“You will never hit another woman again,” I command.
Franco shoves him into a corner and gets up too, throwing him a tissue from his pocket. “Clean up this fucking mess when we’re gone.”
Franco hands me a few plastic bags, and I tuck the fingers inside multiple to stop the blood from pooling onto the pavement beneath our feet. I’ll take these with me so he doesn’t try to get his buddies at some underground clinic to reattach them after we’re gone.
This is a permanent punishment, one he’ll have to take to the grave.
We waltz off back through the alley and put on our hats and glasses as we move between the crowd with bloodied suits. Everyone throws glances at us, but before they get a chance to decipher what’s stained our clothes, we’ve already disappeared.
STELLA
When the familiarsound of Matteo’s engine pulls up the driveway, I immediately run toward the window in the living room to take a peek outside. He’s here.
My heart nearly beats out of my chest when he steps out of his car, but the blood on his sleeves makes me swallow away the lump in my throat.
What has he done?
He hands something to one of his employees, a bag filled with God only knows what, and then instructs him to do something. I wish I could overhear their conversation.
Suddenly, his eyes glance my way, the penetrative glare setting my soul ablaze before I swiftly hide behind the curtains and pretend I wasn’t peeking.
God, this is so dumb. He already saw me, so he knows I’mwatching.
I sigh out loud at my own foolishness, then look again, but he’s already gone. His employee has fetched a shovel from the tool shed and is actually digging a hole somewhere in the yard while the bag lies next to him in the grass.
What the hell is he burying?
The door slams shut, and I run from the window to the door, tearing it open, only to meet Matteo’s fiery gaze head-on.
Fuck.
I have never seen him this bloodied before.
It’s like he doused himself in someone’s lifeblood.
“Oh my God,” I mutter.
He stares at me for a moment. “You changed out of the red dress.”
Wait, what? That’s what he focuses on right now? When he’s the one who’s covered in blood?
“Are you …?” I mutter.
“Hurt?” He narrows his eyes. “Is that what you were hoping, Tesoro?”
He walks up the stairs, and I immediately follow. “No, no, that’s not what I meant.”
He heads straight into his room, so I dart in behind him right before the door closes. He turns, and his lips part as if he didn’t expect me to follow him inside.
He’s absolutely covered in blood from head to toe; fingers, hands, chest, even his face. There are splatters everywhere, and it definitely doesn’t belong to him becausehe doesn’t even have a scratch on his face.
“Did you …?” I don’t even know how to finish my sentences.
His hand balls. “I wanted to. Desperately. But it would be an easy way out for a monster like him.” The rage he exudes is palpable, even from all the way over here. “I couldn’t stomach the thought of him hurting you, so I made him pay in blood.”
I’m amazed Matteo would actually hunt Lucio down for me. That he’d make Lucio pay for putting his hands on me when I was still his fiancée despite the fact that Matteo doesn’t even know me, and that I even tried to poison him.
He still cared enough to want to protect me.
