I didn’t entertain disrespectful behavior, and a man such as himself, who had appointed himself an ally to fate, should’ve known better. He was attempting to come between a husband and his wife, even after Dr. Musa had given him the cold shoulder. God wasn’t going to give someone else’s wife to him, just like God wasn’t going to give someone else’s husband to another woman. That wasn’t the way things worked. Fate didn’t make mistakes. It was people who did.
“Benedetto Dandolo hit me with the rock.”
There was no time to explain, even though Mitch was asking a million questions. As I crossed the raging water, I screamed to Mitch to follow the water down to its thinnest point and go around the property.
My men were waiting for me on the other side of the bank, and one of them held out his hand for me, but I ignored it, easily getting to my feet. My old man had trained us to deal with pissed off water. And in this fucking situation, I trusted no one. He could easily push me back in, causing me to waste more time before I ripped his fucking head off.
I said two words, “My wife,” and I expected an answer in under ten seconds—ten seconds we ate through as we hustled toward the villa. I’d run after that. I needed to know what was up ahead so I didn’t put my wife in more danger.
The man adjusted his gun and briefed me on the situation, his eyes every so often going to the back of my head. My white shirt was red from the constant flow of blood and rain.
Seemed like after Dandolo left me in the barn with a knot on my head, he went after my wife. The solider told me Dandolo forced my wife onto the horse, going toward Nino and Dr. Musa’s place. He was using my wife as a fucking shield to savehis own skin. No man could attempt to take a shot at him without putting her in danger.
My wife.
My heart raced in my chest, this time on the hunt for blood. Her blood was mixed with mine, an element of our blood vow, an element I refused to fucking lose, and the scent of it was pushing my legs as hard as they had ever worked. My soldiers were dotted along the path Dandolo took with my wife on the horse— ending at Nino and Dr. Musa’s place atop the hill.
“Fuck!” I roared as the wind and rain pushed against me. Lightning kept shocking the sky, giving me short glimpses of the scene atop the hill. Thunder rumbled like a starving stomach.
Donna was on her haunches, kicking in the air, the sky alight behind her.
Men surrounded her.
Men I didn’t fucking recognize.
These same men surrounded my wife.
Nino, Dr. Musa, and Dandolo were in that order, the two men pointing guns at each other, circling each other, while Dr. Musa stood between them, holding her hands out to each man. She seemed to be talking to them, but it didn’t seem like they were listening. Maybe they couldn’t hear her over the roaring of the wind and rain.
Oscar was suddenly beside me, his eyes growing wide and then narrowed as he realized what was happening on the hill with his parents and Benedetto Dandolo.
I could’ve sworn I heard him say the man’s name before he roared out a cry that seemed to challenge the thunder for its bass. Two flashes of light seemed to explode on the hill we were so fucking close to climbing—and not only two people fell to the ground, but three.
Chapter 57
Sistine
Two gun blasts that were as loud as explosive snaps of thunder echoed in the atmosphere.
I could not move, although it felt as if the wind and rain were shoving at me. My hair had long ago been torn out of its tight bun from the wild hands of Mother Nature, and it was plastered to my head from the torrential downpour, invading my eyes from the insane gales. However, my eyes were not entirely curtained, and what I had just witnessed, the sound of it, the noises as three people fell—it could not be erased from my memory.
An infuriated Nino and the crazed Benedetto Dandolo were going mano-a-mano with pistols. Dr. Musawas between them, attempting to stop them. Benedetto Dandolo fired first, but with the feral wind in his face, his aim was not true, and the bullet pierced through Dr. Musabefore ithit Nino. Nino fired at the same time as Benedetto Dandolo, who collapsed into the wet grass.
Nino and Dr. Musa’s hands reached out for each other, and they seemed to go silent at the same time, their hands still linked. Benedetto Dandolo was alone, gasping for breath, until…there was no breath left in him.
“Dio mio.” I crossed myself. “Dio mio.”
The three of them.
All on the ground.
Unseeing eyes turned up to the crying sky.
Blood pooled underneath their bodies and rushed down the steep hill.
The horse next to me made a distressed noise as she reared up, kicking her front legs in the air. She reminded me we had foreign company. She already did not like the weather. On the ride up the hill, Benedetto Dandolo could barely keep her in order. Her eyes were wide and wild. I could feel the trembling underneath her hide, as if a thousand angry wasps were stinging her.
These foreign men, they seemed to be making her more uncomfortable.
