Yes, I’d kidnapped her and forced her into marriage, but so had he. Why should he be the one that she had soft feelings for? I’d cared for her. I’d taken a bullet for her.
And yet, she preferred him.
My phone rang with a video call, further distracting me from the conversation that should have my full focus. I checked the number. I didn’t recognize it.
“I need to get this,” I told Mattia and Diego.
An unfamiliar face filled my screen. The man gave me a shit-eating grin.
When he spoke, I noted his Russian accent before the horror of his words could fully register: “We have your wife.”
All the air was punched from my chest.
No.Nora was safe back on my estate. There was no way the Bratva had gotten to her. It wasn’t possible.
But the camera angle flipped, and I roared out my rage.
Nora was sprawled on a concrete floor, blood marring her pale cheek. At the sound of my furious bellow, she stirred.
Another Russian bastard grabbed her by her hair. She screamed as he yanked her to her feet.
“Don’t touch her!” I shouted, helpless rage ripping through me.
Her captor roughly groped her breasts. “I’ll touch your wife as much as I want.”
“Dante!” She cried out for me.
She hated me, but deep down, she knew I’d sacrifice anything to protect her.
“Tell me where you are.” I managed to make the demand, but it was so gravelly that it was barely intelligible. “And keep your fucking hands off her.”
“You want her back?” the man taunted, ripping at her blouse. “Come and get her.”
She screamed my name again, and the call ended.
I bellowed out my fury and fear for her, barely preventing myself from smashing the phone against the wall. They might contact me again.
I tried to call them back, to negotiate with the fuckers and spare Nora. But the line was dead. They must’ve turned it off. I wouldn’t be able to communicate with them until I went to them in person. My fists flexed with the need to rip them apart with my bare hands.
But even as I wished it, I knew that I’d fail.
I didn’t have enough men to hunt her down and save her. Not without paying with our lives, and then Nora would be dead too.
I took in several heaving breaths to gather my racing thoughts and harden my resolve. I knew what I had to do. For my wife, I would sacrifice anything.
Chapter16
Luca
Ipaced in my cramped cell, and Nora’s tear-streaked face filled my mind. In the darkness, I could see her, and the memory of her desperate kiss was burned into my flesh like a brand.
Free.Nora was free, far away from this hell by now.
She’d vowed to save Gabriele and Lorenzo. I could only hope that she would succeed. Until that happened, I would remain Dante’s prisoner.
Now that he no longer had Nora to use for my torment, would he flay me alive?
I shoved the budding fear from my mind. I couldn’t think about that. Dante was deviant and sadistic. I’d never be able to fathom the depths of his depravity, so there was nothing to be gained by worrying over what he might do to me.