Page 41 of Hostile Love
“I’ll go and entertain my husband while the doctor is here. Sin, text me when she leaves.”
I scoot off the bed and pat my pocket, not finding my phone there.
“If I don't reply straight away, Gio is probably teaching me how to behave.”
“Doctor!” André sits upright when the smartly dressed woman enters the room. “I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you stitch this little girl's mouth up.”
I turn away from the straight-faced woman, stick my tongue out at André, and make a stupid face as I pad over to the nightstand and collect my phone.
“Hey, who the fuck are you? Where’s Dr Barone?” Letterman’s voice turns serious, deadly.
“Dr Barone is sick,” the woman answers. “Please wait outside the room. All of you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,señorita,” André tells her, low and threatening. “Letterman, go grab my stash from downstairs. I’ll need a smoke on the balcony after this.”
I check my phone, quickly getting distracted by the screensaver slideshow.
The first image is Leo and his toothy, sweet grin. Next are my brother, Reno and André together. They had taken the picture a few months before he was murdered and before I fell in love with his best friend's twin brother. A little wave of sadness washes over me. Grief still haunts me, even though I’m happier than ever.
“What the fuck!” André’s deep bark rips me out of my daydream.
My head snaps up where the doctor holds a suppressed semi-auto pistol aimed at Sinéad. It all happens in slow motion and my blood turns cold.
While André reaches behind his back to draw his engraved gold handgun, he simultaneously dives across his wife.
Instantly, my reflexes fire up. A bullet cracks at the same time as I unfasten the dagger fixed to my thigh and dart to the end of the bed.
Sinéad screams André’s name, and chills scurry all over me. I launch myself at the assassin seconds after another bullet leaves her gun.
Using all my strength, fury, and training, I stab the razor-sharp blade into the soft fleshy part of her neck and shove her sideways.
She stumbles, the blade still wedged and her expression blank. The bitch doesn’t even look shocked.
I’m breathing heavily and my heart is thundering when she turns to me, pointing a gun at my face, undeterred in her mission.
“India!” Sinéad screams.
Out of the corner of my eye, Sinéad struggles beneath André’s protective body, grabbing his gun.
At that moment, shots are fired and blood splatters over my face. I’m trembling when the fake doctor drops to the carpet.
Beyond her, my gaze settles on the love of my life—my ferocious looking husband. As he leaves the shadowy doorway and enters the suite, he empties his full clip into the dead body.
When he’s finished, an eerie silence creeps around me, all of us stunned.
Giovanni’s wide-eyed gaze sweeps from my head to my toes. His chest rises, his breathing barely controlled.
The pelt of unshaven scruff on his jaw looks darker now, depicting the volatile mood he’s lost in.
Thick ebony hair sits on top of his head, combed back from a swarthy forehead that furrows as he advances.
His fast approach kills the distance between us in a heartbeat.
Daenis bolts into the room and circles my feet. Giovanni drags me into his arms and squeezes so tightly I forget to breathe.
“Are you hurt?”
“No…but…”
