Nora secretly loved our darker games, but she resented me for using her against Luca. If he’d never kidnapped her and forced her to marry him, she would’ve been mine and mine alone. I could’ve introduced her to my darker needs more slowly, shown her how good it could be between us.
But my vendetta had blinded me to her needs. I’d sought revenge against Luca for so long that I’d prioritized it over my wife’s wellbeing.
If I gave her the choice, she’d leave me for him. She would abandon me.
My gut tightened, and I shoved the dark thought away.
I would make this right. Somehow.
“She is my only priority.” Luca finally answered me in an undertone when he was certain she’d been soothed back to sleep.
“Then you should prove you give a shit and get your men to fight for her,” I barked, frustrated at the sight of them cuddled up together.
Nora moaned and shuddered. Her lashes fluttered as her eyes moved rapidly behind her closed lids, facing a nightmare that we couldn’t see. She thrashed, and Luca firmed his hold on her to keep her from exacerbating her injuries.
Her sharp cry pierced my chest, and I immediately went to her side, grasping her small hand in mine.
“Wake up, little bird,” I urged, brushing my thumb over her clammy palm. “You’re safe.”
She gasped, and her eyes flew open. They were dark with her nightmare, unfocused. I cupped her cheek in my hand, and she flinched away from me with a soft sound of protest.
I smothered a scowl and ignored the sense of rejection that knifed through my gut.
My wife would not fear me. Not ever.
Never again.
I stroked the line of her cheekbone as she tucked her face close to Luca’s chest. I could feel his glower burning into me, but I didn’t deign to look at him. She was all that mattered.
“It’s me,” I reassured her, refusing to withdraw my gentle touch. “You’re safe, Nora.”
“Dante?”
She turned her face into my hand, and warmth pulsed through my chest.
“I’ve got you.” Luca couldn’t quite keep the possessive growl from his voice.
I didn’t give a fuck about him. I would touch my wife whenever and however I wanted. She was mine, and she needed me to promise that she was protected.
And that she would be avenged.
Her glassy eyes finally focused on me, but the shadows didn’t clear from their lovely hazel depths. She hadn’t been this lucid for five days. Not since we’d rescued her from that hell.
I watched as her dark memories flooded back, tears spilling down her cheeks as sobs wracked her delicate frame. A sense of helplessness I’d never known before she’d been taken hollowed out my insides. I traced the line of her quivering lip with my thumb, and she didn’t flinch this time.
“I thought…” Her voice hitched on another sob. “I didn’t think you would come for me.”
“I will always protect you,” I swore. “I will always come for you. The Russians will die for what they did to you.”
She shuddered and pressed closer to Luca at the mention of the Russians. Her gaze turned distant again, haunted.
“How could he do that to me?” she asked on a broken whisper. “After what they did to my mother. And he let the same thing…”
She jolted upright on a gasp, then dropped back into Luca’s arms.
“Giana.” She groaned her sister’s name. “He still has Giana.”
My hand tightened around hers. “Who has your sister?”
