Chapter Twenty-Three #3
Rocco’s face reddened, his mouth twisting as those around the room laughed.
He was supposed to be a businessman, but anytime I had had the displeasure of encountering him speaking to my brother, his breath smelt of sour alcohol, and his comments were always a sexual slur that left you feeling like you needed to step into the shower to wash it off yourself.
“My sister always seems to be worth twenty million,” Roberto muttered, glaring at me.
“If you wanted me dead, you could have smothered me in our childhood,” I replied sweetly to annoy him. “We’re family, and as much as we dislike each other, I know you only have my best interests at heart.”
It was a lie, he would have sold me off to the highest bidder, and allowed them to beat and rape me every night.
Roberto continued to glare at me while sipping his drink.
Someone in this room had instructed that woman to kill me at the opera. There was a sick fucker here who would happily see me dead just to annoy Maximus, and that left me chilled to the core.
“If they had any balls at all, they’d challenge me to a fight to the death, and let us sort this dispute like men,” Maximus concluded, fixing every man in the room with his steely stare.
“Now that I know what you’ve done, I will hunt you down until you wish you had never been born.
” He lifted his glass in a silent salute, every eye in the room on him.
Maximus turned his back to the room, and continued his conversation with Giovanni and Gabriel as if nothing had happened. I heard whispers from different corners of the room as everyone gathered began to discuss the sudden announcement.
“Was the threat not supposed to be a secret?” Gabriel asked in a low tone.
Maximus shrugged one shoulder. “I needed their attention for a moment or two.”
“I’ll not ask,” Gabriel replied, and lifted a hors d'oeuvres from the tray, and popped it in his mouth. “These are excellent. Maria would be impressed, and she is the best baker I know.”
I turned around slowly to glance around the room. Lucio was on his phone, speaking to someone rapidly. Dread unfurled in my stomach at the image of Poppy being hunted down like a fox being chased down by dogs. I pretended to people watch while monitoring the situation.
Lucio was becoming more animated, pointing toward the door as he spoke to the group he stood among.
A woman in the same group as Lucio wandered across the room, her face like thunder at whatever had been asked from her.
Lucio typed on his phone, his face pinched with anger.
The dark-haired woman returned a few minutes later, shaking her head.
I leaned closer to Maximus when Lucio looked in our direction, and began to stomp across the room. Before he reached us, Maximus turned rapidly, pushing me behind him.
“Lucio,” he drawled. “How can I help you?”
“Where the fuck is my wife?” Lucio demanded.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you feeling okay?”
Lucio pointed his finger directly at Maximus’ face. “Poppy would never disobey me or leave without my permission without your influence.”
Maximus slapped his finger away. “You’re drunk, and I would advise you to go home and sleep it off. I haven’t left this room all night, so maybe you could rewind, and tell me what the fuck is going on. Have you lost my little sister?”
Lucio seemed to realise the mistake he had made, glancing around before returning his attention to Maximus. “She went to the toilet and isn’t there now.”
“Which toilet?” Maximus demanded, taking control of the situation, sliding his phone from his pocket. “Jake, Poppy is missing. I need a team to check every bathroom on this floor.”
More people gathered around us, and Lucio seemed confused. “Did Maximus leave the ballroom?” he asked Papa and Roberto.
“He hasn’t moved from this area,” Papa confirmed. “Whatever has happened, Maximus hasn’t even used his phone.”
“Have you tried phoning her?” I asked. “She may have stepped out onto a balcony for some fresh air.” Both Lucio and I knew Poppy didn’t have a mobile phone since he had confiscated it.
“I’ll check the balconies,” Gabriel said, moving away with the lithe grace of an apex predator.
“Tell us what happened,” Giovanni said, nodding to one of the officials who had appeared, and they manifested a chair for Lucio to sit in.
Lucio trailed his fingers through his hair, and looked around those gathered. “She went to the toilet. Roxanne just checked and she isn’t there.”
I opened my bag and deliberately dialled Poppy’s number. Her familiar ringtone sounded from Lucio’s pocket.
“What are you doing?” Lucio snapped.
“Trying to reach Poppy, but her phone seems to be in your pocket,” I replied, pointing to where the noise was coming from. “Did she not have a bag with her?”
No one travelled without a phone nowadays, and everyone was looking at Lucio with suspicion. I could only hope that Poppy had had time to escape and find somewhere to hide.
“She handed it to me earlier, and I must have put it in my pocket,” Lucio deflected.
Maximus’ phone rang, and he held it to his ear. I heard the faint echo of Jake’s voice. “All toilets clear. What the fuck is happening?”
“No idea,” Maximus replied, watching Lucio. “Tell our men to spread out, and find what has happened to my sister.”
“Roger that.”
Maximus hung up without a reply. “Close this room down,” he instructed. “No one in or out until we find what has happened to Poppy.”
The officials snapped into action. Maximus was giving Poppy as much time as possible.
“Check the CCTV,” Lucio said, springing into action, and waving his arms around.
“It is turned off after the floor is searched,” one of the officials replied. “That rule was set in place many years ago.”
In other words, the men gathered here didn’t want people to know who they were; and if anything illegal happened, it wasn’t recorded.
“Are you fucking serious?” Lucio demanded.
The official nodded solemnly. “Hotel security is put to a minimum for these events. We have our own security to ensure privacy.”
I hadn’t known any of this, and every single one of their rules benefitted Poppy. I only hoped that she had used the card to get away.
“Do you think this is connected to the threat against me?” I asked, pouring fuel on the conspiracy flames. “Poppy is a Rossi by birth.”
Giovanni instantly grasped hold of the situation, barking out orders, and effectively putting the Rossi family in the middle of the “rescue”.
“I think maybe we should all take our women home to safety, and then reconvene while our teams search for Poppy,” Maximus said. “If there are enemies in this hotel, I would feel happier with Olivia at home.”
Other men nodded their agreement around the room. It was one matter killing each other, and an entirely different matter targeting the mother of their children.
“Lucio, we’ll meet at Dad’s house in an hour,” Maximus added. “Jake already has our teams out on the ground. They were already on high alert after the risk on Olivia.”
The people who had been with Lucio began to gather around us, trying to soothe him.
“Since we’re family, and my sister has been targeted, we’ll join you,” Roberto said, his hawk-like gaze watching everything, and knowing there was a benefit to him being involved. “I’ll get my contacts to put their ears to the ground, somebody will have heard something.”
Maximus nodded slowly. “Let’s bring her home safely.” He grabbed my hand, spun on his heel, and walked toward the exit. He was about to stop for my cloak, but I squeezed his hand, and without missing a beat he continued to walk.
My heart beat wildly in my chest in a staccato beat which signalled my deception. The number on the elevator counted down, and I felt as if I was delving into the depths of Hell.
“Say nothing,” Maximus said when we got into the car and the doors closed.
I sat with my hands clasped on my lap, staring straight ahead. Every scenario raced through my head at the same speed Maximus sped through the streets, disregarding the speed limits.
It was only when his car pulled into Giovanni’s estate that he spoke. “Do you know where she is?” he asked.
“No. I told her to take my cloak and gave her some personal protection and my black card. I told her to only phone the houseline here as cell phones aren’t always secure.”
“You done this before?” Maximus asked.
“No, but Caine prepared me for the darker parts of life,” I replied. “He taught me never to become a victim, and find a different solution to my problem.”
“Wise man,” Maximus commented. “Lucio will have activated her tracker by now, so we’re running short of time.”
“I gave her the mini blocker you gave me weeks ago. I always keep it in my bag with my taser and mace.”
He pulled up outside the house. “Finally, a use for a handbag.”
“Mama keeps a spare pair of panties in hers, since she says you never know when you’ll need them,” I replied.
“No comment.” Maximus got out of the car, and came around to open my door. I could barely keep up with his pace as he took the steps two at a time on the way up the staircase.
Athena appeared in the hall, but Maximus nodded her toward the library. He already had his phone to his ear as the door closed.
“Keep our people out, but I need you back as soon as you can get here,” Maximus said, hanging up. “Bring Mum up-to-date while I use the secure computer.”
This office was the most information secure room in the house, a computer built into the shelving unit to the side of the room. I briefly outlined what had happened in the ladies toilet before we had returned to join the men.
“I have people I trust looking for her,” Athena said, squeezing my hand. “You did so well tonight with limited time.”
“Most of our men are out on the ground, so we’ll need to lock this house down,” Maximus said, glancing over his shoulder.
“I have no idea what that means,” I replied.
“He means to go change into something comfortable, and pack a bag. We are about to be locked in the basement that Giovanni had converted into a saferoom,” Athena explained.
I opened my mouth to argue that I suffered from claustrophobia, and hated anywhere that didn’t have windows and the ability to look outside. Maximus crossed the room in a heartbeat, his hand clasping the side of my face.
“Don’t break on me now, Livvie. You need to remain strong, and I’ll put you back together again later.” His voice was deep and hypnotic, washing over me in reassuring waves. He pressed a kiss to the middle of my forehead before turning away, dismissing me.
My feet felt heavy as I walked up to our room, and I lost track of time sitting on the side of the bed, staring at the bag containing a change of clothes, my phone, and some odds and ends that I threw in because I didn’t know how long we were going to be locked up for.
The closing of a door made my head snap up.
“Mum’s waiting for you downstairs,” Maximus said, his hands shoved into his pockets, and his tie long forgotten. His hair looked as if he had repeatedly ran his fingers through it.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered, the fear from being locked in a dark room by Roberto resurfacing. He always found punishments that didn’t leave bruises.
His feet appeared in front of me. Maximus grabbed my hands and tugged me to my feet, his gaze boring into my soul when I looked up.
“You can do this,” he replied. “You have always been the strongest woman I know. It’s the reason I married you, because the woman who stands at my side needs to be strong.”
I didn’t want to be strong anymore, and was tired trying to hold this fa?ade of happily married in place. Sex had plastered over the cracks created by a loveless marriage, and since my attack, those cracks had become more pronounced. Perhaps I should have taken the advice I had given Poppy and run?
Mama had looked happy in the pictures from the start of her marriage, but that expression had slowly changed as she realised her fate over the years. At least she had had a few years of being blissfully unaware, I had walked into this marriage knowing Maximus didn’t love me.
It finally hit me today.
I had been a fool.
I had fallen in love with my husband, and he would never love me.