Page 27 of Sinful Wrath

She has a target on her back, and I have no idea why. All I know is that I have a responsibility to keep her safe, and the safest place for her is with me.

“I’m going to take you back to my place,” I state the moment we’re both safely buckled in the car.

“Mikhail, I’m o?—”

“That wasn’t a suggestion.”

Lucia curls up in her seat, hugging her knees against her chest as she stares out the window.

Once we’re a few blocks away, I decide to give Alexei a call.

“I need you to send Feliks over to Madison Square Park. And maybe Carlo too,” I inform him the moment the call connects.

“Why?” Alexei’s voice filters in through the sound system.

“There’s a mess that needs cleaning up. I’d do it myself, but I need to get Lucia somewhere safe.”

“Mikhail, what thefuckis going on?”

Lucia flinches at Alexei’s harsh tone.

I glance over at her and offer her areassuring smile, or what I hope is one anyway, before I quickly give Alexei the rundown of what happened in the park.

“Do you have any idea of who these men were?”

“No. I didn’t recognize either of them, and they had nothing on them except a photo of Lucia.”

“Fuck.”

“Can you call one of your cop guys? Maybe run their fingerprints through the system?”

“I’ll give Dimitri a call and get Zara’s father on the phone.”

“Can we trust him?”

“Any hint of a threat against this family is enough motivation to get him to be discreet,” my brother assures me. “I’ll give Massimo a call too. He should hear this from me.”

“Fine.” I’m just relieved that I don’t have to be the one to inform the mafia Don about the attack on his daughter.

“Get Lucia somewhere safe until we figure out what the hell is going on.”

“Already on it.”

7

LUCIA

“You’re notto leave this house, do you understand me?” Mikhail orders the moment we step over the threshold into his townhouse.

I whirl, my hands landing on my hips. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m deadly serious.” Mikhail’s expression is one of cold fury, but I refuse to be intimidated by him, not when he’s threatening to lock me away.

“I can take care of myself.”

“I never said you couldn’t. But you’re still not to leave this house,” he states before stalking past me.

I ball my hands into fists at my sides as my eyes start to sting with tears as I watch him disappear.

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