Chapter Twenty-Two
Maximus
I fought the urge to lock Olivia into a safe room, fill my car with weapons, and make the families involved in her attack extinct. She was my wife, and my number one job was to keep her safe, and tonight I had failed.
Dark, turbulent emotions tumbled around inside me, each seeking a release.
My foot pressed the accelerator, speed helping to soothe the monster inside me, until I could track down those who had dared to harm my wife.
There were times I walked away and merely watched my enemy, but there was no way that would happen tonight.
Jake had already started to track down leads about the threat against Olivia from the asshole in our dungeon.
Her small hand on my leg startled me as I was lost in my dark thoughts. “You need to slow down. I’m feeling a little sick.”
The car swerved as I moved my attention to her, steadying the car when she gasped.
Olivia was pale, her eyes wide, and her hair a mess around her face.
Yet, she was a survivor, and she had never looked more beautiful to me because of what she had lived through.
I had always known that Olivia was strong, but walking in on that scene had stunned me.
Olivia had defended herself against a professional assassin.
There was a reason they remained anonymous - their targets never survived to identify them.
My wife had held her own in that room when we should have found her dead inside one of the stalls. Pride bloomed in my chest, warring with the anger in there.
I grabbed her hand on my leg, squeezing it tight as I drove through the streets towards my parents’ house.
There was a lot of security at my home, but Dad had taken it to a different level.
He had cameras in every single room, even if they weren’t turned on.
His safe rooms were built into the foundations of the house, that even a bomb wouldn’t gain access to.
The activators for the gates were built into my car, swinging open as I drove toward them.
It would alert Dad to me arriving as each signal was registered to a specific user.
I pulled up outside the stairs leading up to the house, Dad appearing outside, since I had arrived unannounced, sensing there was trouble.
I strode around the car, helping Olivia out to walk up the stairs. Gabriel and Willow’s car appeared on the driveway as we reached the top.
“Problem?” Dad asked before his gaze landed on Olivia. “I’ll make some calls.” He turned on his heel, and returned to the house.
I may be in charge of the family business now, but he had built it into what it was today. He didn’t deal with emotions, Mum waiting inside. By the look on her face, he had already briefed her to what had happened to Olivia.
“Our family doctor will be here shortly, but I suggest we have a cup of tea in the meantime,” Mum said, talking charge of the situation that left me unable to speak or act rationally. My areas of expertise were death and destruction.
Olivia refused to let go of my hand, so we were both herded into the kitchen while Mum fussed around, Willow arriving a few moments later to engulf Olivia in a hug.
Belatedly, I realised that I should have done that instead of pushing a body out of the window, and leaving before anyone could realise what happened.
“Do we know who sent her?” Gabriel asked.
“Nope,” I replied, trying to sew all my emotions together so I could function.
“Jake is dealing with the body,” Gabriel continued, eyeing Olivia. “Female assassins are rare. We should be able to track her identity, and try and identify the hit from there.”
Olivia sat on the seat which had materialised with Mum, her body starting to shake as the adrenalin that had allowed her to fight began to dissipate through her. Instinctively, I stood in front of her, and she leaned into me, her head resting against my stomach.
“Maybe something stronger than tea?” I suggested, since I wanted a double whiskey right now, we all probably did.
“Not until the doctor checks her head injury,” Mum replied. “She looks very pale, it could be concussion.”
I moved back, my hand under Olivia’s chin lifting her face to me. There was a lump on the side of her temple, and she had bitten her lip which was swelling up. Her dress had been ripped earlier, and I had used my jacket to cover it.
“Maybe I should take Olivia upstairs and get her changed?” I suggested.
“I’ll make the tea,” Mum replied, her face the mask she used when I turned up injured or shot. “Don’t be long.”
After two faltering steps, I scooped Olivia up, striding from the kitchen toward the stairs. My room was always stocked with clothes and bandages, and after we became engaged, I had clothes left here for Olivia as well. Her hand grasped the front of my shirt, her body burrowing closer to mine.
I was a fool, thinking I would see the attack coming, and prevent it. In my head, it was a male assassin coming for her, and that had left Olivia vulnerable. Rage burned deep in my stomach again, and I fought the urge to shoot something.
Setting her on the side of the sink unit, I took my jacket off her. The dress had been stunning earlier, hugging every curve, and making my pulse beat in my dick. I sliced the material up the side since she would never be wearing it again.
“My dress!” she tried to protest, her hand moving to prevent the dress from falling down.
“Is damaged,” I finished, pressing a kiss to her forehead. She stilled, her gaze moving to mine. “Let me see.”
Red welts covered her creamy skin, evidencing the brutality of the attack. She would be bruised everywhere tomorrow. I threw her shoes into the bedroom, and her stockings into the bin behind her dress, leaving Olivia in just her panties.
She sat while I washed her make-up off, pushing her hair back over her shoulders.
“She was trying to kill me,” she eventually said.
“You’re a Rossi. We’re not that easy to kill,” I replied.
“She had a knife,” Olivia said. “I need a knife.”
I stared down at her. “You don’t need a knife because you won’t be in that situation again. Security will be with you twenty-four hours a day.”
“I don’t need security, a knife will do.”
There was no point in arguing with her right now as she was talking out of fear. I’d get her a taser since it brought a person to their knees and gave you enough time to run. They came in pink nowadays, since that seemed to be one of the colours she favoured wearing.
I cupped her face in my hands, staring into her eyes. “This is my fault. I left you unprotected.”
“I’ve been going to the toilet by myself since I was two, I don’t need someone to accompany me now.”
“We thought there was a threat against you. Tonight, that has been verified, and now your security level has been increased.” I didn’t say anymore as my throat felt as if it was constricting.
“Can we go home?” Olivia asked. “I really just want a shower and to go to bed.”
“Everyone knows where Dad lives. I didn’t want them following us back to our house,” I replied.
“Do people have to see me like this?” Her hand indicated her body.
“Only Ben to check you wounds. I’ll get you some clothes.” When I went to walk away, her hand grabbed mine.
Her expression said everything, and I lifted her to bring her with me into the walk in wardrobe that had her clothes on one side.
“Who’s clothes are they?” Olivia asked, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Yours. I had them delivered a while ago since I have to stay here every so often,” I replied, grabbing a sweatshirt and leggings, bringing them to her. “It’s easier than having to pack a bag.”
I helped her dress, brushing her hair back and fastening it at the nape of her neck with a clip as I’d seen her do countless times in our home. Her hands were shaking too much to remove her earrings, so I took them out and left them in the top drawer that I kept my watches and cufflinks in.
“My necklace.” Her hand landed on her throat.
“In your handbag,” I replied, wandering into the bedroom to recover it and place it beside the earrings.
She looked too young sitting here pale and shaking, her bruising developing as I watched. Suddenly, I felt as if my skin was too tight, my muscles tense. I hauled my clothes off, and changed into jeans and a sweatshirt, my fingers through my hair combing it back.
“Ready to face the world?” I asked, my heart exploding when she started to cry.
I dealt with suffering and death. When I heard what Willow had endured, I joined Jordan and his merry band of misfits to eradicate the scum who had taken my sister, easing my anger one bullet at a time. Olivia crying was foreign territory, her huge eyes leaking her pain too much for me to bear.
She held her arms open, and suddenly, it all made sense.
I moved forward, wrapping my arms around her to hold her tightly against me, the smell of her hair invading my senses.
Olivia pressed herself into me, her tears soaking through my clothes.
A strange emotion gathered in my chest, a tightness that threatened to choke me.
Emotion didn’t sit well with me. To run our organisation, I needed to be cold as ice with no attachments that could hold me.
This woman held a power that I didn’t believe possible.
Normally, if someone had insulted our family, I would have been on the road hunting them down.
Tonight, I stood in a wardrobe, hugging a woman who every day took over my life a bit at a time.
She had been my obsession, and I had believed that when I had finally made her mine, the need inside me would settle.
It hadn’t.
Olivia was slowly becoming the new centre to my world, and the vulnerability she brought terrified me. I had cared for no one, and that had given me freedom to do what was needed to keep everyone else in our family safe.