Page 7 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

"See?" Matteo folds his arms, then groans and drops them when his ribs hurt. "I tried to lock her in the guest room upstairs, but she dragged three of us down the steps. She caught my eye with her elbow. Who the hell fights like that?"

"People who don't want to get dragged into another country by clowns," Nora cuts in, keeping her eyes fixed on me.

I look at the purple lump on his face and stare directly at him. "You let a woman from London beat the shit out of you."

Matteo winces hard as he touches his cheek. "She is a monster in a nice blazer. I was polite! I said welcome to Italy and showed her the couch. She told me where to stick Italy, slammed the bedroom door, and punched me in the teeth when I opened it."

Franco groans from the floor and holds his knee. "I told you to leave her alone there. She had already picked up a heavy metal lamp to hit us with."

"I was trying to be nice!" Matteo yells. He throws his hands up, then grabs his sore jaw. "She threw a priceless bowl at my head, ran for the stairs, and slammed Sal's face into the railing."

"That ugly bowl was already cracked," Nora points out, knuckles checked with a casual shrug. "You should thank me for breaking it."

Matteo barks, "That bowl cost thousands of euros!" He shakes a finger right at her face.

"Then you got ripped off because it looked cheap," she shoots back without missing a beat. "And you shouldn't have tried to grab me."

"She stomped my shoulder too," Franco mutters into the floor, wincing in pain. "Right after she kicked my knee out."

"Thanks, Franco," Nora calls out, glancing down at him. "Glad somebody here knows how to take a hit."

Nora turns to face me directly, lifting her chin. Her posture stays rigid, no flicker of a flinch or a backward step, her eyes narrow and fixed on mine.

"Are you in charge of these morons?" she demands, her voice ringing clear across the tiles. "Because I want someone to pay for my ruined clothes, an apology, and a flight back to London right now."

Matteo chuckles under his breath, then snaps his mouth shut when I snap my head toward him.

"You also need to teach your men how to fight," she adds, waving a hand toward Sal on the stairs. "Three grown men grab the wrong girl and still end up crying on the floor. It's pathetic."

Matteo smooths his jacket with bruised pride. "Hey, we caught you off guard!"

She glares daggers at him. "You had an SUV and no brains."

Sal groans louder and presses the rag harder against his face.

Matteo snorts, then chokes it back when I glare in his direction. "See? Demon."

I cross the remaining marble floor without rushing, letting my leather soles heel-strike softly. She holds her ground, chin angled high, watching my every move.

I take two slow steps closer. "You're inside my house. The guys bleeding on the floor work for me. That makes this mess your problem too."

"Your problem started when your goons kidnapped the wrong woman," she fires right back, hands clenched into tight fists. "I warned them on the street. I offered them cash to walk away. I offered to let them walk off with all their teeth."

"I didn't think she was really going to kick me," Sal mumbles into his bloody cloth.

"Did it feel like a joke when I caught you in the throat?" Nora asks, glaring down at him.

"She did offer," Matteo admits, backing up a step to give her space.

Nora glares at Matteo. "They shoved me in a truck and put me on a plane. So I broke his nose."

Matteo holds up a hand. "She actually hit him with her forehead first, Luca. Look at the blood. She called him a fucking idiot and slammed her head right into his face."

"Matteo," I warn, my voice dropping an octave.

He shuts up. Mostly. "Just saying. She has a vocabulary."

Nora turns on Matteo, her gaze like ice. "Your face looks like raw meat. Open your mouth again and I'll break the other side too."