Page 81 of Stolen Vows

His fuck barely registers, but when he moves to stop her, I snarl and peel my eyes away from her.

“Uncuff me,” I snarl.

He pulls a universal key from his pocket and unlocks my restraints.

I pull my arms in front of me, sit up, and wrap my hand around Valentina’s.Her dainty fingers tighten on the hilt.

I shove the blade deeper into Pietro’s dead body, lodging the knife in his bones.

Valentina jerks it upward, but it doesn’t budge.The gag muffles her snarl and grunt.I reach for her gag, but she flinches away.

“Calm down,mia paperotta.I’m here,” I say.

The frenzy fades from her eyes.Emotions wrack her chest.I pull the gag out of her mouth, peel her hands off the knife, and gather her into my lap.

“You’re safe.Everything will be okay,” I murmur into her filthy hair.

“No it won’t.My nightmares.”She sobs so hard I fear she’ll hurt herself.“He killed Mamma.”She struggles to breathe.“In the hall.He beat her to death.”Her fist thumps against my sternum.“I heard it all while I slept, but I believed him when he said she abandoned me.”Tears and snot rain down her face, but she’s still the most gorgeous woman in the world.“I don’t deserve happiness, Mario.I’m a selfish, spoiled—”

“You were twelve, Valentina.Twelve.It’s not your fault.You were a victim, too,” I say.

She shakes her head, nods, then devolves into heart-wrenching sobs.

I hug her to me.

Pietro’s empty eyes stare up at the ceiling.With his limbs askew from his fall, his neck at an odd angle, and his torso a gruesome picture of julienned organs and mangled bones, I’m not sure what killed him, but he’s dead.

Relief spears through me.

There were other people in the room.

I turn to Noah.Other than some abrasions on his arms and a gash on his cheek, he seems fine.

“Alessio went down the fire escape.I sent people to hunt him, but I couldn’t leave you,” he says.

“You did well, kid.”

Reinforcements rush in from the hall.

“Let’s go before the pigs get here,” he says.

I nod, but my injuries flare to life and fatigue plagues me as my adrenaline fades.Noah recognizes my pain and moves behind me.With his help, I rise with Valentina in my arms.My head swims from blood loss.

“I can’t carry her,” I snarl.

“Yes you can, boss.No one else would dare,” Noah says.

He gestures for another man to take my other side.

Wanting to leave on my own two feet but unwilling to risk my wife’s safety, I open my mouth to argue.

Donna steps into the apartment.

“I’ll take her,” she says.

“I can walk,” Valentina says.

With her wrists still bound, she grabs my collar.