Page 23 of Captured

Laughing softly, I kissed her forehead. “How could I forget my beautiful baby’s birthday?”

“I mean it.” She punched me playfully in the chest before backing away, blowing me a kiss then scampering out of the room.

I stood where I was, allowing myself one of those few moments of remembering just how lucky I was.

Not just that I had an incredible family and beautiful house or that my career was exactly where and how I wanted it to be, but also that I’d removed myself from the darkness.

There was nothing better than the light.

Maybe there was such a thing as salvation after all.

There was no special reason I was thinking about the past. This wasn’t the same thing at all.

Except for the fact as I stared at the man touching Emily, I wanted to kill him.

No man put his hands on my angel without facing my wrath. And the fucker who obviously had desire for her was crossing every line.

She was mine. All mine. The moment I’d entered her room, I’d branded her.

One taste hadn’t been enough.

Bypassing the security system and her bodyguards, entering her room during the middle of a violent storm had been the riskiest thing I’d done in years.

But fuck if I hadn’t enjoyed every second of taking her. Laying claim.

Using her lithe body. My palm was haunted by delicious tingling sensations from the discipline I’d administered before. Spanking her had been… perfection.

But now, I wanted more. Much more.

My initial behavior wasn’t all that unusual. I always gathered a taste of who my marks were and the best way to do that was by entering their personal space.

I was a dangerous man, one who enjoyed taking what he wanted.

The thought of how the girl had writhed against me, doing her best to scream before the luscious sounds turned to ones of passion floated into my mind.

After that, I’d done nothing more than wait for the perfect opportunity to take what already belonged to me. Tonight was the night.

I remained in the shadows, concentrating on studying the people around me. There were far too many dignitaries with their own bodyguards to consider taking Emily during the concert event. Besides, I had a strong desire to hear her play before ripping her from her normal environment. She was listed as a soloist, which enthused my dark cravings. I needed something to soothe me tonight, the anger festering to the point I could potentially lose control and that wasn’t what I wanted to do.

There’d been another phone call. Another reminder of the contract had occurred seconds before I’d walked into the auditorium. Liam was coming close to facing extinction himself. I was well aware he had the power to sully my reputation, but no man or organization was going to tell me what or how I needed to do my job. While usually I never questioned those hiring me to handle a messy contract, merely ascertaining the individual or group had the resources to pay what I was worth and that they were legit, I’d taken it upon myself to find out why stealing Emily away from her father was their requested choice of action.

I’d come to find out, the people who’d hired me had done business with Gideon in the past, although a couple of years had gone by. Perhaps my instinct that it hadn’t been about Liam’s murdered wife had been spot on.

I wasn’t immune to working with all types of people, including those with nefarious criminal backgrounds, but the people who’d hired me were not only demanding, the powerful men were also considered brutal even in my world. It would seem Gideon Martin had crossed the wrong people in dozens of ways. That made sense.

Even though my father had been considered a savage amongst those involved in crime syndicates, members of the Taglioni Crime Syndicate were truly evil individuals. Liam and his moguls had hidden behind the organization they worked for while Gideon couldn’t care less who knew he was a powerful mafia Don simply because of how many members of law enforcement he owned and could destroy. This was just another turf war in my mind, but one with treacherous results.

Ordinarily, I’d admire their traits and heinous activities, but I remained infuriated they wanted to exterminate something as precious as my angel.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Fuck the money.

To hell with the danger.

She was mine, plain and simple. All mine.

I waited in the wings as she pushed herself away from the venomous pig, brushing her long fingers through her hair. My palm itched with the need to fist her hair at the scalp, dragging her against the heat of my chest while I ripped off her clothes with the other hand. The enjoyment of impaling her with my thick, aching cock while I shoved her against the wall was never far from my mind.

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