The Vipers Temptation | Completed

Chapter 20 - Reality

After ridding the world of Matt, Nico and I spend two weeks in a blissful bubble ignoring the outside world. If you told me that I would fall in love with my crazy Italian neighbor who happens to work for the mafia, I would have said you were crazy. But I guess never say never.

***

"Nico," I whisper as I poke his cheek. He looks so peaceful as he sleeps, "Nico."

Suddenly I'm rolled under him and he's leaning over me in bed. "Can't let me sleep later than you?"

"There's an emergency."

"Uh-huh." Nico quirks an eyebrow. "What's the emergency?"

"I miss you," I bite my lip to keep from laughing.

"How do we solve that?"

"Cuddles?"

"I don't cuddle," Nico says the word like its diseased.

I laugh. "We cuddle all the time."

"No, we don't."

"What are we doing, right now?" I ask.

"Steps before fucking?" I bury my face in his neck to cover my laughing.

Every high has a low, right?

Life comes crashing down Saturday morning when law enforcement invades the safe house we have been staying in and arrest Nico.

"Stop, you can't do this," I beg from where they are dragging Nico away in handcuffs down the stairs.

"Miss, we've been waiting a long time to get this man," says the balding officer.

Just then, a female officer steps in front of me at the foot of the stairs. "Callie, correct?" I flinch at her knowledge of my name but give a slight nod. "I'm Kelsey, one of the detectives. You're safe now. He can't hurt you anymore."

They thought I had been held against my will? That's not true. But wasn't it in the beginning?

"Why are you arresting him?"

"He's wanted for murder and kidnapping. That's all I can say. But your testimony will be vital."

She wanted me to testify against Nico? Fear laces through my veins as I fully comprehend what is happening. Nico is being arrested partially due to me. But who the hell told them I was kidnapped?

"He didn't kidnap me."

Kelsey's stare resembles pity as she whispers, "We'll get you the help you need."

Great, now she thinks I have Stockholm Syndrome.

***

"Nico!" I shout as I lunge up in bed.

"Honey, it's okay, you are safe now." I glance over at...my mom.

Suddenly, the past week flashes through my mind. Nico arrested, and the police leaving me with my mother, who was the one who reported my alleged kidnapping.

Today is his trial, and no matter how many times I tell everyone I was not kidnapped, no one cares.

"I need some air," I tell her as I get out of bed and start to change in the bathroom.

"Not too much air. Your testimony is crucial today to putting that man behind bars."

"Tamara will be with me and ensure I arrive on time."

"Okay, fine."

Two hours later, Tamara pulls outside my childhood home, and I rush out to jump in her beat-up sedan.

"We should go before the wicked witch of my mother comes."

"You grew up here?" Here we go.

"Unfortunately."

"It's like a freaking mansion! How did I not know my best friend is this rich?"

"My mom is rich, not me. Now let's go."

Arriving back at the apartment feels strange and surreal as if I had never left. "Want me to come in?" Asks Tamara.

"No," is all I can say as I feel pulled up the stairs onto my floor.

Nico's apartment has police tape across his door, and there's a pang in my chest. No one will let me see him in jail including Nico. I don't know if he blames me for the kidnapping charges or not, but the one time I escape my mother and went to the jail, Nico refused to see me.

I need some guidance; I mean testifying to everything I witnessed would undoubtedly get me killed by the mafia. And I also would never be able to live with myself for having a helping hand in putting Nico behind bars. But I have no other choice. I either testify or lie under oath.

I open my door and walk into my apartment, which looks just as I left. I don't know what I expected to find here, but nothing is helpful. I quickly lock up and make my way back downstairs. I'm not the same person I was when I first moved in. Nico helped revive the pieces of me that I didn't even know were broken.

"Miss!" I turn around to see my landlord, a man in his fifties with gray hair and a slight limp in his walk.

"Yes?"

"Top-floor apartment, right?"

"Yes."

"Your mail is overflowing, so please take care of it." With that, he walks back into his office.

I glance at my overfilled mailbox by the front door to the apartment complex. I quickly grab the mail and make my way back to Tamara's car.

"How was it?" She asks.

"Fine," I mutter as I start looking through the mail.

"Callie, you haven't been fine since coming back. Talk to me."

"And tell you what? I've fallen in love with a man I barely know, who's now on trial for murder and kidnapping. That I must testify against him. And it's killing me."

"Cals..."

I don't hear anything else she says because my eyes zone in on a big envelope with a familiar logo. It can't be. It was all pretend. With shaky hands, I open the envelope, and my world spins.