32. Loss…
“Follow me, or he dies.”
The tears that fall down my cheeks are silent and taste like fury. Hot pain lances where the bullet is still lodged inside my shoulder. Every movement takes my breath away, but I obey.
For the sake of my new brother, I need to obey.
“Don’t look at me like that, my Giulia. It’s your fault. I had to kill them. I had to warn you.”
He eyes my ring like it insulted his mother and cursed his family. The venom that drips from his tone tells me I shouldn’t bring Andrea into any further conversation. Louis has gone mad. He shot me without blinking. There’s no knowing what he’ll do.
I always knew he had an air of danger and darkness around him. If I’m fully honest with myself, it’s one of the reasons I let him get away with his clinginess for so long when I lived in London. Danger feels safe when it’s all you’ve ever known.
He just harmed me. And that chills my blood. I’m not precious to him. His goal is. It brings back thoughts of Andrea and how reverent he is towards me. I’m his everything and though he loves to tell me I’m his, he doesn’t own me. I’m no one’s property, but Louis seems determined to prove me wrong.
Louis still holds his gun to me, a clear threat, but I don’t move. His arm shifts to behind my shoulder, directed at Nico. Fear takes hold of my whole body, icy cold sweat dripping down my back while I can barely breathe in.
“No,” I whisper. “Don’t do it.”
“Get in the car.”
“Please, call an ambulance. Nico, he’s…” He slaps me across the face and pain reverberates in my skull. I guess I should be grateful he used his hand and not the gun. Shock finally registers, and my jaw slackens.
He’s ready to hurt me badly. My hands start to tremble and I clench my fists to hide my reaction to this man I thought I knew.
“You won’t fucking utter another man’s name in my presence,” Louis seethes.
With tears trailing down my cheek, I move and watch as Nico’s eyes lose their light, his eyelids fluttering open and close. More blood seeps under him, expanding like spilled paint. It’s morbid. I don’t yell this time. All I do is watch as Nico’s life ends.
My stomach hollows and my heart breaks, the place where Nico should be emptying until all I can feel is a hole in my chest.
A hand on my face brings me back to my body. The touch is gentle, at odds with the slap I experienced minutes ago, giving me whiplash. Louis’s fingers sift through my hair to put it back behind my ear.
“We need to get you checked. Here, take this.”
He places a pill in my hand and I know if I take it, I’m gonna wake up somewhere I don’t know.
I hesitate.
“We don’t have all day, my Giulia.” Louis’s impatient voice takes me out of my catatonic state. If I want to live, I’m gonna have to play by his rules. He wants me, then he’ll have me.
Until I fucking slit his throat and avenge my family.
I take the pill and fall into a restless sleep.
* * *
Idon’t know how long we drive. I come in and out of consciousness, as if every time I try to open my eyes, drugs are shot into my bloodstream to keep me contained, to keep immobile.
At one point, another voice fleets through my muddled brain. “The bullet has been removed, and I gave her antibiotics and pain medicine. She’ll be out of it for another twelve hours or so.”
It’s dark outside when I wake up in a sparse and empty room I don’t recognise. No curtains or furniture to speak of. Except for the bed I lie in, this place is utterly empty and cold. I try to sit up, but my shoulder still hurts like a bitch.
“Don’t try to move too much.” Louis’s voice comes from where he sits in a comfortable chair at the side of the bed by my head.
His hair is tousled as if he passed his fingers through one too many times. I doubt it was in concern, considering he’s the fucking reason I’m in pain.
“What are you going to do to me?” I ask, trying not to sound scared and hoping he answers truthfully. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the information but the void of not knowing anything about my situation makes it worse.
“My Giulia, we’re just doing what we are destined to,” he says reverently, his eyes blown wide. “I’m taking you to my property and you’ll get settled.”
“Then what?”
“Always so many questions. Don’t worry your pretty head with the details.” He stands and comes to kiss my brow. I resist a shudder and force myself to lean into his kiss. The faster he believes we’re endgame, the sooner he’ll trust me and I can escape him.
“Sleep,” he orders me. “I’ll be next door if you need me.”
The door has barely closed when I jump out of bed and run to the windows, nausea rising and head swirling. My vision blurs, but I need to try.
Closed.
I quickly walk the distance between the windows and the door.
Closed.
I’m in a prison. All I can think about is that the last thing Nico saw was me, his blue eyes dulling until they closed, blood pouring out of him unchecked. Andrea and Catalina will never recover, and this is all my fault.
Defeat falls on my shoulders like a bull sitting on me. The adrenaline has worn off and the pill Louis and the other man gave me is so strong I can barely have coherent thoughts. I won’t escape tonight and I’m sure I won’t until my shoulder fully recovers.
I need to study my enemy, think of all the routes, of his strengths and his weaknesses. I thought I knew Louis Marshall, but it’s obvious I don’t. If he managed to send me cryptic creepy messages the second I set foot on British soil, it means he’s been looking for me for a long time. He might have even used Pierce’s resources for it. Or underground hackers that just take any contracts if the money’s good. However he did it, I’m here now and there’s no one I can blame but myself for getting distracted, for not thinking that yet another man could harm me despite all the measures I’ve put in place to avoid it.
When I left England three years ago and took on a more prominent role within the Bartoli-Moretti empire, mine and Lana’s lives in the UK was fully erased, as if we never existed and with Kalliste being a small island and me not being the face of our mafia family, I was protected by relative anonymity.
My marriage to Andrea changed that. I look down at the rings adorning my left hand. The amethyst sparkles under the harsh light of the overhead spot, Andrea’s simple gold band beside it anchoring me to him, to why I need to escape, to life and love. The ring that was my shackle five months ago has become my light, a piece of him with me everywhere I go.
I switch the light off and get under the covers. There’s nothing for me to do right now. I can’t sleep though. My right hand turns the band on my left ring finger over and over and over.
I continue to play with it. It barely soothes my beating heart and aching nerves. All I can think about is how devastated my husband will be when he finds out his baby brother died to save me.
Fresh tears coat my skin.
The man who tore down my walls and soothed the beating organ in my chest until I soothed too has no idea where I am. Even when he gets my text with Louis’s address, we’ve moved and I have no clue where. He’ll never find me. All he’ll find is the corpse of the one he loves most.
I need to avenge his death.
A plan forms at the edges of my consciousness.
I have to seduce my ex until I can kill him. Preferably slowly.
His soul is mine to take, and I’m coming for it with all the rage I never dealt with.