Page 100 of Red Retaliation

I can’t believe my life will end like this.

I’ll never get the chance to tell Red I’m sorry I fucked up, and I’ll never be able to tell Papà the truth.

I’ll die being seen as a traitor.

CHAPTER

71

Red

THE FRONT OF MY SHIRT is drenched in sweat, sticking the wet material against my chest in the cold night air. My hair has come loose from my ponytail as I run wildly around the streets, my handmade leather dress shoes pounding the pavement in a blind search for the woman I love.

Love. There, I’ve said it.

Love isn’t a subject I know anything about. All I know is that I’ve never felt like this before about a woman - aboutanyone. And the thought that Arianna has left me - or worse - fills me with a combined terror and rage that I cannot control.

I stop to check my bearings. I then dart left, change my mind and dart right in this endless pursuit. I’m looking for a needle in a haystack - an impossible task, but I have to try. I have to keep on.

No, Imustsucceed.

I have to find Arianna. Ihaveto.

She belongs tome.

Although it’s unreciprocated, that woman has stolen a piece of me, and I need her to function; to breathe; to exist.

The persistent tendril of suspicion about Liam and Oscar unwinds within me once more. Even just now, Liam attempted to stop me from searching for Arianna. Then there was him cutting Slater off from what he was saying about the people against me within the firm.

Was Arianna right in thinking it was my brothers that she overheard in thatcorridor?

My head pounds with tension.

Am I deluded in refusing to accept my brothers could be behind this entire vendetta? All the digs, the jibes, threats and comments they’ve made... Oscar and Liam resent my decision and hate Arianna enough.

But it can’t be them.

Can it?

Wherever the threats are from, Arianna is out here alone...

“ARIANNA!” I roar, my throat dry as I barge between more people on the pavement. One man glares at me, about to give me a piece of his mind.

I dare him to fucking try!

Clearly, something about me shows this man that I’m not the person to pick a fight with because he averts his eyes and jumps out of my path. I’ll happily shoot any fucker who impedes my search. No one will stand in my way. I regret nothing, except that the gun in my waistband is not loaded.

That, and not keeping a better hold of Arianna in the lift.

Fuck! I knew she was upset with what she’d stumbled into witnessing, but to run away from me out here - out into danger...

If those Bristoni bastards even think about...

Stopping, I lean against a wall and drag air into my tortured lungs. Fuck’s sake, this isn’t going to work. I won’t find her now. She’ll have long gone.

I rake my fingers through my wayward hair, my jaw set like stone.

If anything happens to her... If anyone...