Page 97 of Ruined By Protection
I hug my arms around myself, shivering in the night air. The mansion looms behind me, its windows like dark eyes watching.
Matteo
I jolt awake to the phone buzzing, disoriented in the darkness of my room at the Feretti mansion. The screen reads 2:17 a.m. Every muscle in my body goes rigid when I read Hazel's message.
Fuck.
I'm on my feet before I even finish reading, pulling on jeans and grabbing my gun from the nightstand drawer. Blood gushes in my veins with the adrenaline of rage. That bastard Montgomery is going to die. It's just a matter of when and how painful I make it.
I move silently through the mansion's dark hallways. The security system recognizes my fingerprint as I disable the alarm for the garden entrance and I step outside, scanning the shadows.
I spot her immediately—a small figure standing alone beneath an oak tree, arms hugging herself, face tilted toward the sky. Even from this distance I can read the tension in her shoulders, the slight tremble in her frame.
A sharp ache blooms in my chest at the sight of her looking so vulnerable and yet so fucking brave at the same time.
I approach quietly, not wanting to startle her. "Hazel."
She turns, moonlight catching the tear tracks on her cheeks. Her eyes are wide, haunted. "He's going to hurt them if I don't go back," she whispers.
"Let me see," I say, holding out my hand for her phone.
She hesitates before passing it to me. I read Montgomery's messages, each word stoking the fire burning inside me.The casual way he threatens her family, the manipulative endearments—it's textbook abuser bullshit.
"He's bluffing," I say, though I'm not entirely sure. "Trying to scare you into running back to him."
"You don't know that." Fresh tears spill down her cheeks. "My dad's surgery is real. My brother really does have sports practice. These aren't empty threats."
I close the distance between us, unable to stand seeing her cry. My hands cup her face, thumbs brushing away the tears that keep falling. Her skin is chilled from the night air but soft beneath my calloused fingers.
"Hey, look at me." I wait until her eyes meet mine. "I've got you. You hear me? I've got you."
She trembles under my touch, more tears spilling over. I press my lips to her wet cheek, tasting the salt of her fear. "He's not going to hurt your family. He's not going to hurt you. "
"You can't promise that," she whispers.
"Watch me." I hold her face between my hands, making her see the truth in my eyes. "I protect what's mine, Hazel. And right now that includes your family."
She opens her mouth to argue, probably to tell me I'm not hers and she's not mine but I don't give her the chance.
"I know we're complicated. I know you've got every reason not to trust men, especially men like me. But I need you to believe me when I say Elliott Montgomery will never touch you or your family again."
She nods in a way that speaks louder than words could ever do.
I press my forehead against hers, breathing her in. "I'm going to take care of everything. You don’t need to go."
"I'm not going anywhere," she says like she can read me like a fucking open book.
"Good." I brush my lips across her forehead. "Because I'm not letting you go again."
Hazel pulls away from me, her body stiffening. "Don't say things like that when you already have a girlfriend."
“Whoa.” I freeze, my hands still hovering where her face had been seconds ago. "What?"
"I know about her." Her voice cracks slightly. "You could at least be honest about seeing other women."
My brain scrambles to make sense of her words. Girlfriend? What the fuck is she talking about?
"Hazel, I don't have a girlfriend. I've never had a girlfriend in my entire life."
