Page 26 of The Mafia Husband's Loveless Marriage

This time, because Mykos knew it was no longer him who was in control but God...

This time, all the other protocols worked.

The trackers they had secretly embedded in every pair of his wife's shoes pinpointed a location within minutes. A warehouse on the outskirts of the city, owned by a shell company that Orion's team traced back to the Eliopoulos family in three calls.

The favors they had painstakingly collected over the years were now called in. Contacts in law enforcement who owed Mykos for the men he had delivered to them. Officials who knew the Ravensworth name and what it meant when that name made a request. None of them hesitated.

And in an almost ridiculously short amount of time...

They had the blueprints of the very property Eliopoulos had taken her. A two-story warehouse with a basement level. One access road. Four exterior cameras that Orion's team disabled remotely.

They knew exactly how many men were there. Seven. Armed, but not organized. These were hired hands, not soldiers. They had been paid to grab a girl and hold her, but they hadn't been paid enough to die for her.

And this time...

Just like how he delivered the wrongdoers from his world...

The authorities were the ones who charged in. Tactical units through the front and side entrances, simultaneous breach, the way it had been done a hundred times before in this city. Except this time, the man who had made the call was standing outside the perimeter, and he was not patient, and he was not calm, and the peace that had carried him this far was now being tested by every second his wife remained inside that building.

And it was over in minutes.

Orion was the first one at his side when the all-clear came. "She's alive, sir. Basement level. They're bringing her up."

All Mykos had to do was walk into the room where they held his wife captive...

He found her gagged and bound to a chair. Her blond hair was tangled, her wrists raw from the zip ties, and there was a bruise forming on her cheek that made something inside his chest crack wide open.

She started to cry the moment she saw him, and the moment she was free, she threw herself into his arms...

Like she had already forgiven him.

Like he had never broken her heart in the first place.

And when he cupped her face with hands that just wouldn't stop shaking—

What he saw in her eyes had his chest tightening painfully, and all he could say was—

"I'm sorry it took me so long," he said hoarsely.

"You didn't take long at all," she said with a shaken laugh. "I watch true crime shows all the time. I know I still have hope because it hasn't been 72 hours—"

"Not that."

Maika was confused. "Then what—"

"I'm sorry it took me so long to realize I love you."

Did he just say—

Did she just hear—

"S-Say that again," she choked out.

"I love you,matia—"

For the first time ever, it was Maika who didn't let him finish speaking, with her lips covering his in a teary kiss.

Ours