Page 110 of His Tesoro

Completely alone.

My arms gave way under me and I crumpled to the ground, my body too weak and tired to support myself anymore. The hard floor was excruciating under my hips, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I closed my eyes, imagining Matteo storming into the cell and rescuing me. But even my imagination couldn’t offer me relief as the image shifted, Matteo’s expression turning cruel. He sneered down at me. “Now I can finally be rid of you.”

My sobs choked me. “Don’t leave me here,” I whispered over and over, until my lips were moving in silent agony, my voice stolen.

I was the most pathetic creature in the world as hot urine spread down my legs, pooling on the floor. Sad and pathetic and small. Because I thought I’d finally found it. Love, care…something that felt like family.

But it was never real. Because even now, even as my heart was breaking, I knew no matter what he did, I would never be able to do this to Matteo.

I loved him too goddamn much.

What a fool I had been.

58

MATTEO

Iblinked my eyes open, feeling drugged and hazy.

I went to touch my face and my arm felt like it was on fucking fire.

“Not a good move.”

I turned my head to the right, following Romeo’s voice. His face looked haggard, with dark shadows under his eyes.

“You look like shit,” I croaked.

Romeo snorted. “You’re lucky there isn’t a mirror in here because I look better than you.”

I believed him if I looked anything like how I felt. “What happened?”

Romeo handed me a cup of water from the side table by the bed. “Bullet to the arm. One of the Albanian soldiers on the ground wasn’t entirely dead, apparently.”

“Fuck.”

By the time we’d arrived at the warehouse, Arben was nowhere to be found. We’d overpowered the Albanian soldiers without much difficulty, freeing my trapped men. We’d been working to load up the soldiers we caught in vans when I’d gone down.

“What’s the damage?”

“You had surgery. They said you should have a full recovery, but you need to be careful for the next six weeks.”

I groaned. “I fucking hate being shot.”

Romeo snorted. “You do it often enough.”

“How long have I been out?”

“Since yesterday afternoon. It’s ten a.m. now.”

I looked around the room, my vision blurry, to see if Sofiya was here. My heart sank when the memories of the previous day came back to me. Fuck, how had everything gotten so twisted up? I needed to get back home to get to the bottom of things. It was hard to argue with the messages I’d seen, but it still felt impossible that she had betrayed me. She was a damn good actress if it was all true. I scrubbed my hand down my face. Or maybe she’d made me soft.

I was sure she’d be spitting mad when I returned to the apartment. I tried to find the coldness that had been fostered inside me as Mafia Don, but I couldn’t erase the guilt I felt that she’d spent any time in the basement.

I pushed myself up to a seated position, cursing the weakness in my arm. “We need to get back home.”

I leaned against the elevator as it brought us to the top floor. All I wanted to do was drag Sofiya into the shower, kiss every inch of her body, and pull her against me in bed while I slept.

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