Loyalty.

Marcello’s P.O.V

I had lost count of how many punches I’d thrown, but the bastard tied to the chair before me was still breathing, though barely.

Blood dripped from my fingerless gloves, splattering the concrete floors in uneven bursts. The fucker whimpered, his head hanging low on his chest, but I wasn’t done. Traitors didn’t get mercy–not in my world.

“One thing I hate the most is rats,” my voice was calm, almost bored, though inside I was seething. “They are the most disgusting bottom rung rodent, living in trash and with no sense of loyalty. You…I took you in when you were on the streets, Deficiente! You were fucking nothing!” I grabbed his hair, jerking his head back so he could look me in the eyes. “But that didn’t fucking matter to you!”

“Hai infranto la sola regola nel mio impero, e questo,” I gestured to the mangled mess of his face, “e cio che succede ai ratti!”

My fist flew again, crashing against his jaw. His moans were music to my ear. Something cracked. Teeth spilled to the floor and more blood gurgled down his mugged face.

“Now, I’m not merciful, but you will tell me who sent you or,” I reached for a blade hanging from my leather apron. “I will dice your tongue and wrap it as a present to your children.”

He started to make horrified sounds and just when I had him where he was about to start confessing, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Gritting my teeth, I wiped the blood off my gloves on his shirt, muttering, “Fortunato bastardo,” before stepping away to answer.

“Carlo,” i said as I clicked the line. “This had better be a life or death situation or I will kill you.”

“Boss,” came my second in commmand’s hesitant tone. “It’s Ambrosia.”

I clenched my teeth. Carlo had been tailing her all week, per my orders but I didn’t need his fucking commentary on the woman. “Spit it out, Carlo.”

“She just got back from a trip to the hospital,” he said quickly, “And her husband’s beating the living daylights out of her. It’s bad, Don Marcello. Real bad.”

A muscle twitched in my jaw. “And you’re calling me because?”

“I thought–”

“You thought fucking what?” My voice was ice. “Why would I give a shit about a whore and her husband’s fists?”

Carlo immediately backtracked. “Sorry, Boss. I–”

“Next time, I will put your time into better use.” I snapped, ending the call.

But even as I turned back to the traitor who had tried to shoot me in my sleep, Carlo’s words lingered in my mind and I hated that they did. If he thought I was keeping tabs on Ambrosia because I was interested in her life, then he was damn wrong. Her husband owed me money and I needed to know their every moves in case they decided to run away…again. Not because she wiggled under my skin like a fucking parasite.

With a low growl, I retrieved my blade and moved back to him. “Where were we?”

One of my men had gagged his mouth when I was taking the call so his voice was muffled as he shook his head from side to side, crying.

Another thing i hated more than rats were traitors who couldn't take their punishments like real men. He had been eager to fucking betray me for just a few hundred grands and now he was crying and begging for my mercy.

As soon as I learnt who had sent him to kill me, I would get rid of every last one of his family. Although everyone kept insisting it was my uncle, I knew the De Haas pride would never let him hire a hitman on me. Lucio would want to take my own life by his own hand.

So who sent this fucker? I slid the blade down his side, grinning at the red trail that followed the cut. He howled in pain and I imagined it was Steven Barnes in this seat instead of him. Just like that, my mind drifted to Ambrosia’s face–her swollen lips, the lust and anger in her tear-filled eyes that night I’d fucked the peace out of her marriage.

Damn her.

“Please don, Please,” the gagged man cried and I removed the napkin stuffed into his mouth.

“Are you ready to talk now?”

He shook his head and whispered. “Just kill me don. It doesn’t matter if I tell you, you will still kill me but at least my family will live.”

A dark smile twisted my lips and I brought the blade to his neck, ready to slice him from ear to ear and then have him patched up for more torture when my phone buzzed again.

It was fucking Carlo!

“Looks like today is your lucky day,” I muttered, shoving the phone back into my pocket. “We will continue this some other time.”

Throwing off my apron, I left the rat there, making a beeline for my car. On the way, I shrugged into a jacket handed to me by one of my men and slid behind the wheel, before roughly pulling out of my driveway like a bat out of hell. By the time I reached the Barnes Villa, stopping my car right behind Carlo’s, I realized why he was calling me.

The inside of the Barnes house was visible from outside, I could see everything through the huge glass windows and the sight made my blood boil.

Ambrosia was huddled in the corner, her body battered and broken as her husband kicked and punched her. Her face was a mess of bruises and the blood on her twisted my gut. Finally, Barnes stopped hitting her and disappeared into the bedroom. My breath caught as I watched her struggle to her feet. Fucking hell, how could she even stand up with her condition. What did I even care? I shouldn’t be here today. Tomorrow morning was when the time I gave them for the debt would run out, yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Before she even made headway, Steven returned with a fucking gun.

I saw red.

Without thinking, I bolted from my car, ran across their yard in a few steps before kicking their door down. I charged into the house and none of them even heard me coming.

As he raised the gun toward her, my dagger was already in my hand. With a growl, I swung it and severed his hand clean at the wrist.

His scream was deafening, blood spraying everywhere but before the gun hit the floor, his fingers spasmed on the trigger and a shot rang out.

My heart stopped as I saw Ambrosia’s body jerk. She crumpled into the ground, blood blooming over her chest like a macabre flower.

“No!” I yelled, running to her and dropping to my knees beside her.

She was still breathing but fucking barely. Her eyes fluttered shut as blood pooled beneath her.

“Carlo!” I bellowed at the man who was already running into the house.

“Take care of him!” I ordered, jerking my head toward Steven who was writhing on the ground and screaming like a pig. “I don’t care how. Just make sure I never see his face again.”

“Yes, Boss,” Carlo hesitated only a moment before dragging the bastard out of my sight.

Lifting Ambrosia into my arms, I carried her out to my car, ignoring the blood soaking into my jacket.

“Don’t you fucking die on me,” I choked as I settled her into the backseat. “You hear me, Ambrosia? I’m not letting you die because of that pig.”

The drive back to my estate was a blur of screeching tires and near accidents. My knuckles were white on the wheels and my jaw clenched so tightly it ached.

By the time I arrived home and carried her into the infirmary, Ambrosia didn’t have a fucking pulse. My team of doctors tried to take her away from me but I yelled at them, shoving them aside as I donned scrubs and gloves. I didn’t trust them with her. Only I could fucking save her.

Soon I prepped her for surgery and began extracting the bullet. But the blood wouldn't stop. As she breathed a shallow, wheezing breath, the blood smeared my gloved hands, and soaked down what used to be her cream shirt.

“Why the fuck am i doing this?” I asked the empty room as I made another incision to widen the wound. “You’re just another woman. Another useless fucking woman. Don’t you fucking die, bella! You hear me? You don’t get to die unless I say so!”

It felt like I was losing my damn mind. Soliloquizing one minute and threatening her the next. Finally I extracted every piece of the bullet that had shattered in her breast, almost piercing her lungs. Her blood seeped onto the table as I stitched the wound shut. But she nearly bled out twice. The second time, I had to clamp an artery. My gloves were soaked, my scrubs sticky but I refused to give up on her.

“You’re mine” I growled, yanking the final thread tight and then cutting it. Her chest rose and fell in uneven jerks, but the bleeding had now stopped. I peeled off the gloves, tossing them onto the floor as I stepped back. My knees buckled and i slid down the wall, staring at her still form.

My hands were stained red, the smell of blood thick in my nostrils. But then I started laughing. The sound was wild and unhinged but I couldn’t stop. I threw my head back and cackled like a fucking lunatic.

These same hands I used to take lives, I just used it to save a woman's.

After composing myself, I dragged myself to my feet, peeling off the scrub gown and tossing it onto the floor. I stepped out of the O.R to my doctors who had dared to linger in the doorway.

“She’s under your care now,” I allowed my voice to convey my rage for the first time. “I expect you to clean her up and keep her stable. If she so much as twitches wrong, you’ll pay for it with your lives, understand?”

They nodded, trembling and I strode out of the infirmary to my main house. I didn’t stop until I reached my bedroom and straight to my bathroom, shucking off my clothing along the line.

The moment the bathroom door shut behind me, I stepped into the shower and turned up the heat. I hissed at the first blast of scalding water, but it didn’t burn nearly as much as the mess of emotions twisting inside me.

Her blood swirled down the drain, dark red against the white tiles. I braced my hands against the walk, trembling as the memory of her broken body flashed behind my eyes.

I couldn’t get her out of my head. Her pale skin. Fuck, the blood. I had almost lost her.

Funny enough, my cock twitched and hardened full mast once I glanced again at the patches of her blood still on my hands.

“Fuck,” I muttered, gripping my hard length with one blood stained hand. Using the slickness of her blood on my hand, I stroked myself roughly, jerking my steel flesh as hard as I could.

”You’re fucking mine, Bella,” I hissed, fucking into my fist. “You’re not allowed to die. Your living or death belongs to me. Your life is mine! i miei!”

My release spilled out of me unexpectedly, gushing out and splattering on the floor, leaving me gasping for air as the water washed away the evidence.

As I came down from my orgasmic high, the thoughts that she could have died ripped me into shreds. Not because I gave a shit about her…but because her eyes hadn’t looked at me with that same undying loyalty she looked at Steven with.