Keeping his bride

Verona

“DANTE, PLEASE, LISTEN to me,” I beg him for the millionth time.

He’s been sitting at his laptop, staring at the screen for what feels like over an hour. I don’t know what he’s looking for, but it can’t be good.

As time ticks by and Luca doesn’t show up, I fear the worst. Maybe he is dead.

No. No, I can’t allow myself to think that way.

Luca is coming for me. I can feel it deep down in my bones.

I just need to keep Dante distracted and away from that laptop. “I’m really thirsty,” I tell Dante. It’s not a total lie. I am thirsty, but I’m willing to do anything to get him away from whatever he’s keeping track of.

Dante glances up at me, frowns, and reluctantly rises from his chair. He goes to the kitchen and pulls a bottle of water out of the plastic case. He unscrews the lid as he walks towards me.

My entire body shakes the closer he gets. I have so much pent-up fear, anxiety and hate towards him that it’s seeping through my pores. I can’t even pretend any more. I hate him.

When his fingers sweep across my chin, I pull back like I was just bitten. His frown deepens as he gauges my reaction to his touch. Then, more roughly, he grabs my chin, pinching it between his thumb and index finger as he brings the top of the water bottle to my lips. “Drink,” he instructs.

I open my mouth as he pours a little bit of water into my mouth. I swallow quickly. He doesn’t try to drown me, ironically. No, he’s gentle, patient…and kind. And it makes me hate him even more. After what he did to my mother, how could he possibly be so nice to me?

“Enough,” I tell him after the third sip. I can’t bear to have him touching me any longer. And it hurts me to think that soon I might not have a choice in that matter. “How long are we staying here?” I ask, curiosity getting the best of me.

“Not long,” he says cryptically. “We’ll head out in the morning. I have a flight already booked for us.”

“A flight to where?” I demand, panic setting in. If I get on a plane, Luca will never be able to find me.

Dante screws the lid back on the bottle and returns to the table, his attention back on the laptop. “You’ll see,” he says cryptically.

I hang my head, tears threatening to spill over, and I let them. I silently sob when I think about never seeing Luca again and spending the rest of my life with the man who murdered my mother.

Suddenly, Dante stands up, knocking over his chair in the process. My head snaps up just as his eyes meet mine. “How the fuck did he find us?” he demands. He reaches for something on the other side of the table. A gun. “Did Luca implant a tracker on you?”

I stare at him and refuse to answer. I know how they found me. The phone. Luca tracked the phone call. But Dante doesn’t know about the phone. He never saw or heard it. He’s assuming they found me by some other means.

Elation fills my body as I realize Luca is coming to save me. But that feeling is instantly crushed by the sight of the gun in Dante’s hand. He’ll never let Luca take me. This can only end badly and in bloodshed. Dante will make sure that someone’s not going to make it out of this cabin alive.

Dante hurries over to me, untying the ropes holding me down so fast my head spins. Then, he hauls me up and out of the chair, pressing the gun to my temple. “He can’t take you from me,” Dante says hurriedly. “I won’t let him.” And then I do the only thing I can do. I fight back.

Luca

M

Y MEN ARE all getting in place, surrounding the cabin when a gunshot suddenly goes off. I check with the rest of the team to make sure one of us didn’t fire first. When they all check in with me and relay it wasn’t them, I realize the shot came from inside the cabin.

“Fuck!” I cry out, my legs carrying me fast to the front of the house. I have to get to her. Before it’s too late.

“Luca, wait!” Benito calls after me, but I don’t stop.

Relying on brute strength and adrenaline, I put all of my weight into my shoulder as I run full force into the front door. The old hinges creak and break, and the entire door frame crumbles around me as I fall inside the cabin.

I’m quick to get on my feet, but it’s too late. Dante already has the gun trained on me.

My eyes instantly go to Verona, who Dante is keeping a death grip on. I search her body for injuries, and I blow out a sigh of relief when I realize she wasn’t shot. Dante’s face is scratched and bleeding, so I can only assume my little hellcat gave him what he deserved.

“Look at me, asshole, not her!” Dante shouts, shaking the gun in his hand to get my attention.

Reluctantly, my eyes meet his. “You really thought I wouldn’t find her?” I ask him. “I would burn this fucking world to the ground just to find her.”

That earns me a smirk from the bastard. “She’s mine now. She was always mine.”

My teeth grind together in anger. The fact that Dante even thinks he earned the right to lay claim on my wife makes me want to scoop his eyes out of his fucking skull with a spoon for even looking in her direction.

“There’s no way out of this, Dante. Let her go,” I tell him slowly, calmly.

Dante grips my wife tighter, crushing her body to his. “Never,” he simply says before turning the gun on her, pressing it firmly against her temple.

“All it’s going to take is one signal from me, and the ten guns trained on you will kill you on the spot,” I inform him.

“Are you willing to bet I won’t pull the trigger first? That she won’t die first?” Dante threatens.

The answer is no. I don’t want anything to happen to Verona, not even so much as a scratch. “Let her go, and I’ll make your death a quick one.” Even though I would love nothing more than to torture him and make him slowly pay for the crimes of murdering our mothers, I can’t put a price on my wife’s safety. On her life. That sweet, sweet revenge is simply off the table if it puts her at any kind of risk.

“Please, Dante.” Verona’s soft, melodic voice suddenly fills the tense room. “Please don’t let it be like this. If you love me, you won’t do this.”

I swallow hard at her words. I know she’s trying to pull at his heartstrings, if he even has a fucking heart or a conscience.

He looks down at her, kissing the side of her head. “I love you more than anything in this world, V. We’re going to be together. Forever,” he vows.

Verona’s teary honey-colored eyes meet mine as she says, “I’m pregnant. I just found out this morning.”

Her words have an effect on Dante. He stiffens, and his grip suddenly loosens. “Wh-what?” he demands, shocked.

Taking the opportunity, Verona pulls out of his grip and runs to the other side of the room, a few feet away from me.

“You’re pregnant with his child?” Dante practically screams, waving the gun back and forth from me to Verona and back again.

He’s unstable, erratic, unpredictable.

“Well, then…if I can’t have you, no one will,” Dante cryptically says before raising the gun in Verona’s direction.

“No!” I yell.

And then everything happens in the blink of an eye, even though it feels like it’s moving in slow motion. I jump across the room, right in front of Verona just as the gun goes off.

I can feel the burn of the bullets as they rip through my shoulder and forearm right before I fall to the ground.

More gunshots ring out, and then I watch as Dante falls to the ground, a bullet hole right in between his eyes. He stares at me as the life drains from them and blood pours out of the wound.

“See you in hell,” I tell him before I roll to my back, groaning in pain.

“Luca!” Verona cries, collapsing to her knees on the wooden floor beside me.

I reach up with my good arm and cradle her beautiful face in my palm. “I’ll be okay,” I tell her. I don’t know that for sure, but I don’t want her to worry about me, especially in her condition.

Benito rushes inside. “Where?” he asks.

“Shoulder and forearm,” I tell him.

“How bad is it?”

“Hurts like hell,” I tell him with a dark chuckle. I try to lift my arm but fail miserably. Benito is quick to realize what I’m trying to do and carefully checks me out. “Exit wounds?” I ask, hopeful.Original from NôvelDrama.Org.

“We need to get you the fuck out of here,” he says instead of answering me, so I’m assuming the answer is no to my question.

Fuck.

Benito motions for the men to help me while he speaks in Italian over the phone to who I’m assuming is the doctor we keep on staff for emergencies such as this.

Verona moves away from me as two of my men haul me up to a standing position. The quick movement coupled with the fact that I’ve lost a lot of blood already has my head spinning. I reach for my wife, but the world around me is already turning black.

“I love you,” I tell her before I tumble headfirst into the darkness.