My hackles rise, and I spin on my heel and bellow her name. A sound comes from one of the spare bedrooms near the stairs, but when I try the door, it’s locked.
“Maddie?” I put my ear to the door and hear nothing.
Stepping back, I bring my foot up and slam it against the wood near the handle. The door flies open, and I find Maddie.
Rage, the kind that can blind even a reasonable man, rises inside me. “Get your fucking hands off her!” I yank Maddie away from Zoey, who’d had one arm around Maddie’s throat and another over her mouth.
“Renato!” Zoey immediately starts crying. “Thank God you came. She locked me in here and said she only married you for your money. She said she wants to kill you!”
“What?” Maddie sounds totally perplexed. “What have you been smoking, lady?”
The only reason I haven’t wrapped my hands around the bitch’s throat and squeezed the life out of her is that Maddie is in my arms, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting her go. Not when this fucking snake is in my house.
“I heard yelling,” Claudio says from the hallway. “And property destruction?”
“Get in here.” I scoop Maddie up and hold her close.
Zoey cries even louder, the fakest tears from the fakest woman.
“What’d I miss?” Claudio glances at me.
“You will escort Zoey from the premises. Leave her on the road for all I care.”
“Wh-what?” She blinks, the tears drying up immediately.
“You will never set foot here again. If I ever see you again, I will end you. Do you understand?”
“But Renato, I–”
“Not another fucking word!” I roar.
Maddie buries her face in my chest.
“You touched my wife, my beautiful bride, with your cruel hands. I should kill you for that.”
Her tears start again, but this time they’re real. “You were supposed to marry me.”
“But isn’t she my stepmother-in-law or something?” Maddie asks. “Isn’t that incest? Or is that just what rich people do?”
I would laugh if I weren’t feeling murderous.
“Come on, Zoey. You heard him.” Claudio takes her arm and pulls her toward the door.
“Get your hands off me!” she wails.
Claudio grabs her other arm and shakes her. “Get it together! You’re lucky to be alive, you dumbass. He’s in love with her. Not you. Never you. Wake the fuck up or you’re going to wind up dead. He’s not fucking around!” He turns and drags her from the room.
“Are you all right?” I stroke her hair and peer at her face.
“Now that you’re here, I’m great.” She snuggles against me.
“She didn’t hurt you?”
“No, she scared me. I think she just wanted to talk.”
I raise a brow.
“But like, meanly. She wanted to scare me off, I guess. She said I wasn’t your type, that I wasn’t flashy enough or tough enough to be married to a man like you. She said I’d be miserable eventually.” She looks up at me. “Why would she say that?”
I sigh and carry her back to our room. “Because that’s what she was. She married my father hoping for an easy life. What she got was a man who was still in love with my mother, even though she passed away a long time ago. Zoey could never fill those shoes.”
“That’s kind of sad.” Maddie looks up at me as I sit on our bed and keep her in my lap.
“Whatever pity I may have had for her evaporated the second she put her hands on you.” I kiss her nose. “She’s done. You don’t have to worry about her, or even think about her, ever again.”
She cups my cheek, then leans up and drops a soft kiss on my lips. “Thank you for saving me.”
“I’ll always be there for you, Maddie. You don’t have to worry.”
She smiles a little, her heart so open and loving. “I believe you. I always will.”
“I love you, little bird.” I kiss her, silently promising her that my love is real and will last forever.
“An accident?” I keep my tone calm. Maddie is sitting on the floor in my office, snuggling the kittens and giving them treats. No need to alarm her.
“That’s what we’re telling the other workers.” Antony’s voice is taut. “But I think they know.”
“There’s no way they wouldn’t.” If what Antony says is accurate, the waterfront warehouse is a bloodbath. Oscar wasted no time in starting trouble. He struck the site where my workers processed coke from Colombia, coke supplied by the agreement between Oscar and my father. He’s being obvious, clearly under the impression this insult will go unanswered.
I grit my teeth, my hands fisting. “Oscar will pay for this. I’m going to make an example of him.”
“The other families might not support you. Things are still too volatile since your dad passed. They’ll side with Oscar simply because he’s been around longer.”
“They can’t side with a dead man.” I look up and find Maddie already staring at me, concern in her eyes. “Give the families full compensation and benefits. Set them up for life.”