Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“What the hell, Rocco?” I yelled. “What the hell?”
His mouth twitched.
“It’s not funny. God.” I set a hand on my heart and tried to focus on breathing, but it was impossible.
“You want to talk about things that aren’t funny, Principessa?” He stood up, his amusement replaced by something that made my stomach clench as he prowled over. That was what his gait reminded me of: a prowl. A tiger’s. A lion’s. Some kind of fierce animal that was ready to pounce on prey. His expression was closed off. Serious. Scary. He stopped before me, and I craned my neck to look at him as he leaned over me. “It’s not funny to disappear and not tell anyone where you are. It’s not funny that you trusted me with your virginity and not with this. It’s not fucking funny for you to be here living the good life while we’re going out of our fucking minds with worry.”
“Is that why you’re here?” I asked, my voice as weak and shaky as I felt. “Because you were worried? Or are you here to hunt me down?”
“Hunt you down? That’s oddly specific.” He raised an eyebrow. “Tell me, Principessa. Did the person who told you about me tell you what I would do if I hunted you down?”
“No,” I gasped, finding it harder to breathe.
He covered my throat with his hand. “Use your imagination. What would I do if I was hunting you?”
My eyes blurred with tears. “Kill me?”
“Kill you?” Amusement lit his blue eyes as he took his hand away. “And you think I’d kill you?”
“Maybe? I don’t know.” I squeaked. “God. Rocco, just tell me. What are you going to do with me?”
His smile was as feral as the animals that pounce. When he held my throat again, it was to pull me into a bruising kiss.
19
ROCCO
After my mother was murdered, I became a very angry teenager. People thought I went into the military to follow in Michael’s footsteps. The truth was, I had no option. I didn’t know how to kill someone and get away with it. I was fighting anyone and everyone who got in my face. I got my ass kicked a couple of times because of it. Then, Mikey sat me down on the eve of what would’ve been our mother’s birthday, and told me that if I didn’t want to end up dead or in jail, I should join the military. “The Marines will be a good fit for you,” he’d said. I listened, obviously, and was turned into a human weapon. Then, they turned me into a monster. I had a lot to thank them for. Having to learn to hold back and not unleash when I got angry was something I wouldn’t have discovered how to do on my own.
Even when I went to laundromats and bodegas to collect a payment, I didn’t unleash that version of myself. Even when I’d helped my friends execute their vengeance against whoever hurt their women, I didn’t unleash him. Finding Lenora De Luca in a tiny red bikini having the time of her life made the monster roar, not because she was safe and had us worried. Not because one of her father’s men could find her there at any moment. The monster roared at the thought of handing her over to that motherfucker Adriano. This unexpected, complicated reaction made me decide right then and there that I wouldn’t. If I had to kill every duke and duchess, king and queen, and whatever other bullshit titles these idiots decided to claim for themselves, so be it. I wasn’t doing it because I wanted her to be with me. I knew that would be messy and complicated. I was doing it because she deserved this freedom.
I’d been watching her for the better part of the day, trying to figure out the best time to make my presence known. I’d watched her play with the kids at the beach, building sand castles as they ran around her laughing. I’d called Dom to let him know I had eyes on her as I watched her from afar, her brown hair whipping around her face, her perfect body in that bikini, her smile and little claps when the kids got the hang of how to build sandcastles and did it without her help. My heart ached at the scene. Fucking ached. I’d gone into her room to wait for her. I was going to speak up as soon as she opened the door, but I just wanted to watch her for a little while longer. I was going to tell her when she went into the bathroom, but I was afraid she’d slip and get hurt, so I waited some more, giving her privacy to wash off. And then I heard her moan my name, and my eyes snapped up from the text I’d been writing my brother. I hadn’t come here to hook up with her. I’d already told myself it was out of the question. I needed to keep this professional and take her to a safe place until we planned our next move. My name on her lips threatened to throw me over the edge, though.