“You’re right. I’m not,” he replied, attention on the seatbelt.

He wasn’t?

“I am in your truck, Ben,” I pointed out.

His eyes came to mine, and I was glad he had his shades on because he had beautiful eyes. Amazing. A rich dark brown that could dance with laughter and warm with feeling, both having the capacity to melt your heart.

Unfortunately, his eyes also looked good hidden behind his silver wire-rimmed shades.

“I’m not takin’ you home. I’m takin’ you to my home,” he clarified.

I blinked. I stared. I totally forgot about how cool his sunglasses looked.

Then I lost my mind.

“I’m not goin’ to your house!” I shouted.

“Yeah, you are,” he replied, attention back to the seatbelt he was pulling around me, shoulder strap yanked way out to clear my head.

This was thoughtful. I didn’t need that strap pressing against my body. It would kill.

I ignored his thoughtfulness and declared, “I’m goin’ to my house.”

“Nope. You aren’t.”

“I ordered a taxi,” I told him.

“Found him. Gave him a twenty. Sent him on his way.”

He was leaning in to latch the seatbelt, and since he was that close, I got a good whiff of his aftershave. I also got a good view of the back of his head with his thick, black, wavy hair.

It was hair you’d run your fingers through just because. Any occasion granted you, you’d take it.

If you were standing close and talking.

If you were lying around, tangled up together, watching TV.

If you were kissing.

I closed my eyes.

God really, really hated me.

I opened my eyes. “You can’t send the taxi away. I gave them my credit card. They’re gonna charge me anyway.”

I heard the belt click and he adjusted his position so he was facing me. He was still leaning into the cab of the truck. He was still close. And I could still smell his aftershave.

It was spicy.

Yes, God hated me.

“I’ll reimburse you,” he said.

“Benny, this is not cool,” I snapped. “I’ve just been shot. I don’t need this.”

“You were shot a week and a half ago, babe. And if you felt shit, you wouldn’t be able to mouth off.”

I clamped my mouth shut.

Ben grinned.

My clit pulsed.

Yes. God so totally hated me. He was punishing me. Doing it on earth before He sent me to the fiery depths of hell.

Ben moved out of the cab and slammed my door.

It was at this point that I could make a break for it. Then again, I didn’t think the awkward, painful strolls I’d been taking around the hospital corridors had prepared me to make a desperate dash from lean, fit Benito Bianchi. Hell, if I was in perfect shape, I still couldn’t execute a desperate dash from Benny Bianchi.

So I didn’t make a desperate dash. I glared at him through the windshield as he rounded the hood of his Explorer, and I kept glaring at him as he pulled his long body into the driver’s seat. Committed to this act, I continued to do it as he switched on the ignition and guided the truck away from the curb.

It was then I noticed he didn’t put on his seatbelt.

“It’s law to wear your seatbelt in Illinois, Benny,” I shared snippily.

He didn’t glance at me, kept negotiating the rounding drive out of the hospital, but reached for his seatbelt and clicked it in place.

Well, hell. He took direction. Even snippy direction.

I didn’t need to know that either.

He pulled out onto the street.

“Can you explain why you’re kidnapping me?” I requested to know.

“Kidnapping you?” he asked the road.

“I am in your truck against my volition,” I pointed out.

“Right.” He grinned. I saw it and my mouth went dry. “Then I guess I’m kidnapping you,” he finished good-naturedly.

It was unfortunate that it was highly likely I’d rip my gunshot wound open if I attempted to scratch his eyes out. Furthermore, I didn’t want to survive genuinely getting kidnapped by a madman, running through a forest, ending up shot, only to get in a car accident mere minutes after being released from the hospital.

Therefore, I decided not to do that and instead kept questioning.

“Now that we have that down, can you explain why?”

“’Cause you’re not gonna convalesce under the watchful eye of a mob kingpin.”

“I was heading home, Ben,” I shared.

“And you don’t think Sal wouldn’t have his ass, Gina’s, and every Chicago mob wife and girlfriend up in your shit, catering to your every whim?” he returned. “You’re family and you took a bullet for family. He was your godfather. Now he’s your fairy godfather.”

Pure Benny.

“I wouldn’t let Sal hear you refer to him as my fairy anything,” I advised.

“I don’t give a fuck what Sal hears me say about him.”

It was not surprising that the Bianchis, who owned a family pizzeria and had nothing to do with the Cosa Nostra, weren’t all fired up when Vinnie Junior decided to cast his lot with his uncle Sal. They were less fired up about it when he got whacked during a war Sal found himself in.

There weren’t a lot of people who would disrespect a Mafia boss.

The Bianchis were the exception. And Benny, who loved his brother, loved his mother and father, sister, and other brother, hated to lose Vinnie Junior. He also hated to watch his family suffer that same loss. Therefore, he took that disrespect to extremes.

It scared the crap out of me.

If you knew Salvatore Giglia like I knew him, you would think he was the kindest-hearted man you’d ever met.

But he absolutely was not.

Therefore, my voice was lower when I noted, “You need to be careful about Sal, Ben.”

He glanced at me before looking back to the road while asking, “What? You think he’ll take another son from my father?”

At the reference to Vinnie Junior, I decided I was done talking.

“He would not do that shit,” Benny went on.

No. Sal wouldn’t. He respected Vinnie Senior. He might not eat any shit in his life at all. None.

But he’d eat Benny’s shit because of what happened to Vinnie Junior and because he respected Vinnie Junior’s father.

This was surprising. In Sal’s world, he figured he’d won respect from everyone—save cops, the FBI, and IRS agents—so he demanded it.

But he didn’t mingle at family reunions with cops and FBI agents.

And he ate shit from the Bianchi family.

Particularly Benny.

“Anyway, babe, he’s not here,” Ben finished.

Luckily, this was true.

I decided to keep not talking.

This was because there was nothing to say to his comment. It was also because I had a new strategy.

Silence. Preserve my energy. Get to Benny’s house and ask him to go to the pharmacy for me. Wave him happily away. Call a taxi. Get the fuck out of there.

And not to my home. I’d go to a hotel.

The Drake. I’d always wanted to stay at The Drake and now was my shot.

One last hurrah.

I had a new job in Indianapolis. They’d been pretty cool about the whole me-getting-shot-and-having-to-delay-starting-work-for-them thing. Mostly because I’d been on TV (or my picture had) and they thought I was a hero rather than a crazy bitch on a mission who nearly got herself killed.

So I’d check into The Drake. Live it up for a few days. Get out. Pack up. Go.

Sal would be able to find me.

Ben, probably not.

After a few days, I would feel better and have more fight in me should Benny still not get the hint.

Then I’d be gone.

Benny drove. I watched the city start to engulf us as we left the suburb where I’d been hospitalized and entered the urban area of Chicago.

I tried not to look at it, but it was all around me.

My city.

I’d been born there. I loved it there. I loved The Wrigley Building. I loved Sears Tower. I loved Marshall Field’s (when it was Marshall Field’s). I loved the lakefront. I loved The Berghoff (which, thankfully, was still The Berghoff). I loved Fannie May meltaways and pixies. I loved the ivy on the walls of the outfield at Wrigley Field. I loved the Bears, even when they were losing. I loved the Cubs because they were always losing.

And I loved Vinnie’s Pizzeria. The smell of the place. The feel of the place. The pictures on the walls. The memories.

But I hadn’t stepped foot in Vinnie’s in seven years because I wasn’t welcome.

And it was time for new horizons.

So it was good-bye Chicago and hello new horizons.

“You’re quiet.”

That was Benny.

I wasn’t even looking at him and I got warm just hearing his voice. It was deep and easy. The kind of voice that could talk you out of being in a snit because something went bad at work. The kind of voice that could make your heart get tight as you listened to him talk to a little kid. The kind of voice that would make you feel at peace with the world before you closed your eyes to sleep after he whispered good night in your ear.

I looked out the side window.

“Frankie?” Benny called.

“I’m tired,” I said to the window. That wasn’t entirely true, but luckily my voice sounded like it was.

“Babe,” he replied softly.

Damn. Now his voice was deep and easy and soft.

God so totally hated me.

I felt his finger slide along the outside of my thigh and I closed my eyes tight.

Totally. Hated. Me.

“We’ll get you home, get you to bed, get some decent food in you, turn on the TV, and you can rest.”