Page 79 of Not Mine to Keep

“What?” Hudson and Leo asked at the same time.

Right, I’d left that part out to the men on my protection detail.

“He’s going to be pissed you’re here.” Hudson stepped back, catching the door with his palm. “Angrier if I tell him you’re out here on the verge of tears and planning to run away and I didn’t tell him, though.

“Stay in the foyer,” he said once we were inside. “I’ll go get him.”

“No, I want to see what has my husband so preoccupied he couldn’t talk to me. I’m going with you.” No way was I letting Alessandro off the hook, even if he had every right to have sex with someone since this marriage would be over soon, and we’d been forced to walk down the aisle in the first place.

“Callie.” My name sat on Hudson’s lips for a beat as indecision warred in his dark eyes. “Fine,” he relented. “But you’re not going to like what you see. And he’s going to kill me.”

“I think you can hold your own,” I said at the memory of Hudson’s former employment as a Navy SEAL. “Wait here,” I told the others, then followed Hudson down a set of steps and walked by an indoor pool before he stopped outside a door.

“Are you sure?” Resting his hand on the knob, he looked at me from over his shoulder.

Not even a little bit, because was he about to take me into some sex room I’d only been half-teasing about last week? “Yes,” I lied.

He cursed while opening the door before taking me down another set of stairs that fed into a dark hallway. Hudson punched in a four-digit code on the wall by a door, then swore one more time, and opened it.

“Where are we?” Inside the dark space, I grabbed hold of the sides of my arms to chase away chills.

He flicked on the light, and I walked backward as shock had me in a choke hold. Hudson hooked my arm and revealed, “They can’t see us in here.”

Eyes on the glass window that showcased another room, I swallowed at the sight of a guy tied up, hands shackled to a pipe. His head was bowed. Chest naked and bloody.

But it was the man crouched before him, holding what appeared to be a chef’s knife, who had me feeling the need to gasp for air. A skull-like ghost mask covered his face and hair, only leaving his eyes exposed.

I’d be able to recognize his body anywhere. “Alessandro.”

He stood to his full height and faced the glass, as if sensing he was being watched. He cocked his head and came closer, lowering the knife to his side. The back of his knuckles hit the glass, and the masked man—myhusband—tipped his head like a directive.

“I thought they can’t see us,” I said as Hudson went to a different door in the room.

“He can’t, but ...” Hudson let Alessandro into the tight little space, and I backed up against the other door.

I’d been expecting sex, not a masked man torturing a guy. God help me, why was I so relieved?

Without removing the mask, Alessandro ground out, “What in the hell is she doing down here?”

“Stubborn,” was all Hudson said, and he was probably peering at me, but I couldn’t rip my eyes away from my husband, draped in darkness, still holding a bloody knife at his side.

“Bring her to my office. I’ll deal with her there.” Alessandro barked out the command.

Only when Hudson reached for my arm, a gentle urge to move, did I finally look away from the shadowy masked figure that was my husband.

My heart was flying as Hudson guided me through the hall and up the stairs.

“He’s pissed,” I murmured after we’d gone up a second staircase.

“You think?” Hudson grumbled, opening a door a moment later. He turned on the light, and I was relieved to see what appeared to be an office and not another torture chamber.

Spotting a bar cart alongside one wall, I went over to it, in need of a drink. I filled a glass to the brim with whiskey. My hand was shaking as I lifted it to my mouth, spilling a few drops in the process.

“You okay?” Hudson asked, his tone softer this time.

At my first sip, I winced, then took another, much-needed one. “I thought he was having sex, not killing someone.” Working up the courage to face him, I slowly turned around.

“Sex? Are you serious?” Hudson swiveled his black ball cap backward and pushed up the sleeves of his black shirt. “He’d never cheat on you, even if marrying you is part of his assignment.”

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