Page 99 of The Temptation

What if he’s already out there searching for her?

What if he gets to her before I do?

A cold shiver runs down my spine, and not the kind you can easily shake off.

Without another word, I wrap an arm around Lucia’s waist, lift her clean off the floor, and carry her to her bedroom. She lets out a startled gasp when I deposit her inside.

“Lock the door. Please don’t come out until I get back. I’ll let Killer in on my way out.”

Her shocked expression lingers in my mind as I close the door and hold the handle a moment longer. I hear the rattle as she tries to open it from the other side.

“I mean it, Lucia. I promised Dante I’d keep you safe. And I can’t go tearing through the entire fucking park in the middle of the night looking for my mother and that dead man walking if I have to worry about you too.”

I break every record known to man on my drive to the park. It’s a solid twenty minutes from the safe house, but I make it in just over ten.

I tear into the parking lot, not slowing for the speed hump ahead. The car jolts violently as I launch over it, and the sharp yelp from the back seat hits me like a punch to the gut.

My stomach drops.

I slam on the brakes, tyres screeching as the car fishtails before lurching to a stop. That’s when I hear it again, this time it’s a low, pained cry.

I twist my body, peering into the back, hoping that I’m just hearing things, but when I notice Lucia curled into a small ball on the floor in the rear, I see red.

I’m out of the car in a flash and already yanking open the door before she can react.

“What the fuck, Lucia?” I shout.

She looks up at me with those innocent doe eyes of hers and winces as she rubs her side. “I told you I was coming.”

I grasp either side of my head, tugging on the strands of my hair in frustration. “How?—”

“I snuck in when you were letting Ki-Ki into the house.”

“Fuck my life,” I groan, tilting my head towards the starlit sky. “Do you ever do as you’re damn well told?”

When she doesn’t answer, my eyes snap back to her just in time to see her grimace.

I’ll take that as a no.

“This isn’t a game. Your entire existence and mine are on the line here.”

She frowns. “How is your existence on the line?”

I throw my arms up in frustration. “I’ve been tasked with your safety. That meansI’mresponsible for your well-being. If something happens to you,” —I jab a finger at my chest— “I’mthe one who takes the fall.”

“Don’t worry about Dante,” she replies, with a casual flick of her wrist. “I’ll handle him.”

The fun-loving brother-in-law she knows and the ruthless Mafia Don I know him to be when push comes to shove, are not the same man.

“Listen here,” I say, leaning into the car and getting up in her face. “I’m going to lock this fucking door, and if you so much as think about getting out before I get back, I’m going to drive you to the bum fuck of nowhere, where that psychotic cunt is currently hiding out, and personally hand deliver you to him myself.”

I don’t miss the flash of hurt that crosses her face, and the second I see it, I regret every word.

I didn’t mean it. Not one damn syllable.

I’d never willingly put her in harm’s way, I hope she knows that. But I had to say something,anything, to get through to this stubborn woman, and that was the best I could come up with on short notice.

“Stay put,” I growl in a final warning as I reach into the front of the vehicle to retrieve my key fob.