Page 49 of Savage Claim

No one had come at the sound of us breaking the door. It was unlikely that Artem or Santino was here. “Go,” I said.

Carmine nodded, and after breaking through Gemma’s restraints, he hefted the screeching girl over his shoulder, and I went looking for Efram.

I had a video to record.

CHAPTER 31

Isabella

Iwas plunking at the piano keys when Amalia came hurtling into the room, looking both elated and exasperated. “What’s wrong?”

She picked up the remote and turned on the massive television that was mounted to the wall and quickly found the local news.Check here for updates on what local police are calling a possible terrorist attack…

Amalia turned to me. “Your fiancé is lucky that he has friends in the FBI,” she said with a tsk. “That dumbass knows better.”

I stared at the footage of a blazing inferno in the warehouse district in the Bronx. “Lorenzo did that?”

“That’s Alfie’s work, I’m sure of it.”

“Alfie?” Most days, I was glad that I didn’t grow up in the Cosa Nostra, but sometimes, like now, it was a pain in the ass.

“He’s insane,” Amalia said, as if that explained everything.

I stood, frustration driving me. “What does all of this mean?” I demanded. “Is Lorenzo?”

“Dolcezza.”

I turned. He was standing in the doorway, arms outstretched. With a yelp, I ran for him and wrapped my body around him, squeezing hard. It had only been a handful of hours, but it had felt like days. “You’re back,” I said against his mouth. Almost just as quickly, I pushed him away. “Are you okay?” I demanded, eyes sweeping his face and body for any obvious injuries. There was blood on his shirt, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t his.

Lorenzo smiled at me, cupping my face and drawing me back in for another kiss. “I’m fine,” he said.

“Did you find—?” I couldn’t say Santino’s name out loud, but Lorenzo understood me regardless. He shook his head, and my heart plummeted into my feet.

“But I did find someone else,” he said, and he gestured behind him. A man covered in prison tattoos came around Lorenzo, carrying my sister. She was unconscious, but otherwise, she didn’t look hurt. “Amalia, go get a guest room ready for me?” I heard her quick footsteps as she hurried from the room, but I couldn’t stop staring at my sister. She looked even younger right now, face slack like it was.

“Gemma,” I said, touching her arm. She didn’t move a muscle. “You gave her a sedative,” I guessed.

“We found her in a room with your mother,” Lorenzo said gently.

I winced. “Was she?”

He nodded. “I don’t think she made it through the beating.”

I expected as much, but my stomach still tried to turn in on itself. I couldn’t say that I mourned my mother’s passing. I didn’t reallyknow the woman and hadn’t thought extensively about her in years. But I ached knowing that Gemma had watched the person she loved most die like that. I could only imagine the kind of pain she would experience when she was conscious again.

But she was here, and she was safe, and it was all because of Lorenzo. He didn’t have to do this; Gemma wasn’t anything to him, and he wasn’t an altruistic man by nature. He had done this, rescued her and committed an act of domestic fucking terrorism, for me.

I should be horrified. Terrified. Except, I had never felt more loved in my entire life.

I was so impossibly turned on right now, and from the look on Lorenzo’s face, heknew. Sonofabitch read me better than anyone ever had, and fuck, if that didn’t make me even wetter than I already was. Lorenzo took Gemma from the tattooed man. “Don’t go home right away,” he told him. “Go to the house in Brooklyn for the next few days. Let things cool down. Have Vincent and Matt do the same.”

He nodded. “Sure, boss.”

I followed Lorenzo up the stairs. “Should you have come home?” I asked his broad back. My eyes traced over the muscles of his shoulders and down his spine. Had he always had such a nice ass? I didn’t appreciate it enough.

Amalia had the blue room ready by the time we got to it. Lorenzo laid Gemma on the bed, and I worked her shoes from her feet. “What kind of sedative did you give her?” I asked.

“It came out of a pill bottle with a Russian label.”

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