13. Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
Nico
“ S ir, Giovanni Ricci is here,” one of my guards, Tony, tells me as I head up the driveway but his words make me stop in my tracks.
“He’s here? Why did any of you let him near my house?”
“He didn’t seem like a threat and he wanted to speak with your wife.”
My head whips around to stare at my house. “So he’s inside right now?”
“Yes.”
I’m going to have to kill Tony for his incompetence but first, I need to deal with Giovanni. Fuck this fucker for thinking he can come talk to my wife after the shit he pulled.
I rush inside and slip on something on the ground. It takes my eyes a second to see what’s happening. Blood. On the ground.
My heart pounds in my chest, worried that it’s Sasha’s, but then I see that it’s one of my guards, Aldo. He has a neck wound that’s still gushing blood despite the fact that he’s clearly dead.
It’s then that I hear Sasha scream.
I turn towards the stairs and see a horrifying sight. Giovanni on top of Sasha. She’s lying there, frozen, while he tries to push her dress up.
Fuck this.
I storm over to Giovanni and wrench him away from Sasha. He slips in the blood but rights himself before he falls over.
“You thought you could rape my wife in my own home?”
“Rape? She clearly has never been fucked. I was just going to show her what a man can do. What you clearly cannot. It’s not rape. She wanted it. She invited me in.”
“No,” Sasha whispers. “No, I didn’t.”
“I’m going to kill you for this,” I growl and lunge at Giovanni but he runs for the door. My foot slips on the blood and I crash to the ground, landing hard on my knees. They’re going to be bruised after this.
By the time I get back up, Giovanni has run out of the house. I rush after him, grabbing my gun but he’s gone. I don’t see him anywhere.
The backside of a car is just visible down the long road from my house. He’s getting away.
I run to my car to chase after him – nothing is going to stop me from killing him – when I hear Sasha say my name.
I turn to find her standing in the doorway. “What?? I have to go after Giovanni.”
“Nico, please. I don’t want you to go after him. Just come inside. Just… be with me.”
“But he needs to die.”
“You’re always so quick to kill but I’m frightened right now. I need… I need to feel safe. And you running off to kill Giovanni isn’t going to make me feel safe right now. What if he manages to kill you?”
I scoff. “Me?”
“You’re still only human. You can be killed. You’ve been shot before.”
I remember the intense pain in my back from where Mikhail shot me a year ago. I still have the scar to prove it but none of the other side effects. Still makes me pissed at Mikhail for doing it though.
“Sasha, I need to go after him. He needs to die.”
Slowly, she approaches me. Her hands shake as they reach up to touch my face. “I was almost raped by him. I froze because I was so afraid. If you go right now, I’ll never forgive you for it.”
“Don’t you want me to kill the man who just tried to rape you?”
“What I want is a husband I can depend on. A husband who makes me feel safe. That’s what I need right now. Please.”
I’ve never seen Sasha so vulnerable with me before. It’s disorientating. It’s also heartwarming.
For the first time since we’ve married, she wants me. She’s asking for me to comfort her.
All the fight leaves my body. “All right. I won’t go after him right now.”
“Thank you. Just hold me?”
I wrap my arms around her and bring her in close. She clings back to me in a way she never has before.
“Sweetheart, why are you so afraid now? You were almost raped in my maze the night of our marriage celebration. You didn’t seem this afraid then.”
“I don’t know. I’m just scared.”
I tighten my arms around her. “I’m here for you. I’m always here for you.”
“I want to believe that. You scare me so much in so many ways and yet you also make me feel so safe. I don’t understand it.”
“You don’t have to understand it. Just feel it.” I pull back so I can cup her face. “I will always protect you from assholes who would intend to hurt you.”
“He killed Aldo right in front of me. I’ve seen you kill before too but… it was somehow different when he did it. I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“You don’t have to. Let’s get you inside.” I scoop her up in my arms and carry her inside the house, bypassing Aldo’s dead body. Sasha whimpers at the sight. Her body trembles and I hold onto her tighter.
I bring her to our bedroom and lay her down. She grabs my hand when I try to pull away.
“I want you to hold me,” she admits. “Just hold me. Please don’t make it sexual. Not right now.”
The fact that Sasha is asking for me changes everything. She wants me to comfort her. No one else. No one has ever needed or wanted me like this before. The women of my past just wanted me for my body or my money or my status.
None of them wanted me to comfort them like this. To make them feel safe like this.
I kick my shoes off, then get in the bed. Sasha turns her back to me and I wrap my arms around her, holding her close to my chest. She continues to tremble.
“Hey, you’re safe now,” I murmur. “Giovanni can’t hurt you when I’m around.”
“This was supposed to be our honeymoon. Isn’t a honeymoon supposed to be happy?”
“We’ve had some fun times, I like to think.”
“I’ve been almost raped twice and had another man beat me up. You’ve made me kill a man. It’s a wonder I’m still sane.”
I press a gentle kiss to her shoulder. Her body tenses for a moment before it relaxes. “You’re strong. That’s why I wanted you for a wife.”
“You didn’t know me. When you wanted to marry me. You just wanted to ensure a deal with Denis.”
The bitterness in her voice draws me back. “Trust me, Sasha. When I first saw you, I knew I wanted you for you. I heard the bravery and bite in your voice. I wanted that in a wife. I don’t want some demure little flower. I want a woman who’s strong enough to stand at my side.”
“Then why do you not respect me? You keep trying to turn me into you.”
I draw her in closer and it seems to put her body at ease.
“I do respect you. I love our challenges. I love how we banter. It’s the highlight of my day.
It excites me. You excite me. And I don’t just mean in a sexual way.
I also mean in a mental way. I’ve never had someone go toe-to-toe with me like you have.
It’s refreshing. I don’t want a woman who hangs off every word I say and laughs at all my jokes just to fee my ego.
I love that I have a wife that doesn’t give a shit about giving me her opinion, even if it’s something I don’t want to hear.
Trust me, Sasha. I respect you more than I ever have with anyone else. ”
She glances at me over her shoulder. Her eyes are open and wide; vulnerable. “What if Giovanni comes back?”
“Then I’ll kill him. Plain and simple.”
“Nico, would you consider… going back to New York? I miss it. It’s my home. And so far, Italy has proved itself to be difficult. Too many bad things have happened here.”
My eyes skim over her face. Even in her fear, she’s still so beautiful. “You really want to go back? To the place where your uncle essentially sold you off to me? Or are you just trying to get back to your sisters?”
“I can’t help but want to save them. You can’t blame me for that.
But if we were in New York, it would make it harder for Giovanni to get to me.
He had the guts to come into your own home and take your own wife.
He showed he’s willing to do anything to get what he wants.
He’s dangerous. I would feel better if we had an ocean between us. ”
I consider her words. It’s not a bad idea, returning to New York. I do have business to attend to there, like killing Mikhail. That bastard still needs to die after he shot me. Of course, that won’t make Sasha happy since she doesn’t want her brother-in-law dead. It’s a conundrum.
And there is the problem with the Irish I’ve been having. After I killed Cillian Kennedy a year ago, the Irish’s new leader, Liam, has been trying to kill me, though he hasn’t succeeded.
Rome was supposed to be a safe haven from New York. A place I could get to know Sasha. A place a could seduce her.
But none of it has gone according to plan. For Sasha, it’s obvious that Rome is the opposite of a safe haven. It’s a nightmare given everything she’s been through. Normally I’d brush her fears off and tell her not to worry.
But I saw the fear on her face when Giovanni was on top of her. The way she was frozen. Her eyes calling out to me to help.
Maybe this is my chance to make Sasha fall in love with me. If I give her a gift, she’ll give me one in return.
“You really want to return to New York?” I ask.
“I do. I want to leave this place and all of its bad memories. We could start fresh.”
“In New York? Where your uncle and sisters are?”
“Nico, this is important to me. Please give me this.”
I look into her sad, vulnerable eyes and my heart squeezes. I’ve never wanted to make someone as happy as I want to make Sasha right now. “Ok. Let’s go back to New York.”
Our honeymoon is officially over.
Sasha relaxes back into me and closes her eyes.
I watch her fall asleep, heart pounding the entire time.
Things with Sasha have been fun – a game of sorts.
But everything has changed. She sought me out to comfort her.
If she truly hated me, she never would have asked me to hold her after going through something so frightening.
Maybe my wife likes me more than she wants to admit. That thought makes me smile and I settle down beside her, holding my wife until her breathing steadies and she can sleep, knowing I’ll keep her safe.
Even when I’m the one to put her into danger in the first place.
Sasha