Page 64 of Ruthless Touch

“Gideon Rule, I thought I’d hear from you sooner than later,” Marcello says when he answers the phone. “Missing anything important lately?”

He’s playing with me. That’s a mistake. Normally, I’m fine acting the part of mannerly businessman who doesn’t want trouble.

But now is not normal times, and he’s not dealing with just a man who runs a hotel. Now he’s dealing with a man in love and the woman he adores. If he tries toying with me for too long, I’ll fucking kill him too and to hell with what my father has to say about it.

“I want her back. Now.”

“Her? Oh, you mean that pretty thing with the legs that go on for miles. Damn, I do like a woman with great legs,” he says with a chuckle.

“What do you want for her, Marcello?” I ask through gritted teeth, barely able to contain my rage.

“You know what I want. Give me the fuck who killed my brother. He’s one of you, and you know it.”

Again with the bullshit about Alaric being the one who killed Lucius Angeloni. Fuck, if it was him, he would have been happy to own up to it. The asshole was planning on forcing the woman he loves to marry him. Alaric wouldn’t be shy about admitting to being his killer if he had done it.

But every time I’ve asked him, he tells me the same thing. “I would have been happy to, but someone else got to the scumbag before me. All the better. I just wanted Sienna away from him, and that’s what I got.”

He says he doesn’t know who offed Lucius. I think he does, but if he doesn’t want to tell me, I’m not going to force the issue. The world’s a better place with one less asshole from the Amalfi Coast in it.

“It wasn’t my cousin. He didn’t do it.”

“Then we have nothing to talk about. I’ll be sure to tell your girlfriend you said hello when I see her next. Franco is more than happy to have his plaything back. You know how he is. Women just amuse the hell out of him, especially Aria.”

When I hear him say her name, it’s like every fiber of my being wants to kill him. “When I get her back, she better be perfectly fine because if she isn’t, I don’t care what it takes, Marcello. I will find a way to kill anyone who touched her. Remember that when you see your man again. Now if you let her go and she’s back here with me in the next hour, I won’t go through with what I told you the other day. If you don’t, then this is war. Your choice.”

He's silent for a long moment before he says, “She must be one hell of a piece of ass for you to get this upset, Gideon. To be honest, though, I feel pretty good about my position here. I’ve got all the men I need to secure power, and from where I stand, you’ve got yourself and a bunch of hotel staff since daddy and big brother left the other day.”

My hand holding the phone begins to shake I’m so angry, but I can’t let him see that side of me. He wants a war? Now he’s fucking got one.

“Remember what I said. She comes back to me unharmed in the next sixty minutes, or you and every one of your men I find will pay.”

I hang the phone up, knowing I need to make a few other calls if this is really going to happen. Angeloni’s got one hour before I let my family do what they do best.

As the minutes tick by and Aria doesn’t come back, I sit in silence knowing I caused this. I took her from that prick because I wanted to protect her, but bringing Sasha into our sex tonight was a mistake.

Finally, I walk out to watch the front door as the hour ends, but Aria’s nowhere in sight. Tamping down my rage, I tell Sasha to keep an eye out for her and tell me the instant she returns.

“Do you really think Marcello Angeloni and that son of a bitch ex of hers are actually going to let her go?” she asks like she doesn’t believe it any more than I do.

I shake my head. “No, but I needed to give him an hour to give me what I want before I set events in motion I might not be able to stop. He’s had his hour. Now it’s time to make some calls.”

As I turn to walk back into my office to call my father and Alaric, Raphael walks through the front doors holding something in his arms. After a few seconds, I realize it’s Aria he’s carrying. She looks limp, and for a moment, my heart stops.

Is she dead?

Sasha races up to him to see how Aria is. “Where did you find her?” she asks as she guides him toward the elevator.

“She was left on the steps. She’s in pretty bad shape. Somebody’s been beating on her. I don’t think she has any broken bones, but she’s hurting. Should I take her up to the penthouse? She looks like she needs to get looked at and sleep for a long time,” Raphael says, speaking the most words I think I’ve ever heard from him at one time.

I follow them into the elevator, but I can’t look at her. If I do, it’s going to feel like someone’s ripping my heart out of my chest.

She whimpers halfway up to the penthouse, and I instinctively turn to see what’s wrong. She’s got a black eye, her cheek is swollen like someone hit her hard, and blood trickles from near her ear. It’s everything I can do not to stop the fucking elevator and march right the fuck over to Franco’s fucking apartment.

But I have to be smart about retaliating, even if my heart is breaking.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Aria