Page 127 of The Sexy Billionaire

When he explains it like that, I get it.

“I’ll ask my sister if she can take her, at least I know she’s not alone.”

“Call me if you need me,” Smith says before hanging up.

I dial my sister. “I need your help?”

“Anything,” she says.

“Paige wants to go back to her apartment. She’s scared, and she doesn’t want to be anywhere near me. Can you take her?”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” she asks.

“No, but it’s what she wants, and I can’t force her to be somewhere she doesn’t want to be,” I say, raking my hand angrily through my hair. I’m ready to put my fist through the wall. That fucking snake doing this to her like that. I’m going to make him pay.

“I’m on my way.”

37

PAIGE

Natalia sits in the back of the car with me.

“Call me if you need anything,” Gio tells her.

I can’t look at him. It’s not his fault this is happening, it’s Michael’s. But I feel so betrayed by everyone and everything right now, I’m shutting the entire world out to protect myself, and that includes him. He sadly closes the door, and we drive out of the underground garage and as soon as we are above ground, I can see all the media standing out the front of his gates. Blinding flashes start to go off when they notice the car, and cameras are pushed up against the glass as we leave. People are shouting and screaming horrible things as the car drives through the media crush. They are savages as I scream, trying to get away from them banging on the car, as Natalia hugs me tightly. Maybe it was a bad idea to leave Gio’s home.

“It’s going to be okay,” Natalia reassures me as we huddle until we are away from the scrum.

“I’m going to try and lose them,” the driver says as we rush through the already chaotic Roman streets. We look behind us and see a cavalcade of paparazzi on bikes. We are flung back in our seats as the driver tries to lose them down narrow streets, allthe while, these parasites are trying to take photos of us. Why? I’m a nobody.

“Gio, we need the police. They are chasing us. We’re scared. They have lost their minds,” Natalia screams down the phone at her brother.

I shouldn’t have left. I should have stayed. I’ve put us in danger. Gio is used to this, he knew this would happen, and I stupidly thought I knew better.

“Take us back to Gio’s, please,” I yell at the driver. “I’m sorry, Nat. I’m so sorry I got you into this mess. I should have listened to Gio. I should have stayed where it was safe.” I cry.

“It’s never been this bad before. They’ve lost their damn minds.”

And that is the last thing I hear before everything goes black.

38

GIORGIO

“She’s going to wake up soon,” Smith says, squeezing my shoulder to reassure me. I flew her entire family and her friends out to be with her. It’s been three days since the accident, and she’s still not opened her eyes. The doctors say putting her in an induced coma is the best thing to help her brain heal. She hit her head hard when the car tried to avoid one of the paparazzi on the bikes; their car was clipped by another car, which spun it into a wall. Luckily, it hit the passenger front corner first, taking the full brunt of the impact, but Paige was sitting behind that seat and was flung forward, resulting in her brain injury. One of the driver’s legs was crushed, and Natalia walked away with a broken arm and a hell of a lot of bruising. All our cars are installed with cameras, and they caught the entire chase on video. Paige had asked the driver to come back to me because she was scared. It broke my heart, hearing her and Natalia’s fear as the assholes chased them. The paparazzi have been caught and are currently sitting in jail waiting to post bail which I was able to get set for one million euros, thanks to my connections. If I had gotten to those assholes first, I would have murdered them.

“Come back to me, Paige, please. This is not how our story ends.” I cry as I kiss her lifeless hand.

“You look exhausted, Gio, come have a coffee,” Luca asks.

I look up at my brother from the hospital bed. “I can’t leave her. I need to be here when she wakes up.”

His face falls. “I know, and you will be, but she doesn’t want you falling asleep on her as soon as she wakes up now does she?”

I’ve spent every waking moment beside her since the accident.

“Let me take over for a while,” Smith offers.

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