Stolen Wife

by Carina Blake

  I don’t know the girl, and I don’t want to get to know her. She’s only here to do her job, so as long as her ass stays out of my office, I’m thoroughly pleased with her work so far.

  I’m more than halfway through my day and my meetings are all done. While I really want to go home, I have to catch up on some paperwork. I know that I have little to no control when it comes to Giada, so I’ll end up forgetting work and have her on my desk instead.

  My alarm on my phone goes off, and I see it’s from the front desk. A cop just came barging through to see me. I sent Joey on an errand for me, so he’s not around, but I prepare myself for this bullshit. I turn on all the cameras and another recording device under the chair in front of my desk.

  The second “the cop” barges through my door, I stand up behind my desk, preparing for the war, but playing it cool all the same. “It’s so good to see you, Rafael. What brings you to see me? Run out of goons to do it for you? Is there a bomb in my car?”

  He smiles and takes a seat in front of my desk. “No. Can’t I see my brother?”

  “Brother?” I chuckle. “What do you want?” Just seeing his face makes me want to bash his skull in. The thought of him touching Giada, hurting her, stealing her joy drives me to want him dead more than any other fucked-up thing he’s done to me.

  “My wife back.” I’ve tried to let go of the idea that he’d ever touched my woman, but he’s only digging his own grave.

  I laugh at that because she’s not his wife, and he’s about to learn that I know his dirty, fucked-up secret. I adjust my suit and sit down. “Where is Marie at? I didn’t know she left you too.”

  He twists his head. “So you found out about that?” He’s trying to hide his anger, but I can read him like a book.

  “Yes, I did, and a lot more.”

  “Well, you weren’t listening to my calls then because Marie is no longer my wife, so Giada is all mine. I know you have my wife.”

  “First, legally speaking, Giada is not your wife and never was. What did you do to Marie?” I’m betting he killed her.

  He smiles. “She paid for her infidelity.” Oh the irony. “Giada is my wife, and you have her. I know it.” He leans forward, trying to look tough with me, but I’m more scared of my own shadow than I’ve ever been scared of him.

  “Oh really? How do you know that?” I challenge, wondering how much he actually knows or if he’s trying to con me.

  “She’s got a tracker in her. Did you think I’d not know where she was at all times?”

  I scoff. “Bullshit.” I lean back in my chair as if I don’t have a care in the world. At this moment, I know that we’re about to go toe to toe, but it’s been a long time coming. We may be blood, but we aren’t family. “You’re a liar. Nice try, Rafael. I’m not one to try that with.”

  He can see that I’m not budging on this one bit. I’m not the gullible fuck he sent away. “You got smarter in prison.”

  “I’m glad you noticed. It means you’re not entirely an imbecile.”

  “You think you’re so fucking special, don’t you? You always thought you were.”

  “No, I’m just not a psychopath like yourself.” I smirk at the bastard, loving the way he’s becoming unnerved. “What do you really want, Rafael?”

  “I told you I want you to give me back my wife.”

  “Ha. Are you trying to find another reason to put me back in prison? Because I’ll see you there first. I’ve already got enough on you and your father for you to spend the rest of your lives there. Is that why you tried to kill my lawyer?”

  “The lawyer we had nothing to do with. We don’t have problems with the Russians, so we never touched him. Although you, on the other hand, I’d rather see you in a pine box, gladly.”

  “You first, Rafael,” I snarl, standing up.

  He whips out the gun he hid under his jacket. He goes to pull the trigger, but he has no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this moment. I twist my body to the side as the bullet cracks the window behind me. It’s strong glass so it doesn’t shatter, but I make a beeline in his direction.

  As he goes to shoot again, I rush him, sending him to the ground with my arms around his throat, choking him. The gun falls from his hand, but he can still reach it as he stretches for it, so I drill my elbow into his wrist. He hollers out in pain, making me smile.

  “God, I love this more than I should.” He kicks me in the thigh, missing my balls, which I’m sure his little ass was going for.

  “You need to die,” he croaks out.

  I slam my fist into his face. “You first.”

  He flails his good arm at me, but it’s too weak, so he reaches for the gun. His fingers just touch the grip when I wrench it from him. I lean in and say, “I have her and I’m fucking her every damn night.”

  “You son of a bitch.” He grabs my arm, trying to wrestle the gun out of my hand, but I’m stronger and pull the trigger, shooting him in the chest. My security team arrives as the shot goes off. I fall backward, leaning against my desk as I catch my breath.

  “Are you okay, boss?” Joey asks.

  “Yeah.” Joey offers his hand and I stand up, setting the gun on the desk. “Call the police.” I look at my brother and know that a medic is useless. His eyes are wide open and his expression is vacant.

  The ambulance and the police arrive right after each other. The medics work on Rafael for two minutes, but they know it’s too late. He wasn’t worth saving anyway. He killed the only woman he claimed to love.

  The lead officer approaches me and says, “I’m Detective Randall. Mr. Marchetti—”

  I cut him off. “Actually, the last name is Benedetti. I had it changed legally yesterday.”

  “You’re arguing over a name, and I have a dead body in the middle of your office,” he scolds me, narrowing his brows at me as if I’m supposed to be intimidated.

  “And? I killed the bastard in self-defense.” I step away from my desk so they can retrieve the weapon. “You can see he’s been shot with his own gun, and if you look closely you’ll see the nice damage to my window over there.” I point to the giant crack in the window with the bullet hole at the center of it. “If that’s not enough, I recorded Rafael’s conversation with me before I did the world a service.”

  “I just can’t believe you don’t have any remorse for killing your own brother.”

  “You know about the poisoning, right? The threats, my lawyer in the hospital fighting for his life, and to top it off, this bastard sent me to prison.”

  “He was involved?” he questions as if it comes as a surprise. Most really are under the impression that we were a cohesive unit, but we were the furthest thing from a family. The police and the Marchetti family have managed to keep it out of the papers for everyone to see, but there has always been strife between us all. They load my brother on the gurney, zipping up the body bag.

  “Yes, but then again, I can’t expect you all to do your job. If it’s not enough, you can view security cameras that show this asshole bypassing my security with this.” I toss the badge at him.

  The guy turns white as a ghost, looking up at me with a new sadness and chokes out, “Do you know this detective has been missing for nearly a week?”

  Shit. Not that I put it past Rafael at all. “Well, sorry. I don’t even know who’s badge that is.”

  “It’s Detective Morel.”

  “What? Detective Morel? Shit. Those sons of bitches. They killed him because he told me about my real father. I look over at what remains of my brother in the body bag. “Sorry that you can’t question him now, but if I were you, I’d contact his father; he might know about it.” The sound of Rafael’s phone interrupts us.

  I read the message from Marchetti: Have you done it? Is he out of the way? I’m ready to get her back.

  I show it to the detective and then my own phone goes off. It’s from my security team. Shit. “Wow, that’s all the evidence I need to make an arrest on your father,” the detective says.
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  The bastard isn’t my father. “Hold on. First, he’s not my father. Second, he’s going to my house to try to steal my mother back.”

  “We can get to her first,” he says.

  “No, you can’t. He’s waiting. This is from my security team.” I show them footage the team just sent me. The fuck is waiting for her outside of his car, staring at one of my guards from across the road to the gate entrance. “Is there a way to get her out safely?” I ask.

  “Not without drawing attention.”

  Nodding, I say, “He’s not above killing them all. I have a plan.” I grab Rafael’s phone and type. The bastard’s not going to be a problem anymore. He has that bitch as well. I’m going to go get her. Wait for me. We’ll break the sad news to them together.

  “Wow, you’re a lot more devious than they give you credit for.”

  “They killed my real father, sent me to prison, and stole the bride who should have been mine. There’s no limit to my revenge.”

  Suddenly he stiffens by my side. “So you plan on taking their place?”

  I look at him and scoff, clearly insulted. “Their empire can rot in hell. I want nothing to do with it, and you can tell your friends that too. I don’t want any part of the mafia, but I won’t hesitate to protect what’s mine.”

  “Understood. Now, I’m going to arrest him if you want to follow.”

  “He probably has men outside the building out of the camera frames.”

  “Okay. We’ll play this right.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Giada

  As soon as Santino’s gone for the day, I get in the shower and get dressed. Without him here, there’s no reason to lie in bed. Once I’m ready with a hint of makeup on my face, I walk downstairs the back way to the kitchen.

  “Good morning, Giada,” Santino’s mom says.

  “Good morning, Rita, Mom.” She’s not my mom by blood, but she’s the only mother to show me the love a mother should have.

  “Did you sleep well?” Mom asks with a smirk on her face.

  “It was a wonderful night, even if I hardly slept.” I giggle. A new life has been breathed into me. I can’t believe all that’s changed in the past twenty-four hours. There are plenty of changes since Santino first walked into my life, and I hope more to come.

  “I bet you’re hungry.” Rita slides over a full breakfast.

  “Thanks. I am.” I hop on a stool and ask, “How are you ladies this morning?”

  “I’m trying to keep this woman over here from losing her mind. I told her that Santino’s not going to let her husband get her, but she’s worried.”

  “I’m not scared for myself but for Santino. He’s strong, but they are ruthless. Nothing is going to stop them from going at him, even if I went back to Rafael.” She’s exactly right. There’s no doubt about that when it comes to those bastards. I hate them to no end and want both of them dead.

  “He’s well protected. I wish I could tell you that it’s going to be okay. Me more than anyone wants him to come home safe.” I press my hand to my stomach, feeling nauseous at the idea that he could die.

  “I know. We need to pray that he’ll be safe. The detective on my first husband’s case wanted to do a formal interview with me, but I’m guessing that he hasn’t gotten into contact with Santino yet.” I’ve learned so much more about her past over the past week than I did the entire time I knew her. It’s way more tragic than mine. At least mine started off brutally awful, but her happiness came and went and she suffered the last thirty years.

  “Hopefully, you two can fill this house with laughter and joy and a bunch of grandbabies for me to love.”

  “I’m sure Santino’s going to try.” I smile, finally taking my first bite of the eggs.

  “I’m thinking that there are four extra bedrooms upstairs perfect for babies. You might need a bigger house.”

  “How many babies do you expect us to have?” I bite a piece of bacon. God, I love bacon.

  “Is six too greedy?”

  I nearly spit it out at her. “Yes.”

  She waves my answer off, shaking her head. “Well, at least I didn’t say a full dozen.” She grins, taking a sip of her coffee. There’s nothing to do but shake my head. I’ll be happy with any babies we have together. It’s more than I could have ever hoped for.

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see. I don’t know about the football team you want, but I’m just happy to have a chance at even one little Santino.” Tears well up in her eyes and I feel awful for her, but she stands up and wraps her arms around me. “Thank you for giving him the chance to prove his love.”

  “He’s my hero.” Even if he’s a bossy ass sometimes.

  “We need to start picking out baby furniture,” she squeals, jumping up and down.

  “We don’t even know if I’m pregnant or can ever get pregnant.”

  “I just have a feeling. Finish your food and we can start looking at some online stores.” She walks out of the kitchen and into the main sitting area. Several guards are around the house and in almost every room. We don’t have a lot of privacy, but they all seem like pretty cool people.

  Rita’s breakfast is fabulous, but I’m so full that I get up and empty my plate.

  “Thank you for breakfast. It was incredible, as always.”

  “That’s what I’m here for.” After putting my plate in the sink, she wraps her arms around me. “He’s going to be okay. He’s tougher than they are, and smarter.”

  “Giada,” Mom shouts from the other room. “You have to see this.”

  Shaking my head, I walk to the kitchen door. “Good luck, Giada. She’s been talking about babies for days now.”

  “Hopefully we’ve been making babies for days.” I push it open and go into the living room where she’s got a laptop open, scrolling through baby room ideas.

  For the next few hours we stay glued to these sites, finding cute baby rooms that I want. I love almost all of them. I can’t decide and honestly, until I’m pregnant, all of this is moot, but it’s better than sitting around waiting for bad news to hit us.

  It’s well after lunch when I can hear excessive movement around the house. We were watching some soap operas when the news comes on. “Shots fired at an office building. It’s the second shooting at this building in as many weeks. We don’t have any details, but from the lack of rushing or staging outside the building, we can assume that it’s already been subdued. The medics are leaving and the coroner has appeared on the scene.” They walk up to Joey who’s holding a bag in his hand and just going toward the building. “Sir, can you tell us what’s going on?”

  “No.” He pushes past them and the police officers, showing his badge and whispering something. Tears are flowing down my face as I wonder what’s going on.

  Suddenly Martin and Angela are in the room. “Ladies, we need to take shelter in the specialized room.”

  “Oh my goodness. It’s Rafael, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, but we’re going to secure you and inform Santino.”

  “But the shooting?”

  “He’s okay as far as we know. We just received word from Joey. Please accompany us to where we can keep you safe.” They are insistent and I can’t take it right now. I’m so freaked out about Santino that I can hardly concentrate on actually breathing.

  “Why can’t they just leave us alone?” I sob into my hands.

  Mom wraps her arms around me and kisses my hair. “Because they can’t stand losing their possessions. That’s all we were to them. A possession that they didn’t care for, but hell if they wanted anyone else to have it.”

  It takes me a minute to calm myself down and focus on the path ahead as we move into a safe room that Santino had built over the first few days I’d been on the island.

  We go down into the room and wait for word on Santino. I need to know he’s okay. Goodness, I don’t know what I’d do if he doesn’t come home to me. We are just getting started on our happily ever after and I can’t lose him.

&
nbsp; For the next hour, it feels like nothing but a waiting game. One I don’t like playing. All I want is Santino. I don’t even have a cell phone to check up on him.

  I close my eyes and think of him and the vows we spoke the other day.

  “Giada, will you do me the honor in marrying me?”

  “Marry you? Why would you want that?”

  “Because I know you’re the one for me and I can’t imagine a life without you in it. I knew it the second I crept into the room and snatched you up.”

  “Yes. Yes I’ll marry you.”

  “Thank you, Tesoro. The judge will be here in two hours.”

  “Are we getting married today?”

  “Yes. Sorry. We can have a special wedding later, but I want you with me before someone can try to separate us ever again.”

  “I don’t need anything special except you.” He slides a diamond ring.

  “This has got to be one of the shortest engagements ever.”

  “That’s okay with me.”

  “What am I going to wear?”

  “Rita has already thought of that. Well her and my mother, but since Rita’s the only one of you that can go out, she picked up three dresses this morning.”

  “Oh my goodness.” I kiss him hard and then run from the room to see both Rita and his mom waiting for me.

  “Yes. We have to get started.”

  “He’ll be here by five.”

  My two hours flew by fast, but I’m ready. Walking down the stairs with Joey, leading me to Santino, I walk up to Santino who’s standing there with a smile on his face. We have a small gathering of Russian mob people and the security as our guests. They all stand as I move down the makeshift aisle with only two hours he’d made every minute count. It’s perfect.

  Within ten minutes it’s all over and the photographer snaps photos of us. I can’t believe how he managed to do all this but I’m happy. Cupping my cheeks, he presses his forehead to mine and says, “I love you, Giada.”