The Colt & The Cobra - THE SPECTER SERIES [book six]

Chapter FIFTY FIVE

Mikki De'lucca

.. six weeks later ..

"Careful, Bella, we just got you back, don't need you falling and busting yourself up all over again.." Vinny holds your hand in support as you climb the front stairs, making way too much of a fuss over your homecoming..
You never thought you would be so grateful to return to the estate. To the privacy of iron gates and the protection of your new security team, but you are..

Your recovery time spent in isolation at SPC had been the most miserably lonely six weeks of your life..

"I'm fine, Vinny.. I'm fine.." You wave him off to go ahead.. "You don't have to treat me so precious.. You should worry about that leg of yours, or are you forgetting that you got shot too?"

"Nah, don't worry about me.. And you are precious, you're the Godmother." He smiles, limping ahead to lead the way..

"Yeah.. Yeah I guess so.." You sigh, trailing at your slow snail's pace behind him.. Though most of your wounds have healed, there is still a surprising amount of soreness to accompany each of your movements.. It has taken some getting used to, accepting your new pains and your new place in the world, owning the course of action that brought you here.. You still can't manage to pretend to be enthused about any of it..

Everything changed the night you were shot.. The night Colt killed Rocco..

You changed.

During your time in hospital, Angelo had passed away, succumbing to the Belladonna toxin Rocco and Dax had conspired to take down his bloodline with..

With Angelo gone, you had inherited everything.. An entire empire, built on blood and bone..
A legacy you have been ensnared within and sacrificed everything for..

Lemon had visited you shortly after to keep you in the loop with the progress of Specter's investigations and to inform you that Oliver had been taken to California for reconstructive plastic surgery and was expected to make a full recovery..

Of course, you offered to help pay for his medical bills, but Lemon had been adamant that it would be best for you to leave him be..

"You've done enough, Mikki." Had been her exact words..

Words that hurt, but you still needed to hear..

Because she was right..

No good could come of any agent who would cross into your hostile universe.. You have finally learned the lesson Charlie's death should have taught you long ago..

You don't deserve a good man.. You will either corrupt him, or kill him..
You do your best not to think about the last conversation you had with a good man, the man you love.. When Colt had snuck into your hospital room in the middle of the night, against the lawyer's advice.. You want to forget the hurt in his eyes when you had done what you had to do..
But you had to let him go.

"Well, now you're home, you can make it whatever you want it to be Mikki.. Whatever you want to do, I'll support you.." Vinny smiles, pulling open the front door for you as the cleaning staff scuffy out of sight..

You wince.. "You might want to hold off on making those kinds of promises until you hear my plan.."

He frowns.. "Whaddya mean?"

You stop in the entry to shrug gingerly from your coat.. "I'm going to tear it down, Vin.. Everything I did, I did to save my family.. That hasn't changed.. Rocky is gone, but I still want better for you than this life.. I want better for all of us.. I'm so close, Vin.. I can feel it.."