Page 236 of Kissing the Villain

He shoved a plate in front of me, lifted two steak knives from the table, and rubbed them together as if trying to sharpen the blades. “My friends call me The Carver,” he said with a crooked grin that sent a shiver down my arms. “Eat, Alexandrea. You’ll need your strength for the finale.”

86

LUCA

My heart sankto my stomach when I received the call from Marcello. The DeLucas had almost retrieved Alex from the car, but someone else had gotten to her first. For the first time in years, our enemies had outsmarted us. I was usually ten steps ahead, already plotting their next move.

I should have been more on point with Alex, but my head was all fucked up. I wasn’t on my A-game. We boarded a private jet at an airstrip outside Atlantic City and headed toward Florida. We were about an hour into the three-hour flight with the Knights. A few of Marcello’s men from Alpha Command sat in the back of the plane, talking strategy.

We needed to charter a boat from Key West to the island where the Il Circo auction was held.

I finished the rest of the scotch in my glass and pushed myself up from the chair across from Marcello. I gestured for my younger brother to follow me into the back of the plane, away from the Knights. He hadn’t spoken about his ex-hookup or that they sold her atIl Circo.

We entered the bedroom, and Marcello shut the door. I sat on the bed and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my thighs.

“We’ll find her.” Marcello dropped onto the bed beside me and sighed. “I have a plan. It will work. Trust me.”

“I know. That’s not what I want to talk to you about.”

He blew out a deep breath. “Rhiannon O’Shea?”

I nodded. “What do you want to do with her?”

Marcello glanced over at me, and then his eyes went to the door as if he were afraid someone would overhear us. “The Knights can’t know what happened five years ago.”

“And they never will.” I tapped his knee with my hand. “This is a family matter. We will handle it the Salvatore way.”

“I’m afraid for Alex,” he said with the usual sadness. “They’re going to mentally and physically destroy her. She may never recover from this.”

“You helped me bring her back. We can do it again.”

I hated how much I needed help with Alex, but my brother had the magic touch. We pulled her out of her head last time. But could we do it again? We were both unsure if we could replicate our past efforts to save Alex from losing herself to the thoughts racing through her mind.

Marcello shook his head. “I don’t know if it will work this time. Alex has been through hell, but nothing like this. We may need to hospitalize her after this is all over. She was already fragile before the kidnapping. Kurti and whoever took her to the island will ensure she’s broken when we find her.”

“You saw what they did to her. She’s probably already retreated into her mind to save herself from what’s happening.”

He nodded in confirmation, then turned his head to look at me. “Alex is family. And we protect our family. We’ll do whatever is necessary to help her. Whatever you need, I will be there.”

I gave him a surprising one-arm hug. At first, Marcello tensed because this was an unusual exchange for us, but then he pulled me into his arms like he needed this hug as much as I did. We were both terrified for Alex, scared of what ourenemies would do to her to make us feel the pain. I’d felt nothing so excruciating in my entire life. Physical pain was nothing compared to emotional pain.

“I’m sorry I got in the way,” Marcello said with his chin on my shoulder. “But I regret nothing that happened with Alex.”

“You love her,” I whispered. “I know. We all do.”

“I shouldn’t have captured her during the game. It was a dick move.”

“The other Knights would have done the same thing.”

“Yeah, but I knew it was Alex. I made a promise to you a long time ago, and I almost fucked this up for you.”

I pulled back so I could look into his eyes. “You did the right thing. Alex needed to see what it was like without me. She wanted to experience being with another man. Fucking you helped her realize she loved me.”

“Well, when you say it like that,” Marcello groaned. “Fuck you.”

I tapped his shoulder with mine, and we both laughed.

“So what do you want to do with Rhiannon? We can honor the deal we made with her dad or let the asshole who bought her get rid of our problem.”

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