Page 29 of Savage Heart

We both turn to look at one another and I give her a smile. “I’d stack you in peril up against most people, never mind women, in this world, so just remember that. I need to go figure out the weakest security points inside this house, so stay out here as long as you can. Pretend to love the look of the water at night. Act like it makes you realize how much you miss being here in Italy. Anything that will discourage him from wanting to move you inside, okay?”

Her smile fades, and I see sadness fill her eyes. “Okay. You have no idea how happy I am that you found me, Alaric. I was worried you wouldn’t, and I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

“I’ll always find you, Sienna. Just like that day with your father’s hitman. I’ll always find you.”

I hear her let out a heavy sigh, and then she whispers, “Thank you.”

As I turn to walk back inside the house, I brush my arm against hers and whisper, “It’s the least I can do for the woman I love.”

She gives me a tiny smile I know she wishes could be bigger. We’ll have time for more smiles and happiness soon.

Right now, though, I need to prepare for the fact that tonight might get violent, and my only concern is making sure Sienna isn’t hurt. As for the bastards who thought they could take her and force her to marry Lucius Angeloni, I can’t wait to make them pay.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Lucius

The men I trust most in my life gather around me in my study for drinks and to hear my announcement the rest of the party will be told later on tonight. These five men have been with me through thick and thin, through the best times and the worst times, especially during that point in my life when Salvatore Rossetti betrayed me like no other person in this world has ever dared to do.

Tonight, I pay him back for that. I only wish he was still alive to have to suffer through the news. Of all the men on the coast, Rossetti knew me better than anyone, including my penchant for violence. Once, he appreciated it for how valuable it was to him, but when he found it inconvenient, he made the bad choice to betray me for less than I’m paying for his daughter.

Not that I’m worried about the money. Once Sienna’s my wife, it will only be a matter of disposing of her and her idiot brothers so I’m the sole owner of all things Rossetti. The villa. The wealth. The power.

And then my revenge will be complete.

I’ve waited a long time for this to happen. Even as patient as I am, I sometimes lay awake nights wondering it this day would ever come. But come it has, and I plan to revel in every delicious moment of it as I take Salvatore’s only daughter to my bed and do as I choose to her.

“Lucius, who’s the woman in the silver dress?” Tommaso Andrioli, one of my oldest and dearest friends, asks as Antonio pours them all a drink.

With a grin, I answer, “Sienna Rossetti, fresh from being in America for the past four years.”

My righthand man gives me a sideways glance at my mention of her having been away at school in the States for all that time. He’s concerned she won’t be as easy to break as Italian women now that she’s tasted all that freedom American women possess.

Antonio should know me better. There’s never been a woman I couldn’t bend to my will. Sienna Rossetti will not be the first either.

The men around me nod and hum as they take in the information I know makes them remember what her father did to me all those years ago. None of them say a word about it. They fear sending me into a rage as even the mere mention of Salvatore’s treachery often has in the past.

I’m flush with success tonight now that the time has finally come for me to exact my vengeance on that entire family, so there will be no explosion of my temper this evening. Tonight is to celebrate my triumph over a longtime enemy.

“So what’s the news you called us in here to share?” Basilio Connigliaro asks before taking a sip of his drink.

Always so impatient that one.

I lift my glass into the air and smile as I announce, “I’m marrying again, gentlemen. That woman out there, Sienna Rossetti, is going to be the next Mrs. Angeloni. The events of the past have finally come full circle.”

Each man looks utterly impressed by my news, and they all raise their glasses in the air to toast my good fortune. They all know every last detail of how her father took something most valuable from me and how I planned to avenge that wrong someday. Well, that day has come, finally. The house of Angeloni will finally be on top again.

“After all this time, Lucius. Too bad her father isn’t here to have to suffer through the ceremony,” Tommaso says with a chuckle. “He forgot about the insult he gave you and your entire family all those years ago. I know it. If only we could see his face now.”

My dear friend knows how true those words are. Salvatore’s memory about taking the woman I loved more than life itself faded over time. Likely, he never considered it to be a problem since I never let on how much that wound hurt me. I kept a smile on my face, kissed his cheek as if we were as close as ever, and hugged him to my breast as if the loss he inflicted upon me didn’t harm me at all.

At first, I planned on simply pretending to be okay until I could return the favor to him someday, but as time passed, that thought evolved into something darker and more vindictive. It wouldn’t be enough to merely steal a woman from him like he had from me. When I took something he loved, it needed to be more than just some mistress or even a wife.

It needed to be the only daughter he had.

So I waited while she grew up, never failing to notice how she matured each year. I thought it might be possible that my chance slipped through my fingers when he allowed her to go to America for school, but Salvatore’s sloppy use of his power in this region sealed her fate. Forced to remain in Italy, she would be mine by the end of that summer home.

Until her idiot brother Matteo nearly ruined my entire plan by going behind his father’s back to get rid of her. What a fool Salvatore’s oldest son is! As if any woman would be worth a hitman’s bullet. There are far easier ways to dispose of a sister than killing her.

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