Emmanuelle lifted her chin. She wasn’t going to hide from her brothers. She knew they loved her. Eloisa might not. She knew her father never had. Valentino wanted her physically. He couldn’t hide that fact from her, and he wanted her for whatever her shadow could provide for the Saldi family.
“Would you take him into the shadows if he asked you to?” Giovanni asked.
“No. That’s what I don’t really understand about this story. Something had to have been left out. For instance, if Grace had been taken by Miceli and he tied her shadow to his, why would she go into any shadow to spy for him, if he knew she could? What could he do to force her? Cause her pain? First, Grace isn’t a rider. She doesn’t know how to get into the shadows. It wouldn’t work, and he’d just be angry. If he got his hands on me, I’d cut his throat the first chance I got. Unless they have some way of stopping us from doing that.”
Emmanuelle was back to pacing across the floor. “I think Valentino told me part of the story, not all of it. And when I asked him how to undo the ties, he refused to answer. He just said he would never let me go.” God help her, there was a part of her that was thrilled with his declaration, and she was too ashamed to admit that to anyone. She barely could admit it to herself.
“Clearly, the only way we’re going to get answers is to talk to Valentino,” Stefano said. “Although I doubt he’s going to be forthcoming if he thinks we’re trying to take you from him.”
“If he already suspects we can move around in the shadows, but Emme isn’t admitting our family secrets to him,” Vittorio said, “why would he want to give up his family secrets to us? He has no incentive to do so.”
“Maybe a gun to his head?” Giovanni muttered.
Emmanuelle pressed a hand to her already knotted stomach. Her breasts hurt, the bruises now making themselves known. Mo must have landed a blow just under her breasts as well. She was beginning to feel a little beat-up. The adrenaline of being in the shadows had worn off, and exhaustion was setting in.
“Gee, I love you, but now isn’t the time for your dark humor.” She knew he wasn’t really joking, but she was going to pretend he was. “I’m looking for positive help for both of us, Val and me, not just me. He’s trying to shut down a human trafficking ring. He’s been trying to do so for well over two years, pretty much alone. I wish he’d come to us, but like I said, we didn’t talk about our families. He doesn’t know what we do. He didn’t know we could help him. He has to have tons of information by this time.”
Stefano watched her pace for a few minutes, his eyes narrowed and watchful. “Miceli has to have cops on the take, otherwise Val would have managed to give them whatever information he had to shut this ring down if he couldn’t do it with Giuseppi’s men.”
“From what Dario indicated, they might not know who they can trust in Giuseppi’s organization anymore,” Emmanuelle said.
“Are you injured, Emme?” Stefano asked.
One didn’t lie to Stefano. “I took a couple of punches, but fortunately I’m only bruised, nothing major. There’s not much that can be done for bruises.”
“Mariko can take a look,” Ricco offered. “She’s good with healing.”
“Thanks, Ricco.” Emmanuelle smiled at her brother. “It really is nothing. Just aches a little. I’d like to get this over with so I can rest. Stefano?”
“I’ve texted Val. Told him it’s urgent I have a meeting with him tonight. That I’d like to bring Ricco and you with me, Emme. That it is best if Giuseppi isn’t present, and it is up to his discretion if he wants Dario there, but we will be discussing his association with you.”
“His reply?” Vittorio asked.
“He corrected me. He said he would be more than happy to discuss his relationship with his woman. Giuseppi has eaten, showered and retired for the night at the opposite end of the suite with two of their trusted bodyguards on him. He said come when we’re ready.”
Emmanuelle could feel the tension in the room rising the minute Stefano relayed Valentino’s reply. He had thrown down the gauntlet, declaring she belonged to him. Val could be just as arrogant and annoying as her brothers. He’d been raised the way they had, training to take over an empire, learning to fight, even to kill.
She knew Val’s life hadn’t been easy. She knew he’d seen things that had been traumatizing. He’d done things he wasn’t proud of and didn’t want her to know about. That was the life he’d been born into, just as she’d been born into hers. She’d told herself she would ask him what his family was into before she committed to him, but then she’d gone to him, prepared to accept him on any terms. Now, she knew, she couldn’t do that. Now, she knew, everything was very, very different.
Before, Emmanuelle had been absolutely certain Val loved her. When they came together physically, the chemistry was explosive. Sex was certainly not love. Even if that lasted their entire life together because of the connection of their shadows, she still wanted to be loved for who she was. Everything they had together had been built on deception.
She gingerly hugged her brothers before going to the elevator with Stefano and Ricco. Stefano caught her chin as they rode to the correct floor. “You want out at any time, you just give an indication and we’ll take you out.”
She nodded, blinking rapidly. She loved her family so much. “Thank you, Stefano. This is difficult for him as well. We’re just kind of in this place where we don’t know what to do.”
He cupped her chin, looking into her eyes even as the doors slid open and Drago and Demetrio appeared, looking for a moment as if they might shoot first and ask questions later. Stefano refused to look away from her.
“I made absolutely certain that Francesca couldn’t escape me, Emmanuelle. I knew she was mine. She belonged to me. I wasn’t about to let her get away. I’ve never regretted that decision, and I’ve worked every day to see that she doesn’t regret being with me. I’m not a nice man. I’ll never be one. You and I both know Valentino isn’t a nice man, either. I don’t want him for you, and I’m not standing up for him, but I am saying, just because he used every method he had available to him to tie you to him doesn’t mean he did it for all the wrong reasons.” His thumb slid along her jaw. “Keep that in mind when you listen to him.” Stefano dropped his hand and stepped back, indicating for her to precede him into the suite.
Emmanuelle pressed her hand over her thudding heart. She just wanted this over. Seeing Val after all this time, two years of avoiding him, of learning to live without him, of not feeling him running along her nerve endings like a song, was just too much. She needed downtime. Somewhere she could go to be alone and just stare off into space and not think. Not feel. Not hurt anymore.
Dario stood in the foyer. “I assume you gentlemen are armed.”
“You assume correctly,” Stefano said. “Not that it matters. I’m quite capable of killing someone without a weapon.”
Dario didn’t smile—in fact, when his dark eyes slid over Emmanuelle, he frowned. “Emme. Are you injured?”
She wasn’t even walking, and he asked the same question Stefano had. So much for being stoic. She shook her head. “Nope. Just fine.”