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“Who was that?” I finally manage, “and why were they in my home?”
“I don’t know but when I find out, I’ll string the bastardo up by his toes and bleed the life out of him.” He still stares down the street as if he could somehow shoot bullets from that terrifying glare.
A chill races up my spine at the venom in his tone. But what’s more disturbing is the pleasure I derive from the promise. If anyone can protect me, it’s Nico Rossi.
What if he hadn’t been here? What if I’d been all alone asleep upstairs?
That panic rises anew, and ice crystalizes through my veins. A shudder sends a tremor coursing through my entire body, and it’s so violent Nico must feel it. He spins toward me and yanks me against his chest. Despite the hard planes, I sink into his embrace and revel in the security of his muscled arms. “I promise no one will ever hurt you again. You’re mine, little fox, and no one touches what’s mine and continues to draw breath.”
I should be insulted because I am a strong, independent woman and I don’t belong to anyone. But my feminist streak is currently in hiding because gosh darn it, someone just broke into my house and scared the bejesus out of me!
A long moment later, he releases me, and I hate how my body reacts to the absence of his.
“Come, sit down over here where I can see you. I need to check the rest of the house.” His hand wraps around mine, and he tows me to the living room sofa. I perch on the edge of the cushion, ready to leap up if a shadowy figure emerges from a closet. With gun cocked at the ready, Nico searches the rest of the first floor, every creak of the old wooden planks elevating my racing pulse.
When he disappears behind the staircase, my gaze bounces between the area he vanished behind and the front door. A flash of yellow beneath the entrance table catches my eye. An envelope?
Slowly, I stand, gathering my nerves as I creep toward the note as if any sudden movement could set it off. Crouching down on the floor, I reach for the envelope with trembling fingers. I draw in a deep breath before yanking the flap open.
A picture slides out, one I know so well it has bile oozing up my throat. Jasper and I on our wedding day. He’s drawn a heart around our heads in black marker and across the bottom in his typically eligible scrawling just one word. Soon.
“Maisy?” Nico appears around the corner, and the picture slips through my fingertips. “What is it?”
I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes. I thought it was over. I thought I was finally rid of the man who’d ruined my life. But I was stupid to think he’d give up so easily.
Nico snatches the picture from the floor and releases another string of Italian curses.
“It’s Jasper,” I murmur. “He’s back and he wants me.”
CHAPTER 20
AN IMPOSSIBLE ULTIMATUM
Nico
Fuck. Why had I let that pezzo di merda escape? I’d had him in my grasp for weeks, using him to scare my half-brother’s girl and to keep Dante so busy he wouldn’t notice as Gemini Corp stepped in and stole everything away from the King’s. It had worked perfectly.
Now the same bastardo had turned on me? Talk about fucking irony.
I tear the picture of Maisy and Jasper in half then rip his half into tiny pieces. Much like I’ll do with his body when I find him. “Pack a bag,” I bark at Maisy.
“Wh—what?”
“You’re not staying here by yourself with your ex on the loose.”
She eyes me warily. “So where am I staying?”
“With me, of course.”
“Ha, I don’t think so.” She plants her hands on her hips and glares up at me.
“This is not a discussion, and I was not asking.”
“You aren’t the boss of me!”
A smirk curves the corner of my lip despite the irritation. “Little fox, if I have to, I will throw you over my shoulder and stuff you into the trunk of my car, but I can tell you one thing for certain, I am not leaving this house without you.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she hisses.
