Page 63 of Married with Mayhem

But maybe now it’s time to be at least a little bit concerned with my own skin.

Vittorio notices the open door to the motel room, shoots me a rather savage glare and motions to one of his men. A pistol muzzle presses into my lower back and I’m pushed to follow Vittorio into the room, where I’m forced to my knees. And now there’s a gun at my head again.

“You’ll scare her,” I hiss at Vittorio.

He ignores me. “Sabrina,” he calls. “Come out here right now.”

Only a handful of seconds pass before the bathroom door creaks open. Sabrina is soaking wet and wrapped in a towel. The sight of her, so vulnerable and afraid, triggers something ferocious in me and I jerk away from Vittorio’s lackey.

“Stay the fuck away from her!” I roar and lunge for the nearest dark suit.

For my efforts, I get pistol whipped across my right cheek. Stars cloud my vision.

Sabrina shrieks. “Monte!”

She dashes over here in her towel while I try to blink the stars away.

“Leave him alone!” She attempts to shove the man who still has a gun pointed at me.

Vittorio issues a sharp command. The man lowers his weapon and takes a step back.

Sabrina drops down right in front of me. Her pretty face crumples.

“They hurt you,” she says softly and her gentle fingertips touch my rapidly swelling face. She’s still only wearing a towel and water drips from her hair onto my skin.

I want to hug her, reassure her, shield her from the prying eyes of these bastards.

But before I can do anything at all, more company arrives.

“Sabrina!” A woman’s voice. Giulia Barone shoves her way into the room and gapes at the scene in front of her.

Sabrina swivels to look at her mother but doesn’t leave my side. “Mama! What the hell is going on?”

Her mother continues to survey the scene and draws some conclusions. Her troubled eyes land briefly on me and she starts yelling in rapid fire Italian before stalking over to the nearest bed. She pulls the entire comforter off and promptly drapes it over her daughter’s shoulders. Then she throws me a dirty look and tries to pull Sabrina away.

Sabrina resists and clings to me instead. “Does anyone want to explain why half of Sicily has busted in here to terrorize us this morning?”

Her mother gestures wildly. “I’ve been worried sick. Your uncle says you get into all kinds of trouble in New York and now you run all over the country with some man.”

“Mama, he’s not ‘some man’. You know very well who Monte is.”

Sabrina’s mother takes note of my shirtless condition and scans the evidence that I’ve been sharing a cheap motel room with her daughter. “What has he done to you?”

“It’s not like that,” Sabrina explains.

“I have eyes,bambolina. He was supposed to be offering protection. Instead, we find you like this and he’s made no promise to you at all.”

“That’s not true!”

Her mother crosses her arms and seethes. “Of course it’s true. You are young and beautiful and he takes advantage of you because he can.”

“No! Monte and I, we’re, um, engaged.”

We’re WHAT?

Her mother blinks. The stiffly crossed arms relax. “You are engaged? Since when?”

Sabrina freezes, glances at me, then shakes off all hesitation and stands. She pulls the puffy comforter around her like a queenly cape and faces down the entire room. “Since the day I landed in New York. Why do you think I was in such a hurry to get back to the States? Monte is my fiancé so everyone needs to back the hell off.”

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