Page 34 of Relentless Sinner

“I’m not sure who you have to worry about more. Your people are dangerous motherfuckers but Salvatore is a very influential man with links to some groups the Creed don’t align with.”

“I know. That’s what worries me. I’m just counting on the fact that he might not be willing to risk telling anyone about what he did to the Castellanos.”

“It depends on whether that person is in a worse situation than him and thinks they have something to gain by working with him.”

“Oh, they’d have something to gain, alright. Two hundred billion.”And her.

If anyone takes me down, they’ll marry Gabriella. She is Salvatore’s leverage, even now that she’s with me.

“Please tell me you put all your men on this.”

“All the ones I can trust and the men Micah has offered up to watch Salvatore. In total I have about forty people, most of them guards or soldiers who are loyal to Micah and I to a fault. I don’t want any extra risks. My cousins have a lot of influence. I need to stay one step ahead of them.”

“Well, now you have me and mine. You know you can trust me, and we both know your family would sooner kill me than ask me to doanything.”

I dip my head and grin. “Thank you, old friend.”

“No worries. Wouldn’t want you to lose your girl before you even get to the church.”

Neither would I.

I make my way upstairs when Cillian leaves.

I decided to check on Gabriella before I head out. It feels like the right thing to do.

When I open the door to the bedroom the light is off and she’s not in the bed but I notice the wooden arched doors leading out to the balcony are open.

I head out there and find her curled up, asleep on the chair with a tartan blanket nearly falling off her. She has a book in her lap—Wuthering Heights.

In the moonlight her pale skin looks silver. I can’t see the bruise on her face but I’m sure it’s still there.

She looks so frail and vulnerable asleep. Quite unlike the woman who seems to be on guard all the time.

There’s also an innocence about her that not even her seductive, very feminine body can shake. It makes me want to place her in a glasshouse and stand guard so no one can get in and hurt her. Not even me.

I’m not a fan of her sleeping out here but Gabriella looks so comfortable I don’t want to disturb her.

Deciding I won’t, I fix the blanket instead. Just as I lift the corner her diary slides out from under it. A folded piece of paper drifts out onto the ground and I catch it before the wind sweeps it away.

I unfold it and notice it’s a printout of an email. I would never normally cross that line of privacy but when I spot Natasha’s name on the bottom of the email I decide to read it.

Dear Gabriella,

I’m so sorry I had to leave you. I fear for my child’s life and Alessandro’s.

I know without a doubt that Dad will kill them both. Then I wouldn’t know what to do and I couldn’t live with myself.

Please don’t worry about me. I will take care of myself. Please, please try to stay safe. Dad has clearly lost his mind.

I wish I could have taken you with me and I hope you don’t hate me for leaving you behind. I hope that once you go to med school you’ll get away from Dad.

I’m not sere when I’ll see you again but pray for me like we did that summer with Mom.

All my love,

Natasha

It doesn’t surprise me that her sister contacted her after she left. I heard they were as close as sisters can be.

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