Chapter 42
ROMERO
I try to keep my head on straight as we breach the house. Try to think like the cold, calculating bastard who’s survived this long in a world that eats the weak for breakfast.
But logic is drowning in the tsunami of rage crashing through my veins.
I signal to my men as we step inside, gun raised and ready, my heart hammering like it’s trying to punch its way out of my chest. The silence hits me first—it’s too quiet, the air too still.
If I didn’t know for absolute certain that Leni and that fucker Mikkel are somewhere inside, I’d swear the place was empty.
Where is she? Christ, where the fuck is my wife?
And then I see her.
She comes tearing out from the hallway at a dead sprint, her eyes wild and enormous. She pauses for just half a heartbeat, those slate gray eyes locking on mine with desperate relief, and then she’s charging straight towards me, running like her life depends on reaching me.
I barely have time to lower my gun before she’s colliding with my chest, her arms wrapping around my ribs as she presses her face against me. The impact nearly knocks the breath from my lungs, but nothing has ever felt more perfect.
She’s here. Thank Christ, she’s okay.
The crushing tension in my chest finally releases at the solid weight of her in my arms—warm, breathing, alive. Sandro moves to cover us, his gun trained on the hallway Leni just emerged from, but no one follows.
“You—” My hands slip to her shoulders, pushing her back just enough to see her face, to inventory every inch for damage.
"How could you be so fucking reckless?” The words come out harsher than I mean them to, edged with a fear I don’t know how to handle.
I shake her, properly too roughly, but I can’t help it. “I could’ve lost you.” Again.
The thought sits bitterly on my tongue. I could have lost her without her ever knowing how much I love her.
She meets my gaze, eyes glossy, her breath shaky. “I know it was risky. But I had to do it—for Ethan.”
Because she thinks I wouldn’t move heaven and earth to save them both? That thought stings, but I file it away for later and pull her back into my arms, mindful of her wound. “He’s safe. One of my men escorted him home the second he walked out that door.”
She nods against my chest, her body finally starting to relax. “I was so scared,” she whispers, and I tighten my arms around her, not giving a fuck that my men are staring. Right now, nothing matters except this woman.
“I’m proud of you,” I murmur into her hair, breathing in her scent. She was incredible—so brave and smart despite her fear. “Jesus, Leni… I’m so fucking proud of you.”
She melts into my chest, her shoulders shaking as quiet sobs wrack through her. “I was so sure I was going to die. I thought that would be my last time seeing Ethan. Or you. And our last conversation would have been that stupid fight that doesn’t even matter anymore.”
“Shhh.” I press my lips to the top of her head. “You’re fine. You didn’t need a Romeo to rescue you after all.” I try to lighten the moment, and she actually giggles through her tears. “You saved yourself.”
I pull her back again, running my hands over her arms, her ribs, her face, checking for injuries I might have missed. “Are you hurt? Did he—did he touch you?”
“No.” She shakes her head, burrowing right back into my chest like she can’t stand to be even inches away from me. “I’m okay. I swear I’m okay.”
Good. If that bastard had laid a single finger on her…
“Find Mikkel,” I bark at my men.
“Wait!” Leni lifts her head up from my chest. “He’s in the basement. I locked him down there.”
Pride swells in my chest so fast it steals my breath. “You did?”
Her smile is small but victorious. “Tricked him into going down there and slammed the door. It only locks from the outside.”
Fuck me, she’s magnificent. My beautiful, brilliant wife.
“Sandro.” My voice goes arctic as I turn to my right-hand man. “Get him out of that basement and take him to the inn. Keep him breathing. I’ll deal with him myself.”
He nods and gestures for several men to follow him down the hallway. The anticipation of what I’m going to do to Mikkel burns in my chest. But first…
“We’re going home,” I murmur into Leni’s ear as I scoop her up. She sighs contentedly, her head finding that perfect spot over my heart.
“I should’ve just come straight home after leaving Mom’s rehab center.”
Yes, you should have. But I don’t say it. She’s been through enough without me adding guilt to the mix. Instead, I hold her tighter and nod at the remaining men to follow as I carry my wife out of this nightmare house.
Logan is waiting by the car, and he opens the back door as soon as he sees us approaching. I get inside, settling Leni across my lap as he closes us in. My men pile into their vehicles and form an escort behind us as we pull out of the driveway and head home.
We sit in comfortable silence for the first few minutes. Leni’s fingers play absently with the lapels of my shirt while I just soak in her warmth, watching the steady pulse in her throat to assure myself that she’s indeed alive.
We have so much to talk about, but the first question that tumbles out of my mouth is, “Did you really have money stashed down there in preparation for our divorce?”
She shakes her head with a slight chuckle. “No. Complete lie. I was shaking so hard while I said it, I have no idea how he couldn’t see right through me.”
I squeeze her gently. I’d already figured as much since everything else she told him was lies, but I needed to hear her confirm this particular deception. “Do you want to know why I really married you?”
Her head tilts up, eyes bright with curiosity. “Yes.”
I clear my throat as I think back to the very beginning, to that first moment I laid eyes on her.
“It was maddening. After that encounter at the police station, I couldn’t get you out of my head no matter how hard I tried. And trust me, I tried like hell because the last thing needed was some audacious stranger distracting me. But it didn’t stop me from wanting to look you up.”
“You stalked me?”
I chuckle, my breath ruffling her hair. “I would have, but I had no information about you. I was seriously considering going back to that station to ask for your name. Then I saw you again at DeMarco’s party and thought, surely, that was a sign from the universe.
” My jaw tightens as I remember what came next.
“But after what happened in the restroom with that scumbag, you made my insides twist with all these disturbing emotions I didn’t recognize.
It wasn’t just lust anymore, which made me nervous as hell.
I already knew from the start that having you once would never be enough, and with these other emotions in the mix, I didn’t know how to handle that.
It was either I marry you, making you completely mine, or not have you at all. I chose the latter for my own sanity.”
“Then I called you,” she whispers, pressing a soft kiss to my throat that sends heat straight to my groin.
I adjust her in my lap, not wanting her to notice my stiffening cock. This is a serious discussion, damn it.
“Then you called me, and I realized you’d probably keep needing help—maybe not financially, but in other ways—and I wanted to be the one giving you that help.” My lips curl up as I recall that morning in that fucking library. “I should have recognized then that I was completely screwed.”
“Why ask for just two months then?”
“Because I didn’t want to scare you off. Imagine my shock when you brought up marriage yourself? I had to remind myself to play it cool.”
“You didn’t play it cool at all,” she chuckles. “You smelled opportunity and you pounced. You didn’t even give me a chance to second-guess myself. One minute the words were coming out of my mouth, the next you had me signing a binding contract in your office.”
I laugh with her, unashamed as I remember how desperate I’d been to lock her down before she could change her mind.
“I couldn’t let you slip out of my snare when I was so close to having you.
And I’m grateful every day I didn’t. Because I’ve fallen hopelessly, irreversibly head over heels for you, Mrs. Lombardi.
You’re a thief who snuck into my chest in the dead of the night and made off with my heart.
” Unable to resist any longer, I lean down to press a kiss to her temple, then those adorable freckles scattered across her nose.
She inhales sharply, turning her face up to offer me her lips. I take them without hesitation, kissing her slowly, sweetly. Her fingers clutch my chest, and her breaths are heavy by the time I pull back.
“It’s only fair,” she whispers, lashes fluttering as she stares up at me with dazed eyes, “because you stole mine as well.”
Christ.
The shy admission undoes me completely, and I lean down to capture her mouth again. This time I part her lips with my tongue, tasting the sweetness inside while pouring everything I feel into the kiss.
We still have plenty to work through between us. But for now, I simply bask in the delight of knowing my wife—the woman I love—loves me back.