Page 32 of The Taker

“Milo… Next time you take a cupcake from Leo, I’ll shove it down your throat and choke you with it. Then you’ll know what death by chocolate actually feels like. Unless it’s directly related to his safety, don’t talk to my toy,” I bark.

“O-o-okay, sorry Mr. Vettore,” he stutters before I hang up the line.

That little fucker covered the cameras. Then he flirted with my guard and offered him fucking cupcakes.Unbelievable.

Halfway through the ride, my driver gets us tangled in the slowest moving traffic. It grates on my nerves. Every moment I’m away from Leo without being able to see him through the cameras drives me insane with worry. With the need to throw that brat over my knee again and turn his ass so red and full of welts he won’t be able to sit again, let alone cover the cameras.

After spending twenty minutes imagining his breathy little sighs and cries of pain, I text him.

Me: I told you not to cover the cameras again, toy.

Minutes pass, and he doesn’t respond.

Me: I’m going to beat your ass so red the city will be able to use it as a traffic light.

By the time the car parks in the garage, he still hasn’t responded. No matter how angry Leo is at me, he knows to always respond to my texts.

My gut tells me something isn’t right, and it’s never wrong.

I pull my gun out of a hidden side compartment in the car, then take the regular elevator to his floor. I take the hall down to his apartment, and growl when I see the door is wide open and covered in bright red blood.

Where the fuck is Milo?

I enter the apartment and see him fighting a man roughly the same size as him. His head is shaved on the sides, with tattoos on his scalp. None of them seem gang affiliated, but I know without a doubt he’s one of Ronan’s men. I shoot him in the kneecaps, so we can interrogate him later.

“Where is Leo?!” I shout.

“I told him and Lucy to hide in the ensuite in his room. There’s at least one other intruder still active.”

I run through the living room and hallway, jumping over an unknown, bleeding body in the hallway. He isn’t one of my men, if his casual clothes are anything to go by. I hear shouting in the bedroom, and see Leo standing over a much larger man with black hair and a mustache. His nose is broken, with blood gushing out, and his hands are tied behind his back. A chef’s knife protrudes from his shoulder, in just the right position to cause the maximum amount of pain without killing him.

Unless someone twists the knife and rips it out…

I put a pin in that idea when I see the anger and ferocity on Leo’s face. It’s covered in blood that better not be his, zoned in on the poor fuck screaming in agony on the ground.

Pulling my gun out, I slowly come to his side so I don’t scare him. “Leo, where’s Lucy?”

“Locked in the bathroom, alone. He tried to attack her. She’s fine, thank God. But this poor fuck won’t be. I want him dead,Rocco. I want to fucking watch this sick piece of shit get cut to bits!” He sounds borderline hysterical. I can’t blame him—his sisters mean everything to him.

I bend down in front of our unwelcome guest and twist the knife in his shoulder, just the slightest bit. He cries so profusely I can’t understand what he’s saying.

“Who sent you?” I already know, but I need confirmation before I act.

The man shakes his head as he struggles to breathe through the pain. I twist the knife a little more, plunging it deeper into his rotator cuff.

“Ph-ph-illipe,” he sputters. “Stop!”

I take the heavy lamp off the bedside table and hit his skull so hard he blacks out. Then I do a cursory check to make sure Leo isn’t injured. There’s no obvious wounds, but that doesn’t rule out a concussion or something internal. I need to get Doctor Caruso in here ASAP to check him out.

All three Cleaver brothers come into the room with Piero leading the line. Milo looks worse for wear as Elio helps him walk.

“Elio and I came as fast as we could, Mr. Vettore,” Piero tells me. “The apartment is secure—Giuseppe is waiting outside for more backup. What can we do for you?”

“Piero, take this asshole to the basement for questioning. Elio, call Doc Caruso up here, then get the cleaners here ASAP for the bodies. When you’re both done, take Milo home.”

After firing a quick text to Giuseppe to bring Julia home right away, I take in my little lionheart. He’s still covered in blood, a bruise starting to form on his jaw. He stares at his opponent on the ground, a grin of victory on his face and a feral gleam in his icy blue eyes that seem miles away.

Knowing he held his own by wielding the weapon nearest and dearest to my heart makes me want to take him to my room right now and ravage him.

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