Page 51 of Bellini Bound

“How about this one?” I brought my left hand up, inches away from his face, for inspection. “Does it count?”

The dead man walking scoffed. “Listen, it’s none of my business if you wanna screw around on your wife—”

My hand shot out to wrap around his throat, cutting off his words and causing his face to turn a satisfying shade of purple.

With a haze of red surrounding my vision, I leaned and snarled, “The fuck did you just say?”

Only a strangled noise came in reply as I tightened my grip enough to crush his windpipe.

“Enzo, that’s enough!” Allison’s pissed-off voice breached the buzzing in my ears.

I whipped my head around to find that the people surrounding us had stopped dancing to watch the altercation. Including my wife, who fixed me with a murderous glare, arms folded, and Summer, standing directly behind her, trying and failing to bite back a smile.

“Enough?” Wry laughter burst from my lips. “You’re kidding, right? This guy walks intomyclub, trying to grind up againstmywife, and then has the balls to insinuate that Icheaton her? It won’t beenoughuntil I’ve choked the goddamn life out of him!”

A frustrated scream sounded as Allison stomped one heeled foot. “You are unbelievable!” Then she spun around so fast that her long brown hairstruck me in the face, and I was forced to blink a few times before I could focus enough to see that she was hastily pushing her way through the crowd.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” I yelled at her back. When she didn’t stop her retreat, I released my hold on the asshole who would narrowly escape death today and chased after her. “Hey! Don’t you dare walk away from me!”

My thunderous footsteps on the polished flooring provided the perfect soundtrack to the storm brewing inside me. How dare she challenge my authority in a Family-run establishment with that many witnesses. Granting mercy was equivalent to showing weakness. Didn’t she know that was enough to put all our lives in danger?

Of course she didn’t. Even though she’d been raised by a crooked cop, Allison saw everything in black and white, with clear lines separating right and wrong. And it was long past time that she opened her eyes and realized the world around her was made up of endless shades of gray.

Ahead of me, she disappeared into the women’s restroom. The door was just about to swing shut in my face when I slammed it open so hard it crashed into the wall with a deafening crack.

Allison spun around at the sound, but it was the woman at the sink fixing her makeup who yelled, “You can’t be in here!”

Not sparing her a glance, my eyes locked on my wife, I gritted out, “You have until the count of three to get out of here before I make sure you’re served a lifetime ban from this club.”

The woman huffed. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“One. Two. Thr—” Before I could finish the final count, the stranger rushed past me to leave the room in such a hurry that she left her clutch on the sink.

Extending a hand, I flicked the lock. There would be no more interruptions while I set my wife straight.

“Al—”

There was a blur of motion and, caught off guard, I stumbled back a few steps when Allison shoved at my chest with all her might.

“What the fuck is your problem?”

My eyebrows hit my hairline. “Oh no. You’re not going to turn this around on me when you were the one who was out there, shaking your ass and inviting men to put their hands where they don’t belong.”

She threw her arms out wide. “I was dancing! Since when is that a crime?”

I took a menacing step forward, voice going lethal. “You know the rules, sweetheart. I cut off the body part of any man—who isn’t me—that touches my wife. So he’s lucky I got there in time to stop him from pressing his chest flush against your plump backside, or else I’d have been forced to slice him from sternum to groin.”

“You’re psychotic,” Allison scoffed.

“I’m your husband!” I roared.

This close, I had a front-row seat to the fire that flashed in her dazzling green eyes.

“Funny,” she remarked. “I don’t remember consummating the marriage.”

My molars ground to dust. “Do. Not. Test. Me.”

Instead of backing down, she gave me an eye roll. “Drop the macho bullshit where you lose your mind over another guy showing interest. It’s nothing more than a performance, since we both know you have none yourself.”