38. Rork
38
RORK
I stalk through the halls of my estate, my eyes taking in the carnage and destruction that surround me at every turn. The hardwood floors are slick with blood, the walls spattered with crimson streaks that tell the tale of the brutal battle that raged here just hours before.
Everywhere I look, I see the bodies of my men. Some still clinging to life, their chests rising and falling in shallow, labored breaths. Others cold and still, their eyes staring into nothing at the ceiling as their blood pools beneath them.
The sight of it, the sheer fucking waste of it all, sends a surge of rage coursing through my veins, a fury so intense, so-all consuming, that it takes every ounce of my self-control not to lash out, to tear this whole fucking place apart with my bare hands.
Because Nico Marino—that fucking bastard—didn’t just steal my wife away from me. He didn’t just rip the heart from my chest and leave me bleeding and broken on the floor.
No, he had to go and slaughter my men, too, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake like some kind of sick, twisted calling card.
And for what? To prove a point? To show me that he’s still the one in control? That he’s the one who holds all the power in this little game we’re playing?
I clench my fists at my sides, my nails biting into my palms hard enough to draw blood. As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right. He does hold all the power. He has Bianca, the woman I love more than life itself, and without her and the light and laughter and joy she’s brought into my life?
I’m lost.
Grief and rage threaten to consume me, but I take a deep breath, pushing all those feelings into a small box and tucking it away in the back of my mind. I can’t give up. I have to keep fighting and pushing forward.
Because Bianca is worth it. She’s worth every goddamn drop of blood and every ounce of pain. She’s worth tearing the whole fucking world apart, if that’s what it takes to bring her back to me.
Stalking to my office, I find Liam there, his face grim and his eyes shadowed with exhaustion. He looks up as I enter, his expression neutral as he takes in the storm of emotions that must be written all over my face.
“Boss,” he says, his voice low and rough. “I’ve got the men working on cleaning up the mess. The wounded are being tended to, and the dead…”
He trails off, his gaze flickering to the floor and his jaw ticking.
“The dead will be buried,” I finish for him. “We will give them the respect and honor they deserve.”
Liam nods.
My jaw is clenched so tightly, I can feel my teeth grinding together. “Make sure their families are taken care of. I want them to want for nothing, you hear me? Nothing.”
So many of these men were the providers for their families. And now they’re gone.
Liam nods again, his expression grave. “Of course, Boss. I’ll see to it personally.”
My eyes fall on the empty chair by the fireplace. The one where Bianca used to sit, her nose buried in a book or her head thrown back in laughter at some stupid joke I’d told her. She had just been here , formulating strategies with Liam and me on how to expand our territory.
I’m going to fucking kill Nico.
Liam studies my face, his eyes taking in the barely-contained rage that I know must be etched into every line and every shadow. He’s seen me angry before. He knows the depths of my fury and my capacity for violence.
But this? This is something else entirely.
“We’ll get her back, Rork,” he says, his voice low and steady. “We’ll find a way to bring Bianca home.”
I nod, my jaw clenched so tightly I can feel the muscles twitching beneath my skin, “You’re goddamn right we will,” I growl, my words rough and jagged with the force of my emotions. “And when we do, Nico Marino will pay for what he’s done. With his blood.”
Liam doesn’t flinch or so much as blink at my promise. He simply nods, his expression one of grim determination as he turns to leave.
“I’ll keep you updated on the cleanup efforts. I’ll start putting out feelers, see if anyone’s heard anything about where Marino might have taken her.”
It’s a smart idea. Nico wouldn’t have been stupid enough to take her back to his estate. Not when he knows that’s the first place anyone would search for her. Dismissing him with a curt nod, I turn toward the window, my mind already racing with plans and possibilities.
My eyes scan the horizon as if I could somehow find Bianca through sheer force of will alone. As if I could reach out with my mind and heart and pull her back to me, back to the life we’d started to build together.
She’s changed me in ways I never could have imagined, never could have believed possible.
Before Bianca, I was consumed by bitterness and hatred. I lived only for revenge, for the chance to make my enemies suffer in the cruelest ways possible. But with her by my side—with her love and her light and her spirit—all of that fell away. The anger, the resentment, the all-consuming need to lash out and destroy.
She challenged me and pushed me to be better. To be the man she saw inside me, the man she believed I could be. She gave me a reason to live, a reason to be something more than just a ruthless crime lord with blood on his hands.
And God help me, but I wanted to be that man.
Because Bianca is unlike any woman I’ve ever known, strong and determined, with a fire in her soul that refuses to be extinguished. She’s a fighter.
And now that she’s gone, I can feel the darkness creeping back in, the rage and the hatred and the bitter, seething need for vengeance.
It’s like a poison, a sickness that seeps into my veins and taints every waking moment, a curse that transforms me back into the monster I used to be, the vengeful demon who knows nothing but pain and destruction.
I cling to the memory of her—of her laughing eyes, her beautiful smile, her silken hair. She brought me happiness I never thought I’d find.
Even though every inch of me is screaming to get her back, I can’t just storm in and take her back by force. Not yet. Not until I’ve done what needs to be done and make sure the house is in order. I have a responsibility to my men, the ones who gave their lives to protect me and mine.
They deserve better than to be left lying in their own blood. They deserve to be honored, to be laid to rest with the respect and the dignity that they’ve earned through their loyalty and their sacrifice.
And the ones who survive need me too. It’s my duty to make sure they’re taken care of and have the best medical care and the best chance at recovery that money can buy.
No, I have to be smart about this and play the long game. The same way I’ve always done when it comes to getting what I want.
And what I want more than anything in this world is Bianca. She’s mine, in every sense of the word. My love, my life, my everything. I’ll be damned if I let anyone take her away from me, least of all Nico Marino.
Liam will be out there, hunting down any scrap of information he can find about where Nico might have taken Bianca. He’s the best I have, and I know he’ll sniff out exactly where my love is.
It’s not easy, though. Every moment that passes without her by my side is like a knife to the gut, a searing pain that threatens to bring me to my knees.
But I know that I have to be patient. I’ve waited thirty-nine years for a woman like Bianca, for a chance to love and be loved in return, to find the missing piece of my soul that I never even knew was lost.
And if I have to wait a few more weeks, a few more months to get her back? Then so be it. I’ll wait forever if I have to. Because she is worth it, worth every second of longing, every moment of pain and desperation.
* * *
I’m in the middle of hauling a pile of broken furniture to the dumpster I rented when Liam finds me, his face a mask of barely-contained agitation.
“Boss,” he says, his voice low and urgent. “We need to talk. Now .”
I drop the splintered remains of a chair and follow him to my study, my heart pounding with a mixture of hope and dread. Because I know that look on Liam’s face.
What he’s about to tell me is going to be big.
As soon as the door closes behind us, Liam turns to face me, his eyes blazing with a fierce, almost feverish intensity.
“I found her, Rork. I found Bianca.”
For a moment, I’m sure I must have heard him wrong. Because it can’t be that easy, that simple after all the chaos and the heartbreak of the past weeks.
“What do you mean, you found her?” I demand, my voice rough with a hope I’m almost afraid to hold. “Where is she? Is she safe?”
Liam nods, his expression grim. “She’s at the Marino estate. It wasn’t hard to track her down. Nico didn’t even try to hide her away.”
I stare at him, my mind reeling with the implications of his words. This doesn’t make any fucking sense. Nico Marino may be a lot of things, but stupid has never been one of them.
“You’re telling me he just took her back to his own goddamn house?” I ask, my voice rising with a mix of disbelief and anger. “After everything he did, all the men he killed—he didn’t even bother to put her in a safehouse or something?”
Liam shrugs, his expression one of wry amusement. “Guess he thought he’d won. Probably thought he had you on the ropes and that you wouldn’t dare to come after him on his own turf.”
A bark of laughter bubbles up in my throat, harsh and humorless. Because if that’s what Nico really thinks, if he really thinks I’m just going to roll over and let him keep Bianca like some kind of fucking trophy, then he’s even more of a fool than I ever gave him credit for.
“His stupidity is my gain,” I mutter, my mind already racing with plans and possibilities. “If he wants to make this easy for me, then who am I to argue?”
I stand up, my body thrumming with a sudden, restless energy. I know what I have to do if I want to get Bianca back where she belongs.
“Get the men ready,” I tell Liam, my voice low and deadly. “Have Mikey hack into their pathetic security system again. We’re going to march on the Marino estate and take back what’s mine. And if Marino tries to stop us…”
I trail off, my hand clenching into a fist at my side. I don’t care what I have to do to get Bianca back. I don’t care how many bodies I have to step over or how much blood I have to spill.
I’ll put a bullet between Nico’s eyes and tear his whole fucking world down in order to get to Bianca. I’ll do it gladly, without a moment’s hesitation or regret.
Because Bianca is mine . My heart, my soul, my everything.
“We march in an hour,” I tell Liam. “Let’s go.”