Chapter 24 Matteo
MATTEO
“Oh God, he’s here, as in right now?” Stella asks, the panic lacing her voice.
I throw the blanket off me, ignoring Franco’s judgmental glares as I swiftly put on a shirt and some shoes. I know I told him I would never fuck her, but here we are. It’s done, and I don’t regret it for a single second. And now that bastard Lucio came to ruin the party.
“How did he find us?” I growl.
“I don’t know,” Franco says. “One of our men noticed a car coming up the driveway and then multiple, all without license plates, and the colors and brand correspond to the ones in Lucio’s possession.”
“Fuck,” I growl.
While Franco isn’t looking, Stella swiftly puts on a pair of panties and one of my bathrobes.
I grab his arm and march out the door with him.
“Wait for me,” Stella says, and she chases us, but I would much rather she stay there.
I’m far too busy dealing with this mess. Now that he’s here to confront me, I have to get ready and set everything in motion. This is the first time the bastard has come right to me, but this is my playground. I won’t let him best me here.
“You never once gave him your address,” Franco says.
“No,” I say. “He must have tracked us down somehow.”
I make my way downstairs and run outside toward my garage, where my car is parked. It’s the only thing that makes sense, the only way he could have found us. I check under the car, rubbing past every ridge with my fingers until I finally find a small metallic object stuck to the left tire.
Fuck.
He tracked us all the way from the cemetery to my goddamn home.
“Goddammit,” I say, holding out my hand so Franco can see as well.
“Shit, I’m sorry, sir,” he mutters. “That’s why they ambushed you at the cemetery.”
“It was a distraction, and now they have us right where they want us. Vulnerable.”
Fuck that.
I crumble the tracker in the palm of my hand, but when I turn around, Stella is right there staring me down with a worried look on her face, and it stops me in my tracks.
Lucio is here, and he’s come for her.
“He tracked you, didn’t he?” she says, clutching the bathrobe tightly. “It’s my fault. If I hadn’t told you how distraught I was about my mother, you wouldn’t have taken me to the cemetery and risked that meeting.”
I shake my head and approach her, grabbing her face to make her look at me and to calm her down.
“It is not your fault, and I don’t want you to worry. I’ll handle this.”
“How?” Stella asks.
“I won’t allow you to be in danger. Lucio won’t get his hands on you.”
I turn my head. “Franco, grab the car. Take her to her safe house and guard her.”
She immediately pulls out of my grasp and takes a few steps back. “No. I don’t want to leave. Not without you.”
She blushes heavily, and it makes my brows furrow.
Even now, she still refuses to leave my side, and I love her for it.
But his men will put bullet holes in every corner of my mansion. I can’t let her get hurt, let alone be taken again. She’s my wife. It’s my duty to protect her.
“Stella,” I warn her. “Go with Franco.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “I won’t do it.”
I lower my brows. “You have to. I will not let them hurt you. Do you understand? I cannot. You are my wife, in sickness and in health… I must keep you safe at all costs.”
She grinds her teeth. “Your life is not a price I’m willing to pay.”
“It’s not up to you.”
“Yes, it is!” She folds her arms. “You do not get to decide what I do with my life.”
I tilt my head. She wants to play this game now? Fine. “No. But I do get to decide what he does.” I flick my fingers. And Franco springs into action, grabbing her by the arm so he can take her with him.
“Let go of me,” she shouts, but Franco only follows my orders.
My nostrils flare. “I’m sorry, Stella. I know you don’t want this, and I don’t want to do it either. But I have no other choice. We will see each other again when this is over.”
If it’ll ever be over.
Because he’s found the only place I ever felt safe, and now it’ll never be that again.
She was right. He’ll never stop hunting for her.
And I don’t know for sure if there will ever be … a time when we can truly live in peace.
“No,” she yells. “What if he makes it into the house, then what? What are you going to do, Matteo? You’re just going to sacrifice yourself? What if he kills you?” She struggles against Franco’s grip. “Please.”
I turn around and walk back into my mansion while Franco drags her away to his car, and I close my eyes to try to ignore the pain burning behind them while her protests fade into the distance.
Lucio is going to pay for the pain he’s causing me to give her.
I march into the arms room where my men are waiting for my instructions.
“There are a lot of vehicles headed our way, sir,” one of them says.
“Arm everyone. I don’t care how many guns and bullets you need. Take it all. Kill those Agostini bastards,” I say through gritted teeth. “But leave Lucio alive. I will be the one to make him pay.”
Stella
Franco pushed me into the back seat of Matteo’s car and flips on the child lock before I have a chance to open the door.
“Goddammit, let me out of here,” I scream, but of course he ignores me as he hops behind the wheel and starts the engine.
I kick the door in an attempt to open it and even try to break the window, to no avail. I stop the moment I glance through the front window of the car and spot the Agostini’s cars looming near the gates. Within seconds, they’ve breached them, and my eyes widen as they enter the property.
“Shit!” Franco yells.
He kicks the car into gear and races off, headed toward the back of the property off the beaten path.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“Back door,” Franco replies, making a turn so fast I’m nearly knocked out of my seat.
“We can’t leave now. We have to protect Matteo,” I tell him.
“No. He gave me clear orders. I’m sticking to those,” he says, driving as fast as he can.
“We can’t just fucking leave him to die!” I yell, still trying to smash the window, even though I know it’s no use.
Matteo’s cars are fortified on purpose so no one can ever shoot him blindly in the streets, and I’d normally consider it smart, but it’s a real disadvantage when you’re stuck and taken somewhere against your will.
“Goddammit, Franco, where is your loyalty?”
“With Matteo. He decides. End of story.”
“So you’re just gonna drive me to a safehouse, and that’s it?”
“I will protect you with my life, Stella. I promise you that.”
“I don’t need protection,” I growl. “What I need is for you to keep Matteo safe.”
“You seem to care about him an awful lot lately,” he retorts, smirking at me through the rearview mirror.
I blush, but hide it behind my hair. “If you bring me to a safehouse, and he dies, I won’t ever get out, and Lucio will still follow me to the end of this fucking world.”
The smile disappears from his face. “I will kill him if it gets to that. I swear on my life.”
My nostrils flare. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He averts his gaze toward the road again when the back gates open for us after he presses a button, and we drive off the property.
I can’t help but turn around and stare through the rear window, wondering if Matteo is going to make it out alive. I don’t want to leave him behind. Despite the fact that he forced me to marry him as part of some revenge plot, he was right … I do care about him. A lot.
I can’t let him kill himself like this.
From the corner of my eye, I search the vehicle until my gaze lands on the gun in Franco’s pocket. Without thinking, I lunge for it, catching him off guard. The car swerves from left to right as we struggle for control of the weapon.
“Don’t!” he yells. “Mrs. De Silva, stop!”
I ignore him and grasp the handle, pulling it out, only to point it right at the back of his head.
“Drive back.”
“What?” he mutters.
“Turn around,” I bark.
“No,” he says.
I push the barrel further into his head.
“Think about this for a second,” he pleads.
“I did. I made a decision. Now I’m sticking to it.”
“You wouldn’t shoot me. You’ve never—”
I pull the safety off. “You think I don’t know how to handle a gun? I killed one of Lucio’s guards in the cemetery.”
His pupils dilate as he looks at me through the rearview mirror.
“I’m sorry, Franco, but you give me no choice. I don’t want to do this either, but I am not leaving Matteo to die in there.”
“He’s not going to die,” he says.
“I won’t risk it.” I’m fighting the tears. “And if that means I have to shoot one of his men, then so be it.”
“Who’s going to drive the car then?”
“I will,” I retort. “Now drive if you want to live another day.”
Grinding his teeth, he finally does what I tell him to do, making a U-turn while the mansion is almost out of sight. It’s silent for a few seconds, but he keeps eyeing his phone.
I push the barrel into his skin even further. “Don’t even think about calling him. He’s busy.”
“What’s your plan once we get there, hmm?”
“I’ll figure it out,” I say.
“You can’t just go in there. They’ll kill you.”
“Then at least we die together.”
“You’ve really gone mad, haven’t you?”
I roll my eyes, still keeping the gun firmly pointed at his head. “I won’t die, I promise.”
“Right.”
“You think I’ll let that scumbag Lucio win?” I retort, mentally getting ready to shoot some guys. “You heard Matteo. No one touches his wife.”