
“Talia—your best archer.” My sister-in-law tends to water her flowers in the nude and my jealous brother didn’t want any of the guards ogling his naked wife. “Uh huh. I remember.”
“Well, turns out weeks ago Briar nixed the whole gardening thing and had Talia teaching her to shoot this whole time. Briar’s on the wall right now, bow cocked.”
She’s fine,I mouth to Willow. “And Posie?” I ask.
“Posie’s going to be the death of me.” He heaves an exasperated sigh, but his tone is filled with pride. “The little spitfire rolled right under the bay door just before we airlocked it, knife in hand and ready to fight. She’s up in the turret with me now. Aren’t you, duckie?” Aldo’s tone goes stern as he calls over his shoulder, “Don’t point that thing at me, little lady.”
“I’m glad they’re with you and safe.” We say our goodbyes. Willow wipes her brow in relief. When I hang up, she grabs my arm. “What’d he say?”
“Come on, we need to get going. Let’s go find the car they left behind. We can walk and talk.” I grab her hand. “Demi’s got the place surrounded, but Aldo’s got things under control. They’re looking for Stefano. Demi’s convinced we’re hiding him at the castle.” I leave the rest unsaid; she’s not leaving without him, and my brother would happily hand him over.
“You didn’t tell them that my dad is in the woods,” she confirms with a nod.
“I didn’t.” I shake my head. “Not till we figure out a plan.”
“Thank you.” She squeezes my hand and I look down at her face. She’s looking to me with her eyes full of trust. “Where do we go now?”
I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe.
“We need to lay low. There’s an abandoned castle near here that Po found. It’ll be stocked with supplies. We’ll go there and wait out the night. In the morning we’ll get back in touch with Aldo and see where we are with everything.”
“Okay.” She’s quiet.
“It’s a lot, isn’t it? Finding out about your father.” I push a branch out of the way, holding it so she can pass through.
“And his long line of lovers. Yeah. It’s a lot. I just don’t see how a man can be with so many women…” She shoots me a sheepish look. “I mean, I guess guys can be with a lot of women and still be okay?”
I laugh. “My reputation’s not so great, huh?”
“Kinda. That’s why Briar doesn’t like me hanging around with you that much.” Her gaze goes shy and she looks away.
“She wants you with Leo.” My voice drops an octave. “He’s a safer bet.”
“I guess so.” She still won’t meet my eye.
The words come out before I think them through. “We saw how that worked out for John and Penelope, didn’t we?”
“What do you mean?” She glances up at me.
Family first, Santo.What are you doing? Why are you even having this conversation?
But I can’t stop the words from flowing out. I push another tangle of branches out of our way. “John was the safe bet. But it didn’t stop Penelope from going back to Stefano. They had a connection. Like ours.”
Damn it, Santo, why’d you have to take it there?
“I feel it just like you do. I’ve told you so.” Her resolve hardens. “But I don’t want to end up like my mother, or Demi, or Penelope.”
“They were just with the wrong man.” Am I the right man for Willow?
“And what about the women you’ve been with? Were they the wrong ones?” She stumbles over a root and I catch her. “Thanks.”
They’re all wrong for me. Any woman that isn’t Willow suddenly feels achingly…just…wrong. I say, “They just weren’t the one.”
“Are you sure?” She kicks a rock off the path. “You seem to leave a long line of broken hearts behind.”
“Do I?” What I did with women was always consensual. I was honest about my intentions. Walking beside Willow, I can’t seem to conjure up a memory of other girls. I see the car up ahead, its black hood hidden by thick piney branches.
“You do. And Briar doesn’t want me to be one of them. I don’t want to be one of them.” She pauses a moment then looks at me with a knitted brow. “Why haven’t you ever had a serious girlfriend?”
“I never committed to a woman because…” I stop in front of the car, staring at her. I can’t find the words. She stares back, expectant, waiting.
Love is loyalty, fidelity, sacrifice. When I commit to a woman, it’ll be till I take my last breath. And I’ve not been ready for that yet, so I’ve kept it casual.
I don’t tell Willow this, there’s no reason to.
She won’t believe me.
I can see the way she looks at me like I’m a loose cannon, a grenade about to go off.
I’m a danger.
I’m not a safe bet.
“Forget it. Here’s the car.” I pull the branches back, revealing a black sedan Po’s hidden. I open her door for her, ending the conversation with the closing of her car door.
There’s a map on the front seat with directions to different locations he’s mapped out and stocked with supplies. Po is the funny one, but he’s also incredibly clever. I find the one marked with a turret and trace my finger along the path.
We ride in silence. Her mind must be filled with the stories her dad shared, her worry over her sisters under siege.
My thoughts are of her.
We reach the foot of the hill the castle rests on. I pull the car off the road, into a thicket. She helps me hide it with branches, then we make our way through the woods.
We climb up the craggy cliff, my heart in my throat with every step she takes. I want to reach out and grab her, or throw her on my back and carry her, but she’s surefooted and we make it to the top. From where we stand on the hill, it looks like the castle rises out of the ocean. It’s modern, with clean lines built of stone and glass. The sun is setting over the water, the reds and pinks dancing over the ocean and reflecting off the glass.
I make her wait at the tree line while I scope the place out. So far it seems like a safe place to stay while the dust settles. Gun drawn, I creep around the perimeter of the castle, keeping Willow in my line of sight.
The front door is locked. I run my fingers against the cold stone beneath the sconce light. My fingertips graze metal. I’ve found the key Aldo said would be here.
It’s a brass skeleton key. “My God, how old is this thing?” I murmur to myself, and something murmurs back. I freeze, the hairs standing up on the back of my neck as I hear a muffled sound.
I’m not alone.
There’s the flap of wings, and a bat takes flight a few inches from my face. I shake my head, laughing at myself for being startled. I twist the key in the lock, metal against metal, and slowly open the door. It’s dark as hell, the only light coming from the silver beams from the moon stretching across the floors. It’s hauntingly quiet. The place is empty.
“It’s safe.” I gesture for Willow to join me. She hurries across the grass, running up the steps to my side.
I close the door behind us. “Stay close.”
Using the light from my phone, I lead her through the darkness. The castle has a few pieces of abandoned furniture, misplaced around the room. A single chair in the center of a colorful Persian rug. A table too far from it to be of any use, with no chairs of its own. We find the massive stone fireplace stocked with wood. I fumble around the arranged logs, looking for the matches.
“Here.” Willow finds a firestick hidden behind crumpled newspaper and hands it to me.
I light the paper. It crinkles as it burns. The flames grow, licking at the kindling as it catches. I lean forward, giving the fire a long, patient breath. It takes, and the logs begin to burn. They fill the room with a warm glow.
Willow looks around, taking in the high, domed ceiling, the dusty red and gold tapestries that hang from the walls. “Whose place is this? And why did they leave it?”
I shrug. “No idea, but after Po found it, the men have kept tabs on it. No one’s come or gone in weeks.”
We stand side by side, warming our hands by the fire. Her head tilts to the side as she gazes out one of the tall windows that frame the fireplace. The moon is out, big and round, hanging low in the dusky sky.
Willow points up at it. “A bright sky moon.” She turns shy, looking away.
“What’s that?” I rub my hands together. If I’m cold, she must be freezing. I grab her hips, moving her in front of me, closer to the fire. I wrap my body around her to warm her.
She shoots me a grateful look over her shoulder, holding her open palms out toward the flames. “That’s what my mother called it at least. A bright sky moon, when the moon is in the right spot and reflecting enough light to be brighter than the sky. She said it was a terrible time to make rash decisions.” She stares up at the moon, a bewildered look on her lovely face.
She’s in my arms but looks so very achingly alone in this world.
A bright sky moon; a bad time for rash decisions…
“You don’t have to live by your mother’s premonitions.” I cup her face in my hand, drawing her eyes to mine. I bring my mouth closer to hers. “Or your father’s mistakes.”
The attraction, the tension, that invisible line of energy that holds taut between us, it’s so strong, it haunts me in my sleep. I’ve used every ounce of energy I’ve got to fight it.
And I can’t fight anymore.
I give in. And I kiss her. The moment our lips meet, there’s no more denying that the thing between us is bigger than us, bigger than our parents’ mistakes or pasts, bigger than my past, my forgotten line of lovers.
Now, in this moment, there is only her.
The moment she first walked up to the castle wall as I was standing guard, it became only her.
I hold her cheeks in my hands, bringing her face closer to mine. I part her lips with the tip of my tongue, tasting her. She gives a sigh-like moan, her hands finding their way to my chest. The feel of her hands on me, it’s my undoing.
Tonight is for rash decisions.
I scoop my hands under her thighs, raising her in the air so she can lock her legs around my waist. I hold her and I kiss her under that bright sky moon. I kiss her until I know, and she knows, there’s no coming back from this.
All bets are off.
