Unknown: Where are you, precious?
Fighting back tears, I blocked the number and deleted the message before I could talk myself out of it, then shoved the phone to the bottom of my purse.
I had to move on, I reminded myself.
Even though it hurt, it was the only right thing to do.
Chapter 4
Gian
She wanted to drive me insane. Kill me slowly with the only form of torture I couldn’t withstand. Push me until I did something we would both regret.
I hadn’t seen more than a glimpse of her since New York. Hadn’t heard her voice except for her voice mail telling me to leave a message when I’d gotten desperate enough to try to call her. The one text I had dared to send went unanswered.
Days and nights blended together, and I was holding on to reality by a frayed thread.
She was gone. There was no sign of her anywhere. The GPS on her phone said she was home, safe. But I didn’t trust that, and the day before, while everyone else was gone, I broke in to her house to check for myself.
Her phone was there, but no Monroe. And when I checked the damn thing, it had no service but was attached to Wi-Fi.
She’d outsmarted me.
Favors I’d hoped never to have to call in were used, and I finally tracked her down.
That she was in Rome, of all places, blew my mind.
Her first trip to Italy should have been with me, but I’d never thought it would happen. Now she was there, all alone, and I wasn’t with her.
Yet.
But I would be soon, and once I got my hands on my precious one, I was never letting her go again. She was going to get exactly what she wanted—and fuck the consequences. I couldn’t go through another day of this agony.
As soon as the plane touched down, I was on my feet. I didn’t let the flight attendant open the door, doing it myself to get off the damn thing faster. My pilot probably thought I was losing my mind, and he wouldn’t have been wrong.
A car was already waiting on the tarmac, two of my men in suits standing outside it. They frowned when I sprinted to the vehicle, barking orders along the w
ay.
I had eyes on Monroe as soon as I knew where she was. From the last message I’d received, she was out sight-seeing.
Alone.
My man, Ugo, who was my right hand and the only other person I truly trusted, would protect her with his life if he had to, but he knew not to approach her unless her life was in danger. That didn’t mean she wasn’t already someone’s target. There were predators everywhere.
Until my adoptive father’s death at the hands of the Angel’s Halo MC, he’d been the top sex trafficker in the US, and he wasn’t far from the top of the list in every other country as well. I knew Monroe would be a prime target for anyone looking for a girl to pull into the sex trade. And because she was so innocent, as well as beautiful, they could sell her for a higher price to someone who wanted to break her in.
As the two men got in and drove me through the city, I stayed in constant contact with Monroe’s security. She was having lunch at some little café. She’d been walking through the busiest part of the tourist traps all morning. I had several pictures of her, taken from a distance, so I knew what she was wearing.
The aviator sunglasses she kept on her face may have hidden her eyes from me, but they didn’t conceal the way her mouth was turned down at the corners. She wore a sun hat, protecting her head from the powerful rays, but her shoulders were bare except for little strings that held up her top. I could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra, and the shorts she wore barely covered her luscious ass.
I was going to spank that ass as soon as I got my hands on her.
Leaving me. Not texting me back. Walking around a strange city without me, wearing clothes that showed off her beautiful body.
She was just begging for me to put my hands on her.
And she was going to get everything she wanted.