Page 88 of Savage Claim

He nodded and limped toward the door. I almost let him get away, enough to let him think that he was going to get away with thisagain, before I closed the distance behind us with an agility that I can only describe as adrenaline-induced and sank the scalpel into the back of his neck.

Santino let out a sound like a dying walrus and wheeled around, trying to grab at me. I sliced at him without aim, cutting into his arms and hands. Into his face. He dropped to the ground, trying to cover up, but I sank down over him and sank the scalpel into his gut. Over and over, making tears that welled with blood.

A hand grabbed around mine, stilling my movements. I jerked, and Elio deftly disarmed me. “I got this,piccolina,” he promised.Reaching down, he slashed across Santino’s throat, slicing through his Adam’s apple and opening his carotid. Santino let out a raspy bubble, and arterial blood sprayed out, drenching us. He let out another wet breathing sound, and then I watched the light leech from his eyes.

My father was dead. Finally.

“I killed him,” Elio said, helping me to stand, turning me away from the body. “Do you understand?” he asked. “I gave the killing blow.”

I didn’t know why that mattered. Without help, Santino would have bled out from what I had done to him, but I nodded like I understood him.

“Isabella.” I turned, and there was Lorenzo. His face was grim, but to me, he had never looked more wonderful. A sob wrenched itself painfully from my throat, and I ran to him, throwing my arms around his neck.

CHAPTER 58

Lorenzo

“I’m sorry,” Isabella sobbed, face pressed against my chest. “I’m so sorry. Don’t hate me, please.”

She was covered in Santino’s blood, but I wrapped my arms around her tight, cradling her against me. The smell of pennies wafted up into my nose, and I breathed it in like it was the sweetest of bouquets. “I could never hate you,” I assured her, rocking her gently.

“I was never going to leave,” she said, and although I had known that, it was good to hear.

Still, I couldn’t let her off the hook that easily. “You betrayed me,” I said, “and even worse, you dragged my brother into it.”

Isabella sobbed all the harder, clutching at me. “I know,” she said. “I never wanted to hurt you, and I’ll accept whatever you do to me...but I couldn’t let you hurt her. She’s the only blood family I have left.”

There were so many reasons why that wasn’t a good enough excuse, but it was hard to hold on to my anger right now. “They won't come back?”

She shook her head. “Cristian understands what would happen if they did, even if Gemma doesn't.”

“And you have no idea where they went?”

“I sent them to Connecticut,” she said. “But that was only their first destination.”

Tracking them could take months, especially since Cristian had the same upbringing I did. He knew how to disappear. I pressed my face into Isabella's hair. Gemma was gone, Santino was dead, and I had Alfie to turn over to Miriam. The world already thought that Artem Volkov was dead. No one was going to come looking for him. I could handle all of that.

“I love you,dolcezza.”

Isabella whimpered against me. “I love you too.”

I tipped her face back to look into her warm, honey eyes. “Let’s go home,” I said and pushed a lock of hair, tacky with her father’s blood, behind her ear. “You need a shower.”

I let Isabella shower alone. “Turn it up as hot as you want,dolcezza,” I had told her. “I'll jump in after.”

When she came out of the bathroom almost forty minutes later, her skin was a soft pink from the heat and all the scrubbing. “I would wait a few minutes,” she said sheepishly. “It was starting to go cold as I was finishing up.”

Considering how large of a hot water tank we had, that was impressive. “Dolcezza.” I motioned for her to come to me, and she did without question. She had just put her hands on myshoulders when she went rigid. She had seen the collection of toys that I brought out for us. “Tell me you know that I love you,” I commanded gently.

Eyebrows furrowed in confusion, she said, “I know that you love me.”

I tugged her close and kissed her, soft but deep and insistent. I licked my way into her mouth and danced our tongues together until she sighed against me. When I slid back, she chased after me, but I eluded her. “I need you to hold onto that,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because tonight I'm going to fuck you like I hate you.”

She sucked in a shocked breath. “Why?”

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