“I’m tired. For some reason, I haven’t gotten much sleep the past week.”
Smirking, he rests his elbows on the counter I just cleaned, then says, “Why’s that?”
When I throw my dishcloth in his face, his laughter bellows around the nearly deserted space.
After dumping the cloth that smacked him upside the head, hisdemanding tone slashes through the haze swamping me. “It’s time to go home,dolcezza. If you’re a good girl during the drive, I might even let you sleep tonight.”
I laugh at his obvious lie while pushing up the sleeves of my shirt. I need to cool my skin before I beg him to make true on his threat when he told me he won’t hold back the next time I call him Vanni. He said he’ll fuck me on the closest surface he finds—witnesses or not.
I snap my eyes to Giovanni when a gargled groan rolls up his chest. With his eyes glued on my arm, he stands perfectly still. Too still.
I follow the direction of his gaze, and my happy mood circles the drain.
The marks I tried to hide from him earlier stand out like a nun in a brothel. Four deep crescents from Valeria’s nails glow as vividly as the anger on Giovanni’s face. I could feel the sting of her ironclad grip hours later, but as my shift continued, I pushed aside the pain as one of the effects of a long day.
Pure unfiltered rage fills Giovanni’s eyes as he struggles to maintain his cool. I’ve seen him angry before, but this is different. This level of anger is dangerous. He looks like he could tear the pub apart with his bare hands and it would disperse only a fraction of his fury.
“Giovanni…” My reply falls silent when I realize he isn’t looking at me anymore. His slit eyes are locked on someone over my shoulder.
I know who it is before I even glance over my shoulder. Matteo’s presence is as suffocating as Giovanni’s, but since it has a playful edge, such as driving across town to witness his brother working a “regular job,” it doesn’t demand the attention of the entire room. You just know he’s there, watching.
Giovanni wets his throat as if he’s swallowing fire, and then his words come out low and lethal. “Take her home,” he says to Matteo. “Now.”
Matteo doesn’t hesitate. He straightens up fast enough to dislodge the woman he’s been sucking face with for the past two hours, nods, and heads my way.
The weight of Giovanni’s fury presses against my spine even as Matteo moves closer, and it surges my desperation. “Vanni…”
I must have tossed out my line without any bait, because Giovanni doesn’t even nibble at it. His focus is resolute, and he’s already far from here.
I want to tell him that I’m not fragile. I have and will continue to handle this on my own, but my mouth refuses to relinquish my words. Both my head and my heart know what this is really about. It isn’t control. It’s protection. And right now, Giovanni’s belief that he failed to protect me is burning him alive.
27
GIOVANNI
Matteo moves for Valentina before I do. One second, she’s throwing out sexual innuendos like they’ll pull me back from the edge. The next, Matteo’s arm bands around her waist, and she’s off the floor and slung over his shoulder as if she weighs nothing.
She screams Matteo’s name first, then mine.
When neither slackens Matteo’s strides, she shouts a heap of angry, desperate pleas. Since none of them are what I want to hear—like why the fuck she’s marked—I don’t pay them any attention.
The fury charging through my veins eventually drowns out Valentina’s pleas. All I can see are the nail-size indents carved into her skin like some sort of fucking signature, and the bruises formed around them.
Whoever grabbed her must have been holding something sharp but small. Otherwise, how else can you explain that odd pattern?
Unless…
My jaw cracks as a memory hits. Valeria’s long and lacquered nails had those ridiculous fertility charms dangling off them. The pattern on the silver trinket that clinked when she raked her handover my chest is a similar pattern to a bruise accompanying the nail indentations.
That’s all the proof I need to know Valeria didn’t just grab Valentina. She dug her nails in deep enough for Valentina to feel her warning for days.
The fire inside me rages out of control until it’s all I can taste. I told Valentina she’d be protected in my realm and that nothing bad would ever happen to her or her family.
Valeria turned that truth into a lie, and for what? An opportunity to stake a claim to something she willneverown.
My hands ball so fast my nails bite into my palms. I want to rip those charms off Valeria’s nails one by one and make her choke on them. But more than anything, I want her to understand the consequences when you touch what’s mine.
When the pub door swings shut behind Valentina and Matteo, I push off the bar. My steps are timed and deliberate, because if I’m not cautious, I’ll break something and I won’t stop until I level this entire fucking town.
