Page 113 of King of the Cage

Heading downstairs, I touched my face in wonder. My cheeks literally hurt lately, seldom-used muscles getting the workout of a lifetime. From smiling.

Declan waited at the bottom of the stairs and held the door open for me. “Where are we off to this evening?”

“The Moroni family compound,” I told him. I’d gotten dressed up more for the fun hobby of teasing my sexy-as-hell husband when I went out than needing to look nice wherever I was going.

“Good, nice and safe,” Declan said approvingly, escorting me out to a town car.

I got in, and we pulled out into the evening traffic.

As we wound our way through the city, an alert pinged on my cell. I’d set up something to monitor communications coming to and from the O’Connor men’s electronics. I opened the notification on my phone. Something inside the town car was broadcasting our location.

There was a tracker in the car.

“Declan! Someone’s following the car,” I started, just before Declan drew to a stop at a red light.

He twisted around to look at me. “What?”

“I think someone’s put a tracker on this car,” I said quickly. “What should we do?”

“Can you disable it?”

“Not without finding it first,” I rushed out, and that was as far as I got.

The door on the driver’s side rattled.

“Don’t worry — it’s locked,” Declan said.

The window exploded inward.

I screamed, fighting toward the front, trying to reach for the arms coming in.

The smell of burning filled the air, and a familiar electronic buzz, and Declan slumped to the side. Tasered.

The leather-gloved hands unlocked the car from the inside, and then, my door opened. I looked up at two men in balaclavas. Then the bite of the taser met my skin, and I was a goner.

32

GIADA

“Giada! Are you okay?” a voice came to me from far, far away.

I blinked, the world gradually coming into focus.

I was on a soft bed. I sat up slowly, and Regina jumped to her feet.

“Oh my God, you’re awake. I’m so sorry this happened,” she rambled.

“Water,” I croaked at her.

“Right!”

She passed me a glass of water, and I quickly gulped half of it down.

“Are you okay?” she asked, a deep frown etched between her brows.

I shook my head. “Where am I?”

“My apartment.”

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