Page 9 of Kidnapped Wife

“They’re up.”

“And?” Romero asked.

Massimo smiled. “She wanted to know why Christmas was being delivered to the cabin.”

“She is stubborn. You knew this when you married her.”

“I knew she was stubborn, but I didn’t think it would come to bite me in the ass the way it has.” He ran a hand down his face. Massimo didn’t know what to do. Not to prove to Elsie that he loved her and her alone, but for her to understand what she meant to him.

“She’ll come around,” Romero said. “You know you’ve got to be patient with her.”

“I’ve not even done anything wrong.” He’d not looked at Isabella. He found the woman irritating, and if he was honest with himself, all he wanted to do right now was fucking kill her. He couldn’t stand her. He’d never wanted to marry her, and he had warned Franco that he had no interest in the man’s daughter.

“I know, but you also know what Isabella is like. Unlike Elsie, she is used to getting what she wants. Be warned, this is probably not just one incident. Elsie’s been having to deal with Isabella’s disdain from the moment you were married and announced it. Also, Isabella hasn’t been shy about telling her that you and she were meant to be married.”

Massimo ran a hand down his face.

“What did you do to reassure Elsie?” Romero asked.

He looked at his brother, giving him a glare. “Whose side are you on?”

“I’m on your side, but I’m making sure you did everything you possibly could to make it right. Did you?”

“I shouldn’t have to,” Massimo said.

Romero nodded his head and then put his hands up. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say shit like that. You know it pisses me off.”

“Because I’m right.”

“Fuck you.”

Romero began to laugh. “Look, all I’m saying is we know Elsie’s not like a lot of women. She came from nothing. She had no parents, no chance at a start. Then you’ve got Isabella, who has had everything handed to her on a plate. She flaunts it. She makes sure Elsie is very much aware that she is not one of us, while Isabella is this golden goddess, waiting to be snapped up.”

Massimo didn’t even need his brother to continue, to know Isabella must have been saying shit behind the scenes. The woman was a calculating witch.

“Elsie not only has her to contend with, but people look at her like she is not one of them. They see her as a gold digger, and let’s face it, you don’t like it, but they still whisper ‘whore’ when she’s close by. You don’t hear it, but she does. You can’t always be there for her. Remember that.”

He didn’t want to know, but he knew it had to be true. Many nights when they had gotten home after a dinner, he’d pulled her in close, kissing her.

She’d pulled away, just slightly, and looked him in the eye.“You know I’m not after your money, don’t you?”

“Babe, where is this coming from?”

“It’s nothing, but I want to make sure you know.”

“I know.”He would go in for another kiss, because all he wanted to be was balls-deep inside his wife.

“And you know I’ve not been … with anyone else.”

“Elsie, I knew you were a virgin. My virgin. I know there is not going to be any other man.”

He would kill any man who would even try to take his woman from him. Elsie belonged to him, and he was not about to lose her.

“I know.” He knew the people around him were vultures. The wives, the daughters, the girlfriends. They were all after any kind of blood they could get, because none of them could get it from the men in their lives.

“Tell me what you have learned,” Massimo asked.

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