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“Find her,” I said, replacing the magazine in my gun. “And bring me Byrne.”
Allegra
My face throbbed. The tender tissues around my eyes swelled, and the hinge of my jaw ached with the slightest movement. I tenderly touched my cheek, feeling the heat in my flesh.
After they’d thrown me into a vehicle, I’d had to listen to Byrne plot the demise of my husband. The house in the Hills would leave Byrne vulnerable to attack, whereas his fortified mansion would give him the advantage.
They expected Marco to negotiate for me. To give up his interests to the Irish, but Luca was the negotiator. Marco would come in scorched earth.
That was if he listened to Knox.
“He’ll agree or I’ll ship his wife home to him in pieces,” Byrne said to Ryan. I sat on a chair in a ground floor room in Byrne’s mansion.
Ryan stood in front of a wall of monitors. Images throughout the house and property were displayed on the closed-circuit surveillance system. Another guard stood in the doorway.
“Bruno will be cautious. Allow him to get close to the house before making a move. I don’t want him getting away.”
“He won’t be alone,” Ryan said.
“He’s the only one I care about. Cut the others down like the dogs they are.”
Tightness coiled around my chest. I had no way to warn Marco. I could only imagine what he must be thinking. How much had Knox told him?
God, I wanted to see him one more time, to tell him the truth, to trust him with all my secrets. But just as I’d once told him, after a secret was exposed it was too late to confess.
Marco was brutal and brilliant. But I couldn’t squash the fear simmering in my belly. Every inch of the estate was under surveillance. Byrne would see him coming, be able to lure Marco in, because of me.
Byrne sat across from me, reached out, and touched my face. “We have unanswered questions between us.”
A tide of panic surged through me. His touch twisted my guts, forcing bile into my throat. This man preyed on young girls. Just breathing the same air as him made me sick.
“And what would those questions be?” I asked.
“How did you know where to find your sister?”
The lie formed instantly. “She tells me everything.”
“And you allow her to meet online friends?”
“If you drugged my sister, you know you don’t allow her to do anything. That’s why I have tracking on her.”
He laughed and leaned back in the chair. “And you came alone, with none of your father’s soldiers, and without your husband?”
I shrugged, although my nerves felt like live electrical wires. “I can admit my mistake. I didn’t see you as much of a threat. You’re Irish.”
The reaction was instant. His hand connected with the side of my head. The force of the hit tumbled me off the chair. I scrambled to my hands and knees and crawled.
“Words can end your life.”
So could my knife if I stabbed it into his neck.
Grasping a handful of my hair, he tightened his fist and jerked me to my knees. I snapped my hands to my head, trying to keep him from ripping the hair from my scalp.
“You look good on your knees. Maybe we should allow your husband to find you with your mouth full of my cock.”
I’d bite. I’d fight. No one would ever touch me except Marco.
He jerked my head back, forcing me to look up into his face. “A beautiful Italian whore.”
