“Gio…stop,” I managed to rasp out, still trying to relearn how to breathe.
“He was going to kill you.” Gio turned toward Rocco’s still body. “What happened?”
“It was him. This whole time, it was him.”
The front door swung open. Kai walked through, with long-stemmed red roses and a smile, until awareness dawned, and he took in the carnage.
His helmet and the roses hit the floor, and he was on me in the next second.
“Amalia, where are you hurt? Where is it coming from?” His hands were all over, searching for wounds that didn’t exist. “Baby, look at me.”
“I’m fine.” Despite the terror I’d just gone through, his arms filled me with a sense of calm and security. I buried my face in his chest and let myself be vulnerable for the first time in my life.
Low, labored moans had us both whipping our heads toward the noise. Without a word, Kai stood and emptied his mag into Rocco’s body. He dropped the empty magazine and reloaded, taking off through the open door. Gio and I followed as he fired several rounds into Rocco’s driver, who had gotten out of his car, most likely when he’d heard the gunfire. His knees hit the ground, and he took another bullet to the head before falling face-first onto the concrete. Another man from inside the SUV fired at Kai but missed, though he didn’t share that luck, as Kai shot him twice in the chest, causing him to fall out of the vehicle.
I’d never seen that look on Kai’s face—rage in its rawest form. His pupils were blown, his jaw tight. As he passed the driver’s body, he sent another round into the back of his head. Kai moved as though on autopilot. Without a word, he dragged Rocco and the other men’s bodies and shoved them back into the vehicle, then dashed inside the house and into an office.
“Kai,” I called, but for once, my husband didn’t acknowledge me. It was like his vision was tunneled, and he had one objective. He walked out with a bottle of Vodka and a piece of his torn shirt sticking out of the top.
Molotov cocktail.
Flames engulfed the car in seconds, but Kai remained emotionless until he was in front of me again.
“Amalia, baby, are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, lightly touching a tender area on my lip from when Rocco had slapped me. “Gio, tell Milly to call clean-up.”
Kai said nothing else as he scooped me up and headed for the stairs.
34
Kaihadn’t spoken for ten minutes since I’d been in this tub. He was behind me, hyper-focused on lathering my hair and gently scrubbing the blood off my skin.
“Kai, talk to me.”
His fingers stopped working through my scalp, and I felt his lips on my shoulder. Closing my eyes out of instinct, I leaned back and waited for him to break his silence. But he didn’t. He rinsed out the shampoo and towel-dried my hair. He was so sweet and attentive that I didn’t have the heart to tell him I needed to apply conditioner. I let him lift me out of the water, and he continued to dry me off. His touch was soft and cautious as he worked his way down. I noticed his gaze would stray to the sorest spots on my body, where bruising had already begun. But even then, he refused to meet my eyes.
“Hey,” I tried again, to no avail.
The same tension he wore while he finished off Rocco’s men was still creasing his beautiful features. As he dabbed water droplets from my shoulders, he reached up to feather his thumb against a sensitive area on my neck. Kai’s breathing suddenlyaccelerated, and his hand rolled into a fist. But I couldn’t take any more of his silent rage. Ripping the towel from his hand, I tossed it.
“That’s enough. Look at me. I’mfine,” I assured him assertively, my hands framing his face.
His stormy eyes finally found mine, and he shook his head. “Fine? You have bruises everywhere. And have you seen your face?” I actually hadn’t, but now I was curious. “Your neck— Amalia, he almost killed you. Do you know what that would have done to me? If I’d walked in and found you...”
“Kai, I’ve almost been killed more times than I could count. But I’m fine. Don’t make me have to keep repeating myself, because I’m already getting aggravated.”
Kai held my wrists and tenderly lowered them from his face. Taking a step back, he tugged off his shirt, then slid out of his pants, leaving just his black boxer briefs. He held my hand, led me to the bed, and motioned for me to climb onto the mattress. I obliged, and he slipped in after me and pulled me close until his chin rested on my head.
“I would have never forgiven myself had something happened while I was gone. I should have been home. I would have been home, but I stopped to buy you those damn roses.”
“They’re beautiful.”
He sighed loudly. “Amalia, stop. Stop waving this off like it wasn’t a big deal. Could you just accept that someone else gives a damn about you? That I give a damn. I don’t know how else to tell you. I’m not here just because of a contract. I’m here because I want to be here. And you matter to me so fucking much.”
My stomach flipped upside down, and I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply.
“Kai…are you happy here? With me?”
His hold on me tightened, but his touch was still gentle, conscious of the bruises. “I’ve always tried to put on the facadeof the guy people could count on—of being happy and using humor to get by. But the truth is, I’ve always felt out of step, like something was missing. Even surrounded by the people who meant everything in the world to me, there was a hole inside me that maybe I wasn’t aware of.”
