Page 118 of Matteo
Movement caught in the corner of my eye, and before I could process that Matteo was striding toward us with something volatile in his expression, Brian’s body was flying through the air and slamming to the ground.
“What are you doing?” Matteo growled at me.
Before I could answer, Brian was back, shoving him away from me and punching him square in the jaw. “What the fuck, dude?”
I stared in shock as Matteo wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, smiling darkly before pulling his own fist back and punching Brian so hard his back hit the ground.
He stood over him. “Stay out of this…dude. Or I’ll have that carved on your gravestone.”
“Fuck I will,” Brian gritted. “She said she doesn’t have a boyfriend, so she’s a free woman and this is a free country. She can talk to and be with anyone she wants, which is obviously me, so fuck off.”
“Gravestone it is, then.” Smiling viciously, Matteo pulled his gun out of the back of his waistband and pointed it between his brows. His expression didn’t even waver as he pistol-whipped Brian.
“Stop it, Matteo!” I screamed.
“It’s clear she doesn’t want you,” Brian said, trying to appear unaffected by the blood spurting from his right ear. “Move on.”
I cringed. “Stop talking if you want to live.”
“You said you were single,” he said.
Matteo cocked the gun, pressing it against his skull, and we all froze.
“She’s not single, fucker.” Matteo punched him again. “Repeat after me. ‘I will stay away from Arianna.’”
“Fuck. You.” Brian clearly had no sense of self-preservation.
“Here it comes,” Gabriel, who seemed to materialize from the ether, said with a sigh. “These boys never know when to fucking stop talking.”
As if in a daze, I watched him brush a piece of lint off his suit, then lean against the car with his hands in his pockets.
“Stop him, Gabriel,” I begged, noting the sounds of screams, gasps, and cries. But Matteo’s fists against Brian outweighed them all. “Please… He’s going to kill him.”
I glanced around and saw that everyone had gathered and was now staring at us.
“I’m pretty sure that’s the goal,” Gabriel drawled, his accent bleeding into his voice.
With nausea churning in my stomach, I shoved Matteo out of the way before I threw myself on top of Brian’s bloodied body.
“Enough, Matteo,” I screamed, my ears ringing in fear. If he killed him in front of all these people, he’d undoubtedly end up behind bars. “Please.”
Matteo’s eyes coasted to me, burning. “Get away from him, Ari.”
“No,” I breathed as the sound of approaching sirens registered. “Police?—”
“Did you let him kiss you?”
I blinked. “What?”
“Did. He. Kiss. You?” All the lightness disappeared from Matteo. A shiver ran down my spine as awareness settled over me. Matteo would never let me move on.
“N-no,” I stuttered.
Sirens blasted all around us, police officers jumped out of their cars, yelling orders, but all my attention was on Matteo. Gabriel was now next to him, his usual suave aura replaced by hard lines and hurried movements.
“Matteo, we need to pause this for now,” he drawled.
“I will fucking kill you if you touch her again. Hell, if you even look at her,” Matteo growled, his coarse words feeding the frenzy and violence in the air. The man had no regard for the police officers who were approaching us with their weapons already drawn.
