Page 93 of Stolen By the Enemy

Marco had mentioned that I was not the first woman that he had hidden away from her family.

Could this be the mystery woman he was referring to?

I start to try and rise to my feet, wanting to prevent Kate from rushing back into the room where my wedding reception is in full swing.

If nothing else, I was hoping to avoid bloodshed on my wedding day. It seems I was naïve to hope for something so simple.

“No one is going anywhere.” I feel a twisted relief when I see that Luca has wrapped his arm around Kate’s throat and pressed a gun to her temple.

Chapter Thirty

Grazia

I watch Marco rise to his feet and I start to move toward him, but he stops me with a gesture.

He clearly doesn’t think that it’s safe for me to be close to him yet.

I’m furious at this point and I start scooping up all the beads that the intruder, this Elio, ripped from my dress.

“La Rosa,” Luca says to the interloper who is ruining my wedding. “Didn’t think you were on the guest list.”

“He wasn’t,” I snap at the room in general, still scooping up beads. Elio turns to look at me, and I glare definitely at him for a moment.

He turns away from me with a sardonic smile, spreading his hands and saying, “And yet, here I stand.”

“What do you want?” Enzo says, having joined us on Luca’s heels.

“Kate,” Elio says. “Marco can keep the bastard child. Kate is still engaged to me and I still intend to marry her. Many things depend on our marriage. Nothing has changed during the last seven years.”

Luca laughs. “The mother of Marco’s bastard child? Oh, this is getting really interesting. Grazia, did you know about this?”

I send an angry glare in Marco’s direction, but feel bad as soon as I look at his battered and bloody face. He is cradling his ribs with one hand, but attempting to stand up straight.

“No,” I say bitterly. “Kate just told me who she was moments before…all of this happened.”

“It’s true,” Marco says, his voice sounding thick and muffled due to his swollen nose.

Everyone around me begins talking about what to do with Kate and Elio, and Kate goes back to pleading for the safety of her child and asking not to be sent away with this Elio person.

I am sick to death of everything that is going on already, and shout, “You are not going to ruin my wedding!”

Elio turns his strikingly handsome face in my direction, and I feel a tightness in my chest, as though he has wrapped a hand around my heart and given it a tug.

“Look, Grazia, isn’t it?” he says to me in that velvet-soft voice.

“I don’t want to ruin your wedding. Kate and I are destined to be together and there are important trade routes that I want that her family controls. They don’t have any other daughters, you see, so Kate is my only option to get my money.’

I sneer at him. “All you men and your 'trade' deals.” I spit on the floor. “Maybe you should marry your money instead of us.”

The invader has the nerve to laugh at me, but his gaze is warm on my face, and I feel myself softening toward him unwillingly.

“Well, when that becomes legal, I might just consider it,” he tells me.

“You aren’t going to be considering much of anything for a while,” Enzo says, and brings the butt of his pistol down hard on Elio’s head.

The man drops in a heap on the floor, and I sigh in relief.

Kate cries out and struggles to get free from Luca. Didn’t she just say she didn’t want to be taken away by this man?

---