Page 51 of Little Rabbit

Then, before I can say anything, or even try to back away, Alessio grips my hand tightly in his and pulls me into the office, even as I hear Nico and Dante barking orders behind me, and Lazaro following us.

25

ALESSIO

He dared to touch her. Dared to pin her to the wall. Fucking dared to bruise her. I don’t regret his death. No, what I want to do is go back and unload more bullets into his body, one for each bruise she now has. One day, when we’re in hell together, I’ll kill him over and over again for daring to harm what’s mine. I want to go and find Nico’s communication team and give them the same treatment. They put her in danger.

I, unknowingly, put her in danger, leaving her completely unprotected. And as much as I want to put all the blame on them, I can’t. Because I stupidly left her by herself, when I should have made sure she had one of my men as a guard. It is a mistake I will never make again.

I pull her further into the room, but stop and look at her arm again. A fresh wave of rage runs through me, seeing the clear imprint of the bastard’s fingers now forming on her bicep. “I’m fine, Alessio,” she tells me softly.

“You should never have been put in that situation in the first place, cara mia,” I tell her tightly. “And you never will be again. You will be assigned a guard while we are here, and you are to never let him out of your sight if I am not with you.”

“Where is Gia?” Nico suddenly demands as he walks in, his face hard and tight. “She was with you, and her guard should have been.”

“She was tired so she went to bed,” Sienna answers.

“He should have known better than to leave her alone,” I hiss, infuriated all over again.

“What’s done is done, and there’s no point in getting pissed off about it now,” Dante says tightly. His gaze moves over to Davide. “What I want to know is what was going on here while we were gone. Under your watch.”

Davide doesn’t flinch at that. “I’ve been watching everything, and no woman was brought onto the grounds. If this happened, it happened away from here.”

“Fucking hell, this is the last fucking thing we need,” Nico rages, clearly pissed. “Dante, fix this shit. I want you to get me new soldiers. We’re going to need as many as we can for what’s coming.”

Dante nods and leaves the room. Davide steps out with him, just as Alonzo walks in. “Mario is waiting outside,” he announces. “He’ll be her guard.”

“I don’t need a guard,” Sienna tries to argue.

“It’s not up for discussion, Sienna,” I tell her firmly. “You and Gia will be protected at all times. We have three possible threats coming at us, and we are not taking any chances.” She still looks like she wants to argue, but she stays quiet, her mouth turned down into a scowl. I grip her chin and turn her head back to look at me. Her eyes narrow at me in warning, which I ignore. “When it comes to your safety, coniglietto, I will never take any chances. And if you think to try and slip your guard even once, your ass is going to pay the price.”

“You obviously haven’t figured out that I can take care of myself,” she tells me darkly. She yanks her head away from me, and I curl my fingers into a fist to keep from grabbing her again.

“Alright, let’s get back on track,” Nico barks, irritated. “The De Lucas and Parisis all know we’re back, and our moles have told us Leonardo is already assembling his men.”

“And Marco and Giovanni?” Lazaro asks curiously.

“Nothing obvious,” Nico huffs out in frustration. “And that’s exactly how they want it. They know we’re going to be watching them, and waiting.”

“Do you think they’ll try and attack again tonight?” Sienna asks curiously.

Nico glances at me, and I nod since I know she’s not going to be dissuaded, even as much as I want to shield her. I’m not letting her out of my sight until Mario takes her back to our room. “Doubtful, but I wouldn’t put it past them,” Nico finally tells her.

“If they did, it would be especially stupid, considering how close it’s been since they last attacked,” Lazaro points out.

“But it was Marco that attacked, not Leonardo and Giovanni, and they would know that now is the perfect time to strike,” I point out grimly.

“How do you know it’s going to be an all-out attack?” Sienna asks curiously. “I mean, I know that’s kind of the way of things around here, but wouldn’t it make more sense that this other guy, Parisi, heard you brought us here, and either had the team he hired to kill us in Sicily come here instead, or hire a second team?”

My blood goes cold, and I see the sharp and dangerous look that comes over Nico’s face. This wasn’t something any of us considered. “We would have heard something about that before now,” Lazaro points out, though I can see his brain already working.

Sienna moves to sit down on the couch, pulling her legs up under her, looking thoughtful. “He probably wouldn’t have known that Gia and I came here until we landed, so we should have time, right?” she finally asks.

“Possibly,” I say thoughtfully. “Lazaro, get a hold of Aurelio and see what you can figure out. I wouldn’t put it past Parisi to be watching the flights. And find out what we know about Parisi’s movements back home. If there’s one thing about him, it’s that he’s predictable and has a temper. If he’s been told Sienna and Gia are here, it’s safe to say he’s getting his men ready to come and try and take them by force.” The very thought has my instincts screaming to hide Sienna as far away as possible, where she can’t be found. Lazaro nods and steps out of the room, phone already to his ear.

Dante returns, his face dark and grim. “We’ll have more soldiers within the hour,” he announces. “Regarding the message with my orders, I’ve found out the message was sent, but somehow it didn’t reach the men. The team are on it. As for the rest, the men aren’t talking, but I’ll be interrogating as many as I need to before the night is out. I’ll have names, and whether the event that fucker was talking about happened.” Nico nods sharply. “Oh, and Sofia told me to tell you she’s going to chop off your balls for getting blood on the carpet only hours after she got home,” Dante adds with a smirk my way.

I give him a taunting smile. “She should be grateful that it was that fucker’s and not yours, then.” Dante just keeps smirking at me, uncaring. The son of a bitch is cool as a cucumber, and any other time I would admire that. Right now, though, I’m still pissed off enough to make a very bloody point.

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