I grab his arm and march out the door with him.
“Wait for me,” Stella says, and she chases us, but I would much rather she stay there.
I’m far too busy dealing with this mess. Now that he’s here to confront me, I have to get ready and set everything in motion. This is the first time the bastard has come right to me, but this is my playground. I won’t let him best me here.
“You never once gave him your address,” Franco says.
“No,” I say. “He must have tracked us down somehow.”
I make my way downstairs and run outside toward my garage, where my car is parked. It’s the only thing that makes sense, the only way he could have found us. I check under the car, rubbing past every ridge with my fingers until I finally find a small metallic object stuck to the left tire.
Fuck.
He tracked us all the way from the cemetery to my goddamn home.
“Goddammit,” I say, holding out my hand so Franco can see as well.
“Shit, I’m sorry, sir,” he mutters. “That’s why they ambushed you at the cemetery.”
“It was a distraction, and now they have us right where they want us. Vulnerable.”
Fuck that.
I crumble the tracker in the palm of my hand, but when I turn around, Stella is right there staring me down with a worried look on her face, and it stops me in my tracks.
Lucio is here, and he’s come forher.
“He tracked you, didn’t he?” she says, clutching the bathrobe tightly. “It’s my fault. If I hadn’t told you how distraught I was about my mother, you wouldn’t have taken me to the cemetery and risked that meeting.”
I shake my head and approach her, grabbing her face to make her look at me and to calm her down.
“It is not your fault, and I don’t want you to worry. I’ll handle this.”
“How?” Stella asks.
“I won’t allow you to be in danger. Lucio won’t get his hands on you.”
I turn my head. “Franco, grab the car. Take her to her safe house and guard her.”
She immediately pulls out of my grasp and takes a few steps back. “No. I don’t want to leave. Not without you.”
She blushes heavily, and it makes my brows furrow.
Even now, she still refuses to leave my side, and I love her for it.
But his men will put bullet holes in every corner of my mansion. I can’t let her get hurt, let alone be taken again. She’s my wife. It’s my duty to protect her.
“Stella,” I warn her. “Go with Franco.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “I won’t do it.”
I lower my brows. “You have to. I will not let them hurt you. Do you understand? Icannot. You aremywife, in sickness and in health… I must keep you safe at all costs.”
She grinds her teeth. “Your life is not a price I’m willing to pay.”
“It’s not up to you.”
“Yes, it is!” She folds her arms. “You do not get to decide what I do with my life.”
