Buttons and Hope: Beyond Buttons #12

  BUTTONS AND HOPE

  BEYOND BUTTONS #12

  PENELOPE SKY

  HARTWICK PUBLISHING

  Hartwick Publishing

  Buttons and Hope (previously published as Princess in Lingerie)

  Copyright © 2018 by Penelope Sky

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  CONTENTS

  1. Carter

  2. Mia

  3. Carter

  4. Mia

  5. Carter

  6. Bones

  7. Conway

  8. Vanessa

  9. Bones

  10. Carter

  11. Mia

  12. Bones

  13. Vanessa

  14. Bones

  15. Vanessa

  16. Bones

  17. Vanessa

  18. Carter

  19. Mia

  20. Carter

  21. Bones

  22. Vanessa

  23. Carter

  24. Vanessa

  25. Carter

  26. Vanessa

  27. Carter

  28. Vanessa

  1

  CARTER

  Now that Mia was firm in her decision to murder me, I had to chain her up.

  I wasn’t happy about it.

  Neither was she.

  Just like when she first came into my captivity, I cuffed her ankles to the bed so she could only reach the bathroom when she needed it. Her bedroom was stripped bare, so only the essentials remained behind. Without access to anything, there was nothing she could use to plot against me.

  But now she would have to live her last few days this way.

  Like a prisoner.

  She sat on the bed and stared at me with hatred. Like I was the biggest asshole on the planet, she despised me. But that hatred was nothing compared to her disappointment. There was a point in time when she’d actually liked me, enjoyed fucking me. There was affection between us, delicate kisses between two lovers. She even said I was a good man. But now, all of that was gone.

  She hated me again.

  “Let me know if you need anything.” I pocketed the key and walked out of the room.

  “Fuck off, Carter.”

  I kept my back to her but paused on the threshold. Insults never bothered me, but hers did.

  She had a son.

  I shut the door and locked it behind me before I walked into my office.

  She had a son.

  I couldn’t believe it.

  An eight-year-old boy was out there somewhere, without a mother or a father. He would never know how strong his mother was, how hard she fought to get back to him. Instead of giving in to the temptation of suicide, she continued to persevere in the hope she would be free someday.

  She was brave.

  Far braver than I was.

  Most people would have given in to the temptation and prayed their child would understand. But her spirit gave her the strength to keep moving forward, to accept Egor’s punishments in the hope she might escape someday. That was probably the reason why Egor chose her to begin with—she wouldn’t take her life like all the others.

  Could I really give her back?

  Did I want to be that man?

  If I didn’t have a family to protect, I would consider it. If I could keep this war for myself, I might take the plunge. I cared about this woman and not just because I was attracted to her. It was because I respected her. She reminded me of my sister, of the strong Barsetti women who didn’t put up with bullshit.

  I felt like shit.

  Worse than shit.

  I already didn’t want to do this, but I didn’t want to do it even more, knowing she had a little boy.

  What if this were my mother? I couldn’t picture my life without my mother, the woman who stayed home with me every single day and raised me. I was a grown man who didn’t need anything anymore, but I would always need her. I would do anything for her. Mia was an exceptional woman who had already lost the last three years. Why should she lose more time? And we both knew Egor would kill her eventually.

  Her son would lose her for good.

  Could I stand by and let that travesty happen?

  Did I want to?

  I sat in the leather chair behind my desk and stared across the room at the bookshelf. I used this room for paperwork, but it was unnecessary. I had so many luxuries I didn’t even need, like this huge house. Mia didn’t even have her freedom.

  I went over it in my head again and again. Even if I wanted to save Mia, it wasn’t possible. Egor paid me a hundred and fifty million to get her out of the Underground. Regardless of how rich he was, that was a lot of dough for a single person. That meant she was extremely valuable to him.

  The idea of just letting her go without a fight seemed unlikely.

  Even if I wired the money back to him, he still wouldn’t be happy about it.

  I needed to ask the Barsetti clan for advice, but I couldn’t ask Conway. His wife was about to go into labor at any moment. I didn’t want to ruin this special time with him with my problem. I didn’t want to bother my father either, not when it would stress him out. That meant there was only one person I could turn to.

  I called Vanessa.

  She answered right away, despite the late hour. “Carter?” She panicked into the phone. “Everything okay?” I hardly ever called her, and if I did, it wasn’t this late at night.

  “Yeah, everything is fine. I’m sorry to call you so late. I was actually wondering if I could talk to Griffin…” I didn’t have his number, and I didn’t want to bother Conway by asking for it.

  “Oh…sure.” The phone became muffled as she made the handoff.

  Griffin answered the phone in his deep voice. “Carter. How can I help you?”

  We’d never really talked one-on-one before. I always hovered in the background, letting my father and uncle decide how to handle him. But after he saved my family, all of that hatred had faded away. He was accepted into the Barsetti clan. I dropped my dislike along with everyone else. “Can I speak to you in private? Vanessa can’t know about this conversation.”

  “Alright.” His movements turned audible as he excused himself from her presence. They were probably in bed together at this time of night. It was nearly a full minute before he addressed me again. “This should be interesting…”

  “I apologize for bothering you. But I have no one else to turn to.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” he said with a chuckle. “We just declared peace with the Skull Kings, and now something else comes up…”

  “It went well?”

  “Yes. We made the exchange and buried the hatchet.” His baritone reverberated over the line. “They were pleased by the money and the little speech your uncle gave. We parted on good terms. I’m glad that shit is over.”

  And I was about to stir up more. “Good to hear.”

  “I’m sure your father was going to call you in the morning. He’s probably still talking to Crow right now.”

  “In our family, no news is good news.”

  He paused a while before he spoke. “What can I do for you, Carter?”

  Just because the issue with the Skull Kings was completed didn’t mean saving Mia was a good idea. But it did make it a little easier. “Fuck…it’s a long story.”

  His smile was obvious over the phone. “Those are the best kind.”

  “So…I did one more deal a month ago. Some guy offered me an insane amount of money to buy a woman fr
om the Underground. Claimed he was her brother. I was greedy and stupid and took the deal.”

  “This doesn’t sound good.”

  “The woman is beautiful, smart, sassy…very much like a Barsetti.”

  “Yep,” Griffin said. “I see exactly where this is going.”

  “I realized this man isn’t her brother. He’s her old master. She ran away from him and got captured by the Skull Kings, and he wants her back. He’s a psychopath. The more I’ve gotten to know this woman—”

  “And fuck her.”

  I didn’t deny it. “The more I’ve come to care for her. She didn’t know I was giving her back to Egor until she overheard my conversation. Of course, she got angry. Felt like I betrayed her…which I did.”

  “She thought she was just getting a free vacation with a nice master?” he asked incredulously.

  “She was skeptical at first…but eventually believed that.”

  “Poor girl,” he whispered.

  “Anyway…I told her I had to give her back even though I didn’t want to. I don’t want a war with this guy, not after all the wars my family has already fought. My father and uncle just want peace. I can’t do that to them…”

  “I’ve only dated Vanessa a short while, but I’ve noticed a pattern with the Barsettis. They get themselves caught up in a lot of bullshit.”

  I didn’t rise to the insult, knowing he didn’t mean it in an offensive way.

  “So, what are you asking me, Carter?”

  I didn’t give him the last piece of information until now. “I’d already made my decision to give her back even though I didn’t want to…until she told me something else. It makes me sick to my stomach. It fills me with so much guilt, I can barely breathe.”

  “What is it?” he asked quietly.

  “She has a son…”

  Griffin was silent.

  “He’s eight. There’s no father in the picture.”

  He was quiet longer, obviously at a loss for words.

  “I have no idea where the kid is right now. If she knows, she didn’t tell me. But when she told me that…I lost all my nerve. I already didn’t want to give her back, but now…Fuck. All I can do is think about my mom and how devastated I would be if I ever lost her—” I knew I’d shoved my foot in my mouth, but it was too late to undo the damage. I’d forgotten that Griffin has lost his mother…and his father.

  “Yeah…it’s pretty shitty.”

  “I apologize, Griffin… I wasn’t thinking.”

  “No.” He spoke with a firm voice. “No need to be delicate, Carter. I’m not a delicate man. And you’re right, losing a mother isn’t easy. This kid reminds me a lot of myself. His mother is a slave to men, and there’s nothing he can do to help her. I was very young when my mother was killed. I barely remember her face. But I could never forget her spirit.”

  I fell silent, unsure what to say to that.

  “It’s a pretty fucked-up situation you’re in, Carter.”

  “What do you think I should do?”

  “I can’t answer that.”

  “You’ve gotta have some advice, Griffin.”

  He sighed into the phone. “If this were Vanessa, I’d murder every man in Italy to get her back. I’d risk my life a million times to give her the life she deserves. I wouldn’t even need to think about it. The fact that you have to think about it tells me she’s not Vanessa to you.”

  “I don’t love her…if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “But you care about her enough to think about risking everything to help her.”

  “I guess…”

  “Sounds complicated.”

  I chuckled with pain in my heart. “You’re telling me. I was trying to think of a plan to get what I want and avoid the war. Maybe I could save her and save my family at the same time.”

  “What’s your idea?”

  “There’s only one possibility—fake her death.”

  Griffin was quiet as he considered what I said.

  “If I can make Egor believe she killed herself, then he could forget about her. I could wire the money he paid me, and that would be the end of it.”

  “She could never really be free, though,” he said. “Because if he spots her somewhere, it could destroy your entire plan.”

  “Well…she offered me something if I saved her.”

  Griffin’s grin was obvious over the line. “I think I know what it is.”

  “So she would be with me anyway. I guess her kid would be too. I would probably sell this place and move to Tuscany, start over in a new place.”

  “The plan is plausible. But if Egor is an egomaniac, he’s not going to let you make him look like a fool. He’s going to want to see the body for proof—so he won’t be outsmarted.”

  “That’s what I was worried about.”

  “And if this woman is as alluring as you make her seem…then he’ll probably be suspicious of you.”

  “Agreed. So the only way I could accomplish this is with another body…but that’s not going to happen.”

  Bones was quiet for a long time before he spoke. “I can make that happen.”

  “What?” I blurted. “You have a body?”

  “I know a guy.”

  “Who just has dead bodies lying around?”

  “Something like that,” he said vaguely.

  “But the corpse would have to look identical to her. She would have to be decomposed at the perfect amount.”

  “I realize that,” he said. “But if we tell him that Mia died in a fire, it could ruin her features enough to make her indistinguishable.”

  “She killed herself by burning herself alive? That sounds extreme.”

  “Tell him she did it after she overheard your conversation. The idea of going back to him was so disturbing that she killed herself. You kept her locked up in her room, so the only option was to burn herself alive.”

  “Why would she be exposed to fire?”

  “She could have had a candle in her room. Lit the drapes on fire. Then the room caught on fire…and the flames engulfed her. By the time you got there and put it out, she was dead.”

  “Sounds extreme…”

  “It’s the only option you have.”

  It seemed like a plan that could easily go wrong. “And then what? Hide her forever?”

  “He’ll forget about her eventually. But it’ll take a few years for that to happen. She’ll have to stay close to you for a while. Private property where he can’t even see through the gates.”

  “Yeah…” The idea of her and her son living with me didn’t bother me, surprisingly. Especially with the offer she’d given me, that would be the ideal situation. A part of me knew I should help her because it was the right thing to do and not make her uphold her end of the bargain.

  But I wasn’t that kind of man.

  If I was going to take this kind of risk, I wanted something out of it.

  I wanted her.

  Griffin spoke again. “So, what are you going to do?”

  “Fuck…I don’t know.”

  “You’ve got to decide soon. When are you supposed to give her back?”

  “Friday.”

  “Shit. You need to decide now. Because you’re going to have to catch that room on fire and put it out again, just in case he checks.”

  “I’m gonna have to burn my own house?” I asked incredulously.

  “A controlled fire.”

  “Sorry, don’t have much experience with that.”

  “I’ll help you.”

  “You know a lot about this stuff…”

  He chuckled over the phone. “I’ve seen a lot of shit in my young life. Does that mean you’re in?”

  It seemed like too much work for one woman, but I knew handing her over would haunt me for the rest of my life. She was a good person. Her only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her freedom was taken from her as if she’d never had it in the first place. If she hadn’t gone to that bar with her friends, her life w
ould have been completely different. She was beautiful and exceptional. She deserved to be with her son, to have a man she wanted to be with.

  But all of that was stolen from her.

  I shouldn’t want to help her, but I’d grown fond of her over the last month.

  Doing nothing didn’t seem like an option.

  “Carter?” Griffin’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “You need to decide now.”

  I kept thinking about the tears in her eyes, the way she spoke about her son. Her heart was on her sleeve, and she showed her resilience when she threatened to kill me. She slashed me with that knife, willing to do anything to escape. There was nothing that could keep her from her son…from raising him to be a man.

  I was her last chance. If I handed her over, that would be it.

  She would never escape.

  “Alright,” I said. “I’m in.”

  * * *

  I went back into her bedroom a few hours later. She was lying on the bed with a pillow under her head, her ankles still attached to the foot of the bed. She had a small blanket on top of her, and she was still in the clothes she wore earlier. Her eyes immediately cracked open when the door opened. Prepared to be dragged away, she sat up instantly, like I was about to haul her back to Egor.

  I came to her side of the bed and sat on the edge, my weight making the mattress dip slightly. I hated the way she looked at me, prepared to fight me with everything she had. There was no hesitation on her part. It didn’t matter that she’d slept with me and enjoyed me. When it came to her son, I didn’t matter anymore. It made me admire her even more. “I’ve changed my mind. I’ll help you.”

  She froze in place, her eyes widening noticeably.

  “I talked to a friend of mine, and I think I have a plan.” I continued to watch her, to see her brown eyes turn warm like hot coffee. The beauty of her soft features became more noticeable. Like her eyes were made of deep pools, they began to water. “It’s going to be—”