Chapter 2
(Alessia pov)
The world outside the cathedral was pure fucking chaos. Smoke poured out behind us. Gunfire still cracked through the night. Sirens were already wailing in the distance, but none of that shit mattered. Matteo’s men moved like they’d done this a hundred times—tight formation, weapons ready, dragging me through the shattered doors like I was just another piece of stolen cargo.
I kicked. Hard.
“Put me the fuck down!”
Matteo didn’t even flinch. His arm locked tighter around the backs of my thighs, keeping me pinned over his shoulder. My wedding dress was hiked up, white fabric bunched around my hips, and every step he took jostled me like a goddamn ragdoll. The hard muscle of his shoulder dug into my stomach. The heat of his hand on the back of my thigh burned through the thin silk of my underwear.
I hated that I noticed.
I hated even more that my body noticed.
“I swear to God, you psycho, if you don’t put me down right now—”
He ignored me.
A black SUV sat idling at the curb, doors already open. One of his men yanked the back door wider. Matteo dumped me inside like I weighed nothing. My ass hit the leather seat hard. Before I could scramble for the opposite door, he climbed in after me, slammed it shut, and the vehicle took off so fast my head snapped back.
I lunged for the handle.
His hand closed around my wrist like a fucking iron cuff.
“Don’t.”
I twisted, trying to wrench free. “Get your goddamn hands off me!”
He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. That low, cold tone cut through the roaring engine and the distant gunfire like a blade.
“You fight me in this car, Alessia, and I’ll put you on the floor, face down, your hands behind your back, your choice.”
I stared at him, chest heaving, my heart was slamming so hard I could feel it in my throat. The streetlights flashed across his face—sharp jaw, that thin scar through his eyebrow, eyes that looked like they had never once given a shit about anyone’s pain.
I wanted to spit in his face. Instead I yanked my wrist again harder, he didn’t let go, his thumb pressed into the soft underside of my wrist, right over the pulse point and the pressure turned sharp enough to make me hiss.
“You’re hurting me.”
“Then stop fighting.”
“Fuck you.”
Something flickered in his eyes, the SUV took a hard turn and I slid against the door. Matteo’s grip never loosened, I tried again, my voice shaking with rage.
“My father is going to gut you for this.”
Matteo’s mouth curved, just barely.
“Your father just watched me put a bullet in his favorite enforcer and walk out with his only daughter, If he had the balls to stop me, he would’ve done it already.”
I hated how calm he sounded, like this was just another fucking Tuesday for him.
“You’re a monster.”
“And you’re mine now.”
The words landed like a punch, I laughed, short and bitter. “Yours? You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough.” His gaze dropped, slow and deliberate, over the torn neckline of my dress, the dirt smudged across the white fabric, the wild tangle of my hair. “Daughter of Vitale, twenty-one today, about to be sold off to a man who would’ve broken you in a week and now you’re sitting in my car, still fighting like you think you’ve got a chance.”
I leaned in, close enough to see the flecks of gray in his dark eyes.
“I will never stop fighting you.”
He didn’t blink.
“Good.”
The single word sent a cold ripple down my spine. The SUV slowed, heavy gates groaned open somewhere ahead, we rolled through and the city noise cut off like someone had flipped a switch, a massive dark house rising against the night sky—modern, sharp edges, too many windows that reflected nothing but black.
Matteo finally released my wrist and the second the door opened, I tried to bolt, he caught me around the waist before both feet even hit the ground, hauling me back against his chest, one arm locked under my breasts, the other clamped over my mouth when I started to scream.
“Quiet,” he murmured against my ear. “Scream all you want once we’re inside but outside here, it just pisses me off.”
I bit his hand hard, he didn’t make a sound, just tightened his arm until I couldn’t breathe properly, then carried me through the front doors like I was nothing.
The second the heavy door slammed shut behind us, he dropped me onto my feet, I staggered, spun and swung at his face, he caught my wrist mid-air, then the other one, In less than a second both of my arms were pinned above my head against the wall, his body crowding mine, hard and unyielding, his face was inches from mine.
“Last warning, Alessia.” His voice was pure ice. “You hit me again, you scratch me again, you bite me again and I stop being polite.”
I laughed in his face, even though my pulse was racing so hard I felt dizzy.
“Polite? You murdered a man in front of me and kidnapped me on my birthday. That was polite?”
His eyes dropped to my mouth, for a second something darker moved behind them, then he leaned in, lips almost brushing my ear.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of when I’m not being polite.”
He let go of one of my wrists just long enough to reach into his jacket. The gun came out again—same one he’d used to kill Luca. He didn’t point it at me, he just held it loosely at his side while his other hand stayed locked around both of my wrists.
“You’re going to walk upstairs,” he said quietly. “You’re going to sit in the room I put you in and you’re going to wait until I decide what to do with you.”
I stared at the gun, then back at his face.
“And if I don’t?”
Matteo’s thumb brushed once over the inside of my wrist—almost gentle, then it pressed down hard enough to hurt.
“Then I stop treating you like a guest,” he said, “and start treating you like the payment you are.”
He released me, I didn’t move, my legs felt like water, my dress was ruined and the man who had just stolen my entire life stood there watching me with those dead, calculating eyes, waiting to see if I was stupid enough to test him.
I was, I spat at his feet.
“Go to hell.”
Matteo’s expression didn’t change, but the corner of his mouth lifted—just a fraction.
“Already there, princess,” he said softly. “And now so are you.”