“But you won’t risk her, will you?” he challenged coolly, green eyes glittering with sick excitement. The bastard was getting off on this.
“Drop it.” His hold on her tightened, and she gasped as his meaty hand sank into her hip, pinning her to him.
I looked into her wide hazel eyes, dark lashes sweeping her brows. Her lush lips were parted on panicked, panting breaths.
He was right: I wouldn’t risk her life. Not even to kill my worst enemy. Because even though I hadn’t been married to Nora long, she’d worked her way under my skin. She was innocent, and I’d sworn to keep and protect her. I couldn’t have her blood on my hands. I wouldn’t be worthy of my birthright if I betrayed her for my own vengeance. I wouldn’t be worthy of calling myself a man.
My gun clattered to the floor.
Dante grinned and pressed another mocking kiss to Nora’s ashen cheek. “Don’t move, darling.”
He released her from his iron grip but kept his weapon pointed at her head. With his free hand, he retrieved his phone from his pocket and connected a call.
“It’s for you,” he said as he tossed the phone to me.
Bewildered, I caught it without thinking. I couldn’t do anything as long as Nora’s life was in danger.
“Luca!” The familiar masculine voice emanated from the speaker, dragging my attention away from the awful scene before me.
Another nightmarish image filled the phone screen: Gabriele was strung up by his wrists, angry red welts burned into his bare chest.
My heart dropped to the floor.
No. I’d ordered my friends to retreat. Lorenzo had been bleeding, but they should’ve been safe.
“I have your friends. I captured them when they were trying to flee my estate. They were abandoning you.” Dante spoke the horrific declaration with relish. “Disobey me, and I’ll torture them. Try to fight me, and I’ll kill one of them.”
Hatred was acid in my veins, searing my insides. I tore my attention from the horrific image of Gabriele’s suffering and glowered at my enemy,
“You’re a dead man.” My voice shook with the force of my impotent rage.
His delighted grin was sharp enough to cut. “If I die, they both die. My men have orders to kill them if they don’t hear from me every hour. You’ll never find them in time.”
“Where is Lorenzo?” I hated how hoarse the demand sounded. Fear for my friends choked me.
“Show him.” Dante’s voice raised on the command, addressing whoever was holding the phone directed at Gabriele.
The camera angle shifted, panning quickly across what appeared to be a cramped concrete room. Lorenzo laid motionless on a cot, a bandage around his neck.
“I’ll keep him alive as long as you behave,” Dante told me, voice lilting with triumph.
My arms flexed with unspent aggression, violence roiling just beneath the surface of my skin.
I couldn’t attack him without risking Nora. And if I did manage to kill him, my friends would die.
“Now, put the phone down and come with me.”
All my muscles locked up tight, my pride refusing to bend to his command.
“Kill the injured one.” Dante issued the execution order almost lazily.
The camera angle shifted again. Whoever was holding the phone was stalking toward Lorenzo. Gabriele screamed his brother’s name.
“No!” I bellowed.
“Wait.” My enemy’s voice cracked through the room like a whip.
My friends’ torturer stopped his advance.
