He hesitates. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“No. You stay and make sure Fran is okay. Help her find an apartment if she asks.”
“An apartment?”
I don’t explain anything to him. Instead, I step onto the elevator, my mind racing. Russo may have hidden Elizabeth and fed her lies. He may have even convinced her she’s safe.
But I’m coming.
And when I get to Bari, one way or another, Elizabeth is going to remember exactly who she belongs to.
Ten hours later, I’m in Naples, Italy—close enough to move when I need to but far enough that Dante Russo doesn’t know I’m here.
That was the point.
Russo controls Bari. Naples gives me shadows to work from.
My men are waiting for me the second I step into the hotel suite, and one look at their faces is enough to tell me whatever they’ve learned isn’t good.
I drop my bag by the door. “What is it?”
The room goes still.
Then one of them says, “Sir… she’s engaged.”
For a second, I feel the ground shift beneath me and then everything in me locks.
“Say that again.”
His throat bobs before he forces the words out. “Miss Miller is engaged to Russo.” He lifts his phone with a careful hand, like he knows I might break more than the device. “It was announced today. The wedding is in two weeks.”
I snatch the phone from him.
There it is. A formal announcement dressed up like celebration, like this is something holy instead of a declaration of war. In the photo, he’d holding her hand showing off an engagement ring. I notice the name she’s going by. Juliette. Is that why I couldn’t find her? Because he helped her get a new identity.
My vision blurs at the edges.
Engaged.
Elizabeth is engaged to Dante fucking Russo.
A violent, black rage tears through me so fast it nearly splits me open. I’ve crossed an ocean for her. Burned through men, money, and blood trying to find her. And now I find out she isn’t hiding.
She’s wearing another man’s ring.
I stare at the screen until my reflection fractures in the glass.
Two weeks.
In two weeks, Russo plans to put my woman on his arm and make the whole world watch while he gives her his name.
The phone cracks in my grip, but no one in the room says a word. Good. Because if someone speaks right now, I may kill him just to hear something else break.
“Find out everything about the wedding.”
My man hesitates. “Sir?”
I lift my gaze, and whatever he sees in my face wipes the question right out of him.
