Page 103 of Red Retaliation

I don’t open my eyes. I can’t. Like being in a surreal movie, I’m face down in Red’s chest, watching myself from another perspective. We’re covering ground, and before I know it, I’m in the back of a black cab.

CHAPTER

73

Red

NOW ARIANNA IS SAFELY back in my room at the Scorpio Lounge, I allow a tiny part of the tension holding me together to ebb away. I’m not happy leaving her alone, even in the safety of my bed, where I’ve laid her. Neither am I happy my arms are no longer around her, protecting her.

I want to keep her safe -always. I know that now more than ever.

If I thought beforehand that I could continue with this marriage knowing she’d never love me, even once I’d succeeded getting her back after her escape, which I would have done no matter how impossible it felt, now - after what’s happened and what it’s brought home in harder clarity, there’s no way I’ll keep my sanity.

I’m relieved I’ve got her back - of course I am. But I want her to be with me because shewantsto be with me. Genuinely. I prayed that someday that point would be reached.

But things are different now. Things are a lot, lot worse. My feelings for this woman are even deeper. Yet, whether she’ll ever really love me now is not as important as her being safe, therefore I’ll sacrifice my soul to protect her.

How I wish she hadn’t returned here because of what happened, making it the only choice. It’s the sole reason she’s here now.

And I still don’t know exactly what happened...

I don’t think I want to because there is no one left to kill for it. I can’t even blame the Bristonis or Galvatores for this one.

Or can I?

The concept of Joe Farrow being bought by either of those firms is feasible, so is Joe behind everything instead of Slater? Could he have used Steve as his means of getting relevant info?

I shake my head at the ludicrous thought. Steve wouldn’t have breathed a word of our dealings with anyone, including his brother. And even Galvatore wouldn’t arrange for his own daughter to be attacked, would he?

Maybethatpart of it was purely personal from Joe Farrow’s hatred for me?

My teeth grind as I scrub my hands in the basin, washing that wanker’s blood off me. I’ve already washed my face to remove the splatters of his filth, butnoamount of scrubbing will erase the sight of my beautiful Arianna being violated.

I shudder with rabid hatred and revulsion. Steve would turn in his grave if he knew what his fucking brother had been about to do.

Or had done...

And, by God, how I hate myself for misjudging Joe Farrow’s capabilities.

Rolling my shoulders, I stare at my ripped muscular form reflecting back at me from the mirror. Hatred for Joe seeps from every pore in my body; shining like a beacon from my eyes and pulsating through my veins like cobra venom.

I’d still be ripping that bastard to pieces if Arianna wasn’t there, needing me more than I needed to expel my hatred.

I’ll just add it to the long list I already have. I’m used to carrying the burden.

I walk over to the bath and I’m leaning over it, turning the taps off when the en-suite door opens.

“W-Won’t it look bad that we haven’t returned to the event?”

I straighten up. Arianna looks tiny - almost birdlike - her frightened eyes too big for her face.

I refrain from pulling her back into my arms and holding her close where no one can touch her again. “It’s my event, and if I want to leave early with my wife, I will.”

Returning to the hotel was never an option. I needed Arianna away from that place and from anywhere that isn’t my territory. The Scorpio Loungeismy territory, and my rooms are my sanctuary.

They’re also now hers.

“What about Liam...” she whimpers, her eyes moving to the steamingbathtub. “You told him I ran off. You must have.”