His muscles tensed as he held me. “I don’t know.”
“After all these years, you must feel something for me?”
“My feelings for you are confusing.” He blew out a deep breath, his fingers brushing my back. “Because of our circumstances, it’s hard to allow myself to feel anything for anyone. Nothing is certain. All of our lives are in danger. I’m sorry, Rhi.” He moved his hand to the back of my head, staring into my eyes. His irises were big and blue and so damn sad. “I can’t give you what you want.”
“I’m marrying Sean. This might be the last time we see each other.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “I would stop the wedding… if I could.”
Our relationship was beyond complicated. We both wanted to be together, but because of his family obligations, we had no future. And now, I would have to marry a cruel, heartless monster.
“I will kill myself before I marry Sean. I’m not saying that to be melodramatic. He hurts me, Marcello. He holds me down and forces himself on me. I can’t,” I sobbed, and he hugged me harder. “You can’t let him take me.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I can run but don’t have anywhere to go. I ran out of money. My dad froze my trust fund again, so I can’t leave him. I went back to The Ink Yard to make some quick cash. But getting kidnaped put a wrench in my plans.”
“Leave tonight.” He slid his fingers beneath my chin. “Hop the back fence and meet me at Finnegan’s Rock.”
“Are we going to kill someone again?”
He snickered. “No. I’m taking you to the safe house. I brought you home. The Knights fulfilled their end of the bargain with your dad. The ball is now in your court.”
“I want out.”
He nodded. “Then meet me at Finnegan’s Rock at nine o’clock.”
Marcello shot up from the bed, taking me with him. He wrapped his arms around me one last time, and I drank in his masculine scent I loved so much.
Instead of saying goodbye, he was finally disobeying his father’s wishes to help me. The stupid girl inside me wanted to believe this was the first step toward our impossible future. But I knew the truth. This wasn’t an act of love. It was Marcello doing what he did best—saving people.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Marcello
Torn between family loyalty and what my heart wanted, I finally chose my heart. I let it decide for me when I offered Rhi my safe house. None of my brothers ever used the place. It was mine alone, where I went when I needed space from my family.
Rhi sat on the couch in the living room, her bare feet propped up on the coffee table. My inner control freak screamed at the sight, but I tried to overlook her annoying habits. She’d been living in my apartment for two weeks. And in that time, the Knights had been under constant fire. We’d dodged the small threats, no problem, but we knew the real fight wouldn’t happen until my brother’s wedding.
Luca and Alex would marry in secret to keep our enemies from turning it into the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones. We had less than a week, everything planned and under control. But I still didn’t know what to do with Rhi. Her fiancé placed a bounty on her head to get her back—three million dollars to the person who brought her to him—alive or dead.
After I’d read the post on the Dark Web, I knew I couldn’t let her go. I would have to keep her locked in my apartment like Rapunzel for the rest of her life to keep her safe. She seemed content with the long days she spent alone, left with her thoughts and drawings.
I sat on the cushion beside her, and she smiled.
“I missed you,” she cooed. Then she lifted a sketchpad from the coffee table and handed it to me. “Here. I drew this for you.”
A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. She depicted me as a Greek hero, shirtless and wearing battle armor. An old-fashioned helmet sat on my head, though my hair was long and dark in the image. I looked like Achilles, my favorite book character.
Of all the Greek mythology stories, his was my favorite. When I was a child, my mother read the Greek legends to me. I became obsessed with them and devoured every book about mythology. We had a massive two-story library at the Salvatore Estate. After my mother’s death, my father became an insufferable asshole. He turned into a monster, and I retreated into myself. I would hide in the library, the one place I knew he would never find me.
Clutching the sketchpad, I kissed her cheek. “Thank you, Rhi. I love it.”
She dropped her feet on the floor and sat up, leaning into my side. “Is everything okay?”