Wedded, Bedded, Betrayed. Michelle Smart

to plan an escape route in her head.

      He thought of Paul, the captain of his yacht, who would soon be on the lookout for his return.

      ‘Give me one moment,’ he said, pulling his phone out of his pouch and pressing the emergency button that would connect him.

      ‘Paul, I need the jet ski to be brought to the north harbour immediately.’ It was one of the many contingency plans they had spent two days running through. Gabriele attempting one of these contingency plans with a woman in tow hadn’t been in any of the blueprints.

      His call done with, he sliced his penknife through the ropes binding the woman and quickly pulled the lengths away from her. Dark red welts encircled her wrists where the man had cruelly tied the rope so it bit into her tender flesh.

      A groan came from the floor.

      Gabriele ignored the urge to throw himself on the prostrate man and kick him in the ribs. Avenging this woman might give fleeting satisfaction but they could not afford to waste a single moment.

      ‘Can you walk?’ he asked, wrapping an arm around her waist and helping her sit up.

      The woman was tiny. With white-blonde hair tied in a messy ponytail and those large green eyes, she reminded him of a porcelain doll. Breakable.

      She nodded, but allowed him to help her to her feet. He wrinkled his nose. She smelt like a...bonfire? Studying her in more depth, he revised his porcelain doll opinion and altered it to grubby urchin.

      Suddenly it came to him why she looked so familiar.

      He recalled a small, doll-like girl from his youth, who had dressed like a boy and been able to climb a tree faster than anyone and then shimmy back down it as if a twenty-foot drop was nothing to worry about.

      This was Ignazio’s only daughter, Elena.

      He was putting his life at risk for his enemy’s daughter?

      This woman was his enemy every bit as much as her father was. When Gabriele brought Ignazio’s downfall he had every intention of bringing his entire family down with him.

      The man on the floor’s groans were becoming louder. Elena was eying him with a look that suggested she very much wanted to kick him in the ribs too.

      ‘We need to leave now.’ Gabriele grabbed her hand, having the presence of mind to avoid her wrists, and tugged her away and through to the dressing room she’d spoken of.

      Whatever his personal feelings towards her and her family, and his plan to destroy them all, his destruction did not include allowing a vulnerable woman to be at the mercy of four armed men, one of whom he’d heard with his own ears wanted to hurt her.

      He might hate Elena’s family but he still wouldn’t abandon her to such a fate.

      He pulled the sash window up and looked out. As she’d said, a sloping roof ran under it.

      Gabriele heaved himself out, dropping a couple of feet onto the roof.

      ‘Come,’ he said, righting himself when he was certain the roof was stable enough to hold his weight without crumbling beneath him.

      Elena was already hoisting herself over the ledge. He put his hands to her tiny waist and helped her out, holding her tightly until he was sure she was secure on the roof. Apart from her bare feet, she was dressed in the perfect attire for escape, in long black shorts and a baggy khaki T-shirt.

      Without exchanging a word, they both shimmied down to the edge of the roof.

      ‘Rescue is coming from the north beach,’ he said as he tried to get his bearings as to where they were, exactly, in conjunction with said beach. ‘We need to run to the right.’

      She nodded, grim determination on her face, and then expertly swung over the edge so she was holding onto the rim of the roof with her fingers.

      Being much larger, it took Gabriele a little longer to drop down. Before he could let go, she’d released her hold and fallen onto the wraparound veranda. Immediately she was back on her feet and jumping over the wooden rail and running to safety...except she was running to the left of the beach and not the right as they’d agreed.

      He let go. He landed heavily but ignored the pain that shot up his leg and set off after her, calling as loudly as he dared, ‘You’re going the wrong way.’

      She didn’t look back. The band holding her hair back had come out, her long, straight white-blonde hair billowing behind her.

      * * *

      Run, Elena, run.

      In her mind’s eye she pictured the tree house her father’s staff had built for her and her brothers when they’d been children. If she could only reach it undetected, she would be safe.

      But no matter how quickly she ran along the beach, she could hear him gaining on her.

      Gabriele Mantegna. A man she vaguely remembered from her childhood. A man who scared her as much as the armed men in her family’s holiday home.

      This was the man who had spent two years in an American federal prison and tried to implicate her father in his criminality.

      In the distance ahead was the pathway that led into the forest and to her sanctuary.

      She pushed on even harder but still he gained ground. His breaths were heavy behind her.

      She wasn’t going to make it.

      A burst of fury rent through her, overriding her fear. She would not allow herself to be captured by this man.

      Coming to an abrupt halt, she turned on the spot and charged, propelling her entire body at him. It was like charging at a brick wall.

      But her ruse worked. Taken by surprise, Gabriele stumbled back onto the sand. Unfortunately he wasn’t so off guard that he didn’t immediately hook his foot around her ankle, sending her tumbling on top of him. Within seconds he had gained the upper hand, twisting her onto her back and pinioning her beneath him.

      ‘Are you trying to get yourself killed?’ he demanded, his angry breath hot on her face.

      Bucking beneath him, she tried everything she could to throw him off but she was too tightly caught.

      Gabriele swore and, panther-like, sprang back to his feet. There was no way for her to escape again for he unceremoniously pulled her up, hooked an arm around her waist, and slung her over his shoulder.

      No sooner had he started running than shouts echoed from the house.

      Terror as she had never experienced, not even when she’d unexpectedly stumbled upon the gang, careered through her.

      Yet, even with the indignity of being carried like a naughty child and the pain in her stomach as it jostled against his shoulder, when the first gun shots rang out she squeezed her eyes shut and thanked God for Gabriele’s strength, and prayed for the shots to fire wide.

      She had no idea how long he ran with her thrown over his shoulder. It could have been one minute, it could have been an hour. All she knew was that the men were chasing and firing at them.

      And then he was no longer running with her on the sand but wading through the sea. An engine ran close by. She hardly had time to register that a jet ski had appeared from nowhere before Gabriele had climbed onto it and shouted, ‘Go!’

      Whoever was driving didn’t need telling twice. The jet ski shot off over the still waters.

      Somehow Gabriele manipulated her body so she was no longer draped over his shoulder but secured on his lap, sandwiched between him and the man riding the jet ski.

      Within minutes they approached an enormous yacht. To Elena’s amazement, they steered straight into an opened hatch on the side and parked, exactly as if they were parking a car in a garage.

      Gabriele and the man who’d ridden the jet ski helped her off.

      ‘Are you all right?’