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“Come with me.” He grabbed for her again, this time snagging her wrist.
“No. Let go of me!” she cried, projecting her voice louder than necessary. For who? Massioni and his goons? “I said stay away from me!”
“Listen to me, damn it.” Savage took hold of her shoulders and forced her to meet his gaze. “I’m trying to save you, Bella.”
She scoffed brittly. “You can’t save me. No one can.”
Christ, she really believed that. He knew her too well to think otherwise. He’d always been able to read her emotions in her eyes, in that lovely face that had haunted his dreams for longer than he cared to admit.
When she tried to break loose from his hold, he realized there was only one way he would be able to get her out of the villa without fighting her every step of the way.
She might hate him even more for this, but he had no choice either. He wasn’t about to leave her behind.
Laying his palm against her forehead, he tranced her into an immediate and deep sleep.
She no sooner sagged into his arms than the door to her quarters burst open and two armed guards filled the space.
Savage was crouched low, having just guided Bella’s limp body to rest on the rug. His weapon was already drawn and ready as the pair of Breed males crashed into the room. He dropped them both with sniper precision, squeezing off two headshots that nailed each guard between the eyes.
There would be more behind them. By the sound of the chaos unraveling all around the villa now, Savage expected he’d have to take on Massioni’s entire army of thugs as soon as he stepped out of the room.
Fortunately, he had another plan.
Lifting Bella over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, he dashed to the other side of her suite where a large window overlooked the circular driveway below. A handful of armed guards scurried across the cobbled bricks, some heading into the mansion as backup while others fanned out to patrol the surrounding grounds.
The odds of getting past the security detail down there weren’t great, but they were a hell of a lot better than charging into the fray inside the villa.
Lifting the glass with a mental command, he swung his legs over the sill, then dropped to the ground with Bella held securely in his arms.
He threw another psychic order at the nearest vehicle, smiling to himself when the V12 engine of the blue Pagani rumbled to life. The gullwing doors lifted and Savage hurried over to slip Bella into the passenger seat and fasten her in.
One of the perimeter patrol guards spotted him and shouted the alarm to the others. Bullets rang out from all directions. Savage dodged the incoming fire, diving into the driver’s seat of the sleek sports car and dropping the doors. Throwing the vehicle into gear, he sped away from the villa just as Massioni and several of his lieutenants came pouring out behind him.
Savage already had the detonator in hand, the safety switched off.
He pushed the trigger on it, watching in the rearview mirror as a sudden fireball ignited and the whole place exploded against the night sky. The percussion made the Pagani jump on the pavement, but he held the wheel and pushed the pedal to the floor.
He couldn’t deny his satisfaction at seeing the fiery plume and cloud of black, roiling smoke behind him. He only hoped the explosives did the job as intended. Ordinarily, he’d stick around to make sure his target was neutralized, but not tonight.
Not with precious cargo in tow.
His gaze strayed to Bella. Slumped in her red silk gown on the seat beside him, she slept as peacefully as a kitten, her mind still caught in the web of the trance he’d placed on her. The urge to touch her was too much to resist. Reaching over, he smoothed an errant blonde tendril from her cheek.
Damn, she was even lovelier than he recalled. No longer the coltish Breedmate girl who’d been his best friend’s sister. No longer the tomboy teenager who used to delight in racing through the cultivated fields of her family’s vineyard, but a twenty-eight-year-old woman with a refined beauty that stirred everything male in him.
Not to mention his blood.
Memories of a night ten years ago came to life in his mind in vivid, erotic detail. Her warm, naked skin against his. Her sweet, breathless cries as he tasted every virgin inch of her beautiful body.
Her trusting, open-hearted gaze as he made love to her for the first—and only—time.
How she must have hated him…after.
He’d despised himself enough for both of them. If he’d been in the least to blame for pushing Bella toward another man—especially one like Vito Massioni—he would never forgive himself.
And if he wanted to pretend he had forgotten her even for a moment during the past decade, seeing her beside him now was as if all that time had simply evaporated.
He didn’t know what he was going to do with her now. She sure as fuck hadn’t been part of the equation when he’d set out on tonight’s mission, but seeing her again had changed everything. Once he had spotted her inside the villa, nothing would have kept him from making sure she was safe.
