Page 3 of Savage Proposal

I looked down the long hallway, and I could see the shadow of a man by the exit. There wasn’t time to debate what to do. I had to run.Now. I took off toward the back exit, thinking that I could shove the man with the door and try to slip around him.

Before I could even reach the exit, a hulk of a man stepped out of an exam room and grabbed me. I struggled in his grip and kept screaming. “I told you to keep your mouth shut,” a deep, angry voice said from behind me. The man who held me closed a hand around my throat and squeezed. Black spots jumped in front of my eyes. I couldn’t inhale.

Just as I was losing grip on my consciousness, he let go of my throat, and I sucked in a lungful of air. He handed me off to my “patient,” who was obviously the leader. The man wrapped a hand around both of my wrists, holding so tightly that I could feel the bones rubbing together. “Try anything like that again, and I’ll let Elio break your fucking neck.”

Tears welled up in my eyes now; there was no holding them back. I gave a little nod, and he forced me forward. The back exit opened as we approached: a blacked-out SUV was waiting with the rear door open. With a rough grip, he shoved me in and closed the door behind me. “Put something over her mouth,” he barked to whoever was waiting. “Her screams have given me a headache.” Rough hands lashed my wrists together, and then fabric was unceremoniously shoved into my mouth and tied around my head.

The man, meanwhile, had come around the vehicle and settled in the passenger seat. “Where to, Enzo?”

“The Palazzo.”

Enzo? The Palazzo?Fear gripped me all the tighter. The Palazzo was a boutique hotel in Manhattan that was a front for the Vitali crime family. This mancouldn’tbe Lorenzo Vitali. Right? There was no way the Don of the biggest family of the Cosa Nostra came on a snatch-and-grab.

Tears slipped down my cheeks, but I did my best not to make a sound.I’m going to die, I thought, but I would be damned if I went out sniveling like a child.

CHAPTER 2

Lorenzo

The universe was punishing me. It was the only explanation that I had for why this woman had my wife’s face. When Damian had come to me about Isabella Rossi—her father, Santino, owed us an astounding amount of money—I didn’t believe him when he said she could be Sienna’s twin. My vicecapopressed the subject, though, so I agreed to come with them to grab her.

When she’d walked into the exam room, it had taken everything in me to remain calm. How fucking dare she look like Sienna? When she’d smiled at me, let her eyes drag over me, I had fantasized about breaking her face. Reshaping it so that I didn’t see a ghost looking back at me.

“Lorenzo.”

My cousin, Elio, was in the backseat. “What?”

“Can we stop and get coffee? Amalia only lets me have decaf at home.”

From the driver’s seat, Damian scoffed. “You let your wife decide what you can eat and drink, El?”

“Are you married,stronzo?” Elio shot back. “I like getting my dick wet, and if that means smiling and drinking decaf in the mornings, I’ll do it. Lorenzo, coffee, yes?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We have a woman tied up in the backseat,cugino. I think Starbucks can wait.”

Elio groaned and flopped back into the seat. “Fine,” he said, sullen. “You couldn’t have come easily, huh?” He was addressing Isabella now.

Anger bubbled in my gut. “Don’t talk to her.”

He let out another frustrated groan. “Fucking Mondays.”

Fucking Mondays, indeed.

Thirty minutes later, Damian pulled into the parking garage of the Palazzo, and then we wound up the six floors to the employee level. Once he pulled into my designated spot near the elevator, I pushed open my door and grabbed for the handle of hers.

Isabella spilled out onto the pavement, ripping at the fabric Elio had tied around her mouth. Even in the dimmed lighting of the parking garage, I could see that her cheeks were rubbed red and raw. “Can you walk into my hotel without me having to drag you?” I asked.

Tears had made Isabella’s face wet, and I noticed the spider webbing of a scar that started on her cheek and curled down her neck and disappeared into her scrub top. It made her just differentenoughfrom Sienna that I could latch onto it. “I’ll walk,” she mumbled, and I freed her wrists.

“Brava piccola.” Isabella’s honey-brown eyes widened and then dropped to her feet. My cock twitched beneath the fly of my pants, and I gnashed my teeth together. I couldn’t ignore herbeauty, the curves of her body that her ugly scrubs did nothing to hide, and it only made me angrier. “Follow me,” I ground out. I looked back at Damian and Elio. “Go get him coffee. Come back for me later.”

Elio grinned. “Thanks, boss man.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Damian sighed. He hated playing chauffeur, but he would never refuse a direct order. “Want anything?”

I turned down the offer and then I led Isabella into the hotel. My office was two floors up, and when we stepped onto the elevator, she backed into a corner, as if making herself as small as possible could stop me from doing whatever I wanted to her.

I kept my eyes on her but didn’t say anything. Instead, I waited for the elevator to stop and gestured for her to get off. My office was in a corner of the building, and walking inside, the two outer walls were all glass. We weren’t up high enough to have an impressive view, but it flooded the space with natural light, and there were trees and greenery around. It made a good contrast to the sleek, modern design.

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