Page 77 of Heartless Union

“You’re coming with me,” Carlo says, eyes on Rocco. “Finally. You’re a hard man to kill. And I want to kill you in front of all my men. They need to see I’m their true boss. They can’t be hoping for you to take over someday. That will be Dante’s job, not yours. Now, I have no desire to kill your wife. So, if you come with me, I’ll let her live. If you try to resist, she’ll get a bullet straight to the head.”

I can sense Rocco is about to stand up. I grab his arm. “Don’t go,” I say.

He gives me a pained look. “I have to. I can’t be the reason you die.” He grabs my face and gives me a rough kiss before letting me go and getting up. Facing Carlo, he says, “I’ll go with you. Let’s end this once and for all.”

Carlo smirks. “Yes. Let’s.” He motions for Rocco to go first.

With a look back at me, he walks out the door.

Carlo nods at me next. “Don’t kill her gentlemen, but you can have your way with her.”

“No!” Rocco shouts, trying to run back inside, but one of the men points his gun straight at him, stopping Rocco.

Carlo shoves Rocco back. “You better get going. I can still kill her.”

I have no words. I can’t tell Rocco it will be ok because I don’t believe it will. But I can’t let him go without saying something.

“I love you,” I call out.

His eyes widen. Before he can reply, one of the men hits him across the head with the butt of his gun, knocking him to the ground. Carlo kicks Rocco’s face, sending my husband sprawling over. He doesn’t get up.

“Help me get him in the car,” Carlo orders two of them men. “You”—he points at the last one— “make sure you rough her up a little.” He laughs as he leaves the room with the other two men.

The third one turns to me, a dangerous smirk on his face. “You’re not going to fight, are you, baby?”

I shudder. I’ve been submissive for so long, doing what all the men in my life want from me. And now, I’m going to be assaulted.

I refuse to just lie down and cry. Rocco hasn’t stopped fighting for me, and I’m not going to stop fighting for him.

I’m not going to stop fighting for myself.

When he lunges for me, I grab the lamp off the nightstand and swing it at him. It crashes into him, and he stumbles back, gripping his head. Blood seeps through his fingers.

I jump out of bed and run for the door. He chases after me, but I’m outside, pounding on Gabriella’s door before he can grab me. “It’s me!” Out of the corner of my eye, I see a black van leave the parking lot. I catch the license plate number before it rounds the corner and is gone. Rocco is in that van. I know it.

Gabriella opens it and sees the man. He starts to lift his gun, but she does a high-kick and knocks it out of his hand. It clatters to the ground.

“Grab it, Lara!” she shouts.

I reach for it as he grabs me around the waist.

Gabriella screams and barrels into the guy, knocking him to the side and giving me time to grab the gun and point it at him.

“Get inside,” Gabriella says. We rush into the room, slam the door shut and lock it. She eyes me over. “You’re naked.”

“Carlo paid us a visit. He grabbed Rocco.”

“I know. I heard. I was hiding, but then I heard you pounding on the door. I knew I had to help.” She runs over to her suitcase and pulls out black leggings and a top. “Here.”

“Thanks.” I give her the gun, then slip into her clothes. She keeps the gun pointed at the door. “What do we do now? We have to stop Carlo from killing Rocco.”

“How? We’re just two women.”

Someone pounds on the door, making us both jump.

“Gabriella? It’s Emilio.”

She sags in relief and runs to the door, opening it. Emilio pulls her into a hug and gives me a nod in greeting.

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