Perhaps it was payback, but there was nothing about this that made me want to laugh.
It was the opposite.
My blood was suddenly made of lava, and I breathed fire out of my nose. My fingers gripped the back of the chair with a force that cracked the wood.
I did not even have to ask my men where my wife was.
I already knew.
She had flown away from me. She could not handle what I was about to do in her honor.
Behind me, Beni sang drunkenly, something about the glory of love. Romeo hummed with him. Aristide joined in, finally coming alive. Their shoulders bumped as they swayed into each other.
Rocco hung up. He looked at the table, then at Dario. Dario slapped Rocco on the back of his head, making his hair stand up. Everyone quieted. Romeo gave a howl right as Rocco went to talk again, and Dario went to shove him, but Romeo moved out of the way, laughing again when Dario’s hand caught air.
Rocco looked me in the eye once it was quiet again. “Your wife is staying at my father’s place inFirenze. She will decide your fate in this challenge by tomorrow morning.”
A growl vibrated in my throat, and I picked up the chair and flung it against the wall. It splintered, and whatever else it hit had broken. I had thrown it so hard, I spun from the drugs still lingering in my system and had to catch the table before I went down.
My unsteadiness sent another rush of lava through my veins. A reminder of what she had done.
“Cugino.”
My eyes snapped to Rocco’s.
“She truly loves you,” he said in Italian. “This is why she does this. I respect her for it. She just does not understand what this means for you.”
What this means for you—so many fucking things. My wife,my wife, had meddled in my challenge, and stole my chance at proving my love by proving hers.
She crushed what this meanttome.
Tomorrow morning would not come for us.
She had already decided.
She was going to fly even further, try to hide from me in skies I ruled.
There were three men she depended on.
Me, but she was flying in the opposite direction.
Two would not hide her, not after he knew why she had left me. Her sister’s husband. Brio understood our rules, and even if he did not agree with them, he respected them.
There was only one man left that she would run to.
His name was carved inside of my head.
Kirill Balabanov.
I checked the time on my watch.
It would not be long.
His name would be scratched out, even if it would never disappear from my memory.
FORTY-THREE
AVA
