Page 50 of Borrowed Bride

“Are you?” she asks, running her pale eyes over my face.

“Maybe.”

“But for Gianna, you will do anything.”

“Yes. She left because she was scared. And I understand that. This world—my world, it’s intense. She’s a flower and I’m the frost.”

Emilia snorts and turns her attention to her tea. “You are a terrible poet.”

“You know what I mean.” I sigh deeply and fish the card Tara gave me from my pocket. “She wanted out of this and he dragged her back. And I don’t know what game he’s playing with this wedding, but I know I need to save her.”

“Brother, have you considered that she doesn’t want saving?” Emilia asks softly. “A lot can change in eighteen months.”

Her words spear to my core, but she is the only one who can say them without facing my anger. With no answer to give, I open the card and my blood runs cold.

I lean forward and my mouth falls open in shock. “It’s from her.”

“What?” Emilia’s cup clatters back into her saucer. “Gianna?”

I tilt the card so Emilia can read it alongside me.

Marco,

I know you know what’s happening with Leo and I. But I need to know the truth. Come and meet me, but only if you are prepared to tell me everything.

Gianna

Below her signature is the best kept secret in the world—the address of where Leo and Gianna are getting married.

“The truth,” Emilia repeats, taking the card from me. “What does she mean by that?”

“I have no idea,” I reply hoarsely, and my heart skips a beat in my chest. As my stomach twists into anxious knots, my mind races. Is this a trick? Or is it really from her? Do I go alone and end up facing death, or do I turn up with an army only to find her?

“Emilia,” I say tightly, forcing the words through the lump in my throat. “What do I do?”

“Marco.” She clutches at my wrist. “One way or another, this war has to end. You know where she is, so you go to her and you listen to her. And whatever she tells you? You use that to bring this bloodshed to an end so I can have my brother back.”

Her encouragement chases back the chill creeping through my veins and I nod. I can’t force Gianna to come back to me, and I would never hurt her. But this might be my one chance to hear the truth from her own lips.

The reason she left. The reason she chose Leo.

I have to go.

I turnup to the church alone, parking across the street and observing the people who pour through the doors. Every singleperson wears a pin with the Simone crest, and most are armed. Some are obvious as they guard the perimeter, and others are more subtle, with bulges in their suits and handbags just large enough to hold a powerful handgun.

But the address is correct. Which means Gianna is there and she wants to talk, or I’ve been lured to watch the love of my life marry my enemy right in front of me.

Both are painful concepts.

Suddenly, cars screech around the corner and flood the street, pulling up at all angles on either side of the road. Leonardo’s men leap into action, but they don’t stand a chance against the men who climb out of the new cars brandishing assault rifles.

A handful are gunned down within a matter of seconds, and it’s so fast that I barely have time to register what’s happening.

I’m out of my car in seconds, gun in hand and I’m sprinting toward the church until I spot someone I recognize, and my feet stumble on the sidewalk.

“Dad?! The fuck are you doing here?” I crash into my father a second later, and he grabs me by the collar of my shirt.

“Me?” he yells. “You are the fool that came here alone!”

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