Chapter 34
MICHAEL
It was hard to watch her say goodbye to her parents, who clearly love her. But I kept her from them. I won’t come between them anymore. She can see them however often she wants to. I’ll ensure the Bianchis don’t find her.
It’s been quiet lately, anyway. Seems like they’re still busy fighting the war with the Cavaleri brothers. Last we heard, only Agnelo remains. And I hope when he meets his end, it’s fucking brutal.
Elsie stretches her gorgeous body beside me the following morning, all of us now home.
I lift on an elbow, and a smile creeps to her mouth as she catches me staring at her silky red nightgown.
My fingertip runs over her nipples, poking through the fabric, and she rocks her hips deeper into the mattress.
“Good morning, wife.” I pull out a smirk, my knuckles rising and brushing under her chin.
“Good morning, husband.” She groans. “Do you really have to work today?” She fists her small hand around the head of my throbbing erection. “Or can you keep me company in bed a little longer?”
I grumble out a curse as she jerks me, making me want to stay in bed with her all damn day.
“I’m about to eat you for breakfast if you don’t stop,” I warn, though it’s not much of a warning since I know how much she enjoys the things my tongue can do.
“They do say it’s the most important meal of the day.” A smile swells on her lips, her tone dripping like honey.
She’s enjoying how turned on I am for her, and I like that she is. I’ll never get this hard for anyone else but my wife.
“Do they now?” I flip over her in one fluid motion, taking both her wrists and pinning them to the mattress right up against her thighs.
My body rocks against her core while my gaze stays pinned with hers.
Have I made love to anyone before her? Did I even know what that meant until she came into my life?
My mouth drops over hers, brushing our lips together. “If I could marry you all over again, Mrs. Marino, I would.”
She inhales sharply, her brows crouching.
“Michael…” she hums with bated emotions swimming in her eyes.
“Don’t say my name like that, or we’ll definitely not get out of this bed at all today.”
“Won’t see me complaining.” She gives me a wicked little grin, and I instantly need inside her.
“Was gonna make myself wait to have you when I got home…” I let go of her wrist and shove her nightgown up her body. “But there’s no way I can wait now.”
My heart pounds in my chest as I rub the tips of my fingers over her bare little pussy, about to be my meal, when a knock on the door has me grumbling.
That’s definitely not my daughter. She doesn’t knock like that.
“Who is it?”
She rolls her hips on a rasp, trying to get me to touch her deeper.
“Sir,” one of my men says. “You have company out front, and they won’t leave.”
I instantly jump out of my bed, my heart racing. If it’s one of the Bianchis’ men, the shit I’m going to do…
“Stay here,” I tell her, grabbing her jaw and kissing her hard.
She sits up, her features tugging with alarm. “The Bianchis?”
“I don’t know.” I cup her cheek in the span of my palm. “But you’re going to stay here until I find out. Got it?” I bend to kiss her once more. “Don’t you dare disobey me.”
I stroke my lips with hers, and she hums out a moan. I start to go, but she snaps her hand to my wrist.
“Be careful.” Her brows gather. “Please.”
“You worrying for me…” I lift her hand up and kiss the top of it. “Is something I’ll never get over.”
Her expression softens. “I mean it.”
“I meant what I said too. Stay here. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I will.”
I reluctantly let her go, and with one final look, I march out the door, closing it behind me.
My man is there, waiting. “Sir, they say they’re the Cavaleris, and they’re looking for Elsie. There’s a bunch of them there. They demand to see you.”
That gets my attention.
I start for the stairs, and we quickly reach the bottom.
“You sure that’s what they said?”
“Yeah. They’re strapped and pissed.”
Sounds like they’re living up to their very fine reputation.
I chuckle. “So am I.”
My other man at the bottom hands me a pistol.
“And they’d better have a damn good reason for coming here, because they disturbed me from a very good morning with my beautiful wife.”
I will find out why they’re asking about Elsie. If they came to hurt her, they won’t make it out of here alive.
Slipping my gun into my waistband, I open the door to find a crowd of people. Four of my guys aim their guns at a group of five men, more of them still seated inside a second SUV.
They thought they could come to my home and display their weapons like this?
“Put your fucking guns down,” my voice booms, and their eyes all go to mine.
“Tell your men first,” a tall one with green eyes says, glaring at me.
If it wasn’t for my girls in the house, I’d kill him.
I wave a hand down, and my men lower their guns.
“See how easy that was?” I snicker, curling the corner of my mouth. “Now, boys, why don’t you put away your toys so we can have that chat you came here to have?”
“We’re not looking to make friends,” another one with eyes just as emerald adds gruffly. “We came here for Elsie, and we know you have her.”
“Who?” A callous smirk forms around my mouth.
A car door opens, and out walks a woman I very much know.
My chuckle rumbles through my chest. “Chiara Bianchi. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Shut up, Michael.” She props a hand on her hip, donned in black leather pants. “Hand Elsie over. And if I find out you hurt her, I’ll kill you myself.”
I throw my head back with a laugh. “You haven’t changed much, have you?”
Her tight-lipped smile doesn’t quite make it to her mocha-dipped gaze. “No. So don’t piss me off. I am my daddy’s daughter.”
“I did hear about his untimely passing,” I mock. “My condolences.”
“Yeah, thanks. I’m really broken up about it.” She snickers. “Now, I wouldn’t want to kill you the way I did him.”
“You?” Amusement lines my features. “That’s definitely not the way I heard that story.”
“Well…” She marches up a single step. “Want me to demonstrate?”
“I’m a gentleman.” I raise my hands up. “I’d never dream of hurting a woman.”
“Yeah, you’re a real gem.” She rolls her eyes. “Now, where is Elsie?”
“How do you know this Elsie?”
If Chiara is involved, there’s no way they’re here to hurt her, but I still don’t understand how she, of all people, could know my wife.
“If you don’t know her, then why do you care?” Chiara challenges with a tilt of her chin.
“Seems you came all this way, so she must be important. Consider me curious.”
“She’s a friend of a friend who’s like family. So that makes her family.” She tightens her palm around her waist, an outline of her own weapon clearly visible. “Now, where did you lock her up?”
She takes a step closer to me, and that gets the first man with the green eyes to clench his jaw. Ah, so she’s taken now. Well, I’m happy for her. She deserved more than that piece-of-shit father she had the misfortunate of being related to.
“I haven’t locked Elsie up anywhere. I’d never harm a woman.”
“Yeah,” she laughs sarcastically. “Cut the bullshit.”
Her features grow harsh once more.
Suddenly, the front door swings open and out walks my disobedient wife.
“Don’t hurt him!” She runs toward me, right into fucking danger.
The shit I’m gonna do to her ass for this.
“Elsie, get back in the house. Now!” I roar.
“No.” She walks up right in front of me, as though instead of it being my job to protect her, it somehow became hers to protect me.
My damn little warrior. She makes me proud, even when I want to kill her right now for putting herself at risk, especially for me.
I round an arm around her middle and drag her behind me. But she doesn’t stay there, coming to stand beside me.
“Who the hell are you people and what are you doing with my husband?”
“Husband?” Chiara’s dumbfounded expression has me tightening my mouth to stop from laughing.
“Yeah, we’re married.” She pops a brow. “Now, who the hell are you all?”
Another door flings open, and a woman I don’t recognize steps out, the wind sweeping her light brown hair across her face.
“Elsie?” she cries.
“Kayla?” Goose bumps break across Elsie’s arm, and I slowly drop mine, shock weaving itself through me. “Oh my God, Kayla.”
She rushes for her friend just as a tall blonde woman walks out, her face stricken with tears.
“Jade?” Elsie sobs, glancing up. “You’re together? Oh my God!”
And all of them are now in each other’s arms, shattering together.
ELSIE
My sobs only get louder once we finally make it inside. I’m unable to stop staring at the two women I thought I’d never see again. Kayla and Jade are right here, right next to me, and I keep blinking, wondering if I’m seeing an illusion.
Maybe I’m dreaming. That has to be it. There’s no way they made it out too. No way they were the ones who found me.
“Are you…real?” I sniffle, tears distorting my vision.
They laugh and cry and nod simultaneously, tethering their hands to mine as we sit side by side on the sofa.
“I never thought I’d find you guys.” I blot at my eyes, emotions stitching up the back of my throat.
Kayla throws her thin arms around me.
“I was so worried about you when you left. And I swear…” She pants, staring with red-stained eyes. “I swear I never told them anything, no matter what they did to me.”
And with that confession, that they did in fact hurt her because of me, my head falls against her chest, and I weep. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It-it’s all my fault. I abandoned you.”
She draws away. “No! You did the right thing. You had to try.”
“And, Jade.” I hug her to me at the same time. “Oh, Jade.”
“We’re all alive,” she says tearfully. “I never thought that I’d see either of you again. I never even wanted to dream of our reunion. I never wanted to hope.” Her voice crumbles.
The guys stand off to the side, quietly giving us our moment.
“How did you find me?” I ask, dashing my gaze at them both. “How did you two end up together?”
Jade sighs. “It’s a long story. But it all started when I met Enzo.”
She relives her entire ordeal. Her past at the Bianchi strip club, the afterhours when she was forced to service people, and her days at the sex club.
Agnelo tortured her. Beat her. Raped her.
His cruelty saw no bounds. And if raping her wasn’t enough, fathering her child wasn’t either.
When she gave birth to her son, Robby, Agnelo took that baby from her and kept him.
She had to live without her son, not knowing what was being done to him.
The only time she ever saw Robby was once a month at Agnelo’s approval.
She has him now, thanks to Enzo and his brothers. They’re the ones who found Kayla too and saved the rest of the women and children that were being kept in cages.
“Agnelo is dead,” Jade adds. “I want you to know he’ll never hurt anyone again.” She squeezes my hand.
“He’s really gone?” My breaths still in my lungs.
“That’s right,” Matteo, one of the brothers, says.
“Well, that deserves a toast,” Michael adds, removing a carafe and some crystal-cut glasses and pouring honey-colored liquor into them.
“Is that whiskey?” Enzo reaches for one of the glasses, taking a gulp. “Sure fucking is. The good stuff, too.”
He grins once he swallows some, and his brothers pick up their drinks too.
“Got any beer for my lightweight of a brother?” Enzo elbows Matteo, who narrows him a glare. “It’s okay, baby bro. Not everyone can handle a real drink.”
Matteo flips him off, taking that liquor into his mouth and downing the entire thing. But his eyes enlarge, and his face appears as though he’s about to vomit.
Enzo chuckles while the other two shake their heads.
“These kids…” He clamps a palm against Matteo’s shoulder. “They’ll never learn.”
A rush of footsteps tramples down to greet us, and Sophia appears, teddy in hand, a small fist rubbing her eye.
She bows a thoughtful brow at all these people, marching up without hesitation.
“Are we having a party, Daddy?”
“You know what, princess?” Michael kneels and scoops her up into his arms. “I think we are.”