Chapter 28
SAINT
“You ready for this?” I ask Isla as the elevator takes us deep into the belly of the casino.
“Yes. No.” She shakes her head, grinning and looking as adorably nervous as I feel. “I don’t know. Do I look okay?”
“You look beautiful,” I reassure her. Because she does. My woman is a goddamn goddess.
And then because I can’t help myself, I add with smug satisfaction, “You look like you just got fucked in the back of a G-Wagon.”
My woman. Fuck, I like the sound of that. I’m still riding high on a potent combination of adrenaline and dopamine.
“Alessio.” She playfully smacks my shoulder. “No, really. Do I have sex hair? Are they going to take one look at me and know what we were doing on the way here? Oh my God, I should have looked in a mirror.”
“Hey.” I grab her hands and tug her soft curves into my body. “I was kidding, tesoro.”
She sighs. “You’re such a dick sometimes.”
“Yeah, but I’m your dick.”
She catches her lower lip in her teeth, staring back at me with the same awe that I imagine is reflected on my face. “Yes, you are.”
“And you’re mine.” I move her backward until her back is against the elevator wall, and then I kiss the luscious lips I can’t stop staring at. “Damn,” I growl against her mouth, “you taste so fucking good.”
“So do you.”
“I need to be back inside you.”
It’s true. My cock is raging. I can’t get enough of her, even if my rational mind knows that I’ve only got about three seconds until we reach the lowest level of the casino where the safe house is and the elevator opens.
I can’t be buried balls deep with my brother, sister-in-law, half sisters, and the woman who birthed me waiting on the other side.
Priest wanted us all to meet up at the safe house for a debriefing. So here we are.
I can only imagine what his ride here with Scorpion is going to be like.
“You’re going to have to wait,” Isla tells me, sidling away as the elevator stops. “I’d rather let your family know about us in a slightly less pornographic way, if you don’t mind.”
Chuckling, I reach for her hand. After almost losing her, I need physical contact like I need air to breathe.
She laces her fingers through mine, and it feels so right, so natural.
I’m tempted to get down on one knee right now and beg her to marry me, but I don’t want to rush her into anything.
She needs time. She deserves time. Isla’s been to hell and back.
“How’s this?” I bring our entwined hands to my lips, kissing the back of hers.
“Significantly more PG-13,” she says.
“More like G,” I grumble.
The doors sweep open, and we step into the safe house together. I hear them before I see them. Feminine voices mingle with Lucky’s.
“Now’s your chance to run screaming in the opposite direction,” I tease Isla lightly as we approach the living room.
“Would you let me?” she returns.
“Not a fucking chance, tesoro.”
She laughs softly. “I’m not going anywhere, baby.”
“Good.” I give her fingers a reassuring squeeze.
We step into the living room, and everyone stops talking, their eyes swinging to us.
“Is! You’re back!” Luna’s gaze dips to Isla’s hand in mine. “And you’re holding hands. With Saint.”
“I am,” Isla says at my side.
“So?” She gives us both an expectant look. “What does this mean?”
“Probably means my brother finally pulled his head out of his ass,” Lucky drawls.
I shoot him a glare. “Fuck off, frattore mio.”
Lucky just snickers.
“I knew it,” Bianca and Camilla say simultaneously.
Antonella is quiet, but the expression on her face is irritatingly knowing.
“You have some explaining to do,” Luna says, pointing a finger first at me and then at Isla. “Both of you.”
“The short version is that Isla’s car was waylaid by the Bratva on the way to the airport, and she was taken hostage, along with Rocco and two of our guys. Priest made a deal to get them safely back, and yes, I finally got my head out of my ass and told Isla that I love her.”
Luna blinks. “Wait a minute, are you saying that my best friend was taken by the Russians and no one told me?”
“Yup,” I tell her, popping the p.
“Heads will roll for this.”
“It wasn’t Alessio’s fault,” Isla says, defending me.
That’s my woman right there. I drink in the sight of her. And yeah, her hair is a little mussed, and if anyone looks closely enough, they’ll know I railed her on the way here. But too fucking bad. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
“Actually, it was my fault,” I tell her. “If I hadn’t gone along with Priest’s idea to send you to the airport, none of this would have happened. I just wanted to get you to safety and get you out of this fucked-up mess that is my life.”
“But there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than in it, right here at your side,” she tells me.
“Love you,” I tell her right there in front of anyone.
Because I can’t not say it. Because I do love her. I love the shit out of her, and I want everyone to know. Isla Davenport is mine, and I can’t wait until the day I can call her my wife.
“Love you too, baby,” she says.
“Holy shit,” Lucky mutters, clearly disgusted by my undying devotion for this woman.
I don’t give a fuck.
“The two of you,” Luna says, still looking at us both like she’s seeing us for the first time.
“I mean, I suspected. The way she was talking about you, and how upset she was when you texted Lucky that Rocco would take her to the airport. And the way you looked at each other. Damn. But I didn’t want to pry. ”
“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything,” Isla tells her. “It was all so new, and I had no idea that Alessio felt the same way about me. It happened kind of quickly. We met by accident in St. Thomas, but I didn’t realize who he was.”
Luna’s mouth drops open. “Saint was the one in St. Thomas?”
“He was the one.”
Apparently Luna and Isla had girl talk about me. I don’t know if I should be alarmed or take it as a compliment, but I’ll go for the latter.
Luna grins. “You guys. I can’t wait for the wedding. Is, you know what this means, don’t you? We’ll be sisters.”
Isla laughs. “Baby steps. We’re not getting married.”
“Yet,” I add.
She looks back at me, smiling. “Yet.”
Before anyone can say anything else, the sound of Scorpion’s and Priest’s bickering voices reaches us.
Apparently, they’ve decided to join us for our little family reunion.
And as I suspected, Scorpion isn’t happy about our big brother’s decision to offer him as a matrimonial sacrifice to the Bratva.
“I’m not fucking doing it,” Scorpion is raging as they come into the living room.
“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” Priest tells him calmly.
He’s firmly in don mode. He’s not our big brother. He’s the leader of the united Revello and Andriani families. And although I feel the knife’s edge of guilt that Scorpion is going to have to take the fall for me, I don’t regret a single second of claiming Isla as mine.
“What doesn’t he have a choice in?” Luna rushes over to Priest, who opens his arms to her.
“In his marrying Ekaterina Sidorov.”
“Wait, what?” Luna jerks out of his arms, staring up at Priest, clearly shocked. “Please don’t tell me you did something barbaric and old-school and signed your brother up for an arranged marriage with a Bratva princess.”
“Fine. I won’t.” He’s tense, and I can tell he’s not any happier about this than Scorpion is.
But he also knows, like I do, that we don’t have any other recourse.
The contract has been signed. Sidorov backed us neatly into a corner and left us trapped.
It’s Scorpion marrying Ekaterina Sidorov, or we go to war with the Bratva.
And going to war with them is only going to invite more scrutiny from the authorities.
The kind we don’t want or need. Not to mention the blood that will spill, the lives that will be lost.
“Then why is your brother so angry with you?” Luna demands, frowning.
“Because when the Russians took Isla, Roc, and the others, they demanded an alliance for their safe return. They wanted Saint to marry her, but Scorpion is the one responsible for the escalation.”
“The fucking escalation?” Scorpion repeats, outraged. “Mother Mary, they fucking bombed our restaurant. How is that not escalation?”
“You kidnapped the Pakhan’s sister,” Priest calmly points out. “They wouldn’t have taken Isla if you hadn’t done that.”
“What was I supposed to do, just sit around and wait for them to bomb something else? What if the fucking casino was next on their radar?”
Priest doesn’t even blink an eye in the face of our brother’s wrath.
“They warned us. It was a message. You shouldn’t have taken the Sidorov girl.
Women and children are off-limits. Or at least, they were until you kidnapped Ekaterina Sidorov.
This is your fucking mess, and you’re going to clean it up.
Besides, Saint’s in love with Isla, and if I fuck things up for my wife’s best friend, she’ll never forgive me.
Assuming Isla loves his sorry ass back, that is. ”
Well, fuck. Was I that obvious to everyone?
“Of course she fucking loves me,” I say, insulted. “I’m infinitely lovable.”
Lucky snorts. “You tried to send her away without even saying goodbye. She must be a fucking saint.”
“She is. Which is why we belong together.” I grin at the woman at my side. “The sinner and the saint. And thank fuck she loves me.”
“Of course I do, baby,” she tells me quietly.
But my nosy-ass family overhears anyway.
“Get a room,” my half sisters say in unison again.
“You two seriously need to tone down the twin shit,” I say. “It’s starting to get creepy.”
“You’re going to have to drag my ass to the altar,” Scorpion is saying to Priest.
“Not a problem,” Priest reassures our brother coolly. “Next time, don’t kidnap the sister of the fucking Pakhan.”
“Maybe she’s not that bad,” Luna says gently, trying to put a sunshiny spin on this fucked-up situation.
I tug on Isla’s hand and lean down to whisper in her ear. “What do you say to letting them fight it out while we head back to my place? I’m fucking desperate for you, tesoro. I’ll make sure there’s an army of bodyguards surrounding the place.”
She gives me a look that has my dick twitching to attention. “Sounds like heaven.”
I clear my throat. “Now that we’re official, I’m going to get Isla back home. She’s just been through hell, and the last thing she needs is to stand here listening to your bickering.”
“Get out of here, you two,” Luna says fondly, giving Isla a bright smile before she turns to me with a look of death. “Be warned. I love you, but if you break my bestie’s heart, I’m going to chop off your balls and throw them into the river.”
“I have every intention of keeping her heart and my balls perfectly safe, thank you very much.”
That shatters the tension of the moment, and even Scorpion laughs. With a wave, I tug my woman back toward the elevator, eager to have her where she belongs and show her just how much I worship her.
Now and forever.
“Let’s go home,” I tell her.
“I already am home with you,” she says, and then she kisses me as the doors slide closed.