Page 278 of Merciless Desires

“He’ll never find you, malishka. At least…not until we want him to find you.”

Dominov shoved me forward with his knee at my back. My feet tangled in the skirt of the dress, and I toppled headfirst, but the strain of his hand at my throat kept me from falling. He yanked me upright, and I felt the rip of skin against my ring.

“Poydem,” he hissed in my ear.

I was pushed into the back of an SUV, but before I could sit, Dominov yanked me onto his lap with his other arm banded across my hips and rolled down the window.

“You will watch as we murder the man you love, malishka.”

The SUV pulled away from the dress shop and headed west. My heart thrummed in my chest as time crept onward at a glacial pace.

Dominov chuckled beneath me, and he pointed. “There.”

Matteo’s red sports car was coming toward us. I felt the SUV slow down, and the sounds of guns cocking made me scream.

“NO!”

Dominov shouted in Russian, and as Matteo’s car came up along the left side of the SUV, the driver and passengers opened fire on Matteo.

Bullets peppered the driver’s door and window until it shattered, and when the car stopped moving, the SUV took off.

Dominov pushed hair back from the side of my face and brought his mouth along my jaw. “Looks like you’re no longer engaged, malishka.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

MATTEO

“The driver is dead,” Genovesi announced.

“And Marcella?” I asked desperately, not giving a shit about the decoy Matteo. He was just some associate who looked enough like me that he could die in my place.

Genovesi’s expression was like stone. It was driving me fucking mad, and he wasn’t talking fast enough. I paced back and forth in front of him, like some caged fucking animal ready to unleash pure fucking chaos to get my Marcella back.

I had too much to say to her. I had too much to show her, too much to give and do and be for her.

“Where the fuck is she!?” The unrestrained howl that left me bounced off the walls back at me, an achy echo filled with emotions I didn’t believe I was capable of.

Didn’t believe I deserved.

Until her.

She was willing to love me when I had shown her that I wasn’t worthy of her love. She was willing to try with me. I had gained her trust and affection, and I had done so with only dishonesty.

I needed to give her my honesty. I wanted to. She deserved that. She deserved more.

“Alive,” Genovesi finally fucking said, and I was able to breathe again. “Black SUV, westbound. Mazzi and Moretti have been tailing separately.”

“Moretti?”

Genovesi stared at me. “Yes. He’s been given orders not to go inside once Dominov’s location has been discovered.”

He’d blow the entire fucking thing if he ran in there looking for his daughter. He would get himself killed.

Moretti would get Marcella killed.

“Where is Mamma? Gisella?”

Genovesi exhaled slowly. “We’ve tracked Gisella’s phone, but we’re waiting until Dominov stops. They might be in the same location.”

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