"Bring Nicoli out here this second or I'll shut down this whole fucking precinct," Rocco snarled.
"You don't have the authority-" Lovette began but the door opened and a tall man with a captain badge on his breast strode through the door behind her, guiding Nicoli along beside him.
"No harm done, eh friends?" he boomed, clapping Nicoli on the back and shooting Lovette an expression that told her to back down. My heart lifted as the captain released him. There were no cuffs on his wrists, he was free. They were letting him go.
I pulled out of Frankie's grip, racing toward Nicoli with a gasp of desperation and he caught me in his arms, lifting me off the floor and squeezing me tight against his chest. His heart pounded against me and I shut my eyes, drowning in the feeling of his arms around me.
“I want to go home,” I whispered in his ear.
"We’re going home. And I'll never leave you again," he swore, his words echoing through my soul.
"Get your hands off of my wife!" a harsh male voice made my heart lurch and l loosened my grip on Nicoli just enough so that I could turn and look at the huge man who'd stepped past the Romeros with four muscular bodyguards in tow. The man from the pictures -my husband - gazed at me with a desperation that said he really did know me. Love me. Had once promised to honour and protect me in front of family and friends I didn't even know. But that frightened me because I didn’t love or adore him. I couldn’t remember my vows, I wasn’t the girl he’d watched walk up the aisle towards him. I was as much a stranger to him as he was to me, he just didn’t realise it.
“She’s lost her memories,” Lovette told him and his face twisted as he took in that news.
“She’ll know me,” he insisted, reaching out for me, but I shrank away.
Nicoli's posture stiffened and my fingers dug into his shoulder as I half climbed him to get away.
"What's going on?" the captain looked to Lovette who flushed a little like she was embarrassed at the chaos that had descended. She strode over to my husband and handed him the phone and the ring, looking to her boss while the Romeros lurked closer like stalking wolves.
"This is Ramon Hernandez," Lovette said. "He has proved he is this girl’s husband. He’s been searching for her for a long time and the case is still open."
"Darling, come here to me. You must be so frightened. Who is this man?" Ramon asked, his brows pulling together as he stared at Nicoli with a threat in his stance. "Unhand her this second."
More officers moved around us until we were all encircled by enough manpower and weapons to spill a lot of blood if things turned south.
"I said unhand her!" Ramon snapped, glaring at Nicoli in a way that terrified me.
I shook my head, clinging to my man as Ramon twisted his phone around to brandish the photograph of me and him on our wedding day together.
Nicoli's hold on me only firmed and I fisted my hand in the front of his shirt, sensing a deadly energy rolling off of him.
“I’m not that person anymore,” I breathed to Nicoli, needing him to know I didn’t want to be taken from his arms. Not for anything or anyone.
"I'm sure this can be resolved," Frankie stepped in calmly. "We'll have words with you Mr Hernandez, but let's do this somewhere more suitable, hm?" His tone was rational, but the looks on his brothers' faces said if we took this away from the police, it was only going to go one way.
"Don't patronise me," Ramon snarled at Frankie, then pointed a finger at Nicoli. "He could be the one who took her. I've been hunting for my wife for over a year, I will not walk out of this precinct without her!" he boomed and fear wrapped around my heart.
I shook my head in refusal as he held out a hand for me, but officers were starting to close in around me and Nicoli. I didn't like the threat in their stance or the glances exchanged between them.
"I'm sure Mr Vito- Romero - is not responsible for any such thing, but we will explore all avenues, of course Mr Hernandez," the captain assured the man and I had the sense that Ramon held nearly as much sway