“I need you to call her and ask her if she knows where Sofia is.”
“What did you do, Matteo? Don't tell me you scared your poor wife–"
“Now, Dante!” I grind out, my patience running thin.
“Jesus Christ, alright, fine!" He hangs up, and I stare at my phone the entire five minutes it takes him to call back. His voice is serious when he speaks this time. “Gia doesn’t know either.”
“What?”
"They had lunch together and she says that Sofia looked upset and was distracted, but she was in a good mood when they parted ways.”
Upset?
My mind races through the past few days. Has Sofia seemed different? We’ve had dinner together every night, talked, and made love. She seemed... fine. Happy, even. But had I missed something beneath the surface? Fuck, have I been so focused on the weapons deal that I missed signs she was unhappy?
But no—this doesn’t feel like her leaving. Sofia would confront me, argue with me. She’s feisty, stubborn. She wouldn’t just disappear.
Fuck, I pushed her away, didn’t I? What if by holding bits of myself back, I’ve managed to place a wedge in my marriage? But Christ, how could I pour everything into her? Allow myself to become vulnerable as my father had with my mother. It hurt him to lose her. No, it nearly destroyed him and us in the process. That kind of love can kill you.
I could love her to excess.
Our first night together proved that I could pour everything into my wife until I was empty. I felt the shift inside me and it scared me, and I am a man who does not scare easily. So I held back parts of me in an attempt to protect myself from a future I had no control over.
And now, she’s gone.
Fuck it all to hell and back, but I’ll be damned if I let her walk out of my life. No, I’ll find her and bring her back where she belongs. To me. With me!
Mine.
Before I can start thinking about where to start, my phone vibrates. I figure it’s Dante with more information, so I grab itand open it to see a text from Bruno. My brows furrow as I open the text, but nothing could prepare me for what I see.
Sofia is bound to a chair, her mouth gagged and those eyes—the pretty green I adore—are filled with tears as they stare back at me. I clench the phone in my hand, nearly breaking it in half as I stare at the picture, blood boiling with rage.
No, she didn’t leave me.
Someone took her. Took my wife.
My eyes move to the words under the photo, and a fresh wave of rage rolls through me. That fucking bastard. He took my woman and is going to pay!
It’s your turn now to know what it feels like to lose.
***
“Do you think Bruno sold us out to the cops and told them about the shipment?” Dante asks from where he’s seated. Next to him on the couch is Lorenzo, fingers flying across his laptop as he works on pinning down Sofia’s location. Having a tech wizard in the family with mad hacking and surveillance skills has always cut down the risk it would take to secure an outsider to do the job.
I just never thought I would use Lorenzo’s skill to trace my wife and her kidnapper.
I tap my foot restlessly before I decide sitting won't work for me, so I jump to my feet and start pacing. I’ve always sensed some animosity from Bruno, but I never imagined he’d go this far. Bruno and Nicolo came into the family when their mother married my father, but by then, the succession was already decided. While Bruno is a little older than me, my father made it clear from the beginning that I would still inherit. I was raisedfor this—trained from childhood to lead. My other brothers accepted it without question. They were raised to see me as their leader, their protector. We’re close. Loyal. The thought that Bruno—family—would betray that... It’s devastating.
We don’t fight for power in this family. We stand together. Or we’re supposed to.
Bruno’s dead when I find him!
I turn to look at my brothers. They’re here without question, armed and ready to go to war for me. For Sofia. This is what family means. Antonio, Lorenzo, and Dante have shown no interest in becoming don, and hell, even Nicolo expressed his support. My stepbrother understood the family structure, and no one dared challenge it. Our father made sure everyone knew the position was mine.
Which makes Bruno’s betrayal cut even deeper.
A hand grabs my arm and stops my pacing. I turn around to face Nicolo, who has a somber expression on his face. "I'm really sorry about this, Matteo. I didn't expect my brother to do something so stupid."
