His Tesoro: An Arranged Marriage Age Gap Mafia Romance (Empire of Royals Book 1)
His Tesoro: Chapter 70

My eyelids weighed a thousand pounds as I fought to pry them open.

I squinted as I took in the white room. No windows. Antiseptic smell. Some sort of medical equipment beeping softly in the background.

I turned my head, my muscles screaming at the movement, until my eyes landed on Romeo. “Am I in hell?” I croaked.

Romeo had dark circles under his eyes and he hadn’t shaved. “You should be. Not sure how you got out of that one, fratello.”

“What happened?”

“The Bratva set off the explosion. It blocked us from being able to get to you. We had to fight through the rubble.” His expression was grim, his jaw clenched. “We finally made our way through and found Ronan Finnegan.”

“What?” I tried to sit up.

“Lie the fuck down,” Romeo snarled. “He was there with Sofiya, stopping the bleeding on your leg.” His eyes flicked down to where the hospital blanket covered my legs. I tore it off and groaned when I saw the thickly bandaged gunshot wound and the mass of bruising on my thighs.

“Ronan’s men got you free and transported all of us here to his private hospital. You would have died if not for him. Angelo, too.”

“Angelo?”

“Arben’s men shot him at the airstrip. He had surgery, but he’ll be okay.”

I didn’t know how to feel about Angelo. He had been one of my most loyal men, but his loyalty had obviously shifted to my wife. His actions had put her in danger. “Where is she?”

“Sofiya is in a room down the hall. She’s okay,” he added quickly at my panicked expression. “She has some cuts and bruises, but she’s fine.”

Rage burned in my chest that she had any marks on her body. “I need to see her.”

Romeo sighed. “You lost a lot of blood and had to have surgery on your leg. You need time to recover.”

“Fuck that.” I pushed myself into a seated position and swung my legs over the bed.

Romeo put his hand on my chest. “I can go get her.”

“No,” I snarled. “I will go to her.” It was the least I could do after all the pain I had caused her.

Romeo grumbled, but got up and grabbed a wheelchair from the side of the room. “You’re going in this. Non-negotiable.”

“I am your Don,” I said in a low voice.

“Yes, yes, you’re very fierce and scary. Now get in the fucking wheelchair.”

I broke out in a sweat at the effort of moving off the bed. My breathing was ragged and I felt dizzy. Romeo gave me a disapproving look but didn’t say a word as he pushed me into the empty hallway. I hated being stuck in the wheelchair, and I realized I was experiencing just a sliver of what Sofiya did every day.

“What happened with Rustik? Arben?”

“They both got away with some of their men. The rest of their soldiers were either killed or captured. Ronan is holding them.”

“Fuck. I owe him now, don’t I?” Something dawned on me—was he the one who’d shot Domenico and the rest of his men?

“I’m afraid you do. At least we know they’re not involved in the skin trade.”

We turned a corner. “That’s Sofiya’s room.” Romeo pointed at a door down the hall.

“Why isn’t there a guard outside the room?” I snarled.

“Ronan is inside with her.”

“What?” I whipped my head to glare at my second in command. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now for letting a man I don’t know, a rival Mafia head, in a room with my wife?”

“I would be shaking in terror if you were currently strong enough to wipe your own ass,” Romeo deadpanned. Before I could say anything else, he added, “Finnegan is the reason we’re not all dead. We didn’t have enough uninjured men to stand as guards, so he offered to stay with her.”

“You should have stayed with her.”

“I’m your second. I stay with you.”

I clenched my jaw but didn’t respond because we were finally in front of Sofiya’s room. I pushed the door open. My heart pounded in anticipation at seeing my wife. Would she scream at me? Kick me out of the room? I deserved it. I deserved all her anger, her judgement. I would withstand it all just to be close to her, to satisfy the desperate craving in my body to be with her always.

I was prepared for anything she threw at me, but what I wasn’t ready for was replaceing an empty bed. Romeo ran ahead and checked the bathroom. He shook his head when he turned back around.

“My phone,” I choked out.

Romeo pulled it out of his pocket and I opened the tracking app, sending out a prayer to the universe that she hadn’t taken her necklace off.

Her dot was at the airport, and my heart thudded against my chest. My hands shook as I called her. No answer.

“I’m calling Ronan,” Romeo said. He held the phone to his ear and then cursed, hanging up and shaking his head.

Just then, my phone rang, but it was Sienna, not Sofiya. I almost didn’t answer—I had to stay focused on my wife right now—but then I realized my sister would likely have Leona’s phone number.

“Matteo, Sofiya is going to Chicago,” Sienna said immediately when I answered.

“What?” I put the call on speakerphone so Romeo could hear.

“Nikolai called me. Rustik is forcing Mila to marry Arben. Sofiya, Ronan, and Leona are going to stop the wedding.”

“Get the plane ready,” I told Romeo.

Sienna inhaled sharply. “Matteo, you can’t go. Romeo said you’d been shot, which makes that the second time this week.”

“If you think for one moment I’m going to let my wife face Rustik and Arben alone, you don’t fucking know me!” I roared.

“Fuck, Matteo,” Sienna said with a sigh. “Just be careful, okay? I need you both to come back.”

“I will,” I promised. Romeo moved me to the door, and I took the call off speaker. “How’s Noodle?”

Sienna paused for a moment before answering. “He seems sad. He just lies by the door crying. I think he misses Sofiya.”

That made two of us.

“I’ll bring her back home,” I vowed. “For all of us.”

There was no life for me without her. I may have been too foolish to see it at first, but now that I knew, I would never let her go.