Page 49 of Stolen Vows
A hand grabs my shoulder when my foot connects with the door, pushing it open. “I’d suggest calming the fuck down before they haul your ass out of here.”
The bathroom is empty, and the light isn’t even on. I scan the immediate area, searching for a window or trapdoor she could have slipped out through, but there’s nothing at all.
She didn’t come here.
Sheleft.
A chill skates down my spine at the realization. I was evidently too fucking distracted by her scent and those little sounds of pleasure to notice that she was scheming.
Shoving Frankie away, I take in his flushed cheeks and the partially untucked shirt beneath his navy suit jacket. “Where the hell have you been? You’re supposed to be keeping an eye onmy wife. There are actual dangerous variables surrounding this situation, you know.”
Yet I’ve been solely interested in playing house. Or at least getting her back to mine. Perhaps if I’d been better at planning and communicating, we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess. If I’d told her about Gino and my men?—
Frankie bristles. “Ithoughtyou could handle her one-on-one. Isn’t that what you told me yesterday?”
“She’s smarter than both of us. That’s why I wanted two sets of eyes on her at all times.”
“Well, I thought you’d want some alone time.”
“That doesn’t fucking matter when I’m paying you to…” I watch his face grow taut with unease. Narrowing my eyes, I take a step toward him. “What is it? Where were you?”
He swallows, yanking at the knot in his tie. As I crowd closer to him, I note the red lipstick on his collar and the smudge at one corner of his mouth. When Genevieve approaches a few seconds later, I’m not even a little shocked to see her lips match the shade.
“Leopoldo.” She greets me with a coy smile. “I think you should get back in that auction room.”
When I walkinto the ballroom, I’m half expecting an ambush. It isn’t like Genevieve is entirely loyal to me, so it wouldn’t be surprising to find that she’s working with the remaining De Tore Elders or even her own clan. Part of the issue with the criminal underground is that everyone is always looking for an opportunity to off a rival boss and take over their business.
I’mnotanticipating the rage that zaps me like a lightning bolt when I glance to the front of the room and see my wife onstage with Reaper’s fucking hand on her ass. It glides up, around, and over her hip. Then he’s grazing the underside of her breast—almost bare, except for that sheer lace.
My teeth clench so hard that my vision blurs at the edges. I suppose this is what she thinks I deserve. To Stella Ricci, Leopoldo De Tore is the villain who wanted to keep her captive in a tower, not the prince who attempted to save her seven years ago.
I stalk back to the table we abandoned just minutes ago and snatch my placard. Frankie slumps on the tabletop at my side, seemingly out of breath now.
My hand curls tightly around the placard’s wooden handle as the bid for Stella increases. Multiple arms fly up as Reaper highlights her virginity.
Blood roars between my ears, drowning out the white-haired auctioneer’s taunts. He moves to stand directly behind her, fitting himself against her backside, and lifts a hand to toy with her slender throat.
She looks like a deer caught in headlights when his fingers gently cup the column of her neck, and I can’t help wondering if she even knows what the hell she’s getting into. If I don’t get her—if another one of the guests places a winning bid—she’s fucked. They’ll expect their prize, and she’ll have no other choice but to spread her pretty thighs and let the winner between them.
Before the night is over, she’ll be an accomplice to murder. There’s no goddamn way anyone else is putting their hands on her and leaving here in one piece.
“Well?” Frankie snaps, gesturing toward the stage. “Are you going to bid or not?”
I exhale slowly through my nose. “I can’t.”
He frowns. “Why the fuck not? We didn’t come all the way here to watch your wife go to someone else.”
“The escrow account’s already been drained getting that goddamn orchid. I didn’t think I’dneedmore.” The point of the accounts is to verify the money before it’s exchanged and simplify the purchase, but there’s a finite amount loaded upon our arrival. I can’t add more now.
She was supposed to be in my bed tonight, in my arms, ready to rejoin my life. Sure, I knew she’d need a little cajoling, but that’s what the proposed sex was for.
I gave the woman seven years to herself. You’d think she’d be willing to accept fate’s intervention by now.
Tapping my fingers on the table, I watch as someone else across the audience darts a hand into the air. Reaper grins, and Stella’s mouth slackens to the point where I wonder if he’s applying the slightest pressure to her throat. Showing the crowd how she reacts to his touch so they know what they’re purchasing.
I can’t kill such an important Black Rose Auction centerpiece like Reaper, but whoever wins my wife will likely be less consequential than him.
“Going once…” Reaper says, pressing his nose to the crown of Stella’s head. “Going twice…”
