Is he just not going to mention it? Like this isn’t normal.
I gaze out the window and stare at the wedding venue right before we turn. My mother’s still at the venue, and I had to leave her there all by herself.
“My mother’s still inside,” I mutter.
“She’ll be taken care of. I’ll make sure she gets home safely. My men are still there, and they will make sure no guests are harmed while Lucio leaves the premises.”
I don’t care what happens to Lucio. I care about my family… my mom.
“You didn’t even let me say goodbye to her.”
He looks up, brows furrowed, lips parted, like he’s taken aback and didn’t expect me to say something. And after a while, he says, “I’m sorry.”
I frown, making a fist with my hand. “You’resorry? Sorry for what? Destroying my wedding? Marrying me? Taking away my freedom? Nearly killing my family? What were you thinking?”
The mischievous grin reappears on his face, and he waits until I’m done ranting, then takes it all in.
“I was thinking of saving your life,” he replies.
I frown, my lips parting in shock. I can’t believe he just said that out loud.
“Oh, don’t for a second think I’m going to believe that.”
“It’s the truth,” he says all smugly.
“No, you just wanted Lucio to suffer.”
“I did, but I also wanted to take you out of that situation. It was obvious you never intended to marry that asshole.”
“Whatever.” I roll my eyes and look away again. I don’t know what to think of this man. When I first met Matteo, he seemed charming and mysterious. But when I realized he walks in the same shadowy world as Lucio does, I immediately decided it wasn’t an option for me. Even though he’s so handsome that it’s hard to look anywhere else.
Suddenly, he places a hand on my knee, and an electrical current flows through my entire body, forcing me to look athim.
“I will take good care of you. I swear it on my life.”
I suck in a breath, but it’s hard to let go.
What will happen to me now? How long will I be in this man’s grasp?
“You did well,” he says.
“I didn’t do anything. I was just there.”
He smirks and squeezes my knee. “I mean, you did good by bringing that tracker along.” My face turns beet red as he adds, “A little devil on my shoulder told me you’d do just that for me.”
I shudder in place as he removes his hand, but I can still feel his fingers tingling all over my body even though he only touched my knee.
“You only threw that tracker at me so you could find Lucio’s location and hurt him.”
“Correct,” he replies.
All these Mafia men are the same. They only want two things: violence and money.
“I want him to suffer, yes,” he says. “But I realize that giving him pain would never be enough for me, nor would his death. I want him emotionally, mentally, and physically destroyed.”
He grabs my chin and forces me to look at him. “And the only way to do that was by taking you away from him and making you mine instead.”
Goose bumps scatter on my skin from the way he says the wordmine, like I’m some kind of prize, something hewants to own. I jerk free of his grip.
