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Disappointingly, I felt his mouth lift away, causing my eyes to open. The warmth of his breath caressed the responsive, swollen flesh he’d left behind, causing my breathing to falter at the sensitivity.
‘You’ll marry me, Serafina.’
It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t, surprisingly for a man like Salvatore, even a demand. It was more of an acknowledgement of our destiny.
‘Yes,’ I answered him with a clarity I’d never heard before in my voice.
He bestowed me with one of his rare smiles and I reciprocated as the noise above us intensified.
‘Let her go, De Luca,’ Alessio shouted out with forcefulness, from the direction of the terrace.
I smiled at Salvatore in reassurance. I completely understood how our embrace, with me only wearing my swimming suit, would look to anyone, let alone one of my big, very protective brothers. Salvatore, in response, stiffened in my arms as he stared up and over my shoulder.
Without warning, the sound of someone in acute pain reached us, breaking through the perfect day we’d only just created. The feeling of being complete and in the arms of the man that I knew I would love forever shattered around me, as I comprehended that the continual screaming that I could hear could only be coming from my mum. A loud bang sounding out from behind me shook me out of the dream I’d allowed myself to slip into.
‘Put the gun down, Alessio.’ I felt the words as Salvatore’s deep voice echoed inside of his chest.
A gun?
I spun around quickly in Salvatore’s arms and his arms refastened tightly around me, as he protected and sheltered me against his body.
‘No, Alessio,’ fell rapidly from my lips as I attempted to calm the situation down. All I needed to do was to explain we wanted to be married. All he had to do was listen to me. It was all a misunderstanding, I was sure.
‘Move away, Sera.’
‘No, please, just listen to me for a minute,’ I implored, as I offered him a smile.
I found myself shaking my head in disbelief, when I recognised that my brother hadn’t heard a word I’d just spoken. Alessio had now reached the beach and continued to point the gun at the man behind me with a look of determination on his face and cold, hard hatred in his eyes.
‘ALESSIO!’ I screamed at him trying to attract his attention.
‘If you want to live, let my sister go.’
‘If you know what’s good for you, Giordano… don’t make demands of me.’ Laughter left Salvatore, reverberating through me, and chilling me to the bone.
What on earth is happening?
‘Papa, Papa,’ I shouted out, hoping to get the help I needed to calm my brother down as I stared at the edge of the terrace waiting for him to appear.
Finally, Alessio’s eyes came to find mine.
‘It’s no use, Serafina… you won’t find him there… and maybe he’ll never be there again.’
‘I don’t understand.’ Even in the warmth of Salvatore’s embrace, my body began to inadvertently shiver.
‘Then, allow me… while you’ve been giving De Luca all of you, our papa is fighting for his life. I came back here to take you all to the hospital… and I findyouwith him.’ Pain attached itself to my brother’s handsome features.
‘No. That can’t be...’ Fear seized me as I imagined how it would feel to not have my dearest papa in my life. The image filling my head was my papa on his knees as he showed me his love and adoration on the day of my communion.
‘It’s the truth. Today, the bastard behind you, holding you in his arms, was also responsible for our brother’s death.’
‘Zeno’s dead?’ I felt my mouth open and close as I gulped in air, trying to calm down my reaction to what he’d just imparted.
Alessio nodded as I moved my eyes to once again stare at the edge of the terrace, willing my papa to appear. When he didn’t, I looked down to my hands which had tightened their grip on the heavily tattooed forearms wrapped around me.
‘You won’t kill me, Alessio.’ Salvatore spoke with absolute confidence.
‘Don’t be so fucking sure,’ Alessio spat back.
