Page 105 of Tristano

Walking into Lorenzo’s torture room, my eyes instantly find Serena. She’s leaning against the wall facing me talking to Conor. She looks okay. My eyes take in every piece of skin that I can see. Other than a little dirt, there are no signs of injury.

As soon as she spots me, she excuses herself and walks toward me.

I watch as she stuffs her hands into her back pockets as she approaches.

“Hey…” she says softly.

My throat feels thick, so I just pull her into my arms, crushing her against me.

I feel Serena sigh in relief as her arms come around me, hugging me back.

“On a scale of one to ten how mad are you?” she murmurs.

“Twenty. I’m so fucking furious with you,anima gemella. As soon as we get home, I’m going to paddle your ass red, and not in the fun way,” I rasp, and my body slowly relaxes.

She’s safe.

Logically I knew that Greer and Enzo were right. Conor and Matteo, along with everyone else who was out there, wouldn’t let anything happen to her, but sometimes fear defies logic, and you can’t relax until you see the person you love is safe with your own two eyes.

“I would say I’m sorry but I’m not,” she murmurs against my chest.

I kiss the side of her head. “I know.”

“We apprehended two guys,” she adds.

“Good.”

“It felt good to slip into that role again. It felt like I was on the force again,” she admits softly.

My heart hurts for her. I know I considered how she would feel losing her job, but I didn’t realize it would affect her this much. I need to do something about that. I don’t want her to feel unfulfilled.

“I’m glad.”

Greer and Enzo enter the room from the stairs, just as Bash and Killian walk into the room side by side from the holding chamber.

“Have them separated?” Killian asks.

Matteo nods. “Yeah, we have one sitting on ice while we question this one.”

Matteo slaps the man’s shoulder, making him flinch.

“Are we ready to get started?” Bash asks.

“I’m ready when you are,” Lo tells him.

Bash looks around the room. “If you don’t want to stick around, this is your chance to leave.”

“Do you want to step out?” I ask quietly.

Serena pulls back slightly and shakes her head. She turns in my arms and faces forward. I pull her into my chest and hold on. I just need to fucking touch her right now.

Bash looks at us and raises a brow. When he realizes we aren’t moving, he turns back toward Lorenzo. “Go ahead.”

“Let the games begin.” Killian rubs his hands together with a wicked smile on his face.

We watch as Lorenzo starts off easy by ripping out the man’s nails one by one. The man jerks but doesn’t make a peep while he silently cries.

“They never want to go down easy.” Lorenzo sighs as he sets his pliers down.

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