Page 87 of Ruined By Protection
My blood turns to ice. "Evelyn? What did you do to her? If you hurt her…"
"Nothing, yet. Nothing compared to what I'll do to her if you don't come home right now," he says, eerily calm despite the chaos I can hear. "Your cousin made some poor choices today."
"Let me talk to her!" I demand, panic rising in my throat.
"Elliott Montgomery, you get out of here right now!" Evelyn shouts, her voice closer now.
There's a scuffle, muffled sounds of struggle, a repressed scream.
"You've made your choice," Elliott says to me, his voice flat and final. "Remember that when your family starts suffering the consequences."
The line goes dead.
Lucrezia's face drains of color. "We need to tell Damiano." She grabs my wrist and pulls me down the hallway. "Come on!"
I stumble after her, my mind scrambling with horrible possibilities. Elliott's voice echoes in my head—that calm, reasonable tone he uses right before he does something truly vile. The same silky voice he used the night he broke my rib.
Lucrezia practically runs down the corridor, her grip on my wrist tight enough to hurt. We burst through a set of double doors without knocking.
"Damiano!" Lucrezia's voice cracks with urgency.
Don Feretti looks up from his desk, his expression shifting instantly from annoyance to alert concern. "What's happened?"
"Elliott Montgomery has Evelyn," Lucrezia explains breathlessly. "He just called Hazel on Evelyn's phone."
Damiano stands immediately, reaching for his own phone. "Where?"
"Her bookshop, I think," I say, my voice trembling.
Damiano presses a button on his phone. "Noah. Montgomery has Evelyn." He listens for a moment then hangs up and looks at me. "What exactly did he say?"
I try to organize my scattered thoughts. "He ordered me to come back, threatened my family. Said I'd made my choice and they would suffer the consequences. Then Evelyn was shouting at him to get out and there was some kind of struggle…a scream…"
"Did he hurt her?" Damiano's voice is deadly calm.
"I don't know. The call ended." Panic rises in my throat. "We need to send an ambulance. Or call the police. If he hurts her?—"
"Police and ambulances are not options," Damiano cuts me off, his tone final.
"What? But she could be hurt!" I protest, disbelieving. "We can't just?—"
"Noah is already on his way," Damiano says. "Matteo called him the moment he heard what was happening. Matteo and Daniel are headed there as well."
"But what if she needs medical help?" I persist, unable to comprehend their refusal to involve the authorities.
Damiano's eyes meet mine, stony calculating. "We have our own doctors, Hazel. Professionals who understand discretion."
"Discretion?" I repeat incredulously. "This is Evelyn's life we're talking about!"
"And we will handle it," Damiano says firmly. "Without complications."
I look to Lucrezia, hoping for support, but her face is set in grim understanding. Of course. The police means questions, investigations, attention they can't afford. Even with someone they care about in danger, the family's criminal operations take priority.
CHAPTER 27
Matteo
Ifloor the gas pedal, forcing through gaps in the traffic like a missile locked on target. Every second counts.
