Chapter 4

ALESSIO

I darted towards her in a burst of energy.

Seconds later, I’d divested her of her weapon, throwing it into a stand of bushes to her left.

I banded one arm across her waist, trapping her against me.

With a gasp, she reacted, thrashing, struggling, kicking hard, and bucking wild.

The back of her boot grazed my balls, my jewels almost sustaining a hit from her flailing.

I hissed, gripping her around the neck. ‘Woman, relax!’

She’d no such plans.

Damn, she was a hellcat, kicking my knees, elbowing me, her swing sending shards of pure agony through me.

‘Cleo, calm the fuck down,’ I growled.

At the sound of her name, she froze.

Chest heaving, pulse jumping beneath my fingers .

I gentled my grip and let go with care, keeping a wary eye on her hands in case she decided to take a swing at me.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

She whirled, and my gun snapped up in a reflexive motion.

A bolt of agony went through me, and I cursed at the throb of the wound in my shoulder.

For a suspended moment, we stared at each other.

I, down the barrels of my Sig, eyes piercing past the thick chasm of tension between us.

‘It’s you,’ she whispered.

I tilted my chin up, letting her see all of me.

Hard eyes, clenched jaw, twisted lips.

‘It’s fuckin’ you,’ she repeated with something like wonder threading through her voice.

I exhaled, harsh and ragged. ‘Si, bella. It’s me.’

I gazed into her jade eyes and drank her in.

Still freakin’ off the charts beautiful.

‘After all these years,’ she breathed.

I jerked my chin, too winded to say more.

‘You let me go in Naples because, for some reason, you froze. So, have you now come to finish off what you started?’

I huffed at her husky intimation, a wild and inaccurate conjecture. ‘You’ve quite the imagination, woman.’

She bristled.

‘I’ve also got quite the fight in me. You’re lucky I didn’t aim higher with my boots,’ she spat, her gaze flicking to my groin.

I winced, realizing just how close I had come to losing my jewels to her flailing limbs and deadly accuracy.

‘Believe me, I’m counting my blessings,’ I grated, trying to ignore the way my body responded to the sight of her, all coiled energy and barely leashed violence .

A wave of weakness came on the heel of my ratcheting desire.

I dropped to one knee.

‘I’m flattered,’ she growled, then gasped when I almost keeled face-first to the ground before her.

She rushed and caught me before I fell.

‘You’re hurt.’

She eased me down, and I slumped to the earth on my back, winded and unsure of my injuries.

Despite the waves of nausea assailing me, I kept my gun trained on her, and her eyes flicked to it, a flash of fear running through them.

I didn’t give a fuck.

I wouldn’t hurt her, but I was willing to do whatever it took to make sure she wasn’t harmed.

Regardless if that meant hurting her feelings for a short while.

‘You need to do as I say. I’ve got a first aid kit in my car. Take me to it,’ I ground out.

Her eyes searched the knoll, finding my SUV tucked under the brush where I’d left it.

‘Then what?’

I curled my lip at the defiance in her voice. ‘Step by step, sweetheart. But first, bring your rifle to me. Attempt anything shady, and I’ll shoot.’

She sucked her teeth but did as I asked.

‘Disarm it,’ I growled, waving my silencer-tipped weapon at her.

She did, sliding the unspent casings from the stock and handing them to me.

I hissed as I pocketed them, the movement sending shards of agony across my torso.

‘Lift me,’ I rasped.

Somehow, she managed to help me to my feet, her arm encircling my waist.

‘Don’t try a fuckin’ thing,’ I warned.

My gun hand wrapped over her neck as we staggered down the slight incline to my vehicle, where she helped me into the back seat.

She didn’t respond apart from a deep inhale.

‘The fob is in my back pocket,’ I growled when we got to the car, and she set me against its back wheel.

I lifted my ass so she’d rummage through my backside.

Her so close, so visceral, so sexy, her tits in my direct line of sight sent a bolt of need straight to my cock.

She inhaled as her fingers located the keys and pulled them out.

She turned, refusing to meet my eyes.

I kept my Sig in my clasp, resting on my chest, as she rummaged in my SUV. She found my first aid kit and went to work.

She was efficient and knew what she was doing.

She cleaned and dressed the wound with practiced efficiency.

While giving me furtive little glances, the pulse in her neck jumping, her breath hitching.

I was having a severe effect on her.

As she was on me.

‘Cleo -.’

Her name fell from my lips like a prayer.

She glanced up, her eyes meeting mine.

In their depths, I tagged a flicker of fear .

But there was something else - a vulnerability, a rawness that twisted my guts.

‘What?’ she growled.

‘I’ll have you know that if I pass out, you can’t leave me here to bleed out.’

‘And why not?’ she murmured, soft, not raising her voice. Yet it was edged with steel like she was considering the idea.

‘One name,’ I grated, hating myself as I rasped the words.

‘Whose?’

‘Guilia.’

Her whisper fell lower. ‘Who?’

‘Your Nonna. ’

She jolted, her eyes flying up to meet mine, hands stilling.

‘What the fuck?’

Still, she didn’t raise her tone or volume.

She was a fuckin’ mirror of calm.

‘I have a man,’ I told her, my face brutal, ‘he’s watching her; in fact, he’s got a straight line to her door at Our Lady of Mercy Aged Care facility.’

My intonation was distinct, and she got the message loud and clear.

Her face blanched, and she glared at me for a lengthy time. ‘You bastard.’

Her whisper coiled around my heart.

‘You total fuckin’ bastard.’

‘Some have called me that,’ I growled, a muscle in my jaw ticking.

She sucked her teeth at me, glowering all the while.

‘Save your anger,’ I rasped. ‘You’ll have plenty of time to unleash it on me after we’re far from here.’

I tamped back the desire to reach out and stroke her face, to thumb the pulse at her nape.

‘I’m not going anywhere with you,’ she shot back. ‘What do you want anyway?’

‘Fuzzy alpaca slippers, a ‘flippy’ garden gnome, and a freak in the sheets tee. Pick any of the above.’

‘Fuck you.’

I raised my Sig and made a play for the trigger. ‘In due time, Cleo.’

She jolted at my intimation, and my lips curled.

‘What do I want? For you to take me to your home, woman.’

Her jade eyes flashed. ‘If I refuse?’

‘You want to fuck around and find out?’ I growled.

She studied me, eyes raking the stark planes of my face, brought to sharper relief by my pain. ‘Fine,’ she clipped. ‘We’ll do it your way, for now.’

Still a spitfire , I thought.

I jerked my chin. ‘Get your ass and mine in the car, woman.’

The harsh brutishness was necessary to get my way with her; it was the best way to keep her moving and on her toes.

She helped me recline on the back seat, her touch scorching as she adjusted a safety belt over me. Regardless of my suffering, every brush of her fingers against my skin sent sparks dancing along my nerve endings.

Fuckin’ keep it together, I chided myself.

But I couldn’t deny the effect she had on me. Despite being battered and bruised, with my defenses stripped away, I was freakin’ aware of her allure.

Cleo hovered for a beat, like she wanted to say something more, her eyes seething, jaw clenching and unclenching.

My breath hitched, waiting.

After a long moment, she jerked her chin to me, stepped back, stored her weapon away, and closed the door before sliding into the driver’s seat.

Her slender fingers touched the ignition, coaxing the engine to life.

My eyes locked on her as she pulled out onto the dirt track, gravel spraying. I leaned back and fixed my eyes on her, my Sig tight in my hand.

The road unspooled ahead of us, the dense forest giving way to rolling hills painted in the hues of a dying sun.

Exhaustion tugged at me, but I resisted its siren call.

I tried to focus on the landscape. But my eyes kept straying to her profile, flicking over the elegant lines of her nape.

To the stray wisps of hair curled against her neck and how the fading light caressed her skin.

Up close, she was the most fuckin’ beautiful thing I’d ever seen, regardless of her being disheveled and splattered with my blood.

I tamped back the desire to reach out and pull her into the backseat with me and plumb her senselessness until we both forgot our names.

Damn, I was torn.

On the one hand, I wanted to tear off her clothes and bury my cock in her.

On the other, once Franco was taken care of, I’d need to walk away from her.

The fuckin’ problem was what I was going to do with her afterward.

My mind whirled, but truth be told, I needed to close my eyes.

Fatigue was claiming me, the blood loss and shock taking their toll .

I slipped into unconsciousness, my Sig slipping from my bloodied hands as I slumped into my seat, and everything went black.