Midnight Untamed (Midnight Breed 14.5)

Chapter 4

Bella couldn’t wake from the sleep that cocooned her.

Nor did she want to.

Warm fingers stroked the side of her face as she slept, soothing her with a touch that was both sheltering and enticing. So strong. So infinitely gentle.

Ettore’s touch.

Her senses knew it, even if her mind struggled to comprehend. His caress felt like a dream, but it was real. As real as he was, seated close enough to her that his scent filled her lungs with each waking breath she drew.

No, this was no dream.

This was something deeper than sleep.

Her head felt thick, as if her mind were cushioned in cotton.

Then she remembered. The shock of seeing Ettore inside Massioni’s villa. Her dread at learning what he had come there to do.

She remembered him insisting that she leave with him, go somewhere safe. When she refused, he had reached up to touch her brow…

He’d tranced her!

Outrage speared through her. The sudden jolt of adrenaline and fury helped shake off the loose threads of the fading trance. She opened her eyes and found Ettore glancing at her. His handsome face and solemn hazel eyes held her gaze in the dim light of the vehicle’s dashboard.

Beneath her, the low purr of an engine vibrated.

“Are you okay?” he asked, drawing his hand away from her face now.

She instantly missed the warmth, despite the alarm that was flooding her veins.

“What are you doing?” She dragged herself out of her slump in the soft leather seat. On the other side of the passenger window, the nighttime landscape was a blur. Jesus, Ettore was driving like a bat out of hell. She swung an anxious look behind them. “Where’s Massioni?”

“Don’t worry about him. He was mine to deal with. And I did.”

Fresh horror swamped her. “You killed him?”

Ettore looked at her, his expression grim. “I hope so, but there wasn’t time to verify that.”

Oh, God. No. “Where are we going?”

A frown creased his brow. “I’m taking you to Rome, Bella. You’ll be safest at the Order’s command center there. My comrades and I will make sure of that.”

The Order. As shocked as she was to realize the golden, charming young man she had known all those years ago now made his living dealing in violence and death as a member of that lethal organization, she also knew that no one—not even the Order—could protect her from the worst of Vito Massioni’s threats.

For all she knew, it was already too late.

“Let me out of here, Ettore. Let me out right now.”

“What do you mean, let you out?” He gaped at her as if she had lost her mind. “Sweetheart, we’re going a hundred and twenty miles an hour.”

“I have to go back. Please, Ettore!”

Overcome with worry, she fumbled with her seatbelt, unfastening it and tearing it away from her body. She had to get out of the car and go back to beg Massioni’s forgiveness.

If he was still alive.