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Rafe
“We have the warehouse surrounded. They are on the third floor,” my security guy said in my ear as I drew up outside the building where Hugh James had made the mistake that would cost him his life.
“Wait there for me. Only intervene if he goes to hurt her. I want to be there for his end,” I said viciously.
I entered the building, cocking my gun and climbing the stairs soundlessly. I could hear Hugh above, pacing and talking to someone on the phone. He was trying to skip the country. What an idiot.
I hid in the shadows beyond the door and looked inside. He had Elena tied up. Anger surged through me when I saw her position. What had the sick fuck been planning to do? Break both her legs? A cold fury like nothing I’d ever felt before filled me. Killing was too good for Hugh, and cutting his balls off had been too weak a warning. I’d hang him upside down and drain his blood slowly from a thousand cuts.
As I watched Elena, like an invisible string stretched between us, she turned and looked right at me. I felt the jolt of her eyes on me like touching an electrical wire. Her eyes widened, but that was the only sign of her acknowledgment. I felt a connection to that night on the stage, where she’d seemed to look right at me. From the very instant we’d met, we’d been fated. I’d recognize her in the darkest night, and I’d come for her in the fiercest storm. From this moment on, there was only her and I in this world.
Hugh snapped a curse into his phone and hung up on whoever it was, turning toward Elena. I could tell he meant violence with every line of his body. He started toward her, and I started toward him.
“I think we’re getting near that time, Elena. Time to kiss dancing goodbye,” he said, unaware of me until the very moment the cold reality of my muzzle pressed into the skin just under his ear.
"It’s you who’ll be kissing breathing goodbye,” I said in a lazy tone. “I’m a little disappointed, Hugh. You went to all this trouble to wait around and watch for Elena, and you’ve been caught so easily. You were a loser, right to the end.”
He had frozen when he felt my gun against him, and now, fury made him struggle. He turned, and I pistol-whipped him. He grunted and fell to his knees. Movies made these situations look glamorous, and the men in them skilled. The reality was most, like Hugh, were useless. Easily subdued and brought down. They weren’t strategic, and they certainly weren’t hardened criminals.
“Are you alright? Did he hurt you?” I asked Elena as I leveled my gun at Hugh’s kneeling form.
“Just my pride… and my neck. He injected me with something,” Elena said.
I nodded behind me to my team. Mafia minions flooded the room in their black suits and hard expressions. They hauled Hugh off the floor and away as I tucked my gun in my holster and went to Elena. I untied her carefully. None of my men dared to interfere. Giacomo hovered over my shoulder, clutching his doctor’s bag.
“Giacomo will check you out, and we’ll get you home. Everything will be alright, angel,” I murmured, smoothing her hair back from her face.
She looked at me with eyes filled with an emotion I couldn’t read.“I’m mad at you. This doesn’t change that,” she said flatly.
I nodded, as solemn as she was.“I know.”
“You’ve got explaining to do,” she continued.
I nodded again, lowering her legs to the floor and massaging her legs to bring the blood back.“I know,” I repeated. I picked up her hand from her lap and pressed a kiss on the back. “Forgive me, marry me, and I’ll explain everything as many times as you want,” I told her.
She blinked at me.“Marry you?”
“Marry me. I’ve already told Mauro that you will be the first Luciano bride. He gives us his blessing.”
Her pretty pink mouth dropped open in shock. I could see blood edging her lip at the corner. Hugh, that motherfucker.
“You think now is a good time to ask me to marry you? When I’m an emotional mess?” she asked, incredulous. “When will you stop trying to manipulate me?”
“When you marry me… then I’ll stop,” I vowed.
“Rafe, did you ever just think that being honest would get you exactly what you wanted?”
Her words were a gut punch. No. It didn’t occur to me. My mind was too twisted for that.“Be honest?” I echoed.
She nodded.
I steeled myself and went for it. “Honestly, I’m sure I’ve loved you from first sight. I knew I would make you mine. I wanted you from that first glimpse and never wavered. I would have done anything to keep you beside me, and when I say anything, there is no line a man like me wouldn’t cross, except for hurting you. Only you are my exception. But I know what I am and who I am. My hands will never be clean enough to touch you like you deserve, but bastard that I am, I don’t care. I’ll keep you anyway.”
That was the cold, hard truth. She was too good for me, too pure, too kind, and yet, in the end, I didn’t care. I would have her at all costs.
She considered my words, her eyes clear and peaceful. I reveled in the knowledge that I had made her safe. I had protected her, and I would spend the rest of my days doing so.
“Okay,” Elena suddenly said.
