Page 21 of The Mafia’s Fiancee

She nodded. “Yeah. I know. I’ve already texted my aunt’s neighbor’s sister-in-law. That whole friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend setup should help me stay hidden for a while.”

“Good. I set my hand on her back as she tugged the chain free from the post. I continued to flex my ankle, feeling every bit of pain from the cuff there. Blood rushed freer, and tingling pricks stung along my skin. “You need to hide for a long while,” I agreed, glad that she was such an extrovert to easily meet people and make such confusing paths to new friends or acquaintances. It would pay off now.

When we left to go to the Tropican to get away for a while, I hadn’t realized that I would be saying goodbye to this room or this house. After meeting Luke and wanting a future with him, I’d chosen to never return. As soon as I escaped, this would be the final time I’d set foot on my father’s property. I didn’t know where Luke and I would go. Even the Tropican was unsafe, as another extension of my father’s land.

This would be it though, and with this closure, I would need to figure out how to make sure my best friend remained safe too, from a distance until we could see each other again. She’d be suspect, looked at as someone with intel about me, but she’d lie low. She wasn’t stupid.

Before we could plan or discuss anything further, loud knocks sounded on the door. Fierce rattles of the doorknob followed. “Open up!”

It didn’t sound like Simon. He might have given Krista a loophole to get in here, but he would lie and save his own ass about the door being locked from the inside.

“Shit,” I hissed, locking my anxious gaze on Krista’s. “Go. Hide in the closet until they’re gone.”

She hardened her face into a scowl, glaring at the door as the guard pounded his fist on it. “If he’s here to let Antonio in, there’s no way I’m going to stand back and let him—”

“Hide!” I whispered again. “Go in the closet until the coast is clear.”

She nodded, snapping to focus. “If I can still fit out that one window back there, I’ll climb out and get a car ready for you to escape.”

As soon as she turned and ran into my closet, the door burst open. I’d spent too much time telling Krista to go, both of us reluctant to part ways, that I hadn’t taken the time to hide the chain. It lay out on the carpet, unattached.

That was what the tall guard spotted first. He stormed in, a baton in his hand as he noticed the chain. Then the open halves of the old-fashioned cuff that Krista had unlocked.

“What the fuck is going on here?” He knelt to grab the chain, lifting it to swing in to gain momentum to strike it down on me. “You planning on getting away, you stupid whore?”

He growled, raising his arm to unleash the flexible length of hard metal links on my back. At the last minute, I turned toward the bed, bracing for the hit and curling down to be as small as possible and protect the vulnerable front side of my body.

Before the metal could whip down on me, the man cried out in pain.

His arm, up in the air to deliver a brutal punishment for locking the door and trying to break free, jerked backward at an unnatural angle. Someone’s hand had caught the chain midair. Thick fingers gripped the metal loops, and with a fierce tug back, he dislocated the guard’s arm.

Screaming out in pain, he staggered down to one knee. His drop down revealed his assailant.

My hero.

“Luke!”

He didn’t react to my greeting. Too focused on fighting the guard, he zoned in on incapacitating him. Anger shone in his dark brown eyes. His lean facial features looked tauter with the strain he used to grind his teeth. He entered instant combat with this guard. Even though Luke was taller and a better fighter, trained to handle street fights, he looked worn and tired. He seemed sluggish, even, like this was far from the first time he’d used his fists tonight.

It wasn’t the first time. He’d survived that rigged fight Antonio set against him. Then if he was captured, he’d broken out from the Marcheses’ custody as well, likely fighting his way free.

And here I was, helpless and chained.

The guard knocked into me from Luke’s hit. We collided and fell back on the bed, but the guard was stuck there. This close, Luke could use the chain that tethered me to the post. He wrapped it around the guard’s neck, squeezing tighter and tighter.

Oh, shit. I’d been raised in a life of violence, but I’d never been this close to it.

I turned my head so I didn’t watch, not this close. I didn’t think, ignoring the slacking pressure and strength in the man’s body as he sagged to death.

As soon as he went limp, Luke heaved on a hard breath and dropped him, shoving him on the floor and away.

“Emma.” He winced as he moved toward me, his calloused hands gentle on me.

I held back a sob, reaching for him. Running my fingers over the swollen marks and scrapes on his face, I despaired that he’d suffered so much already. For me. For us—for our love.

He scowled, cupping my face as he panted and breathed so fast. “Who did this to you?”

His stare was on my chin and cheek, where my father had backhanded me.