Page 131 of His Tesoro

“You should have stayed with her.”

“I’m your second. I stay with you.”

I clenched my jaw but didn’t respond because we were finally in front of Sofiya’s room. I pushed the door open. My heart pounded in anticipation at seeing my wife. Would she scream at me? Kick me out of the room? I deserved it. I deserved all her anger, her judgement. I would withstand it all just to be close to her, to satisfy the desperate craving in my body to be with her always.

I was prepared for anything she threw at me, but what I wasn’t ready for was finding an empty bed. Romeo ran ahead and checked the bathroom. He shook his head when he turned back around.

“My phone,” I choked out.

Romeo pulled it out of his pocket and I opened the tracking app, sending out a prayer to the universe that she hadn’t taken her necklace off.

Her dot was at the airport, and my heart thudded against my chest. My hands shook as I called her. No answer.

“I’m calling Ronan,” Romeo said. He held the phone to his ear and then cursed, hanging up and shaking his head.

Just then, my phone rang, but it was Sienna, not Sofiya. I almost didn’t answer—I had to stay focused on my wife right now—but then I realized my sister would likely have Leona’s phone number.

“Matteo, Sofiya is going to Chicago,” Sienna said immediately when I answered.

“What?” I put the call on speakerphone so Romeo could hear.

“Nikolai called me. Rustik is forcing Mila to marry Arben. Sofiya, Ronan, and Leona are going to stop the wedding.”

“Get the plane ready,” I told Romeo.

Sienna inhaled sharply. “Matteo, you can’t go. Romeo said you’d been shot, which makes that the second time this week.”

“If you think for one moment I’m going to let my wife face Rustik and Arben alone, you don’t fucking know me!” I roared.

“Fuck, Matteo,” Sienna said with a sigh. “Just be careful, okay? I need you both to come back.”

“I will,” I promised. Romeo moved me to the door, and I took the call off speaker. “How’s Noodle?”

Sienna paused for a moment before answering. “He seems sad. He just lies by the door crying. I think he misses Sofiya.”

That made two of us.

“I’ll bring her back home,” I vowed. “For all of us.”

There was no life for me without her. I may have been too foolish to see it at first, but now that I knew, I would never let her go.

71

SOFIYA

Car horns blared at us as Leona wove in and out of the Chicago traffic, each one raising my blood pressure.

“It’s rather inconvenient of them to hold the ceremony during rush-hour,” she said as she cut off another car.

“I’m not sure convenience was on their mind,” I bit out.

“Do you know the church?” Ronan asked. He was clutching the door and his seat as Leona took another turn too quickly.

“Not well. It’s the one I got married in, but I was just there briefly for the ceremony.”

“Ahh, wonderful. Filled with good memories, I’m sure,” Leona deadpanned.

If my chest wasn’t so tight I could barely form words, I might have laughed.

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