Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Kira
The last thing I want to do is attend another ladies’ function with judgy, gossipy mafia women but I know I have to make an appearance. Irina and Natasha are probably worried for me and I need to make sure I keep the peace between our families.
But when I arrive to find Francesca and Gianna are there again, it takes everything inside of me to not turn around and walk right out of the tea room.
Once again, they’re seated with Irina and Natasha, who give me pitying looks as I sit down beside them. Everyone must know all the bad things Francesca has been saying about me.
“Nice of you to join us,” Francesca snaps.
Gianna has her head ducked. Her one act of rebellion shattered now that she’s back with her aunt.
“There’s no set time to show up here,” I snap back.
Irina, who’s seated on the other side of me, clasps my hand under the table, silently telling me to be quiet. But being quiet is not my thing.
Francesca only sniffs and turns her nose upward so I do the same thing just to annoy her.
“So, how have things been with Enzo?” Irina asks.
I think back to how he put his mouth on me last night. How electrifying and thrilling. He made me forget all about what Matteo tried to do to me. It’s given me hope for the future.
“Good,” I say, unable to hide the blush on my face.
Irina gives me a knowing look. “That’s good.”
Natasha shoves a cucumber sandwich into her mouth, looking visibly uncomfortable. I know it’s because of when Enzo kidnapped her.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her. “About Enzo.”
“It’s not your fault. You had to marry Enzo for peace. I still don’t like talking about him though.”
“I get it. But Enzo has surprised me. In a good way.”
Natasha responds but I don’t hear it because at that very moment, I look over to the entrance of the tea room to see Matteo standing there. His face is covered in bruises but otherwise, he looks unharmed. Enzo fought him but left him alive. I’m still not sure how I feel about that.
With a confident swagger, he walks right up to our table.
“Hello, ladies,” he says in his warm voice. The other women at the table melt under his charm and handsome face but I know not to fall for it. I know not to trust him at all.
“Matteo!” Francesca exclaims. “Nice to see you again. A friend of my nephew’s is always a friend of mine.”
“Of course.” I detect the tightness in his voice but the rest of the women don’t. They don’t know what I know.
“This is a get-together for women,” I snap. “Not men. You should go.”
“Don’t be rude,” Francesca chides me. “Matteo can stay for as long as he wants.”
“I would like that.” He makes a point of sitting down directly across from me. Of course. “Kira.”
“Matteo.”
Everyone at the table must finally be able to sense the tension between us because they all exchange looks.
“You know each other?” Irina asks innocently.
“We met through Enzo,” Matteo explains.
Francesca looks between me and Matteo with a frown on her face. What is she thinking?
“I’m sure you’ve been good,” he says to me.
“Better. Now that your face is all bruised.”
Francesca gasps. “That is no way to talk to a gentleman.”
“He’s no gentleman.”
“Well, I have known Matteo since he was a boy. I know a gentleman when I see one. You clearly do not.” She motions between us. “There’s something going on here. What is it?”
“None of your concern,” I say with a tight smile.
“Everything to do with my nephew’s wife is my concern.”
“Francesca,” Gianna says softly.
“What?”
“Maybe be nice to Kira.”
Francesca stares at her niece in shock. “Why would I do that when she’s been nothing but horrible to me?”
Gianna can only shrug and duck her chin again.
Matteo smirks in my direction and it takes everything inside of me not to stab the fork next to my hand right into his eye.
“A good wife doesn’t talk to other men,” Francesca scolds me.
“You’re the one who invited him to sit down.”
Francesca ignores my dig and turns to Matteo. They talk about family and the weather and life. I zone most of it out but my eyes never leave Matteo. I will not let him do anything to me. Never again.
“Are you ok?” Irina whispers in my ear.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t seem fine.”
“I’m fine,” I say in a tougher tone.
Irina, fortunately, drops the issue.
Throughout the meal, Matteo keeps flicking his eyes at me and smirking like he’s won. I can only glare back at him.
After what feels like forever, he finally stands up. “Thank you for the meal, ladies. But I have work to attend to.” Work that no longer involves my husband.
“What a nice man,” Francesca sighs, watching Matteo walk away. Her pleasant expression turns to cold the second she places her eyes onto me. “I don’t know what you’re up to, Kira, but I don’t like it.”
“I’m leaving,” I announce.
“Stay, please,” Irina says but I know I can’t stay here and listen to Francesca a moment longer.
I leave the tea room and enter into the hallway but before I can reach the lobby of the hotel, someone grabs my arm. Turning around, I see that it’s Francesca.
“Let me go,” I say hotly, tugging my arm away.
“I saw the little looks you and Matteo were giving to each other. I didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone else for Matteo’s sake but you have to tell me the truth. Are you having an affair with him?”
Her question takes me aback so much that it feels like an eternity before I can answer. “I am not having an affair with him.”
“It looked like you are. Why else all the looks? I am going to tell Enzo and I am going to smear your name through the mud. I will make you regret ever saying yes to marrying him.”
“You’re insane. Enzo knows I’m not having an affair. And besides, I didn’t have any choice in marrying him. You’re so fucking delusional.”
She gasps like I slapped her. “I know what an affair looks like when I see it. I knew you were trouble. First, you drag my nephew down with you and now you’re going to do the same with Matteo? What is wrong with you?”
“Enzo and Matteo are grown men who don’t need you protecting them. Leave me and Enzo alone and while you’re at it, leave Gianna alone too.”
“Gianna?”
“You make her miserable. Everyone can see it. She was happy for a moment when we went to Central Park together and you just can’t accept that.
You’re terrible for her. You’re terrible for Enzo and you’re definitely terrible for me.
Spread all the rumors you want but you’re only going to make Enzo and Matteo look bad in the process.
” I storm away before she can say anything else.
Or before I can slap her.
I’m proud of my self-control. The old me never could have done that.
I make it outside where Enzo’s guard is waiting for me to take me back home. I don’t mind having a guard if it means I’m safe from Matteo.
But on the drive home, I notice the guard get tense. “What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Someone is following us.”
“Who?”
“I’m not sure yet.” He maneuvers through traffic to get away from the person following. After a few tense moments, the guard relaxes. “I don’t see them anymore.”
We’re close to Enzo’s home, which is in an expensive, suburban neighborhood. A lot of open roads. A lot of privacy. Not many other people around.
And that’s when a car comes at us in another direction. Matteo is hanging out of the passenger seat, with a gun, aimed right at my car. He’s firing it off like a madman. The bullet goes through the windshield and hits Enzo’s guard right in the head, making him swerve off the road.
I let out a scream as the car lands on the sidewalk, crashing into a pole. I scramble to get out of the car but not before Matteo rips open my door and pulls me out.
“Let me go!” I scream, clawing and kicking at him but he’s much stronger than I am and easily gets me into his car. “Enzo will know this was you. There’s cameras all along this street.”
“I had them all disabled,” he says, getting into the passenger seat. His driver starts the car and it’s in that moment I realize I’m being kidnapped. Well and truly kidnapped.
“What’s your plan?” I demand. “Enzo will kill you for this.”
“Enzo thought he could play god with me. He thought he could control me. But I’m in control. I’m going to win. He’s not going to take away all the money I’ve earned. He’s not going to humiliate me.”
“Then maybe you should have thought of that before you decided you wanted to rape his wife.”
Matteo rakes his eyes down my body. “I am going to make you mine. Just for the fun of it.”
I know I’m in deep trouble and I have no way of getting out of it. The further I’m taken from Enzo, the more I realize how much I want him in my life. Despite everything.
Enzo
Hours pass and Kira doesn’t return home. I finally call Maksim since I know Natasha attends those functions.
“Enzo,” Maksim says in a clipped tone. Things are still tense between us after I kidnapped Natasha and shot him in the back. I don’t blame him. I know how to hold a grudge.
“Have you seen your sister?”
“Did you lose her? She does have a tendency to sneak out and do her own thing.”
The old Kira, yes. But this new version of her wouldn’t. I believe it. Not after what we’ve been through together. Not after what she shared with me.
“Have you seen her?” I repeat.
“I haven’t.”
“Has your wife?”
“You don’t get to say Natasha’s name.”
“I didn’t.”
Maksim grumbles under his breath. “I’ll ask her.” He’s quiet for a long moment – presumably talking to Natasha – when he comes back. “She says she hasn’t seen her since she left the ladies’ function earlier today.”
“Did Kira say where she was going?”
“All Natasha told me was that one of your men showed up and Kira looked visibly upset. That was it.”
My hand tightens on my phone. “What man?”
“Matteo. One of your friends, she said. At least that’s how your aunt described him to her.”
Fucking Matteo. He has got to be behind this. He has Kira. I feel it in my bones.
“Did Natasha see Kira leave? Or Matteo?”
“No. Is my sister all right, Enzo? Because if she isn’t…”
“She’s fine,” I snap. “I got this.” I hang up, knowing what I have to do. I have to find Matteo and kill him, no matter what. No matter if it hurts my business.
Because I’m beginning to realize that Kira means more to me than money. I felt it when I held her in my arms after she confided in me about being a virgin. I felt it when she told me Matteo tried to rape her. And I felt it when I held her last night and she didn’t leave my arms once.
There’s a passion between us. That much has always been obvious. But now there’s an intimacy there.
Almost like love.
And I know I have to get my wife back so I can see how much our relationship can grow.