Page 67 of Ruthless King

Somehow, I manage to free my leg and jerk it up, and my knee sinks into his balls. He lets out a curse and releases my lips. I suck in a haggard breath, pulse pounding.

“You bitch,” Dante roars. “Admit that you’re a spy for Jianjun, or I’m going to make you pay.” He spins me around and tosses me over the side of the couch. With my ass up in the air and my face pressed against the cushion, another wave of terror spikes through my veins.

No. No. No!

“Admit it!” he shouts.

“I’m not a fucking spy,” I mumble, my words swallowed up by the plush cushion.

Through the panic, I barely register a familiar ding. It cuts through the maddening roar of my heartbeats and ignites a sliver of hope.

“Let go of her now.” A lethal voice slices through the air.

CHAPTER31

RETRIBUTION

Luca

Stella is folded over the couch, her nightie yanked up to her waist revealing bare cheeks. Panic is carved into her jaw, and tears spill down her face. Pain lances through my heart, and the stab is so acute I nearly buckle over. Instead of the stinging ache, I focus on the rage. That motherfucker. Unearthly fury surges through my veins as I lunge at my brother.

I pummel into Dante and knock him to the floor. He stares up at me, eyes wide. “I did it for you,fratellino. She can’t be trusted.”

I yank my arm back and let it fly. The smash of crunching bones only fuels my rage. I hit him again. And again. All I see is red. Then glimpses of Stella’s terrified face.

“I just wanted to rough her up a little and find out the truth,” he rasps out.

Dante’s words are nothing more than a muffled mess in the distance. He tried to hurt her, to force himself on her in my own home. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I roar. “How dare you touch her!” I punctuate each word with another hit.

Dante’s head whips back and forth, his eyes closed, face already swelling.

“I warned you never to touch her.”

Blood covers my knuckles and more spills onto the marble floor, splattering the silver veining. Crimson consumes my vision. I hit him until I’m numb.

Punch. Punch. Punch.

The slap of skin and the crack of bones rings out in a steady rhythm. Again. Again.

There’s nothing but darkness.

“Luca, enough.” Stella’s voice barely registers through the insanity. “Luca, you’re going to kill him.”

A soft touch on my shoulder releases some of the wrath. I heave in a breath, and it’s only then I notice the tremor coursing through my body.

“Luca, please.” Stella’s face coalesces, and then the feel of her hands cupping my cheeks pushes through the overwhelming anger. She kneels beside me, her hair wild and tears still trailing down her beautiful face. I stop and just stare. My chest is heaving, but somehow her presence calms the raging storm.

Heavy footfalls echo across the living room, and Tony and Albie materialize.

“Oh, shit,capo,” Tony mutters.

He yanks me up off the floor and Albie sees to Dante. Stella follows me as Tony ushers me to the couch. I slump down, the adrenaline from a second ago waning, then morphing to icy numbness. It creeps in slowly.

“You okay,capo?” Tony eyes me, his dark brows gnarled.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I manage.

“What the hell happened?”