always admired you—what you’ve built, coming from nothing. But as powerful and wealthy as you are, you are not one of the five families of Italy, and you don’t understand our code of honor. It doesn’t matter how many islands you buy or how much wealth you acquire, you will never be one of us. You will never be good enough to marry a Moretti.”
“I don’t think I’ve made myself clear,” Hadrian stated, his eyes turning feral. “Sterling will leave this island over my dead body.”
They continued to stare each other down, two allies who had become opponents.
Because of me.
Angelo turned his chin ever so slightly, diverting my attention.
In one expert, calculated move, Luca stood from his chair and darted toward Hadrian, striking him hard and fast in the throat. While Hadrian was stunned, Luca produced a syringe and plunged it into the side of Hadrian’s neck.
Hadrian’s left hand went to his throat as he gasped for air and after a few seconds, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. His palm slid from mine and I gulped in terror as his body slackened, slumping against the arm of his chair.
“What did you do?” I whispered in horror.
“He’ll live, Sterling. But you’re coming with us,” Angelo said, straightening the cuff of his shirt. “Nico?”
Before I knew what was happening, Nico all but launched himself toward me. His hand clamped around the back of my neck and he squeezed once hard enough to make me light-headed and then he let go. Then he tapped his thumb hard and fast against my temple.
Everything went dark.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I rolled over, expecting to feel Hadrian in bed next to me, but his side was cold—which suddenly made me lurch up in fear.
I was not in Hadrian’s bed.
I was no longer in Hadrian’s home.
My breaths came in spurts, and I focused on drawing air into my lungs. Terror, unlike anything I’d ever known before, pierced my soul.
Now I was under the control of my family—family that had driven my mother to flee her home. Family that had stood by and let my father be murdered in cold blood.
God, no.
I lifted my knees to my chest. I was on a comfortable four-poster wooden bed with blue and gold paisley drapes. A rope of golden threads kept the draperies from closing. I reached out to touch one of the tassels.
Hadrian.
I clenched my fist and shoved it in my mouth, biting down hard on my knuckles, refusing to scream.
Hadrian.
A bout of longing hit me so deep that it felt like it had cleaved me in half, and I sucked in a breath of air.
He had claimed me. He promised to protect me from my family. He would come for me.
All I had to do was hold on and trust him.
My heart stuttered in my chest, and then like a stick trapped in the spoke of a wheel, my world came to a grinding halt. A cold blanket of shock enveloped me.
It was as if I’d lived through enough tragedy, enough pain, enough guilt, and my mind had finally said enough.
Daylight streamed through the large glass windows in the room. I untangled my limbs and climbed out of bed, realizing I was still in my dress and jewelry from the previous evening. Only my heels were missing.
I walked to a set of glass doors that led to a stone balcony and looked out. A sprawling, manicured garden went on for as far as the eye could see. It reminded me of the garden at The Mansion, the place I’d spent my first night with—
I doubted the doors were unlocked; why would my family take any chances that I might escape?
I was my mother’s daughter, after all.
My hand went to the doors anyway. Surprise sparked inside of me when they opened freely, and I stepped out onto the balcony and took a deep breath of warm air. I smelled earth and soil, not ocean and mountains.
I had no idea of my exact location—Luca had never mentioned where in Italy he lived. Yet when I breathed in, the scent of vines tickled the back of my throat and I knew instantly I was in the home my mother had grown up in.
The land called to me. It was innately in my blood, and though I’d never visited the vineyards, or been weaned on the stories of my ancestors, something clicked into place inside of me. A feeling of belonging, a kinship.
I heard the faintest sound of the bedroom door opening