She pouts but nods as she settles her ass on the floor. Giuliana tugs her shoes off, setting them beside her. Leaning in, I watch in awe as my girl slowly reaches for me, her hand holding onto the needle, then slowly she pushes the metal into my flesh, making me grit my teeth.
Watching her, the woman who holds my heart in her hands stitches my wound. I can’t help but revel in her beauty and strength, and her innocent concentration. Once the thread is finally tugged tight, I taste blood. Even though I have my leather jacket between my teeth biting into it to keep from grunting in agony, the metallic flavor is there, and I realize my teeth grazed along my lip breaking the skin.
Leaning back, I close my eyes.
“That should be good,” she says, and all I can offer is a nod. The pain stings, and I wish I had alcohol to gulp down. I hear her moving, packing away the thread and needle, snapping the small case closed.
The heat of Giuliana nestled in my arms in the darkness is the only thing I focus on. Pain radiates through my leg, and I wonder if I’ll ever have a moment with her in the light. Even when we first found the desire that simmered between us, it was in the shadows.
“You know,” I groan when she leans in closer. “For two years, I’ve waited for this moment. I just didn’t realize I would be bleeding all over you when the time came.”
“I’m sorry,” she apologizes again, her voice breaking on the words, and I want to punch something. In my life, after all the violence I’ve witnessed, she’s always been my peace. My arm tightens, my eyes are still shut when I feel her crying. Her body trembles and I wish with all my fucking might that I could get us out of here.
I just need to breathe through the pain.
“Get up,” I bite out, realizing how stupid I’ve been. She moves quickly, her tiny frame beside me, and I note how curvy she’s gotten in places her younger self wasn’t. Her breasts are bigger, fuller, and her hips are more prominent. Fuck, she’s perfect. More so than ever before.
Shaking my head from the distraction, I shove my hand in my pocket and pull out my cell phone to find it dead. “Fuck!”
Shoving the offending item into my jeans, I tug the material up and over the belt that’s still looped around my leg.
“We’re getting out of here. Seth will come for us,” I tell her. As soon as I push up onto my feet, blinding pain shoots through my leg, up into my hip, all the way to my chest. Jesus, I hate being shot.
“You can’t walk, Lance. How are we going to get out of here?” she pleads with me, her blue eyes wide with fear as she stands, her face inches from mine. “I can’t lose you again.”
“I’m never walking away from you, and your father will die before he takes you from me again.” The venom in my tone causes her to suck in a sharp breath, and I realize I’ve just told the woman I love I will happily kill her father.
“Lance—”
“I’m not living without you, baby girl,” I interject. Leaning in closer, I whisper my lips over hers, inhaling her sweetness. “You’re mine. You always have been.”
Pressing my mouth to hers, I lick at the seam of her lips, and she allows me in. Her taste is like a goddamn shot of heroin that burns its way through my veins. My hands grip her ass, pulling her against my body, allowing her to feel my erection. Even through the pain, this woman can make me desire her with something fierce and almost violent.
“You’re a brute, Lance,” she breathes with a smile against my lips.
“And you’re beautiful, baby girl,” I flirt with a grin, stepping back.
“I guess that makes us beautifully brutal.” Her words are nonchalant, but I can hear the inflection in her tone. There’s uncertainty in her voice, which frustrates me. Does she think I’m letting her go?
“We have to leave before Sergio gets back. I was sent to kill him, and if he’s working with your father, we won’t be alive for very long when he returns.” Pulling her along behind me, I grab the screwdriver she found earlier and go to work on the door. I’ve been locked in one of these before, but then Sergio wouldn’t have known that.
Hope was never something I held on to.
But with Giuliana back in my life, I’ve allowed the emotion into my heart, along with love for the beautiful blonde.
I’ll save her, I promise myself.
Violence is a part of me, it runs through my blood, and it’s in every breath I take, and I wonder deep down if the vow I make is to save her from her father or me.
I know she’ll never be safe if I stay working for the Tabella Della Morte.
And I know soon, I’m going to have to choose.
Giuliana or the Cavalieri.
Giuliana
My lungs burn. My legs ache, and my body is drenched in sweat. Lance managed to open the door, and we somehow got off the property, but something tells me it was far too easy.