Chapter Five

As soon as I feel my fist connect with Marco's face, I lose myself to my rage.

Seven years of anger is coursing through my body, and each time I strike Marco, it feels like my rage just increases. I land a sharp kick to his ribs and hear the breath whoosh out of his lungs.

It feels good to give into my fury and to allow it free rein. Each blow feeling just and deserved for all the lies and embarrassment that Marco and Kate have caused me.

I distantly become aware of a woman shouting. I feel hands clutching at my body, but I sweep them away with a sharp movement.

Whoever was grabbing at me falls to the floor in a heap and there is the tinkling sound of beads or some other kind of small object hitting the floor as they fall. My brain doesn't have time to care about what that means as I continue beating Marco's prone form.

And then I hear it. The voice I didn't think I would ever hear again.

I feel like I have been doused in cold water, my rage slipping away immediately. I turn toward the sound of Kate's voice, taking in the sight of her standing before me, shock and horror on her beautiful face.

Her warm, caramel eyes immediately lock with mine, fear warring with regret in their depths.

She looks even better than she did when I saw her last. She's matured, growing into herself in the nicest possible way. She's added a few curves here and there, but she's still fit and trim.

My cock throbs in reply to her presence, but I push that aside for now. This isn't the time for distractions. I have a small window of opportunity to get Kate out of this hotel and onto my plane that is waiting at the airport.

"It's time to go now," I tell her, stalking closer to her. I hold out my hand, not sure if she will take it or not.

I feel like a snake charmer, and I hope that her desire to escape Marco's gilded cage will be enough for her to be willing to come with me now.

"No, Elio," she says, shaking her head. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Oh, you want to stay here with Marco, I suppose?" I say to her. The thought makes me unexpectedly angry all over again.

Marco isn't the kind of person that I should be jealous of. He's no one, an adopted ward who was taken in by a powerful family. I should be able to disregard him like a piece of gum stuck to my shoe.

It infuriates me that he continues to stand in my way like this.

"Actually, no," she says, dodging away from me. "I just want you all to leave me alone."

"You're still my betrothed," I say, narrowing my eyes. My skin feels hot and tight. "I have remained faithful to you all this time, even if you haven't been so loyal to me."

I see some emotion flicker in her gaze. I'm not sure if it is regret or longing. My traitorous heart, the soft part that I keep hidden from sight, is desperate to know if she has remained celibate all these years, just like I have.

It's not that I didn't try to find comfort with other women. Believe me, I tried.

The trouble was, that they always fell short. No one else is like Kate, and my traitorous emotions and body haven't stopped wanting her despite everything that has passed between us.

I hate living like a monk, but I cannot force myself to sleep with women who are not worthy of me and who don't measure up to Kate.

"I'm not going anywhere with you, Elio," Kate says again, backing up with her hands stretched out behind her. I can tell she's feeling her way toward the double doors that lead from the reception area to this hallway area.

I start to move to flank her, only to come to a sudden halt when Luca Baldini places an arm around her throat and a gun to her head.

I swallow the immediate burst of anger that coils through me at his presence and the audacity of threatening her in this way.

Doesn't he know that she's mine? And no one takes what belongs to me.

"Baldini," I say warmly, tucking my hands into the pockets of my slacks.

I need to play this right. Luca Baldini is one of the only people on earth who I know to be as capable of unthinking rage as myself.

Luca and I have equally bad reputations in our business. I fully believe him to be capable of shooting Kate in the head and then going back to dancing with his wife.

"La Rosa," Luca says, a note of surprise in his voice. "Didn't think you were on the guest list."

"He wasn't," Grazia says with irritation.

I glance back over my shoulder and realize that it was the bride that I flung off me earlier. The little pinging noises were beads from her wedding dress scattering across the floor.

She is scooping the little decorations up off the floor with single-minded attention, but she does spare me a furious gaze. I turn away negligently, returning my attention to the woman I was supposed to marry who is now firmly imprisoned in Luca's grasp.

"And yet, here I stand," I say with a little smile.

I pace to the side a little so that I can see behind Luca. I note that his older brother, Enzo, is standing behind him, silently watching the action unfolding before him.

Enzo is Luca's polar opposite; cool, calculating, slow to act. The fact that he is here means that Luca will likely behave himself.

"What do you want?" Enzo says to me, his eyes tracking my slow movements.

"Kate," I say simply. "Marco can keep the bastard child. Kate is still engaged to me and I still intend to marry her. Many things depend on our marriage. Nothing has changed during the last seven years. She's mine."

Luca barks out a slightly unhinged laugh. "The mother of Marco's bastard child? Oh, this is really getting interesting. Grazia, did you know about this?"

I don't look back at Grazia, but I can positively feel the anger and frustration emanating from her small form. "No. Kate just told me who she was moments before…all of this happened."

"It's true," Marco says, his voice sounding a little muffled. I hope that I broke his nose again. He deserved much worse, but I will have to be satisfied with causing him some pain for now.

Luca's eyes narrow on Marco's face. "Bastard," he hisses. He must have tightened his grip on Kate, because she makes a strangled sound of alarm. "You lied to us! What makes you think I won't just shoot her now, and then we can all be done with this little bit of theater?"

"Luca," Enzo says soothingly. "We don't know enough about what is going on here to risk that."

"Just let her come with me," I say to everyone in the room. "I don't want to ruin this wedding, but I am perfectly willing to cause a scene to get what I want."

"Don't give me to him," Kate pleads, her voice thin. My heart twinges with pain. I hate that she doesn't want to leave with me.

She cannot still love Marco, not if he is getting married.

None of this makes any sense to me, but I can't commit too much energy to trying to untangle what is happening right now. I can't afford to be distracted.

"You are not going to ruin my wedding!" Grazia shouts, stalking over to stand in front of me. I have to admire her gumption.

She takes a stance between me and her brother where he is holding Kate hostage. "I don't know who this woman is, but you are not going to ruin my perfect day just to take her with you. Someone needs to explain what is going on before we are going to let anyone go anywhere."

I smirk at the fiery little woman with big brown eyes standing before me. "Look, Grazia, isn't it? I don't want to ruin your wedding. But you see, Marco made it so that I couldn't even walk down the aisle with the bride I have been intended to marry since we were little children. Kate and I are destined to be together, and there are important trade routes that I want that her family controls. They don't have any other daughters, you see, so Kate is my only option to get my money."

This is, of course, the simplest way to explain to other people my longing to get Kate. The fact is, she belongs to me. It's been designed this way for as long as I can remember. Now, the time has come for me to claim what's mine. The need is primal.

Grazia sneers at me. "All you men and your ‘trade' deals. Maybe you should marry your money instead of us."

I laugh. I can't help it. I see now why Marco wants to marry this mouthy little Baldini. "Well, when that becomes legal, I might just consider it."

"You aren't going to be considering much of anything for a while," I hear a voice say, and then everything goes dark.