Chapter 45
ALEX
That night, I dreamed of my Devil and his Knights. Once again, we were in The Devil’s Knights Temple, hidden deep beneath Devil’s Creek. An eerie silence fell over the room lit by dozens of candles. It was intimate and romantic, but what we were about to do together was far from romance.
Luca stood behind me with his hands on my shoulders. “Choose them.” He pressed his lips to my earlobe, sending a shiver down my spine. “The queen must accept her Knights.”
The Knights kneeled around me, hoods covering their lowered heads.
I glanced over my shoulder at Luca, fear shaking through me. “How many do I have to choose?”
His thumb stroked my cheek. “It’s up to you, my queen.”
I stood in front of the Knights, my naked body on display. Luca was my first kiss, first sexual encounter, first everything. My first and only love. I was doing this because I was in love with him. I wanted to make him happy and become his queen.
I moved toward the man in front of me. Even with his hood down, I knew it was Marcello. I could sense him anywhere. Like Luca, he was a part of me. I had a different connection with each of the Knights. I felt that spark when I met them and knew I belonged with them.
I shoved the hood off Marcello’s head, and his eyes met mine with a fierceness I’d never seen on his handsome face. He looked so damn sexy I licked my lips, and he returned the gesture as he studied my body with care.
“I choose you, Marcello Salvatore.” I moved my hand to his cheek and smiled. “Do you swear to protect your queen, now and forever?”
He nodded. “I do.”
“Marcello,” I screamed as I shot up from the bed, clutching my chest.
Fear shot down my trembling arms and stirred in my belly. My heart raced as fast as a pack of wolves moving at full speed. I rolled onto my side, looked over at the armchair by the window, where Marcello usually sat, and drank his scotch as he watched me sketch.
For the first time in weeks, Marcello wasn’t by my side. My chest ached from the loss. I needed to see him, so I climbed out of bed and headed toward the door. Roman hadn’t survived the attack. His replacement, Dom, a twenty-something guy, stood outside my bedroom with his back against the wall.
He stared at me, arms crossed over his chest. He was dressed in a black suit and had dark hair, olive skin, and a scar that ran down his neck. He looked dangerous and scared me. But he was here for my protection. Supposedly, he was one of Marcello’s best men.
Dom pushed himself off the wall and slowly approached me. “Everything okay, Miss Wellington?”
“Yes.” I stepped into the hallway, closing the distance. “I need to see Marcello. Where is his room?”
He tipped his head to the right. “Mr. Salvatore moved him into the room beside you.”
That wasn’t his actual bedroom. Marcello slept on the top floor of this monstrous house, but I’d never seen where he laid his head at night. We weren’t there yet.
I thanked Dom and then headed toward Marcello’s temporary bedroom. It was dark inside, the only light from the moonlight filtering through the curtains. The room mirrored mine and had a balcony overlooking the bay and an ensuite bathroom.
Leaving the door open a crack, I used the light from the hallway sconces to lead the way. Marcello slept in a four-poster bed under a mound of blankets. There was a hospital bed beside it, and I guessed the medical staff left it there in case shit went south and they needed to move him.
He had monitors, IVs, and a bunch of shit running through his body. Avoiding the machines, I hopped onto the mattress on the other side and rested my head on the pillow beside him. Sitting next to him made me feel safe, as if I could finally breathe.
I slipped my fingers between his and watched him sleep, staring at his chest rising and falling beneath the covers. So fucking thankful he survived the attack. He breathed softly and moved a little when I stroked his skin with my fingers.
After a while, I stopped fighting sleep. My eyelids grew heavy, and I closed my eyes, consumed by Marcello’s breathing.
He was alive.
A hand slipped beneath my shirt, fingers traveled up my stomach, inching toward my breasts.
Eyes closed, I lay my head on the pillow and let him touch me.
Let him roll his thumb over my painfully sore nipple.
This was a nice dream, the perfect escape from reality.
He felt so good, his hands warm and rough and possessive as he claimed me.
I opened my eyes. Marcello was asleep beside me, touching me without even knowing it. At least, I thought he was sleeping. I still craved him, but I didn’t want him like this. Not when he was in an unconscious state.
I grabbed his hand and moved it to the mattress. Heart pounding in my chest, I lay on my side and watched him. I sighed in relief. When he was on the operating table, I hadn’t been that scared and upset since Aiden disappeared.
“Morning, princess,” Marcello said in a hoarse voice.
“Hey.” I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt. “How are you feeling?”
“I’ll live,” he muttered. “Did you have a nightmare?”
“Yeah.” I laid my hand on top of his, and he squeezed my fingers. “I can’t get back to sleep without you by my side.”
“I can’t sleep beside you for the rest of your life.”
I propped myself up on my elbow and looked at him. “I wish you could.”
The smile slipped from his face. “Alex…”
My heart wanted two brothers.
I felt like such a mess, wondering if my medical condition was fucking with me. Or did I have real feelings for them both? It was hard to love Luca. I tried my best to forget about the past shit and let myself fall headfirst. But we hit a roadblock every time.
It wasn’t like that with Marcello. He never made me second-guess my feelings for him.
“Do you need a nurse?” I brushed the sweat-matted black hair off his forehead. “You look pale.”
He closed his eyes and breathed through his nose. “The pain will pass.”
“I can ask the nurse to give you more morphine.”
I attempted to slide off the bed, and he said, “No, don’t leave.” He held out his hand and wiggled his fingers. “Come here.”
I placed my hand in his, and he squeezed it. “I thought you were dead,” I choked out, fighting the tears welling in my bottom lids. “Marcello, I can’t lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” He patted the top of my hand with his fingers. “Don’t worry about me, beautiful.”
“I choose you, Marcello Salvatore,” I said, and as expected, his head turned in my direction. “I said those words to you last year, didn’t I?”
He nodded. “You remember?”
“I don’t know what my doctor gave Luca, but ever since he drugged me, I’ve been having vivid dreams of me with the Knights in a temple.”
“They’re not dreams,” he admitted. “That happened. How much do you remember?”
“Luca told me I had to choose the Knights.”
“You do.”
“What happens if I don’t choose all of you?”
“We get cast out.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Seriously?”
“The Queen has a lot of power.” He rubbed the sleep from his tired eyes and yawned. “What else do you remember?”
“I woke up screaming your name after I chose you. Then I came into your room so I could fall back to sleep. I needed to know you were okay.”
He forced a pained smile and grabbed his side over the top of the blanket. “I’ll survive.”
I lifted the blanket, exposing his scarred but muscled chest. “Did you get these scars from your father?”
A mess of scars covered his olive skin. Luca’s scars were so bad that they looked like spiderwebs that spanned most of his chest and back. But Marcello’s scattered from his hipbone to his shoulder.
“A few of them, yeah. Luca took most of the punishments. My dad rarely hit me, but when he did, Luca always stepped in front of me.”
“I’m surprised he would sacrifice himself for anyone else.”
“He made a promise to our mother.”
“To protect you?”
He nodded. “When I was a kid, I didn’t know any better.
My mom treated me like a baby, while my dad let Luca shadow him everywhere.
They were two peas in a pod. I was more like my mother, and my dad knew it.
So did Luca. After she died, I realized I needed to toughen up.
I learned to defend myself because Luca wouldn’t always be there to save me. ”
“I didn’t know,” I said with my mouth open in surprise. “Luca said he took the brunt of the punishment, but…”
“My brother has a heart,” he said with laughter in his tone. “It’s just locked inside a steel box buried three hundred feet below the ocean floor.”
I chuckled. “He acts like all of us are disposable. It’s just… He has a funny way of showing it. We got into a fight last night…”
“Your life will never be easy. Not with Luca,” he said with sadness in his eyes. “But he will take care of you.”
“I want him to love me,” I said aloud, which surprised me.
“He does,” Marcello insisted. “In his own way.”
Desperate to change the subject, I shifted the conversation to his recovery. “You have a long road ahead of you. Pops said it could take months, maybe even a year.”
“This isn’t my first gunshot wound,” he said with no emotion in his tone. “It’s not as bad as you think.”
“Where were you shot?”
He pointed at a mark on his shoulder, then another on his stomach. “It’s nothing.”
“Oh, my God.” My eyes widened at all of his scars. “Someone shot you, Marcello. That’s not nothing.”
“Occupational hazard. Bound to happen at some point.”
“You took a bullet for me.” I cupped his cheek with my hand, and our eyes met. “My hero. Thank you.”
He snickered. “I’m no hero.”
“You saved me.”
“Luca saved you. I took the bullet because I didn’t shoot the asshole in the head. I’ll never make that mistake again.”
“How did it happen?”
“I thought he was dead. He grabbed one of our guns from the floor. I tried to dodge the bullet but didn’t move fast enough.”
“Still, you did it for me.” I leaned down to kiss his forehead. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me.”
His stomach growled so loudly it filled the silence in the room.
“Are you hungry? I can get your breakfast,” I offered.
His long, dark eyelashes fanned against his olive skin as he looked up at me. “Yeah, I can eat.”
I slid off the bed and poked my head into the hallway, looking at Dom. “Can you get Marcello’s breakfast?”
He nodded, then removed his cell phone from his pocket. The house manager knew what everyone liked to eat.
Dom’s fingers glided across the keypad, and then he said, “I’ll bring in Marcello’s food when it’s ready.”
I flashed a smile at him. “Thanks.”
Dom entered the room five minutes later and set a tray on the bed.
I lifted a plate of egg whites and grabbed a fork. “Can you sit up?”
Marcello nodded, grabbed a remote on the bed beside him, and tapped a button. I’d never seen a hospital bed like this one. With enough money, anything was possible.
I reached behind him and propped him up with a stack of pillows. His face twisted in pain, eyes closed as he moved into position. I leaned over with a forkful of eggs, and he opened his mouth. As our eyes met, I thought about kissing him. I wondered how he would taste and if I would like it.
The door hit the wall, snapping my attention toward the entrance. My handsome Devil stood ten feet away, his jaw flexed, and dressed in his usual three-piece Brioni suit.
“Well, don’t you two look fucking cozy,” Luca said with fire in his tone.