Page 47 of Savage Heart

“I stayed away from you because I thought you deserved the chance to have the life you deserved.”

“Fine. Then the family you claim I have in the Rules—do you mean the group of people who left me alone for two years?” I snap, angry with myself more than with him right now.

“I mean the family that made sure you went to school, had a safe place to live, and wanted for nothing. That family.”

His words make me stop short, and I take a deep breath to calm myself, but it doesn’t work. “Wanted for nothing? I was alone! I wanted you, Alaric!”

For a moment, it’s like the world stops rotating on its axis after my outburst, but then he pushes past me, mumbling, “You weren’t alone, Sienna. Remember Trent, the boyfriend who fucking sold you out to your brother?”

I watch him walk away from me, wanting so much to say something to stop him. I don’t, though, and when he slams the door behind him, all I feel is regret. I knew who Alaric was from the first day I met him. He never promised me anything, yet he’s given me more than I ever dreamed of.

Maybe the reality is, though, that people like us don’t get happily ever afters.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Alaric

Full of blinding rage, I storm down to the lobby to find Gideon. Maybe it’s not rage. I’m not angry with Sienna. I just don’t understand for the life of me why she would have any loyalty to a group of people who have no problem selling her off to the likes of Lucius Angeloni.

It’s as if she insists on believing her brothers won’t do the same thing again and again if I don’t do my fucking job. I’m trying to make sure we can be together, and she’s worried about losing people who don’t give a damn about her.

As if any of those asshole brothers of hers see her in the same way. My family cares more about her than any of the Rossettis.

By the time I reach the main floor, I’m even angrier than when I walked out of the hotel room. Looking around for someone to get me a goddamned cup of coffee, I see not a single soul in the lobby. Where the hell is everyone who works here?

Throwing open Gideon’s office door, I walk in to see him sitting behind his desk like he does every day, but one glance tells me something’s different this morning. Is that a black eye he’s sporting?

“You look like you went ten rounds with someone who kicked your ass. I didn’t realize that guy connected with your face.”

Gideon winces and lets out a heavy sigh. “My face. My ribs. My fucking kidneys. I guess the only consolation is I think I fucked him up worse. At least I hope I did. This is why I don’t fight. I feel like shit this morning.”

I glance at the chair in front of his desk and decide to pace instead to work off some of my anger. “Fuck fighting. Kill or don’t, but that bullshit slapping someone around is for the birds.”

Gideon doesn’t respond to my personal mantra but watches me walk back and forth across his office for a few seconds before saying, “What the hell has got you in such a bad mood today? I would have thought you’d be on Cloud Nine this morning. You got the girl, the bad guy got offed, and you got to spend the night in bed with said girl in one of my best suites. Sounds like you should be floating on air, if you ask me.”

Stopping directly in front of him, I snap, “Well, I fucking didn’t.”

“And you’re here in my office for what reason then? Because if I don’t get to comment on your perfect life, I don’t see what the hell we’re doing here, to be honest.”

Leave it to Gideon to bring things into focus. I do have a pretty damn good life. I’m crazy in love with a gorgeous and intelligent woman who I think is in love with me, and other than the little issue with her family, life looks to be only getting better now that we’re together. I guess I shouldn’t be stomping around his five-star hotel like someone pissed in my breakfast.

Finally interested in sitting, I pull out the leather chair in front of his desk and practically collapse into it. “Fine, I have a perfect life. Feel free to comment away.”

“You might want to tell your face,” Gideon says with a chuckle that makes him wince when his ribs start hurting again.

“Sienna doesn’t want me to handle her brothers. We had a fight. I’m not sure what she thinks is going to happen if I let them continue to live. I mean, they already kidnapped her and nearly forced her to marry that Angeloni fuck. What makes her think they won’t do it again?”

My cousin shrugs. “The fact that they’re her family?”

His answer makes me feel even more deflated than I did a second ago when I admitted that she and I had a fight. “Now you sound like her. Exactly how does anyone look at that bunch of assholes and think they’re family after what they did?”

“Alaric, you know how families are. Look at ours, for God’s sake. Our fathers haven’t spoken in decades, but I’m willing to bet all the money I have in that safe over there on the wall that if my father heard there was someone going after Maddox Rule or your father heard there was someone going after Helix Rule, neither one of them would feel good about it. They might not actively work to stop whatever was going to happen, but they wouldn’t rejoice in it either. Sienna’s family isn’t great, but it’s all she has. I’m not surprised she doesn’t want to see you get rid of them.”

“Jesus, did you and Sienna confer about this whole family issue while I was sleeping last night? She said pretty much the same thing about her brothers. They’re not great, but they’re all she has. I don’t get it. Cut them loose and let me take care of business so we can have a happy life. The other choice means we’ll always be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives. I’m not prepared to live like that.”

Wincing from pain, Gideon gingerly leans back in his chair a few inches and levels his gaze on me. “Are you prepared to live without her then? Because that seems to be the choice in front of you.”

The mere thought of life without Sienna makes my chest hurt. “Hell, no, I’m not prepared to do that. I’m thinking what’s behind Door C is what needs to happen.”

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