Page 52 of The Roman's Woman (A Singular Obsession)

“What is he saying?” she asked, grimacing at the pathetic sight.

Gio passed a hand over his face. “That you wanted him. She told him so.”

His voice was full of disgust.

So she hadn’t misunderstood. “What the hell does that mean? Who isshe?”

Gio didn’t answer. He snatched up the phone on the bedside table and barked something into it. One long terrible minute later, Enzo, Gio’s security chief, came into the bedroom at a dead run. He was followed by two other men she didn’t recognize.

“Get him out of here,” Gio ordered, pointing to his sad heap of a relative.

Face ashen, Enzo nodded abruptly. He and one of the other men stepped forward and took hold of Lucca, one at each arm. They hustled him out, his groans and the sound of his heart-wrenching weeping carrying back to them.

“Stop!” Gio called out.

He ran over to Enzo and hissed something in his ear, pointing and waving his hand back and forth, slicing the air with quick abrupt motions.

Sophia wrapped her arms tight around her middle, mentally transported to her one fraternity party in college. Her roommate had convinced her to wear a tight V-neck sweater, one that had displayed her cleavage. The outfit had attracted the attention of a large drunken frat boy. After less than a minute of incoherent conversation, she’d been grabbed and pinned to the wall.

It had happened in full view of everyone, so it hadn’t been long before someone noticed she was being mauled against her will and pulled the guy off her.

Intellectually, she knew it hadn’t been her fault. She put the incident behind her and moved on, but the same irrational feeling of shame was back. She felt dirty.

You are dirty.

Glancing down at her breasts, she saw red spatters. Sophia reached up to her chin and flinched when her fingers came away with blood. It must have been Lucca’s.

Nauseated, she turned on her heel and marched into the bathroom, stripping off her nightgown and throwing it on the floor. She stepped into the shower and turned it on full-blast.

She was still scrubbing herself raw when Gio came into the bathroom. He was fully dressed in his suit and tie, but that didn’t stop him from walking into the shower stall with her.

He pulled her hands away, stopping her compulsive washing by wrapping his arms around her. He held her to him, letting the water run over them both, ruining a suit that probably cost more than her car.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I don’t know how this happened, but I swear from now on no one will ever touch you. Not even me. Not if you don’t want me to.”

Tears stung at her eyes and despite all her resolve to be strong, she threw her arms around him and started crying.

“What is wrong with that kid? Does he have mental problems?” she asked, hiccuping, her face buried in his shoulder.

“Yes. It’s called terminal stupidity.” He pulled her away and held her at arm’s length. “Look, this is my fault. My doorman took my open door policy with my family too literally. I never dreamed Lucca was this messed up, but he’s going to pay for this. I promise you. This is it for him.”

Only half listening, she nodded listlessly. He took her in his arms again and held her until the hot water finally made her feel warm.

Chapter 18

Gio had never been so furious in his entire life. His suspicions had been correct. Lucca didn’t decide to attack Sophia on his own. In fact, he’d been so drunk he could barely walk last night.

Enzo had pulled the security footage from the front of the building and they’d seen what happened.

A car with tinted windows had dropped off Lucca a little after Gio had arrived home. His cousin had staggered out of the back and started walking to the building before turning around. Lucca had tried to climb back into the car, but whoever was in the rear seat had stopped him. Lucca had bent, listening at the window before nodding and lurching into the building.

None of the camera angles caught the driver, who kept their head down, or the passenger in the back. But his cousin had been seen at a local club with Maria Gianna and her entourage just an hour before. Enzo was still trying to trace who the car belonged to, but Gio already knew whose it was. Vincenzo had a car just like it.

He could imagine what happened. After that begrudging attempt at an apology at the party, Lucca had run straight to his ex-wife to blab about Gio’s new woman. Once Maria Gianna knew there was someone else in his life, she lost her drug-addled mind and plied his idiot cousin with booze. Then she sent him back to assault Sophia.

“Find her,”Gio hissed at Enzo after watching the footage.

He wasn’t a violent man, but right now he wanted to break every bone in his ex-wife’s body. But since he could never hit a woman, he was going to have to settle for Vincenzo’s head on a platter.

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