Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Matteo
My mind keeps trying to reject what my eyes are showing me, insisting that this is some kind of hallucination brought on by whatever freaking drug they put in my smoothie.
Lorenzo is dead. I killed him. I watched him fall and heard the crack when his body hit the stones and felt his pulse fade under my trembling fingers.
But he's standing three feet in front of me, breathing and smiling, and I can smell his cologne—that expensive scent he always wore too heavily because he thought it made him sophisticated.
"You look confused, bambola." He takes a step closer and I can see his face more clearly now in the swinging light from the overhead bulb.
There's a scar running along his hairline that wasn't there before, pink and raised like it's still healing.
"Did you really think a fall from a second-story balcony would kill me? I'm insulted."
My mouth won't work properly. I try to form words but my tongue feels thick and useless.
This isn't real. This can't be real.
"How..." The word comes out as barely a whisper and I have to swallow hard against the bile rising in my throat before I can try again. "You were dead. I checked. You had no pulse."
"I had a very faint pulse that you were too panicked to find properly I guess.
" Lorenzo moves closer still and I can see satisfaction in his expression, like he's enjoying watching me try to understand what's happening.
"Father realized I wasn't actually dead.
Smart man, my father. He had me moved quietly to a private doctor who works for the family. "
The words don't make sense at first. My brain is trying to catch up, trying to understand what he's telling me, but everything is moving too slow, like I'm underwater.
Don Emilio knew from the beginning. Knew Lorenzo was alive and said nothing, let me spin my story about mysterious attackers while he watched and waited.
"I was in a coma for a week." Lorenzo reaches up and touches the scar along his hairline almost tenderly. "Fractured skull, broken ribs, some internal bleeding. The doctor told Father I might not wake up, and if I did there could be brain damage. But I’m a Moretti, we don’t go down easily."
A week. He was unconscious for only a week before waking up, which means he's been alive and aware for over two months while I thought I was safe, while I thought I'd gotten away with killing him in self-defense.
"When I woke up, the first thing Father told me was that you claimed to be pregnant.
" Lorenzo starts circling my chair and I try to keep him in sight but the angle is wrong.
"Can you imagine how that sounded to me, bambola?
Hearing my wife tell everyone she's knocked up when I know for a fact, I never fucked you? "
The crude way he says it makes my skin crawl, makes shame and rage twist together in my chest until I can't tell which one is stronger.
"Father asked me if maybe I'd forgotten, if maybe I'd been too drunk one night to remember properly." His voice carries bitter amusement now. "Had to explain to him that no, I definitely would remember finally getting inside that tight little cunt you kept denying me."
Nausea rolls through my stomach and I have to swallow hard to keep from vomiting.
My eyes are adjusting to the dim light now and I can see past Lorenzo to something on the floor near the far wall that makes my breath catch.
A body crumpled on its side with dark hair, hands zip-tied behind their back.
Marco.
He's not moving and I can't tell from here if he's breathing, if they killed him or just knocked him unconscious like they did to me.
The sight makes something twist in my chest because even though Marco has never liked me, even though he always looked at me like I was a problem to be solved, he didn't deserve whatever they did to him.
"Don't worry about your guard dog." Lorenzo follows my gaze. "He's alive… for now. Father hasn't decided yet what to do with him."
My mind is trying to process too much information at once and I force myself to focus on what matters most. "Your father knew about the pregnancy lie the whole time."
"Of course he knew. He's not stupid, Alessia. Neither am I." Lorenzo crouches down so we're at eye level. "Father wanted to handle it carefully though. So, he planned to corner you at my forty-day memorial."
The memorial I never made it to because Matteo abducted me. If I'd gone like Don Emilio expected, I would have walked right into their trap.
"But then you disappeared. Taken by Romano men." Lorenzo's jaw clenches. "How convenient.”
"Father wanted to negotiate with Romano. Buy you back like a business transaction." Lorenzo continues and his jaw is clenched so tight I can see the muscle jumping. "But then word came that Romano was fucking you."
The venom in his voice makes my stomach turn. I open my mouth to say something but he keeps going.
"That's when I stopped listening to Father's plans." His hands are fists at his sides. "Went after Romano myself at that hotel. Father didn't even know I was there until it was over."
The Meridian. The ambush that almost killed Matteo. Lorenzo did that without Don Emilio's approval.
"But he survived. Killed my men and walked out like nothing fucking happened." Lorenzo's voice has gotten rougher with each word. "Made me look like a fool."
A door opens somewhere beyond this room and footsteps echo in what sounds like a hallway or corridor. Lorenzo straightens immediately and some of the rage drains from his expression, replaced by careful control.
Don Emilio steps into the room and the temperature seems to drop. He's dressed in an expensive suit that looks freshly pressed despite whatever he's been doing today, and his silver hair is perfectly styled.
But it's his eyes that make ice spread through my veins—they're cold and calculating in a way that Lorenzo's have never been, like he's already made decisions about my future and is just waiting for the right moment to implement them.
"Alessia." He says my name like we're at a family dinner instead of in a basement where I'm tied to a chair with blood on my lip. "I apologize for the accommodations. Not what I would choose for family, but circumstances require certain... precautions."
Family. The word is a mockery.
"Don Emilio." I'm surprised my voice comes out steady when everything inside me is screaming. "I assume this isn't a social call."
Something that might be amusement flickers across his face. "I always did appreciate your directness, even when it got you into trouble with my son. Most women in your position would be crying or begging by now."
"I learned early that crying doesn't stop what's coming."
"No, it doesn't." Don Emilio moves further into the room and I notice he's holding a phone in his left hand. "But I'm not here to discuss your survival strategies. I'm here to inform you that Matteo Romano will be arriving soon."
My heart kicks against my ribs so hard it hurts. "You told him to come here?"
"I sent him a very clear invitation, yes. With a deadline and consequences for non-compliance." Don Emilio checks his watch like he's timing something.
My heart slams against my ribs. "You're using me as bait."
"You're serving your purpose." He checks his watch like he's timing something. "Romano won't let you go. And when he arrives, we end this."
The casual way he says it makes my blood run cold. They're going to kill Matteo. They're going to use me to lure him here and then they're going to kill him.
"He won't come alone." The words come out desperate even though I'm trying to sound confident. "He's not stupid."
"He'll come alone because I told him to.
" Don Emilio's voice carries absolute certainty.
"And because we have someone inside his organization telling us everything,” before I can say something he continues.
"Romeo." Don Emilio watches my face. "Been working for us almost a year now.
Every move Romano makes, we know about it. "
Romeo. My stomach turns over as I realize he's been betraying Matteo this entire time, has been setting up this moment where everything falls apart.
Matteo trusted him. Gave him access to his home, to Isabella, to me. And Romeo sold him out for money.
"Now we wait." Don Emilio checks his watch again. "Romano has until midnight to arrive. Given how quickly he responded to my previous communications, I expect he'll be here much sooner than that."
He turns to leave and Lorenzo moves to follow him, but Don Emilio raises one hand. "Stay with her. Make sure she doesn't do anything foolish while we prepare for our guest."
"Yes, Father." Lorenzo's voice carries resentment that he's not part of whatever preparations are happening, but he doesn't argue.
The door closes behind Don Emilio and I'm alone with Lorenzo again. I can feel him watching me, can sense the rage simmering just below his carefully controlled surface.
"All those months you fought me off." His voice cuts through the quiet. "All those nights you denied me what was mine by right of marriage. And for what? So you could spread your legs for a Romano the second you got the chance?"
"I didn't—"
"Don't lie to me!" His hand moves faster than I can track and suddenly my cheek is on fire where he backhanded me.
The force of it whips my head to the side hard enough that I see stars and taste blood where my teeth cut into my lip.
My vision swims for a second and I have to blink hard to clear it.
I let myself go limp like the hit knocked me out, let my head loll forward and my breathing slow to something that might pass for unconscious. It's the same trick I used dozens of times in our marriage so he'd stop hitting me sooner.
"Alessia?" Lorenzo's voice comes from somewhere above me. "Don't tell me one slap knocked you out. You used to take more than that without crying."
I don't respond, don't move, just let my body hang limp in the restraints.
"Pathetic." Lorenzo's footsteps come closer. "I thought you'd at least put up more of a fight, but I guess Romano fucked all the spirit out of you."
Lorenzo crouches down in front of me and I can smell that damned scent. "Look at you. The high and mighty Alessia Ricci, reduced to this. Your father would be so ashamed."
The mention of my father makes rage burn hotter than the fear. My father died trying to protect me from men like Lorenzo, died standing between me and Don Emilio's plans to marry me off to strengthen their alliance.
Lorenzo's hand comes up to grab my chin, forcing my head up so he can see my face better in the dim light.
"I'm going to enjoy watching Father kill Romano.
Going to enjoy knowing that after he's dead, you'll have no one to protect you anymore.
And then, bambola, you and I are going to finish what we started on our wedding night. "
That's when I spit in his face.
"You bitch!" Lorenzo staggers to his feet, one hand removing the spittle. "You fucking bitch!"
Lorenzo lunges at me with rage making his face ugly, his hand reaching for my throat the same way they did that night on the balcony. One of his hands releases the tie on my wrist but I barely feel my arm. “Come on, fight me! We both know you love a good fight!”
But just then, the door bursts open.