Page 130 of Titan

The sound of the buzzer going off made both of us jolt. I didn’t let her go, trusting Edric to answer it. A group of our men were on the way over here. I’d rung them from the car on the mad dash back here. The rest of them were congregating at the location of Pippa’s building, where I was pretty sure they were holding all the victims of her sex trafficking ring. I’d phoned my older brother too and told him to get his people over there as fast as possible. I would have to explain all of this shit to him, but I didn’t have time in the car. He seemed to take that in his stride when I explained Theia was in danger.

Now we were okay. Pippa and the men she’d brought were dead. Theia had been so brave and fought for our lives. She hadn’t hesitated when we were all facing execution.

I pulled her away from my neck, cupping her wet face with both my hands. She blinked and stared up at me.

“Ti amo.”

The words were out before I could stop them. When she’d told me she loved me earlier, I’d been surprised, but so overwhelmed with happiness, I barely knew what the fuck to do other than kiss her. It was only when I got back to the car and had set off, I realised I felt the same way too. I loved her. There was no other explanation for my feelings towards this woman. She was my everything.

“What does that mean?” she whispered, her voice all croaky.

I smiled.

“I love you.”

She let out a little choked sound, her chest stuttering with it. I tugged her closer, brushing my mouth across hers.

“I love you, Theia, and I’m never letting you go.”

I caught her mouth with mine, not caring she was still crying. Her hands wrapped around my wrists as she kissed me back. Then she was so overcome with emotion that she practically collapsed on me, sobbing into my chest as her hands gripped my clothes.

“Shh, it’s okay,” I murmured before I picked both of us up off the floor, cradling Theia against my chest. I carried her towards the sofa and sat down with her.

The front door opened a minute later as I sat there stroking her hair and allowing her to purge all of her feelings out on my chest.

“Well, you missed all the fun,” Edric said to the men assembled outside. He ushered them in and put his arm out. “As you can see.”

One of them looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What do we do then?”

“What do you do? Clean this shit up, that’s what you do.”

“We’re not fucking cleaners,” another one piped up.

Edric turned to him with a bright smile.

“Did you just disobey a direct order? I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear you tell me no when we’re standing in our illustrious leader’s penthouse in full view of the man himself.”

The men spied me, and several of them went pale.

“Um, no, Jim was joking, weren’t you?” the first one said as he slapped Jim around the back of the head.

“Yeah, yeah, of course. We’ll get right on it, boss,” Jim said, rubbing his head.

Edric clapped his hands together.

“Good.”

I waved Edric over, wanting to have a word with him about the plan. He nodded at the men before sauntering towards me.

“Yes, boss?”

I stroked Theia’s hair again.

“Don’t care what you do with the men but preserve Pippa’s body. I want to send Dino and Gian a little message with it, and the others we’ve been keeping.”

Edric raised his eyebrow.

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