Page 66 of Savage Enemy

“Stop staring at her, Stefano.”

“Never,” I snapped without taking my eyes off Val.

She hadn’t seen me yet.

I drank in the sight of her, moving my gaze up and down her body, taking in every detail, inch by inch. Her hair, her lips, the shape of her ass, her hips, and her breasts, her…

At first glance, there seemed to be a shadow beneath the pearls, but when she shifted, and the light hit differently, I saw the fucking bruise on her neck.

Then another. And another. More bruises marked her perfect skin, some leading down into the long gloves she wore. Once I’d seen the first mark, I couldn’t stop seeing others.

The gloves covered the bullet wound on her arm, but it couldn’t hide the bruises on her neck and shoulders. Some were faded, which I supposed she’d gotten from Cozza.

I guessed she’d been told to cover them with makeup, and to obey her father but rebel at the same time, she used as little concealer as she could get away with.

My heart now raced for a different reason.

Someone in her family had dared to hurt her. They dared to touch what belonged to me. Another man or men had put their hands on my girl.

I would kill them all, slowly, until they begged me for death.

“You should calm down,” Benedetta whispered. “You look like you’re about to murder everyone in the room. You’re going to draw the wrong attention.”

“Someone hurt her,” I snarled.

My feral response echoed through my head as my mind replayed it again.

“She has a few bruises, but she’s fine,” Benedetta said. “I promise you, she’s been through much worse. Honestly, I’m surprised her twin didn’t take it further.”

I clenched my jaw and flexed my fingers to subdue the monster rising from the darkest part of my soul.

“Yes, I’ve heard about Aris Moscatelli’s reputation and his violence against women.”

A reputation so well earned, it was the first thing Tony had dug up on the son of a bitch.

Benedetta lowered her gaze to the ivory-and-black carpeting.

“It’s all true. He was even more violent with his sister. Some in this very room say it went as far as?—”

“No, it fucking did not,” I said.

“How could you know that?”

I shot her a knowing look, and she understood my meaning.

“Oh, she was… I mean, you were her, um… Are you sure?”

I dragged my gaze away from Val to meet Benedetta’s.

“I was the first man to touch her. I don’t care what happened between then and now, but you can be sure I’ll also be the lastman who touches her. And I swear to Christ, no other man will leave a fucking bruise on her body again.”

Only my bruises were acceptable—my fingerprints on her thighs from holding them open. My handprint on her ass the next time she even considered lying to me again.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Benedetta whispered, a note of melancholy in her voice. “It’s cruel.”

“One way or another, that’s one I will keep. Enough. I need to get to her and tell her about the plan.”

Then I made a beeline in Val’s direction, forcing my way through the crowd.

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