Page 48 of Midnight Revelations

My temper thrummed through me hotter than lava licking over the mountainside as it escaped from the volcano. I stared at the bruise just above Lucrezia’s wrist and wanted to lift her and run from this place. I had enough money to make us disappear. Switzerland sounded good right about now.

“Which one?” I asked, barely containing my emotions.

“What?” Lucrezia’s brow furrowed in confusion, her bottom lip trembling.

“I have three brothers. Which one touched you?” I would kill all three of them just to reach whoever had marked her.

“It doesn’t matter,” she replied, pain flashing in those massive eyes. “Nothing does anymore.”

“Lucrezia…”

She shook her head and almost ran back into the room.

“Fuck!” I muttered and resisted the temptation to punch the wall. There had been real tears hiding at the back of her eyes.

I told her to trust me and that things would get bad before the end. Poppy was the diversion that was keeping her safe, or so I thought. If she’d been approached, then my family had seen more than I ever wanted them to.

And that fucker Ivan… I wanted to throat punch him before I personally castrated him for standing there smiling down at her as if she belonged to him. How the fuck had everything gone so wrong?

I wandered into the men’s toilet and pressed my head to the wall, trying to get my temper under control before I walked into that room and put a bullet in someone’s head. The last few days had been harrowing between releasing those women and discovering the depths of depravity Dad had delved into.

“It isn’t easy when you let them go to keep them safe.” I stiffened at Jordan’s voice behind me. “She’s in pieces, Ash, and doing her best to cope right now.”

“Who was it?” There was only one reason Xavier and Jordan were here, and it was for her security.

“Michael. He grabbed her in a department store today. She phoned Xavier.”

I should have been the person she phoned. She was mine alone to protect. I finally turned to face Jordan. “I’m doing my best.”

“I know, Ash, but sometimes our best isn’t good enough. To save Megan, I walked away. Do you know she came to me before her wedding to that fucker Mark? She told me that if I said I loved her, even once, that she wouldn’t go through with it.” Jordan stared at the ceiling for a moment before meeting my eyes. “You have no idea what it feels like to watch the only woman that meant anything to you getting engaged and planning her wedding to another man. To know that he slept in her bed every single night while you tormented yourself with the image of them.”

What was I supposed to say to that? I grabbed his shoulder in reassurance. “You have her back now,” I said.

“Only until this is over and I have to send her away again. Every day it eats me inside that I have to let her go again for some other stupid asshole to find her.”

“So don’t,” I replied. “Who said we have to have miserable endings? Zee grabbed the girl and refused to give her up.”

Jordan snorted and eyed me for a moment. “I dunno, but I’m sure the no-happy-ending clause is in our contract somewhere.”

“Then we tear it up, Jay. I’m fucking sick of cleaning up the shit my family created.”

“I just wanted to tell you to go easy with Lucrezia. Right now, she’s terrified.” Jordan gave me one last look before he left. I gave it a few minutes and followed him so no one would know that I had been waiting for Lucrezia. She always took a toilet break before the main course.

Dad stared at me when I arrived back. “I thought you’d left,” he said in his grumpy tone.

“And leave my date?” I winked at Poppy and she giggled on cue. “My phone rang and I had to take the call. Some of us are never off duty.”

I pretended to enjoy my dinner, but really, I was only eating it out of politeness. What I wanted to do was reach across the table and drag Michael over it and stab him with my steak knife. The sanctimonious little asswipe was laughing at some joke the man beside him had shared. Hatred burned inside me hotter than the forges in Hell.

There was a time after the Council voted to kill him that I wanted to help. I had even considered getting him a new passport and shipping him off to a new life. That would never suit Michael, who wanted to be the heart of the party. He was an attention-seeker and always would be.

The speeches were after dinner, but by then I’d had enough. “Sorry, but Poppy and I have to go. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” I stopped by Xavier’s table because it was expected.

“Meeting at mine at nine in the morning,” Xavier said.

“No worries, see you then.” I lifted my hand in a vague wave and left without looking once at Lucrezia.

“Your friend’s cousin is very beautiful,” Poppy said in the car.

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