Chapter 44

Aquick glance in the stable proved she had taken the Alfa Romeo.

Clever girl.

Fortunately for me, that vintage car had a tricky clutch.

Sliding behind the steering wheel of the nearest black Range Rover, I sped out of the villa grounds.

It didn't take long to find her stalled along a secluded side lane to the main road to the village. She must have pulled over onto the narrow unpaved road when the car gave her trouble.

She was dressed in a pretty blue-and-white dress completely unsuited for the chill in the air, circling the car with her mobile raised high, looking for service.

She wouldn't find any.

The open country between the winery and the village was a dead zone.

I pulled up behind her and shrugged out of my heavy canvas coat, placing it over her shoulders. "You silly little thing. What are you doing out here?"

Ella leaned the top of her head against my chest. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I broke your super-expensive car."

My arms wrapped tightly around her as I stroked her hair. "You didn't break the car, babygirl. Not that I would give a damn if you had."

"It just sputtered and then stopped."

"It has a trick clutch. Tell me what's going through that adorable head of yours. Why did you steal a car and try to leave?"

"I screwed up. I should have told you everything when I had a chance. Then maybe?—"

She pulled back. As she did so, my oversized jacket slipped off her shoulders.

I yanked on the lapels, then gently pushed her arms through the sleeves. "Tell me now."

After swiping at the tears on her cheeks, she shook her head. "I can't. It's too late. Please, just let me go back to Sicily. My sister needs me."

My jaw tightened at the mention of her sister. The idea that my girl had put herself in danger—again—for that woman made me want to howl with rage, but I kept it in check. She was too vulnerable. Too scared and conflicted. The last thing she needed was me going all caveman on her now.

That would happen later.

When this was all resolved.

Then I'd lay down the law when it came to always telling me the truth and never hiding her problems from me. And the consequences for doing so.

I brushed her thick blonde curls away from her face. "You've just deprived me of a big, dramatic car chase like in the movies. The least you can do is talk to me."

Her lips twisted.

I tilted her chin back. "Is that a smile?"

She grasped my wrist as she tried to lower her head. "Don't make me smile. It's bad. Really, really bad. I think something's happened to my sister. I need to get back to Sicily."

"You're not going anywhere, Antonella. I forbid it."

She broke free. "You can't forbid me from helping my sister."

"The fuck I can't. Your sister is nothing but trouble. She's no longer your problem. She's mine."

Ella paced back and forth in front of me with her arm wrapped around her middle. "You don't understand. You don't know what's going on."

"Babygirl, I am holding on to my anger by a very thin strand. You are two seconds away from being bent over the hood of that car and having your skirts flipped over your head while I spank your pretty little ass raw as punishment for this latest stunt."

Her arms reached behind her to cover her ass. "You wouldn't dare. Not here. Not out in the open."

My hand rested on the silver belt buckle of my leather work belt. "Watch me."

Her cheeks bloomed with bright color as her lower lip pushed out in a pout. "You're not being fair."

"Trust me, baby. I'm being very fair right now. If this were my father or uncle, you'd already have a red bottom. Now talk."

She crossed her arms and leaned against the car. "It all started when Antonia told me she was pregnant..."

"So you toldyour sister I was at Carnevale, and she still refused to leave with you?"

The only tiny kernel of redemption in how Id treated my girl that first night was she at least got pleasure out of it. That still didn't forgive my barbaric behavior toward an untried virgin. That I thought she was her sister was not enough of an excuse for my guilty mind.

I wrappedmy left hand over my right fist. "He did what?"

She had barely gotten to the part where her sister drugged her and then pawned her unconscious body off on some thug ex-boyfriend and already there were several people I wanted to straight up murder.

"I'm going to need his full name when you're done."

Hell, Dante might not have enough soldiers in his mafia syndicate to continue once I was done cleaning house. Problem solved.

My fingers duginto my brow bone as I rubbed my eyes. "So that's why you tipped the tray over?"

Ella spread her arms wide. "Antonia told me I had to make it believable!"

Just another link in the chains I would be wearing in hell for how Id treated this sweet, innocent creature in the beginning. Christ, that was the night I treated her like a pony and used an e-stim riding crop on her.

Fuck, I was totally going to hell.

I kept my eyes shielded as I groaned, "Continue."

I pacedin front of her, running my hand through my hair. "You're telling me that you've been handing over all sorts of incriminating shit to this asshole, Fino, for months now?"

She twisted her hands in front of her. "He said if I gave him information on my father, he'd look into my mother's disappearance."

My lungs filled with crisp winter air as I took a deep breath and prayed for patience. Desperately trying to keep my voice even and calm, I asked, "Would I be correct in assuming all this evidence can be traced back to show you're the one who took it?"

She bit her lip and grimaced. "Yes, but that's not the worst part…"

My girl had a "fun" definition of bad if she thought making a mortal enemy of not just her own father, but Dante as well, wasnt the worst part. She obviously didn't consider that in her zeal to reveal her father's criminal actions, she would be implicating the entire Agnello syndicate.

It was a fucking miracle she wasn't already dead and rotting in some unmarked grave.

Placing my hands on my hips I stared down into the dirt, afraid I'd shake her if I met her gaze. I sighed before asking, "What is the worst part, baby?"

She gestured to me. "See, you're angry. I don't want to tell you now."

I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her close. After kissing her forehead, I said, "Yes. I'm very angry. Possibly the angriest I've ever been in my life, but not at you. Now tell me."

"You'll yell."

"I promise I won't."

"Are you motherfucking kidding me?"I yelled once she finally related the true circumstances of how I found her last night.

She stamped her foot. "You promised you wouldn't yell."

Through clenched teeth, I growled, "That was before you told me some asshole snuck onto my family's land and tried to choke you to death."

"He wouldn't have really killed me. He needed me alive to…" Her voice drifted off. "Spy on your family," she finished in a small voice.

I threw my arms in the air. "Well, that makes all the difference."

A tentative smile crossed her lips. "It does?"

Storming toward her, I wrapped my hand around the base of her skull and pulled her close before slamming my mouth down on hers. Thrusting my tongue inside her sweet mouth, I devoured her in a hard, possessive kiss before breaking free.

I leaned my forehead against hers as I rasped, "No, my sweet girl. The only difference it makes is instead of putting a bullet between his eyes, now I'm going to use a knife to puncture every major vein in his body and force him to watch as the blood slowly drains from it."

She blinked. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Deadly serious."

She gripped my shirt. "You can't kill him."

"I assure you, I can."

"You don't understand. I need to get to Judge Delluci to convince him to arrest my father. And Fino is the one with access and all my evidence. I think my father has attacked my sister. I already might be too late. Toni called me earlier screaming for help. I haven't been able to reach her since."

There was very little chance the phone call Ella received was genuine.

Because my father informed me not an hour earlier that Antonia had made her way to the mainland yesterday, having fled the moment she learned I knew of their switch. And there being no evidence her blowhard father even knew anything was amiss, it was doubtful it was real.

Probably just another manipulation attempt by her sister.

But I couldn't say that and risk the possibility Antonia really was injured.

I placed my hands on her upper shoulders. "You have my word, I am going to handle all of this, but first I need you?—"

She frowned and pointed. "What is that?"

I followed her gaze over my shoulder.

There was a thick, black plume of smoke rising over the horizon.

Cavalieri Winery was on fire.