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“Fuck no,” I snarl, and he laughs cruelly before spitting in Francesca’s face. “Don’t you dare touch her.”
I fire off a shot just as another one rings out in the room.
“Fuck!” I rush forward, falling to my knees beside Francesca as chaos erupts all around us.
“Francesca!”
I’m so messed up from what just happened, I can barely keep it together long enough to check her pulse. It’s there, faint, but there.
I keep checking her for gunshots but save for the cuts those bastards gave her, her skin is unmarked. With a groan of relief, I untie the ballgag and gently pull her into my arm.
Antonio lies groaning on the ground, nursing his arm, which hangs broken by his body. I shot him through his shoulder.
“You said alive, right?” I hiss at Santino.
“Yeah.”
I fire off another shot into Antonio’s knee, making him snarl with pain. “That’s for hurting my fucking girl. Rot in hell, you sick fuck.”
I carry Francesca out of there, breathing heavily as I finally compose myself. She’s hurt, but she’s going to be okay. And after this, I’m never letting her get hurt again.
She opens her eyes again an hour later in the car ride home. I cradle her in my arms while a medic uses antiseptic on her cuts. He tells me they’ll scar, but don’t need stitches. I’m seething with anger at the bastards who did this.
“Where am I?” Francesca mutters as her grey eyes fly open, zeroing in on me. “Julian?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” I mutter. “We just got out of the Gatto. You were there with Antonio Brambilla.”
“Fuck...” She picks herself up and I wrap her tighter in the blanket we covered her with. “What did he do to me?”
“They cut you,” I grunt. “Did they do anything else?”
She touches her messy brown curls and groans, shaking her head. “I don’t think so. But I know they wanted to. They were talking about it. I passed out from fear a few times.”
My fists clench beside my body, but I force myself to nod in understanding. “You’re going to be okay, and that’s the only thing that matters. They got Antonio.”
“Thank Dio,” she mutters. “And Miss Ricci?”
“Her as well,” I nod, repeating the information I just got from Bruno a few minutes ago. “They arrested her at home. They’re hoping you can testify against her.”
She nods, making the smallest smile crack my lips. She’s so brave, my little toy.
“But I still don’t understand what you were doing there,” I tell her. “How did you get to the Gatto?”
“You don’t know?” There’s a hint of sadness in her eyes, and I knit my brows together in worry.
“What do you mean?”
“Your...” she swallows thickly as if the words are difficult to get out. “Bruno told me to go there. He told me I owed him for the scholarship he got me.”
I’m so angry I feel like I’m about to explode. “Bruno sent you there? Bruno organized this?”
“I thought you knew,” she mutters weakly.
“If I had, I would’ve never let it happen,” I grit out. “He had to know you were going to get hurt. How could he do that?”
“He’s a ruthless man, Julian,” Francesca mutters, huddling closer to me. “I thought you knew that.
And you’re not as unlike him as you may think.”
“I’m not like him,” I hiss. “I would never hurt someone innocent.”
“If you say so.” She gives me a doubtful look, but settles against my chest. “What about the student Miss Ricci was having an affair with?”
I stiffen next to her. Fuck. I didn’t know she knew about Marianna and me.
“They caught him at her home,” Santino mutters distractedly from beside us. “It was a housemate of yours, Julian. Marco something.”
I’m shocked at this revelation, but I react with a simple nod, not revealing how I truly feel.
“Good,” I mutter. “Finally, justice is going to be served. We waited a long time for this moment.”
21
FRANCESCA
We’re in Julian’s campus home now, and for once, I feel safe. How strange that the man beside me is the one I used to hate most.
I don’t know what happened to the rest of the guys beside Marco, but we have the house to ourselves.
After making sure I get the medical attention I need, Julian doesn’t leave my side. He makes sure I eat and drink, then get some rest. When I wake up tossing and turning in the middle of the night, he’s right next to me, telling me everything’s going to be okay.
“Do you feel better?” Julian whispers in the shell of my ear as I cuddle closer to him.
“Yes,” I whisper, nodding. I do feel better, though I doubt I’ll ever be able to erase what happened at Gatto from my mind.
What those men did to me was sick, and I’m still struggling with the thought that Bruno Bernardi handled it. I was used as bait, and it worked - except the sharks got their teeth into me before I was pulled from the water by Julian.
