I get another punch to his solar plexus, grinning with devilish delight as he doubles over and blood spews from his broken nose.
Before I can get more in, several hands shackle my arms and hold me back.
“Jesus, did you…did you say youloveher?” he croaks while he wheezing.
I shake myself free of the men, and no one is brave enough to restrain me again.
“What the fuck do you think I’ve been trying to tell you since you walked into my house?” I roar again. “Uninvited, I might add.”
Gio stumbles back a few more steps, torn between nursing his jaw and clutching his broken nose.
For the first time since he brought carnage to my doorstep, he looks uneasy. And because I’m fighting for my life—and yes, I realize that what life I’m left with is worth nothing if I lose Aria—I don’t hesitate to go for the jugular. “I’m going to fucking kill you!”
“Shit, I didn’t know.” His gaze shifts to where Aria is and I let out a thick growl.
“Jesus, is everyone deaf? Don’t. Fucking. Look. At. Her.”
He flinches and his gaze jumps back to me. “If you’d told me when we talked last night, I wouldn’t have—”
“Fuck you! You forget that I’m still technically head of this family. You’re yet to prove yourself, baby brother. Do you really want to go against me this early in yourtrialleadership? Because unless you wise the fuck up and accept that Aria is off limits, I’ll burn everything you hold dear to the fucking ground.”
Comprehension finally dawns in his eyes. “You’d do that? For a piece of—”
I lunge forward and wrap my hand around his throat. None of the men move to stop me because the reminder that I’m still the kingpin has done its job.
“I strongly advise you to choose your next words carefully. Unless you want to attend our wedding with both kneecaps smashed to pieces and drooling like a fucking baby.”
A curdled noise makes me turn my head.
Aria is up on her feet, still as pale as milk.
“You a-accuse everyone of b-being deaf, but y-you’re not listening. W-we’re nothing. There’s n-no us. I’m not m-marrying you—”
She stops and makes that horrible, garbled sound again as she catches sight of Gio.
Her eyes grow as wide as saucers when she sees his busted-up face and the front of his once-white shirt drenched in blood.
She screams again.
And passes clean out.
* * *
“You’re really serious? About her?”Gio rasps nasally.
His nose is swollen to three times its size and the pack of ice he’s holding gingerly on it isn’t doing much to help.
Good.
For as long as I live, I won’t forget the sight of my brother pointing a gun at the love of my life. The least he can do to atone is a shattered nose and busted ribs.
I look at the girl tucked beneath the sheets on the bed, her pale skin slowly regaining color. I check that she’s breathing for the thousandth time and resist the urge to tear my brother’s throat out.
“I am. And you better pray that she forgives me. That’s the only way there’ll be peace between us. Pray she forgives you too. She needs family. Hers has been pretty shitty so far.”
He scowls and my fingers tingle with the urge to attack again.
“How did you even find her?” I ask tightly.