“Bébé, you trust me with your body. When are you going to trust me with your heart?” He asked the question softly, aching for both of them. His heart was already involved. All those years of thinking about her, despising the fact that he’d hurt her because he’d been young and stupid and so angry that the Archambaults had stolen his childhood and made him an object rather than a human being. But in reality, hadn’t her parents done the same to her? She’d turned out compassionate and warm.
“I’m afraid, Elie.” Her voice was a mere thread of sound. “I’m all or nothing. If you shattered me, I’d never be able to put myself back together.”
He heard the raw truth in the admission and it humbled him. He’d protected his heart for so long against everyone, never realizing until Stefano showed him a man could be strong and still love his family fiercely. Somehow, Brielle had slipped inside him, even when she wasn’t present. Had she been real all along, or was she his fantasy? He was as terrified as she was to make that huge leap of faith.
“It’s the same for both of us, Brielle. You aren’t alone in that particular fear.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Hello, Dino,” Elie greeted softly. “I heard you were looking for me.”
Dino Colombo whirled around to stare at him, shocked that Elie Archambault would show up in the middle of the night in his private locked office. In his home—his gated home—the one with his security force all around him. He was also very aware his father and mother were in the house as well. They had come to visit and were spending the night in the guest suite just one story below his office.
“Move away from your desk,” Elie instructed in a clear, concise and very low voice. “Normally, I would have simply killed you and let it go at that, but I thought maybe we could talk this out. I know your desk is equipped with an alarm button and several weapons. If you reach for either, it will be the last move you ever make. Know that at this moment, every member of your family has a member of my family visiting them, including your wife. Make the wrong move and they will all be wiped out. I suggest you very quietly take the chair out in the middle of the room facing me.”
Dino glared at him. “You don’t know who you’re screwing with, Archambault.” He pushed off the edge of his desk, took three strides and dropped into the chair that had mysteriously been set up in the center of his office.
Elie let silence stretch between them for a few moments. Then he smiled. The smile didn’t touch his eyes and was rather cruel. “I know everything there is to know about you. When we send assassins, we make certain our investigators don’t fuck up. You take orders like any good little minion, so you didn’t bother to check Valentino, Dario or me out for yourself. You took the word of your good friend Carlo Santoro in New York. Unfortunately for you, he fucked up royally. He was so careful not to give the order to touch a Ferraro. There’s a reason for that, Dino. No one ever touches them because once that happens, retaliation is swift and brutal.”
Dino did his best to look bored. “Just because you know Santoro’s name doesn’t mean shit. And everyone who’s anyone knows you don’t fuck with the Ferraros.”
“Valentino Saldi is married to Emmanuelle Ferraro, the youngest and only girl in the Chicago Ferraro family.”
Dino straightened in his chair, looking as if Elie had struck him. “That’s not possible.”
Stefano moved out of the shadows and sat on the edge of the desk, folding his arms across his chest. “She’s my baby sister.” His hooded eyes burned a hole right through Dino’s shocked gaze.
Dino began to shake his head and sputter.
Elie took out a photograph and slapped it into Dino’s large hand. “Take a look at that. My bride walking down the aisle to me. Brielle Couture. Recognize the man walking her down the aisle?”
Dino’s big fingers nearly crushed the picture as he looked at the man in the suit, so clearly Stefano Ferraro. “I’m sorry, Mr. Ferraro, I didn’t know.”
“Look at me, not him,” Elie said quietly. “Brielle is married to me. First you gave the order to kill her. When that didn’t happen, you sent two teams, first with the order to kill her, then at the last minute it was changed to kidnap her. You’re part of an international human trafficking ring. Who gave that order to you that she was to be kidnapped, not killed? Understand, Dino, the lives of your entire family are at stake.”
“The order came from Carlo Santoro at the last minute. The Santoro family is tied to the Toselli family in Barcelona through marriage,” Dino supplied. He tried to sound arrogant, as if just the name Toselli would scare Elie and Stefano.