If he ever frees himself and I come across him, I’ll gut him myself.
“C,” Matteo whispers, nudging my side, “did you hear that? The place they found them at. It’s another warehouse not far from here.”
“Then what the hell are we waiting for?” I snarl back in a whisper. “She could still be there.”
We return to the car parked blocks away from where Nero’s men have brought Ignazio. The second warehouse Matteo overheard them mentioning is less than two miles off.
My twitchy heart pounds faster. We pull up outside the building and rush in still strapped. From inside the pocket of the cargo pants I’m wearing, my phone chimes. Few people have this number. Only my closest inner circle.
Including Nevaeh.
“You’re covered in blood.” Ms. Poitier’s tongue ticks in her mouth. Her heavy-lidded eyes flash with disapproval, her mouth at a bend. “Should I be surprised?”
She steps into the bathroom as I step into the glass box that is my shower. A partition separates the half of the bathroom I’m standing in and the half toward the front where she is. Though it’s not as if I’d care if she could see more than she can—I’ve never been shy about my naked form. I’ve walked out of mybedroom with my big dick swinging, enraged by something I needed addressed right then and there, or if I were in the middle of another flare up.
I grab the bar of soap in the shower nook and let the hot water pass over me. The blood staining my skin washes away within seconds, pooling at the drain before slipping down. Scrubbing my skin clean, I say, “Since when do you care about bloodshed?”
“Since you went on the warpath about your missing wife.”
“We’ve done what we had to do.”
“You seem to have convinced yourself of that. Which is fine. But now you want to get me involved.”
“And?”
Ms. Poitier glares at me despite the fog clouding the glass shower. “You don’t see why I want nothing to do with it?”
“You are my only female employee. You do it… or one of my men will.”
I’m not sure I could make good on the threat—I’m far too possessive to ever allow it—but it works as a scare tactic for Ms. Poitier.
She goes rigid, her face pulled tight. “Fine. If that’s what you want. I’ll report back.”
In the time she’s gone, I finish my shower. My skin’s squeaky fucking clean by the time I emerge. We’d encountered some of Nero’s men after all when we were trying to drive out of the city. They’d found out we were in the area conducting our own search.
Matteo and I barely have a scratch on us.
None of the handful of Nero’s men are still breathing tonight.
I slip into a pair of sweatpants and come up to the dresser where I’ve kept her ring. I pick up the tiny gold band that could never fit my pinky finger let alone my ring finger. But it fits soperfectly on Nevaeh’s small, slender hand. She took it off the night she left me.
She took off the ring that symbolized our union.
I grit my teeth as a deep darkness consumes me.
Rage I wasn’t sure I could ever feel for mia bella ballerina.
Now I know that wasn’t true. I thought wrong. The rage I feel toward her for what she’s done scares me. It makes me uncertain of what I’m capable of, even if I’m a beast.
I’m more than enraged. I’m fucking hurt and betrayed. All factors that push the rage into new unknown territory.
…’til I realize I thought I wanted Nevi back to protect and take care of her.
What I really want is to punish her for what she’s done to me. Make her suffer like she deserves, likeshemademefucking suffer.
Ms. Poitier returns within the hour, her body language stiffer than earlier. “It’s done. She’s… she’s ready for you, C.”
I glance in the mirror at my dark, feral expression then turn away to head for the door. “Good. It’s time mia bella ballerina suffers a bit.”
