Chapter 75 MICELI

"This is me being more trouble than I am worth."

"That is a lie." Cazzo . She has to know that. "You are worth everything ."

I'm holding her too tight, but I cannot let go of this precious woman. The muscles in my arms refuse to loosen.

"I'm getting you all wet," she mutters against my chest.

Memory of the image she made standing there in a top nearly transparent from the water assails me.

Releasing her with one arm, I shrug out of one side of my suit jacket and then putting that arm back around her, I shrug out of the other. Then I put my suit jacket around her shoulders, surrounding her with me.

She looks up at me, vulnerability shining in her green eyes. "I can't believe you mafia guys wear suits in the summer. Who does that?"

"Suit jackets have their uses. They hide weapons nicely and–"

"Give you something to put around your fiancée when she's kidnapped by the bad guys and dunked in the bay?"

"Something like that."

I hold her away from me a few inches, but no more, so I can examine her. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I cut myself a little, getting the zip tie off. But it's not even bleeding anymore." She holds up her hand and shows me where she's nicked herself right below the palm.

I bring it to my mouth and kiss it. Then I lick along the shallow cut .

"You know we're not wolves or anything. I'm pretty sure that's not sanitary."

"I am incapable of hurting you, not even my saliva. We are perfectly chemically matched."

"I read that article too you know, and I am pretty sure the concept doesn't cover bacteria and infection."

Most women would be sobbing right now and if she did, I would hold her and think no less of her. But she's throwing out her usual snark.

I'm barely keeping up my end of the banter because all I want to do is to kill the men who took her and then fuck her over the pile of their dead bodies and prove to the world that she is mine.

"I should probably be offended I can feel you getting hard, but I'm not."

"What is there to be offended by? I will always want you. And sex is a primal response to vanquishing danger."

"I believe you." She wiggles against me.

"Watch out, or I'll strip you naked and take you here in the street."

"Kinky." She looks up at me, all humor drained from her eyes. "They threw me in a trunk. They were going to take me to the OAG compound and give me to Jed like I'm a rescue cat."

"Pusheen would eat them alive."

"She would. I want to punch every one of those miserable excuses for humanity in the nuts." She pauses. "With my kobutan."

"If that is what you want." I lift her into my arms and carry her to the SUV.

She stays snug in my lap as we drive the few feet to the other vehicles, where one of my envoy is blocking the back of the car and the other is blocking the side and front at an angle.

As soon as we arrived the car heading toward Róise tried to reverse direction, but they had no chance.

Just like this woman who has become my life, mi dolce fiore , had no chance against three trained soldiers with their fucking zip ties and DPVs.

All three stronzos have one of my men on each side, holding them in place to face judgment. To face me .

But it's my little spitfire that's going to confront them first.

The SUVs block the view from security cameras in the area. That doesn't mean we're not going to wipe them. Always better safe than sorry.

I nod to Allessio, who is holding one of the two younger men. "Keep him still."

Lowering Róise to her feet, I guide her arms into the suit jacket's sleeves and then roll them up so she has freedom of movement before buttoning the jacket.

There's still too much of her showing, but she needs her moment, and her needs supersede mine .

Not that I will hesitate to gouge out the eyes of any of the men around us who looks at her with lust. My men aren't that stupid.

The AOG bastards though…we'll see.

Róise pulls her kobutan from her pocket.

I shake my head. "These idiots let you keep it?"

No wonder she was able to get out of the zip ties.

"They didn't search me for weapons. The only thing they were worried about was my phone." She glares at the men. "They dumped it somewhere between Uncle Brogan's and the boathouse where we surfaced."

It's the first time she's referred to the mansion as her uncle's home and not her own. Something inside me settles.

"I'll get you a new one," I promise.

"But I liked that one. You got it for me."

"And that matters to you."

"I'll probably hoard every little thing you give me until the day we die. We might have to get a storage unit just for my sentimental memorabilia," she warns.

"Whatever you want, but I didn't notice a bunch of keepsakes in your things. Did your uncle's staff not collect all your belongings?"

"They did." She sighs. "I stopped saving things after my dad died."

Because the memories hurt. And she's willing to start collecting keepsakes again. From me.

That atrophied organ in my chest fills with fresh blood that feels a lot like joy.

"What the fuck is this lovey-dovey talk? Our militia will take you fuckers out if you don't let us go right now ," one of the two younger men mouths off.

"Watch your fucking mouth in front of my fiancée," I snarl. "You are already dead. After I execute your leader and that fucking asshole Jed for daring to lay claim to the woman who has given me her heart, I will raze the goddamn AOG to the ground and scorch the earth over their bones so it will never sprout again."

"I never said I love you." That's mi dolce fiore putting her oar in the water.

I scowl down at her. "You will."

"You kind of look like a demon right now." She winks at me. "It's sexy."

Fuck. This woman.

"You whore! The man you are flirting with is a criminal. You heard what he just said! He threatened to kill us." The other younger man spits at Róise.

I shift her out of the path of his saliva before backhanding him. Hard.

My ring leaves a gash on his cheek and the demon inside me revels in the spill of blood.

"What the fuck do you think a man who kidnaps a woman is?" Allessio demands .

He's furious with himself that they got Róise on his watch. If we had not gotten her back, I would have taken more than a finger for his failure. But she is here and safe.

I can forgive him. Maybe.

And only because I am as much to blame as he is. I was there too.

"You're not just a criminal," I say with disgust. "You're a stupid criminal. Because you tried to take what is mine and you will pay for that."

"Starting now." Róise wraps her hand around her kubotan like it's an icepick.

Just like I taught her. Then her thumb over the bottom of the stick, adding her free hand for more power.

This is going to hurt. Anticipation for the cries of pain coming have me almost smiling.

My fierce fiancée jabs straight into his solar plexus. "That's for carrying me around like a sack of potatoes and jamming your stupid shoulder into my diaphragm."

She's not done. Her next strike is his groin area. Right in the nuts, like she said she wanted to.

It's a good target for maximizing pain. The man shrieks.

She turns to the mission leader. "You were right about one thing. I desire the man I'm going to marry very much, but he doesn't need to try to rule over me to feel powerful." She gives me a heated look. "He's too strong to need to prop himself up like that."

I don't know what this stronzo said to Róise but it sure pissed her off. Her first strike is to his groin and the second to his temple, knocking him out cold.

"You think you're tough," the other younger man sneers. "You have to have a man hold me so you can get us."

"And you had to have two men hold me so you could put those zip ties on me, asshole." She strikes him on the throat with enough force to collapse his trachea.

He throws his head back, mouth gaping, but he's not breathing much less speaking.

"Oh, did I crush your windpipe?" Róise asks with fake sweetness. "That's too bad. I'm sure you have so much more to say."

"I'm so turned on right now."

Róise doesn't answer. She's watching the man struggle to get air but it's not happening.

She looks up at me with absolute trust tinged by panic. "Do something. I don't want to kill someone."

I pull out my knife and stab him directly in the heart. "There. Now you didn't kill him. "

"Thank you."

My guys let him drop to the pavement.

But that's not enough for Ollie, who stomps his head. "Fecking AOG scum."

"What are you doing, man?" the only still lucid member of the kidnap team whines. "You can't just kill him."

"This is Cosa Nostra territory. I can do whatever the fuck I want." I dismiss him by turning my back. "Allessio."

"Yes, boss?"

I jerk my head toward the parked SUVs. "Get this mess cleaned up. I want all security and traffic cams wiped for a four block radius."

"On it."

I turn to one of my other men. "Take them to The Box. Make sure they can't try what those Lucchesi cowards did."

Our new policy is to use ball gags with all prisoners so they cannot bite their tongues off and choke to death on their own blood like the Lucchesi soldiers who attacked my cousin's fiancée did a couple months back.

"Ollie, you're with us."

Relief flickering in his eyes, Brogan's man nods. He needs to see that his former charge is safe. I get that.

I would have had him assigned to Róise's detail permanently after she moved in with me. However, she told me that her younger cousin is comfortable with the soldier and she didn't want to take Ollie away from Fiona.

But if there is one Irishman I would allow on my payroll, it's him.