Page 2 of Broken Mafia Bride (His to Break #2)

RAFFAELE

“We’ve gone over the entire place more than five times, and there’s no sign of her.” Tommaso’s expression is wary, and he’s right to be.

“Look again!” I growl.

He exchanges a glance with Matteo, who’s standing behind me. “We’ve gone through the cliffs and water with a fine-toothed comb.”

“Are you trying to tell me that she fell into the water and somehow managed to disappear completely?” I ask coldly. “I don’t know about you, but in my world, that’s not how things work. People just don’t fucking disappear into thin air.”

“We’ve been searching for?—”

I grab the front of his shirt and yank my right-hand man forward before he can finish his sentence, bringing him right to my face. To his credit, he doesn’t struggle, just allows me to manhandle him. There’s wariness in his eyes, but not enough for my liking.

He must know that Matteo has my gun in his hold and doesn’t plan to release it anytime soon.

I allow my lips to spread in a sharklike smile and let him see the madness behind the facade I’ve been trying to maintain for the last nineteen hours, starting from when Giulia didn’t show up at the church, up until this moment.

I feel some distant gratification when terror flashes in his eyes.

“Nobody is leaving until my fiancée is in my arms.”

“Raffaele,” Matteo clears his throat. “If she’s been in there for over ten hours, she’s probably?—”

I don’t let him say it. I toss Tommaso away and whirl around to face the other man and reiterate. “Nobody is leaving until she’s in my arms!”

There’s chaos in my head, and my body is an empty husk, being pulled along by sheer force of will and stubborn hope. Hope that I’ll find her, that I’ll get to hold her again, that I’ll end up at that altar with her and watch her become my wife.

We should have left all of this behind and run at the first sight of trouble. Fuck fixing things. Fuck making the right decision and whatever else we told ourselves, just because we thought it was up to us to be the heroes of this story.

I don’t allow myself to believe that I’ve truly lost her, because if I have…

No, I shake my head thoroughly. She’s out there somewhere. The fact that I’m still living and breathing is all the evidence I need that she’s still alive.

“I need my gun,” I tell Matteo.

“Fuck off,” he scoffs.

Since he wrestled my gun out of my hands, he’s been hovering over me like I’m a freaking toddler, and it’s damn annoying. I don’t remember hiring a babysitter.

I narrow my eyes at him. “Give me my damn gun.”

“What are you planning to do with it?”

“Shoot you first for being a pain in my ass,” I tell him. “Blow Edoardo’s kneecaps out next until he tells me what he’s done with her.”

“You think he’s behind this?”

“Who else could it be? And don’t tell the Echelon Syndicate.

We both know he’s been working with them this whole time.

” From the moment I found out they were in league, I should have actively started fighting against them.

I wasted so much time trying to get over my loyalty to my family, and now it’s cost me her.

“What would he gain by getting rid of her? Think about it.”

“Two birds, one stone,” I point out. “Taking her is meant to destabilize the Montanaris and me. He is probably so pissed off with my interferences so far. I’m sure he’s planning another stronger attack on them now that they’re running around.”

“I think you’re getting this all mixed up.”

“Explain,” I growl impatiently.

“Your father might be a dickwad, but he’s not stupid enough to invite doom on himself by taking out a piece on the board like her. If your father was trying to pick Giulia out of the equation, I think he’d have held her hostage instead. That’s more of his style, don’t you think?”

I drag both my hands through my hair, tugging at the strands. Confusion, panic, hopelessness—they pump through me faster than I can hold on.

“And anyway, there can’t have been enough time for him to plan this, even if we are omitting the basic fact that if Edoardo wanted to take her, he wouldn’t have passed through enemy territory.”

I’m not thinking clearly, and every part of me feels raw, stripped bare and worn out. It’s like I’ve aged thirty years from the moment I watched Giulia fall over the edge.

“Now what?”

“I need a drink.”

Surprise and suspicion light up in his eyes. “A drink?”

“Boss, we’ve found something,” Tommaso announces.

When I turn to look at him, he’s holding a bloody garter in his hand. I take it from him carefully, gaze stuck on the delicate lace that has been dyed a light pink from the bloodstains on it.

“Our theory is that—” he hesitates, then draws himself up. “Our theory is that she landed on one of the rocks in the water, and the current carried her downstream. She either bled out, is now beyond the city limits, or someone was waiting down there to fish her out and take her away.”

“Who?” I ask.

“It’s just a working theory for now,” he clarifies. “We’re broadening our search for evidence of a third party.”

“Good.”

“B-but boss, the men have been at it for several hours. They need a break.”

“A break? Every moment we waste is a moment that she could get farther away!” I hiss. “Shoot anybody who makes a fuss about taking a break again.”

I fist the bloody garter, and press it to my nose, searching for any detectable scent of her and finding none. It’s undeniably hers, though.

I stagger away from the cliff, head spinning, mouth as dry as cotton balls. A drink won’t make me feel better. I don’t want to forget. I want the pain to slice me open and eat at me until there’s nothing left.

“You fool! Get out of the car, you’re going to kill yourself,” I hear someone roaring.

I blink back into the present, only just realizing that I’ve somehow found myself in my car, fingers around the steering wheel. How did I get here? I turn my head and see Matteo banging on the window, panic written all over his face.

Ignoring him, I step on the gas, the car shooting past him and away from the cliffside. I don’t know where I’m going, but I drive too fast, trying to escape my demons, forgetting they live in my head, and no matter how fast I go, they’ll be waiting for me at the finish line.

Everything is one big blur, lights and colors blending together. It isn’t long before I’m back in the city again, the highway and vast ocean disappearing behind me.

A part of me knows she’s gone, even if I don’t want to accept it, and may never accept it. I’ll spend the rest of my life emptying out the sea instead.

I blink, and the world becomes clear and solid again, just in time for me to see that I’m headed straight for a fountain.

I swerve the car fast, the wheels spinning out of control for a moment.

I barrel into a row of perfectly trimmed shrubbery, leveling it all to the ground.

Stepping down on the brake with all my strength, I pull the car to a screeching halt, half on the lawn and half on the cobbled pathway.

Without turning off the car, I step out and start walking.

I can hear footsteps, the sound I find cocking, but I register none of it. Everything else is muted in comparison to the dull thud of my heart. Someone steps too close to me and I lash out, fist flying.

It’s like a familiar dance. A taste of the violence I’ve been hungering for. Bones crunch under my fists, blood spills, satisfaction thrums through me like the bass of musical drums, and the hole inside me where my soul is meant to be demands more.

I glide through a bright hallway, the bloody garter in one hand and the gun from the guy I beat up in the other.

“Dear god!” a woman screams as I step into a room.

I point the gun at the woman, fed up with her screaming.

“What do you think you’re doing! Put down the fucking gun!” she snaps.

I know that voice. Where do I know that voice from? The red haze starts to recede from my vision, and for the first time, I take in the unfamiliar room I’m standing in. Everything is a dull cream color that Giulia would absolutely hate.

The air smelled faintly of polished wood and expensive cologne—too clean, too civilized for what I was about to do.

“Isabella.” Recognition hits me as I slowly come back to my senses and realize where I’m at.

Guilia’s cousin and her father stare at me wide-eyed.

A glance over my shoulder reveals several Montanari men, guns aimed at me.

My mouth tugs up into a smile. I’m standing between them and the head of their family, and they’re all calculating whether Enrico would make it out alive if they open fire.

“Where is she!” I lock eyes with the older man.

“What are you doing here? How did you get into this house? How do you manage to keep showing up?”

“I asked you a question,” I bark.

“And I’m not obligated to answer you. Get out, now!”

“I saw her fall,” I spit out, my voice raw. “But nobody vanishes without a trace. Nineteen hours, and no body, no blood trail. You expect me to believe you didn’t have something to do with this?”

I step closer to him, pitching my voice low and showing him that I’m not here to fuck around. “Where. Is. Giulia?”

“I should be asking you that,” he grits out. “You turned my daughter away from me. Brainwashed and manipulated her. What happened to honor and fighting fair like a man? Only a fucking coward takes advantage of women to win.”

I reel back in shock. “You think this is a game? None of this was a fucking game. Unlike you, I’d never try to use her.”

“You put her right in the middle of this war.” He jumps to his feet, hands curled into fists at his side.

A mocking laughter slips out of my mouth. “I don’t know how someone as smart and as perfect as Giulia ever found a way to love and care for you. My father is an asshole, but at least, he’s never bothered to hide it. You’ll blame everybody but yourself for everything that’s ever happened to you.”

“Get out of my house!” he roars.

“Not until you tell me what you’ve done with her.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Can you two just stop this?” Isabella steps between us, eyes wide in surprise. “My cousin is missing, and you’re acting like this is about your fucking pride. What happened to her, Raffaele? Did you see her fall? Tell me!”

She drags in a shaky breath. “I don’t think Enrico is behind what happened. You have to listen to me.”

“I don’t owe you explanations.” My voice is a rasp. “All I want is the truth.”

“You set my daughter up. Stop trying to play the victim while you let her walk right into your father’s trap.” Enrico wags his finger at me. “I’m not going to stop until your entire family ceases to exist.”

“What are you talking about? She never showed up at the church!” My head is pounding again.

I try to remember when I last slept, but I can’t.

Exhaustion and crippling loss threaten to bring me to my knees.

“I waited for her, but she never came. So cut out the pretense, Enrico. You’re a selfish, heartless piece of shit who Giulia was unfortunate to get stuck with. ”

“Raffaele, stop!” Isabella cries.

“Get out of my way.”

“No. I’m not going anywhere. Just stop and listen, for god’s sake.”

My gaze shifts down to her, the hand with the gun twitching at my side. It takes little effort to flick her aside, ignoring her indignant squeak, and then my gun is finally pressed to Enrico’s forehead.

“I’m going to ask you for the last time,” I growl.

My finger trembles against the trigger. Part of me wants to pull it, just to feel something break that isn’t me.

“Raffaele, stop! If you shoot him, you won’t make it out of here alive.” Isabella’s voice is shaky.

But I’m past caring. At this point, a bullet to my head might just be the greatest mercy I’ve ever been shown.

I step closer, the gun pressing more insistently.

If he doesn’t answer, I’m not sure which of us will die first.

“Tell me where she is, asshole.”