Page 22 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

“Bring breakfast in the morning,” I reminded him. “And then we’ll take her to the Russos to pick up her daughter.”

My phone pinged. “That’s Dante calling.”

Nick’s quiet chuckle surprised me. “He needs the reassurance as much as I do. Don’t be too hard on him.” And he hung up.

“Lorenzo,” Dante growled, drawing out my name. “I want to see her.”

“In the morning,” I promised. “She’s …” I trailed off, not sure how to tell this hard man that the woman he’d played so roughly with had been abused by a man even crueler than him. “She’s terrified, Dante.”

“And you think I scare her?” he scoffed. “You underestimate our kitten.”

Ourkitten. As if any one of us had the right to claim her. “Sofia doesn’t belong to anyone,” I snapped, regretting my tone immediately when Sofia whimpered in my lap.

“Wrong, Morelli. She’s mine. She’s been mine since the moment she made that bargain with me, and she’ll be mine until I release her.”

I pinched my nose between my eyes, not ready to have this fight with him, not with Sofia in my arms, safe and sound. “She needs clothes, makeup, everything to show up to her parents’ tomorrow looking like the queen she is.”

“Ourqueen,” he muttered to himself, so softly, I was sure he hadn’t meant for me to hear it.

Fucking hell, Dante Oscuro didn’t just want to own Sofia. He’d fallen for her.

The three of us were so fucked.

10

SOFIA

Pain streakedthrough me as I tried to get comfortable.

“Easy, sunshine, go back to sleep,” a quiet voice murmured as a warm hand slid through my hair, scratching at my scalp.

I froze, memories of my wild flight rising to the surface, remembering clearly my assault on my captor, trembling with terror in Ana’s car, and Lorenzo’s tender care for me.

I pushed up from his lap, where I’d finally laid my head, drooling on his thigh as nightmares taunted me.

“No, stay,” he said, almost unthinkingly, then blushed, pink spreading delicately across his tanned cheeks in the early morning light.

How could I tell this man that I’d waited for him to save me? Begged a god I didn’t believe in for him, and Nick, and Dante, to find me, rescue me, and end my torment?

He didn’t come.

I’d had to save myself.

“How’s Lizzie?”

He pulled out his phone and swiped through photos ofher playing at my parents’. I touched the screen, as if it could bring me closer to my daughter. My heart ached for her, ached to be with her, ached to wrench her out of my parents’ arms.

“We’ll take you to her this morning.”

“We?”

“Dante and Nick are already on their way. Ginevra and her husbands flew in overnight. I—” Lorenzo stopped, his lips twisted in consternation, as if realizing I might not want to share the news of my escape with the world. “I thought you’d want her to know you were safe. They’ll meet you at your parents’.”

“I’d like to clean up before I see anyone else.”

He looked me up and down and furrowed his brow.

I tensed, expecting an argument.

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