Page 74 of The Fixer
Time passes, slow and viscous. Romeo fiddles with his phone, plays with his knife, and prowls around the room. I stay on the couch, hug the shirt to me, and try not to worry. I should have stayed put in Liam’s office. I should have never left. I can’timagine what Leo’s going through right now. This is straight out of his nightmares, his darkest fears brought to life.
My fear jerks me out of my passivity. “You need to let me go,” I tell Romeo. “If it’s money you want, I can help you.”
“How?”
I unclasp the necklace Leo gave me. “This is a pink diamond,” I tell Romeo. “I’m sure it’s worth a few million euros.” I slide my engagement ring from my finger. A pang goes through me as I do it, but jewelry can be replaced, and right now, Leo’s my priority. “The ring cost two million.” I put both pieces on the table in front of me and push them toward him.
“It’s not enough.”
“It’s a start. Let me go, and I’ll make sure Hugh sends you the rest. You have my word.”
He stares at me for a long moment. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You really mean it.”
“I really mean it. All I want is for my family and friends to be safe. You can understand that, can’t you? All you really care about is your sister. We’re not that different, you and I.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but before he can, the front door crashes open. Leobursts into the room, his gun pointed straight at Romeo Santini.
He came for me.
“Put down your fucking knife and kick it to me,” he says to Romeo, his voice cold as ice, “and step away from Rosa, or I will shoot. And I never miss.”
Romeo complies, and Leo swings at his face. The other man goes down, clutching his nose. More people rush into the room, people I don’t recognize. They hoist Romeo back on his feet, ignoring the blood trickling down his face, and cuff his hands with heavy-duty zip ties.
As for Leo, he just looks at me. He sees that I’m unharmed, and his shoulders slump with relief. I see the aftermath of terror in his eyes, and I ache for him. He’s at the edge and could fall over into the abyss, and I need to hold onto him and tug him to safety. But I have no idea how to do it.
“You found me, orsacchiotto mio,” I whisper, “How?”
Then, a faint light twinkles in the inky depths of Leo’s ocean-blue eyes, and he comes back to me. He steps into the room and holds out his hand to me. I lace my fingers in his as he tugs me forward. I fall into his embrace, my lips tilting up for the warmth of his kiss.
“I got lucky, and I had help,” he replies. He picks up my engagement ring from the coffee table and slides it on my finger before kissing the palm of my hand. “But most importantly, principessa, it took me a long time to find you. And now that I have you, I’m not letting go.”
37
ROSA
Ithought Leo would stay and deal with Romeo Santini. He is the Venice Mafia’s enforcer, after all. But he doesn’t. Never letting go of me, he says something to one of his guys—Goran, I think—and then he looks into my eyes. “Let’s go home, principessa.”
Home.Now that Leo mentions it, being back home sounds amazing. I want nothing more than to be in bed with Leo, safe in his arms, a warm blanket covering both of us and keeping the outside world at bay. It’s slowly starting to sink in that my ordeal is over. The adrenaline that kept me going drains away, and I start to shiver, so I pull the shirt Romeo Santini gave me tighter aroundmy shoulders.
Leo’s eyes follow my motion. “No,” he says, his eyes darkening. “Not his shirt.Mine.”
The possessive edge in his voice sends a thrill through me. God, I want him. I want to fold myself into his arms and stay there. I want him to throw me down on the bed and loom over me, his weight holding me down. I want to feel him against me, skin on skin. For the last few days, home has been filled with strained silences and unsaid words. Tonight, at Casanova, we made a major breakthrough, but then I was kidnapped. Enough.I want to replace all of that with a fresh start. I want to luxuriate in my soon-to-be husband, wrap myself in the cloak of his love and stay warm. I want Leo’s palazzo to be transformed by our happiness.
He undoes the buttons and drapes the brown cotton shirt I made him around my shoulders. It smells like Leo, a mix of cologne and man, and it takes me back to that beach in Lecce, only a few weeks ago, where he done the same thing for me.
Always protective. Always caring.Mine.
“I love you,” I whisper. I’m clinging to him and can’t seem to stop. I don’t want to. He’s the love of my life, and I’m never going to let him go.
His eyes soften. “I love you too, principessa,” he replies. He tips his thumb under my chin and tiltsmy face up, and he kisses me, soft, sweet, and tender. We’re in full view of his men, all of whom are doing a heroic job pretending not to watch, but Leo doesn’t seem to care, and neither do I.
“When I thought I lost you. . .” His voice trails off, and he pulls me into his body and buries his head in my shoulder. “I can’t survive losing you, Rosa. You are everything to me.Everything.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. I don’t want to tell him how much he means to me—I want to show him.“Let’s go home.”
“Of course.” He sweeps me off my feet and into his arms. I wasn’t expecting that. I squeal in surprise and instinctively wrap my arms around his neck. “You might warn me if you’re going to do that, orsacchiotto mio,” I say, my cheeks flaming. His people are openly watching us now, grins on their faces, and I just know Valentina is going to call me tomorrow morning, teasing me about how my fiancé cannot seem to keep his hands off me.
“Afraid I’m going to drop you?”