The room swirled around me.
“She didn’t want to,” Ariana said quickly. “But Father wasn’t going to stop with just the one woman. He was going to let all of them rape you. Then Father partly reneged on that deal when he let that first woman finish...you. And he sent Gio and David Bonello up to Scotland to threaten her. That’s why she told you that lie about Dante to get you back here. Because they told her if she didn’t, they were going to do to her what father had done to that girl Vittoria all those years ago. And they were going to make you watch.”
I stumbled back until I hit my desk and leaned against the solid surface. Everything suddenly made sense. How strange Natalie had been acting after that counseling session in Edinburgh. Those bruises on her breast. How nervous she’d been when we’d gone to my parents’ for dinner that first night. Even her playing nice with my family.
“Luc.” Ariana stepped toward me. “She’s not afraid of what they may do to her. She’s more scared of what that would do to you. That’s why she didn’t tell you about Gio harassing her. She doesn’t even know I’m here now telling you all this. When I left her, she was beside herself, afraid of how you’d react to her bruises. She’s desperate to keep you from losing it with Gio or Father because she doesn’t want anything to happen to you. Please don’t be mad at her. All this time, all she’s been doing is trying to protect you.”
I knew that. My mouth was so dry I couldn’t form words. And my chest was on fire, knowing she was dealing with all this on her own, unable to tell me because she was afraid I would lose my shit for good.
I wanted to. Oh, I wanted to hunt down my brother and his friend and stab stakes right through their twisted black hearts. But I needed to get to Natalie more.
“Where is she? Is she at our villa?”
“Yes.”
“And where’s Giovanni?”
“He’s at the family estate. He knows not to go onto Marco’s property.”
That was the only rule Giovanni apparently obeyed.
I pushed away from the desk and moved past Ariana for the door.
“Where are you going?” she called after me.
“To make sure my wife is okay. Then I’m going to shake some sense into her.”
Ariana rushed to my side and grabbed my arm. “You promised you wouldn’t get mad. Luc, she—”
“Merda. I wasn’t serious about shaking her.” I gentled my voice as I looked down at my sister. “Though I might give her a serious spanking for going into Florence today without telling me.”
“I do not want to know about your kinky sex life.”
“Then let go of my arm so you don’t have to.”
She looked down at her hand on my arm and bit her lip. “Luc—”
“It’s okay, Ariana. I’m not mad at her, I promise. I know what she did, she did because she loves me. Now can I please go tell her that so she can stop keeping things from me?”
“What about Giovanni?”
I clenched my jaw. It nearly killed me, but I said, “I’ll deal with Giovanni later. You stay away from him, you hear me? And don’t you dare go anywhere near Bonello.”
“I won’t.” She let go of my arm. “I know who and what he is.”
I kissed her on the forehead, then rushed down the stairs.
As I climbed into my car and tore away from the winery, I clenched the wheel and told myself Giovanni and Bonello would get theirs soon enough. Right now, the only thing that mattered was Natalie.
I shoved the car into Park next to Natalie’s vehicle forty-five minutes later and killed the ignition. After jogging up the front steps of the villa, I shoved my hip against the door and pushed it open as I called, “Natalie?”
The living room was empty. I rounded the corner and stepped into the bedroom, only it was empty too. “Angioletto?”
I check the bathroom, the laundry room, then cut through the kitchen but still saw no sign of her. Pushing the screen door to the patio open in case she was lounging out by the lake, I stepped outside, only to stop and scan the area because it too was quiet and empty.
The hair on my nape tingled, but I knew she hadn’t gone far. Heading around the side of the villa, I jogged up the drive until I reached the main house and rang the doorbell.
Caprice pulled the door open and eyed me like a spider she wanted to flick into the shrubbery. “You are here to see Mr. Marco and Miss Felicity?”
Wherever Felicity was, that was where I was sure I’d find Natalie. “Yeah.”
She stepped back to let me in.
Voices echoed from the back of the house where the kitchen was located, and I headed that way without waiting for Caprice to announce me.
Marco turned from the counter where he was chopping vegetables and looked up as I entered the room. At the table, where she was kicked back with her feet up and a glass of wine in her hand, Felicity smiled in my direction. “Hey. Didn’t think we’d see you tonight. Did you bring Natalie?”
“She’s not already here?”
“No.” Felicity’s feet hit the floor and she stood, her brow in an immediate furrow. “Was she supposed to be?”
My mind spun. It was possible she could have gone for a walk, but according to Ariana, she’d been pretty banged up. I couldn’t see her going for a walk in her condition.
I looked to Marco, who’d set his knife down and was rubbing his hands on a towel. “Did she borrow the golf cart?”
“Not that I’m aware.”
That meant the hot springs were out. She wouldn’t have walked that far even if she’d wanted to soak her sore muscles. But her car had been in front of the villa, so she hadn’t left the property.
“Luc.” Marco stopped in front of me. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. Natalie’s not at the villa. I thought she was here.”
“She came back a couple of hours ago. I saw her drive onto the property and head for the guest cottage.”
“Yeah, I know she went to Florence alone.” I cut Felicity a look. “Thanks for that, by the way.”
Felicity’s lips thinned, but I ignored her reaction.
I focused on Marco. “Ariana just filled me in on a bunch of shit. Gio attacked Natalie in Florence today. Banged her up pretty good.” Felicity gasped but I didn’t look her way. “Bonello was with him.”
“Porca troia,” Marco muttered.
“If she came back here, where the hell is she? Did you see anyone else come onto the property this afternoon?”
“No. No one.” When I clenched my jaw, Marco gripped my shoulder. “Relax. She has to be here. Maybe she went for a walk to clear her head. She has to know you’re going to be pretty worked up when you see her.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I turned for the hall. “I’m gonna go see if I can find her.”
“Luc, wait.” Felicity’s voice rang out behind me. I ignored her, though. Halfway to the front door my phone vibrated in my pocket.
I yanked it out, anxious it was Natalie, but my father’s number flashed on the screen.
“Merda.” I didn’t have time for this. But I’d learned my lesson about ignoring him. I hit Answer and pressed the phone to my ear. “What?”
“I hear someone’s been plotting behind my back with the Seventh Sanctum.”
I froze, remembering what Ariana had told me earlier. Very calmly, so I didn’t give anything away, I said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I think you do,” my father sneered in my ear. “In fact, I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
A muffled scream sounded across the line. One I recognized. One I knew had come from Natalie.
My heart lurched into my throat. “What did you do?” Every muscle in my body contracted. “What the fuck did you do?”
“I’m fixing the mess your treacherous peasant wife made. I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but her little excursion today proved she’s not anywhere close to being from the right bloodline. And I told you what would happe
n if you chose a woman who was not of the right bloodline again.”
“No.” My vision turned red and the air felt like lava in my throat. “If you touch her, if you hurt her I’ll kill you with my own bare hands. I swear to God I will.”
The line clicked dead in my ear.
I jerked the phone away from my face, stared down at it in my hand, and let out a roar of vengeance that echoed through the entire house.
I made it two steps before Marco slammed me up against the wall. “Stop! Dio dannato, Luc,” he yelled as I fought against him, crashing into a shelf, sending glass shattering across the floor. “Cazzo! Stop and think! He wants you to fly into a rage and go after him.”
I couldn’t see anything but red. I dug my fingers into Marco’s shoulders, fighting to get him to release me. “I don’t give a flying fuck what he wants,” I growled.
“If you go after him, he’ll have every right to kill you.” Marco shoved me back into the wall with his forearm at my throat. “You can’t give him what he wants. He’s taunting you. He won’t hurt her.”
A burning wetness filled my vision. I fought against it, though, fought against the misery that wanted to claim me and instead shoved hard, knocking Marco back several steps.
“You don’t know him the way I do. He’s going to kill her. He threatened it before, and he will absolutely follow through on that threat now. And if he does, then I’m as good as dead, because I am not living though this fucking nightmare without her. So get the fuck out of my way, because if I’m going out, I’m taking as many of his goddamn Knights with me as I can.”
Chapter Eighteen
Natalie
I was in some kind of dungeon.
I tried to keep the panic at bay and think clearly as I scanned the dimly lit room, illuminated only by a lone burning torch in a hook on the wall across from me. But the hysteria was building in me again, making my breaths fast and shallow, making my heart race like wildfire.
Focus, goddammit.
There had been at least two. Two men in black capes and white bauta masks. I’d just walked into the kitchen to start dinner when they’d burst into the house through the back door. And I’d only managed one scream before they’d grabbed me and thrown a black sack over my head, then dragged me out the door.
I hadn’t heard their voices. Hadn’t seen their faces. But I knew it had to be Gio and David Bonello. Those Italian men who’d rescued me had said they’d be looking for me. I shouldn’t have stayed in the villa alone. I should have gone up to the main house with Marco and Fee. No one was going to find me. Luc was going to walk into that empty villa and...
Panic tightened my throat again, and I swallowed back a sob, my tongue dry against the rag in my mouth that was tied around the back of my head. He’d told me not to go anywhere alone. I’d stupidly thought I’d be okay. I should have listened. I should have listened to everything he’d said.
Tears burned my eyes, and I dropped my head and fought the terror that wanted to take hold. They’d brought me into this dank cell, strung my arms up to chains hanging from the ceiling, and left me with nothing but the cold stone wall to lean against. My arms ached. The dirt floor filled my watery vision. I blinked rapidly, trying to see more clearly, trying not to give in to the shakes, but couldn’t stop them from overtaking my body. Because I had a feeling I knew where I was. If the smell of misery and death wasn’t a giveaway, the blood-and-dirt-stained mattress on the iron bed across the room told me.
I was in the same cell Luc had described to me when we’d been on his island. The cell where he’d been chained to a chair to watch what they did. The cell where they’d raped and murdered that girl he’d been trying to save.
They were going to do the same to me. Terror seized my throat and made my body tremble. Gio had said they would. I knew he hadn’t been lying. And oh, God... I slammed my eyes shut tight and prayed they hadn’t left me here alone so they could go find Luc and bring him back to watch.
Please, not that. Anything but that...
The heavy steel door creaked, and the hinges screamed as the door was pulled open. My head came up. I swallowed a scream and went still. But the person who stepped into the room wasn’t Gio. Or David Bonello. It was Antonio Salvatici. Luc’s father.
He stopped feet from me and rested his hands on his hips as he shook his head. “I do wish it hadn’t come to this. Regardless of what you think, I did like you, Natalie. You have spirit, which is sorely lacking in the women of this House. But spirit, as we have all learned, clearly cannot be tamed. I was hopeful Luciano would teach you the importance of submission in our culture, but it seems my son failed at even that.”
I didn’t answer. I knew he didn’t want me to answer. I only glared at him, fighting to keep my wits about me.
“This isn’t personal, cara. But it does serve a purpose.” He sighed as if he were talking about tossing the garbage out rather than committing first-degree murder.
“She’s ready,” he called, not looking away from me.
Footsteps sounded out in the corridor. My wide-eyed gaze shot in that direction, and my body tensed against the wall as Gio and Bonello moved into the room. My heart turned to a whir in my ears when I spotted a third man behind them, a man I vaguely recognized but who I was sure I’d never met.
“Oh. Apologies.” Luc’s father placed a hand on the third man’s shoulder. A wicked gleam darkened the third man’s eyes as he glanced over me from head to toe. “Natalie, this is my nephew, Benito Salvatici. I believe Benito knew your friend. The model in New York. The one who was killed. Didn’t you date her, Benito?”
Benito chuckled, but the sound was low and held absolutely no humor, and ice rushed down my spine at the sound. “Dated? No. Fucked? Oh, yeah. She was one hot piece of ass. Too bad she didn’t like to be shared. We had a real nice thing going until she balked at Giovanni playing with us.”
I struggled against the chains. Elena had foolishly thought she loved this man. “You bastard!” I screamed around the rag.
“If you can’t share them, they don’t make good kittens.” Giovanni stepped toward me, and I sucked in a breath when he trailed his knuckles down my bruised cheek. “How about you, bella? Do you like to be shared? Has my brother introduced you to that yet? I bet you’ll love it. I bet you can’t wait to experience it.”
Bonello moved up on my other side. My vision blurred as the first hand brushed my side.
“Benito?” Luc’s father’s voice rang out behind the other two. “Now.”
Footsteps sounded across the room, then someone lifted my sweatshirt up to my chest. I gasped as cool air washed over my skin, making my stomach cave in.
“You may play with her in any way you see fit after this, boys,” Luc’s father announced from the other side of the room. “But you will not move her to the bed until Luciano is here to witness the final act.” He glanced at his watch. “Knowing my eldest son’s sense of heroics, you won’t have to wait long.” He nodded toward Benito.
Benito came toward me. I couldn’t see what was in his hand, but I saw the malevolent gleam in his eye. I tried to shift back as he lifted what looked like a fireplace poker and held it in front of me, but there was nowhere for me to go. My eyes grew wide, and my throat closed when I saw the end of the metal object in his hand glowing red.
“No.” My voice came out muffled, strained. I kept on screaming and struggling, though, realizing what they were about to do to me. “Oh God. No!”
Hot metal pressed against my ribs and seared my skin with a hiss that melded with my screams until I collapsed and was surrounded by utter darkness.
I wasn’t sure how long I blacked out, but when I came too, pain was all I knew. Pain and a wretched sickness that pushed up my throat as they pawed at me.
“There she is,” someone said.
“That wasn’t nearly as long as I expected,” someone else said. “This one’s a fighter.”
“Told ya she’d be fun.”
The last voice was Gio�
��s. I’d know it anywhere. I groaned and realized they’d taken the gag out of my mouth, but I was too weak to scream. I twisted to try to get away from them, but every movement sent blinding pain across my side, and there was nowhere for me to go. Hands streaked under my sweatshirt and grasped my breasts through my bra. More hands kneaded my ass, and I felt someone’s tongue running along my neck.
My throat closed, but I lifted my knee and nailed one of them in the balls. Bonello groaned and stumbled back. Someone chuckled. Gio mumbled, “I warned you.” But I didn’t stop fighting. I kicked out with both legs, growling and screeching as I fought against them with everything I had in me.
“Sorca!” An open palm smacked against the side of my head, knocking my face hard into the wall at my back. Pain ricocheted through my head, and my vision wavered.
“Abbastanza!” Luc’s father yelled.
All three men stepped away from me, breathing heavily. I sagged against the wall and gulped in air. Footsteps sounded, and through blurry vision, I saw Luc step into the room, wearing the same black dress shoes and slacks he’d left for work in this morning, the same dress shirt I’d helped him button, now rolled to his elbows.
He took one look at me, then quickly glanced away. I stumbled for my footing and struggled to listen as he spoke to his father in Italian.
My head was foggy. I couldn’t make out their words. They were speaking too fast for me to translate.
Luc’s father barked, “No!” and turned toward Gio.
“Chain him to the chair so we can get this over with. Your mother is waiting with dinner.”
No. Oh God, no. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be, not after everything I’d done to try to prevent this very moment...
“Luc!” I fought even harder against the chains, hoping one of them would snap. Tears streaked down my cheeks. “Run!” There was no reason for this. If he stayed they were going to kill him too. My words choked on a sob. “G-get away while you can!”
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