Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 80550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
I glance at Matteo. “I couldn’t lose my mother. You have to understand.”
Matteo gulps, visibly shaken by my story.
“I had a lousy job as a cashier, so I could never pay him back. Lucio knew too, yet he gave me the money anyway. I thought it was from the good of his heart, but he had ill intentions, and I should’ve realized sooner. Apparently, one of his guys had talked to my mother and found out that my father was rich.”
I squeeze the blanket beneath my fingers. “He was extorting me. And when I told him I couldn’t pay it back, he threatened to kill me. The only way to survive was for me to tell him that my father would give him all the money he wanted as long as I found a husband. And Lucio inserted himself like the perfect boyfriend, forcing me to marry him so he could get his hands on my father’s wealth. And then you showed up …”
I bite my lip. “He won’t stop. He’ll never stop until he has me because he wants his money back, and then some.”
The panic begins to take hold of my body again as I shiver violently. Matteo grabs me and pulls me closer to him, squeezing me so tightly I can barely breathe.
“I’m sorry, Tesoro. If only I had known. If only I’d found you sooner. I would have helped you, no questions asked.”
More tears run down my cheeks, and the panic slowly begins to subside. Somehow, someway, Matteo always manages to calm me down. It’s as if being near him grounds me and makes me feel safe.
“You have to believe me, I say. “He will never stop.”
“I know, Tesoro. I just …” He sighs.
Suddenly, the door bursts open without even so much as a knock, and I scramble to grab the blanket and wrap it around my body before anyone sees me naked, while Matteo simply pulls up his underwear and sweatpants.
Franco barges in and stares at us for a good two seconds. “I’m so sorry, sir.”
“Goddammit, ever heard of knocking, Franco?” Matteo grumbles.
“I had to be quick. Lucio and his men are right outside the house.”
Matteo jolts up from the bed, and we both scream at the same time. “What?”
MATTEO
“Oh God, he’s here, as in right now?” Stella asks, the panic lacing her voice.
I throw the blanket off me, ignoring Franco’s judgmental glares as I swiftly put on a shirt and some shoes. I know I told him I would never fuck her, but here we are. It’s done, and I don’t regret it for a single second. And now that bastard Lucio came to ruin the party.
“How did he find us?” I growl.
“I don’t know,” Franco says. “One of our men noticed a car coming up the driveway and then multiple, all without license plates, and the colors and brand correspond to the ones in Lucio’s possession.”
“Fuck,” I growl.
While Franco isn’t looking, Stella swiftly puts on a pair of panties and one of my bathrobes.
I grab his arm and march out the door with him.
“Wait for me,” Stella says, and she chases us, but I would much rather she stay there.
I’m far too busy dealing with this mess. Now that he’s here to confront me, I have to get ready and set everything in motion. This is the first time the bastard has come right to me, but this is my playground. I won’t let him best me here.
“You never once gave him your address,” Franco says.
“No,” I say. “He must have tracked us down somehow.”
I make my way downstairs and run outside toward my garage, where my car is parked. It’s the only thing that makes sense, the only way he could have found us. I check under the car, rubbing past every ridge with my fingers until I finally find a small metallic object stuck to the left tire.
Fuck.
He tracked us all the way from the cemetery to my goddamn home.
“Goddammit,” I say, holding out my hand so Franco can see as well.
“Shit, I’m sorry, sir,” he mutters. “That’s why they ambushed you at the cemetery.”
“It was a distraction, and now they have us right where they want us. Vulnerable.”
Fuck that.
I crumble the tracker in the palm of my hand, but when I turn around, Stella is right there staring me down with a worried look on her face, and it stops me in my tracks.
Lucio is here, and he’s come for her.
“He tracked you, didn’t he?” she says, clutching the bathrobe tightly. “It’s my fault. If I hadn’t told you how distraught I was about my mother, you wouldn’t have taken me to the cemetery and risked that meeting.”
I shake my head and approach her, grabbing her face to make her look at me and to calm her down.
“It is not your fault, and I don’t want you to worry. I’ll handle this.”