Page 96 of Kissing the Villain

Mind racing a mile a minute, I thought of all the horrible shit my enemies would do to Alex. My heart pounded because I knew what I would do. They would torture and kill her if they got their hands on her. After promising Carl his precious granddaughter was in good hands, I had already fucked up.

It should have occurred to me sooner that Alex was the target. The Albanians owed The Devil’s Knights a lot of money. We took the wife of their leader as collateral, and I knew they would retaliate.

Damian and Bastian appeared at the top of the back stairwell, but we were closer to Alex’s bedroom. Roman wasn’t standing guard. None of my men were anywhere in sight. The walnut floor shone from a distance with a thick substance, and as I stopped in front of Alex’s bedroom, I realized it was blood.

I stood in the doorway with Marcello and stared in horror. Roman was on his knees, clutching his side. He hissed in pain asblood seeped from his wound and onto the floor. A skinny man with dark sleeves of tattoos pointed a gun at Roman’s head.

Directly in front of me, a muscular man held Alex with a blade to her throat. One wrong move, and he would fillet her like a fish. Another man stood behind them with his gun aimed at the back of Alex’s head. They dressed in dark blue camouflage, half of their faces obscured by black bandanas.

“Marcello,” Alex cried, tears spilling down her cheeks as she stared at my brother. “Marcello, shoot him.”

Not me.

My brother.

What the fuck?

She thought he could protect her better than I could. Maybe he could. He was better trained and more skilled with weapons. It was my fault they had grown closer in my absence. I allowed my responsibilities to The Devil’s Knights to cloud my judgment. Let it put even more distance between us.

Marcello’s jaw ticked. “It’s okay, Alex.”

Alex whimpered, her chest heaving with panic.

I held out my hand. “Hey, baby. Look at me. Okay, can you do that?”

Her eyes found mine, and she swallowed hard.

“You’re not worth anything to them if you’re dead,” I told her.

“Don’t fucking move,” the dark-haired man said with a thick accent. “Because I will kill her.”

No, you won’t.

He didn’t have the authority to kill Alex. His boss would want the pleasure of torturing information out of her. The Queen was the most powerful piece in chess for a reason. Only an idiot would sacrifice her without a plan.

Know your enemy.

All criminals were similar. We had a sick desire for blood and destruction. And we did this shit for money and power.Capturing the Queen of the Knights would give them temporary power over us, but killing her would fuck up his boss’s plans.

Reaching for my gun, I walked into the room, glaring at the asshole in front of me. He thought he could use Alex against me. But I was always ten steps ahead of my opponents. Like any good chess player, I was a master strategist.

Roman’s gun was across the room by the bathroom door. There was a trail of blood that led straight to his limp body. He was tough, one of Marcello’s best men. But how the fuck did they beat us to Alex’s bedroom? We would have seen them, especially with us covering the front and back stairwells.

How would you do it?

Think, Luca, think.

My eyes swept over the room again, attempting to piece it together. Rumpled bedsheets were strewn across the floor with broken vases and decor. From the looks of it, Alex tried to hit her attackers with whatever she could find.

After she’d smashed all the valuables in her bedroom in a rage, I hesitated to replace them. But I caved because I wanted her to have pretty things. I wanted her to feel at home.

I raised my gun, Marcello at my side, aiming at the piece of shit’s head. Damian and Bastian were behind us. We had to be smart about this. One slip of his hand and he would hit Alex’s carotid artery. She would bleed out on the floor within seconds.

“Take one more step, and your queen will die,” he warned.

I didn’t recognize the man. But based on his accent, I assumed he worked for the Kurti crime family. Another goon they sent to do their bidding. When would the Kurtis realize they had to show their faces before I would reveal my hand? I wasn’t about to waste my best moves on their backup squad.

“Let her go,” I ordered. “This has nothing to do with her.”

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