But when they throw a filthy glance at me, I pull my bathrobe together and tightly wrap it around my body in an effort to conceal my nudity. I can still feel their dirty fingers all over me, and it makes me want to vomit.
“No,” Matteo says. “Youtouchedher.”
He points his gun at the dude on the left.
“No one touches what’s mine.”
BANG!
Matteo kills the third dude on the spot, and he slumps down onto the ground, blood splashing everywhere.
The last remaining guy squeals. “Please don’t kill me.” He drops down headfirst into the dirt, fingers clutched together, praying for mercy from Matteo.
“You tried to take her. You tried to take what belongs to me. She’smywife.Mine, do you hear me? No one who touches my wife lives to tell the tale.”
BANG!
The last one flops to the ground too, his hands still clutched together as if he’s praying to God for all eternity, even beyond death.
And I can’t help but stare at the bloodshed in front of me and the ease with which Matteo ripped them off the face of the earth just because they dared to take me … Just because they tried to hurt me and take me for themselves.
I clutch my own legs, trying to maintain my emotions as they overpower me.
A single tear rolls down my cheeks, but it’s not because I’m sad for their deaths.
It’s because I’m grateful that Matteo was here to kill them for me.
Matteo
I kneel in front of Stella, wondering how on earth I could ever make this right. She doesn’t deserve this. They fucking hurt her because she escaped, and I let it happen. Fuck, I feel so guilty.
I place my hand on her shoulder, but she winces, still scared from whatever happened to her in the back of that grimy old car.
Goddammit.
I should have kept them alive just so I could torture them again. I should have cut off their balls for even attempting to touch her. But I can never take away the memory that now stains her mind, and for that, I will never forgive myself.
She’s breathing louder and faster with each breath, panic taking hold of her soul. Her eyes skid toward my gun when I try to pull her in for a hug, and her body grows rigid.
She’s scared … scared of me, and I don’t ever want her to be.
“I won’t hurt you, Tesoro,” I tell her.
But she still shudders and shakes her head like she doesn’t believe me.
I pull out my gun and throw it as far away as possible. She looks up at me with those gorgeous eyes, and I gently cup her face in my hand. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t be here sooner.”
Suddenly, she falls into my chest, hugging me so tightlythat it steals the words from my lips. God, I’ve never felt such warmth.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she mutters again and again.
I place my hand on her back. “Don’t. Don’t ever thank me for doing the right thing, the one thing I should have done all along. I should have protected you.”
She buries her face in my chest as a few tears escape, and I slowly pat her on the back.
“They touched you, didn’t they?” I ask, the question too painful to even think about.
She softly nods, and my worst fears immediately come alive.
