Page 16 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 4

“Brenden…I could only save one. I chose you,” he muttered. “I’ll always choose you, Jules.”

A sob tore through me. “I’ll always choose you too.” I gently pressed my lips to his.

He lifted one of his hands to cup the back of my head, keeping me in place as he held the firm kiss. Then I felt the weight of his hand slowly slip away as he let go, his body easing back to the bed as his eyes closed. He fell back to sleep.

I ran my fingers through his hair at the crown of his head. The back layers had been singed by the explosion. He’d need a haircut when all this was over, but I was grateful the bulk of his luxurious black locks were still in place. I traced his brow, cheeks, and lips as he slept, needing to feel him alive and breathing underneath my fingertips. He had quite a long way to go before he would be well enough to leave the hospital, but him waking on his own was a good sign.

In the meantime, I needed to touch base with Bruno on the search for Bianca.

Thinking of the devil must have conjured him because right as I was about to pull my phone out and call him, the man himself appeared at the doorway. He was just about to knock, his knuckle poised against the wood.

“How’s he doing?”

“He woke up for a couple minutes. Doctors say he’ll sleep a lot over the coming days, but they’ve taken him off the harder drugs while still managing his pain.”

“Do they know when he’ll get to go home?”

I shook my head. “Too early to tell.”

Bruno nodded as he rubbed his hands slowly together and looked down at the floor. “I have news but it’s not good news.”

I frowned. “Okay…”

“You remember how, before the explosion, my team tracked Bianca down to a small town in France?”

“Yeah, Mouroux. We were worried about how close that was to my godmother Alana.”

Bruno’s jaw firmed and he pursed his lips. “Julianne, I had my men go to the Toussaint estate in France.”

Dread, thick and doughy covered me in a blanket of fear. “What did they find?” I pleaded.

“Fuck Jules, I don’t know how to tell you this,” he grated through clenched teeth.

“Is she…is she…” I started to tremble as my vision became spotty, imagining the worst.

Bruno came to my chair, kneeled down, and took my hands in his. “Her home was shot up with multiple rounds from what could only be assault rifles.”

I pulled one of my hands from his to cover my mouth as I gasped.

“A few days ago, Alana and a young girl by the name of Emily Davenport were kidnapped from a tourist attraction. The Palace of Versailles to be exact.”

“Bianca has them?” I asked, remembering the girl who attended my wedding. Emily was her name.

She was so young. Barely a teenager if memory served. I knew her father, Rhodes, but only in a business capacity. Rhodes had primarily worked with Giovanni for the most part, securing land purchases for the high-rises and resorts he was known for building. And I recalled Alana mentioning she’d gotten close to the man over the years, especially since he’d designed and built their first home. That still didn’t answer why Bianca would have them kidnapped.

He shook his head. “I don’t…just listen. There’s more. After the last auction, Alana and one of her candidates received threatening messages. Rhodes Davenport was the bidder and winner for that candidate, who is named Maia.”

“Now Maia I know, because we met in person at the auction…”

“Maia is more than just a candidate of Alana’s. Apparently, Alana had taken a liking to the young girl. I had a call with Jade Lee, Alana’s protégé, who claimed the Madam doted on the young woman, but she didn’t know their history.”

“Then why didn’t I know her better? And what does this have to do with Bianca?”

“I can’t answer that. Only Alana can. However, the good news is that Alana and Emily were found and taken into custody along with several men. Most notably a man by the name of Dimitri Volkov. Do you know that name?”

I shook my head.

“He’s the second in command of a very violent Russian militia group the authorities have been trying to take down for the better part of two decades.”

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