My sister stared at him, her face pale, her lips parted slightly like she wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words. Perhaps it was fear that stopped her, or maybe she was just coming to the understanding that the Feras weren’t the people she thought they were.
“Cesare,” Brenno growled, but it made no difference, nothing did, not until Fiorella’s small hand shot out and gripped his wrist where it was still wrapped around my windpipe.
“Look at me,” she demanded, her voice trembling, and to my surprise, he did, loosening his hand enough for my eyes to stop spotting. “I think you’re not well again, Cesare. This isn’t you. This isn’t the man that Bella loves. This isn’t the man who’s been holding me together!Let me help you, okay? We’ll talk about it like we did last time.”
I frowned at that, so did Cesare, but it didn’t feel like in the same way I did. I was confused, but what Fiorella said hadreached him somewhere deep inside. The color returned to his eyes and he blinked at her, letting go of my throat. Air and life flooded into my throat and I choked on it, forgetting how to breathe as it forced me to slump forward, almost into where Fiore had taken Cesare into her arms.
My lungs burned, but my heart burned hotter.
My sister had betrayed me for these people, for the people who were trying to hurt my husband, the people who had hurtme, and she clearly thought she lovedthem.
She was choosing them over me.
“Are you okay?” she whispered to me over Cesare’s shoulder where he was murmuring nonsense into her neck like a fucking madman.
I coughed, my body feeling raw and used, even by her. “Go to hell, Fiorella.”
Her eyes lined with tears, but she didn’t seek anyone out other than the crazy, insane nutcase holding her like she was his lifeline to whatever shred of humanity remained. The way they clung to one another was sickening.
“Sicily,” Brenno said, holding my sister’s phone so I could see the screen. “Where is this?”
I narrowed my eyes at the blinking spot that had Bella’s nametag on it, but I felt them spring open again when the map showed me somewhere far too familiar. “She’s at Milan’s garage.”
“Hiswhat?”Brenno frowned.
“Exactly what I said.” I glared. “He fixes cars there.” I panted to get more air into my lungs as I spoke. “That’s where she is.”
What the hell was Milan thinking?
MILAN
“What were you thinking?”I snapped at Oratio as he thrust a bound, gagged, and bleeding Bella Fera toward me.
I caught her with my fingers covered in car oil, attempting not to malfunction or trip over several vehicle parts and wires as she cried, and Oratio laughed as though he was deranged.
“We couldn’t get close enough to the house, but she was leaving.” Oratio grinned, gesturing to the small woman. “I found her alone. I justtook herbefore she got anywhere near all those guards. Say ‘thank you, Oratio’.Now you have leverage.”
Bella shivered in my hands, but it was not cold in the garage; the machinery made it too warm. I was simply lucky that all of my men had gone home, and they did not scare her worse.
I removed her gag, some old piece of graying fabric, instantly. “Are you all right?”
She shook her head, and I did not know what I had expected, but it made my chest hurt. She looked vulnerable and soft, a lot like my wife when Sicily allowed herself to be considered in such a way. These women were innocent, yet they were being treated as though they were not.
A breath escaped my lips as I removed her bindings, soothing the red gashes on her wrist bones. She did not run, and I could do nothing else but pull her into my chest to allow her to remember that I had a heart.
I turned to Oratio. “Go and find Adriano and Francesco. Tell them I am here and what you have done.” He nodded at my command, but I gripped his bicep before he could leave. “If anything happens to my wife because of this,youwill be held responsible.”
Bella clung to the front of my shirt, exhaustion causing her to find rest in the arms of who she believed to be her enemy.
“I apologize, Bella,” I said honestly once Oratio had left. I guided her to a small bench, crouching to show that she was above me. “This was not supposed to happen. Nobody will harm you here.”
She nodded, but her tears would not stop. “I-I was going to an appointment.” She hiccupped, her fingers hiding inside her sleeves.
The relevance of this fact confused me, but I nodded to show that I was interested, that I cared.
“I was bleeding a little. Well, a lot.” Her sobbing began again, and my stomach began to hurt. “It’s kind of normal for me, I get stressed, and with Cesare being like he is… I didn’t tell them because—because they’d be so sad if I lost the baby, and I can’t do it again?—”
She looked so young like this, clinging to my shirt as if I could fix what she had just said, as if I was capable of undoing what Oratio had done.
