Scorned Obsession Bonus Scene (Renz and Liz)
Liz
“Mama, when will Dad come home?”
I hugged my daughter, Sam. She’d asked this question a hundred times over the past three days since Renz and Bianca went missing.
When Renz failed to call and tell me he was done with deliveries and on his way home, a nagging feeling came over me. At around eight, the location pin from his phone disappeared, and I started calling him, alternating with trying to reach Bianca. Their phones gave weird messages and after three attempts on both phones, I called Nico.
Not texted. Called.
Because instinct was pushing me not to waste another second.
“Liz?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m worried about Renz and Bianca. They’re not answering their phones.”
“Poor reception?”
“No, they’re in Brooklyn.”
“Okay, let me see what I can find out.”
The situation escalated from there. Trevor, their communications specialist and the one in charge of setting up all our phones, said they were turned off. They found the delivery van later near a dock, and whoever was responsible made it look like it was stripped for parts, but the De Luccis knew better.
Nico had been running point on this family crisis since Dom and Matteo had been in Chicago and Cesar had been in Italy.
But now, three days later, everyone had returned, having meetings, and going out on the streets. Ava had a crew come in to help with Jabbin’ Java because I’d been a wreck and could not function the morning after their disappearance. It was so hard to stay strong for Sam and I had to take breaks to cry in the bathroom.
But my daughter was perceptive, and she was getting scared too. I couldn’t answer this time.
“Mama,” she said pensively. “Did Dad and Aunt Bianca go to heaven?”
Ava, Sera, and Ivy had taken turns staying with us, but at this moment, they were in between shifts, leaving me alone in my fear. The brave face I kept for my daughter crumpled.
“No, baby, no.” Please don’t say that. Renz is my soulmate. I refused to believe I wouldn’t see him again. “Your dad loves us,” my voice cracked, burying my nose in my daughter’s baby-shampoo scented hair. If it wasn’t for Sam, I would be sobbing on the floor. “He’ll do everything to come back to us. He and Aunt Bianca are just delayed.”
“They’re lost?”
The door rattling open saved me from answering. Matteo and Sera entered. His face was grim and my stomach plummeted.
I rose slowly. Once upon a time Matteo looked upon me with disdain, but over the years our relationship had changed and he’d become the older brother I never had.
His eyes fell on Sam, but before he could say anything, Sera reached for my daughter. “Come on, pumpkin, let’s get you dressed.”
“We’re going to see Daddy?” she asked with all the hope a six-year-old could express. I didn’t hear Sera’s murmur to my daughter. I swallowed the tacks in my throat and shifted my gaze to Matteo.
“A van dropped off Renz at Mount Sinai,” he said. “He appears to have a treated gunshot wound to his upper left shoulder. The fuckers who took him had sedated him, but he’s slowly coming out of it. They’re running some tests, but the prognosis is positive.”
A suppressed sob and cautious relief escaped my mouth. But why was Matteo still looking so grim and angry? Oh…God…of course. “Bianca?”
He shook his head, but it was obvious he was trying to keep it together and couldn’t speak. I reached out and squeezed his arm. “Let me throw something on. I’ll be quick.”
The ride to the hospital was fraught with tension, only filled with Sam’s chatter. It was almost ten p.m. Way past her bedtime, but my daughter was wired. It was probably because I didn’t have the energy to say no when she wanted more cookies. Hell, I survived on sweets and pastry these past few days. Regular food tasted like cardboard.
When we arrived at the emergency room, Nico was outside on the phone, but when he saw us, he slipped the phone into his pocket.
“Renz?” Matteo asked.
“I was about to call you. He’s coming out of sedation.”
“Bianca?” Sera asked.
Nico’s face was etched in fury and frustration.“We don’t know yet.”
Renz had been moved from the emergency room to a private suite. We heard raised voices. Ava and Cesar.
What the hell?
The door opened, and Ava shoved Cesar out. “Calm your shit, Cesar. You’re not helping.”
“Hi Gramma,” Sam said in a small voice, clutching my hand and obviously disturbed by the murderous expression on Cesar’s face. I was confused. Ava seemed more calm, so it couldn’t be all bad.
“Oh, honey,” she said when she saw me and my daughter. “Come on in. Renz can’t wait to see you.”
I rushed into the room with my daughter, shutting out the chaos that erupted behind us.
“Babe,” I went to Renz’s side. Tears tracked down the corners of his eyes and he was staring at the ceiling. The devastation on his face gave me pause. What happened to Bianca? I glanced at Ava, unsure how to proceed.
“Bianca is fine,” she told us, but her words were also unsure.
“She’s not fine,” Renz snapped, and the effort to talk cost him. A grimace of pain flashed across his face. “She was forced to marry,” he gritted. “She’s not fucking fine.”
“She married Sandro,” Ava said gently. “Sandro will protect her.”
Renz said nothing, but fumed in silence.
Oh my God. I didn’t know what to say, but I knew what to do. These De Lucci men were ferally protective of Bianca. No wonder Cesar looked as if he could tear down an entire hospital. I pulled up a chair and set Sam on top of it.
“Daddy,” Sam whispered.
Renz closed his eyes and turned to look at our daughter and then at me. I clasped his hand. “Tell me what you need, babe.”
His mouth compressed as if he was fighting back more tears. “Stay with me.”
A crash outside the door and more shouting pulled our attention.
“I better check on the guys before hospital security throws them out,” Ava muttered.
Poor Ava, but I admired the strength she wielded in a house full of alphas. Renz was gentler and more sensitive than his older brothers, but when it came to the women in their family, especially Bianca, who they’d doted on all their lives, this explained the devastation on my husband’s face and the blowup outside the room.
I bit back my fear, but I communicated through my eyes how relieved I was to have him back.
“Daddy, what’s wrong with your shoulder?”
“A bad guy shot me,” Renz stated baldly. “Sandro took care of it.”
The man was dead.
“Aunt Bianca married Sandro?”
“He did.”
“But she didn’t want to? Auntie loves Sandro.”
Renz exhaled a ragged sigh and winced again, adjusting himself with difficulty on the bed.
“Let your dad rest, okay? Not too many questions.”
“I’m sleepy, Mama.”
I guided her to a cot beside Renz’s bed. After removing her shoes, she dropped sideways. There was an extra pillow I grabbed and put between her arms. I forgot to get her stuffed penguin, Alfie.
I turned back to Renz and approached his bed tentatively. He opened his palm, and I slid mine into his. I touched his forehead. He was hot, but not alarmingly so. “Are you feeling okay? Do you need anything?”
“Check on Dad and Mom. And you can send my brothers in.”
“You need your rest.”
“I’m fading,” he admitted. “I just want to say hey to them, at least.”
For the first time since I saw him, a corner of his mouth hitched up. And I leaned over and kissed him lightly on the mouth. The grip on my hand tightened, and I said, “I love you.”
“I’m sorry to worry you.”
“Don’t apologize. Whatever happened, I’m sure you did what you had to do.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Not enough.”
Loud voices echoed outside again.
“You better get them into this room.”
I went to the door and poked my head out. “Renz wants to see the guys.”
“Probably so they won’t tear the hospital apart,” Sera muttered.
The three men looked like they’d exploded into the Hulk.
Matteo was about to cross the threshold when I stopped him. “His trying to stay awake, but please, nothing too heavy, okay?”
The thought of almost losing Renz made me tear up.
Matteo’s face softened. “You got it, sis.”
I let the men have their time with Renz and closed the door, crossed my arms, and hugged my biceps, but I did not know how close I was to collapsing on the floor until Sera and Ivy rushed toward me.
It was as if a balloon of anxiety suddenly popped. My knees gave out and I started bawling. “He’s all right, he’s all right,” I got out and tried to keep my crying down.
They propped me up and suddenly I found myself in Ava’s arms and I was sobbing into her chest.
She stroked my hair. “We were all scared, sweetie.”
I pulled away and stared at her. “But you’re so strong.”
She sighed heavily, and that was when I saw the weariness bracketing her eyes and the sheen of tears. “Someone needed to keep it together. I am terrified, but I had to keep an eye on the boys and Cesar so they didn’t make things worse.
“Come on, let’s make sure they’re not grilling Renz,” Ava continued. “My boy needs his rest.”
* * *
Renz
The men of my family entered the room, and the guilt that I let them down was an unrelenting ache in my heart. Or maybe it was my gunshot wound that was throbbing and radiating across my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I rasped.
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Dad said firmly, coming to my side and clasped my forearm on the unwounded side. “The Rossis are going to pay.”
“How did it happen?” Nico asked. “Bianca should have been in the van.”
“Don’t tax yourself.” Matteo shot our brother a glare. “I promised Liz we would not grill you.”
“Bianca,” I said her name in painful syllables. “She somehow ended up at the party. Sandro was getting engaged to Griselda.”
“Wait a minute. I thought Bianca married Sandro.”
I was too high to explain, or even choose my words carefully to avoid setting them of. “Short of it is…someone shot me. And Gian—”
“Gian? That fucker Gian? How?” Nico started and Dad nudged him to shut up.
Good, because I was fucking tired. “Gian said Bianca should marry him so Dad can’t retaliate…” I ignored my father’s choked fury. He started pacing the room. The edges of my vision dimmed. “Sandro took his place.”
I was pretty sure even with my slurred words, they understood because what followed were more raised voices. I heard Mom enter the room shooing out the guys. I felt Liz hold my hand, and I knew it was my angel, because I fell asleep with a deep calm.
But then I’d have wakeful moments. One of them was Matteo telling me to get up while he threatened me with the bedpan. I had dreams of walking with my brother, muttering jokes to me about pissing on myself. But when I finally escaped the grogginess, the sun was up. I glanced down to see Liz’s golden head resting on her crossed arms. Her hair fell like sunshine across the stark white of the bedsheet. Samantha was not on the cot, but I figured Mom probably took my daughter home with her. The long couch in the suite was empty too, but it was indented enough that I figured one of my brothers or Dad slept there.
The night was hazy.
I glanced back at my wife. The ache in my chest puffed with the enormity of my love for this girl.
The first time I saw her, I was a goner.
Seven Years Ago
Matteo had been on my ass again about my Harvard acceptance letter and reaching out to their admissions department, figuring out the next step like housing. He couldn’t fathom why I wanted to take a gap year because I didn’t want my parents to waste money on a degree I wasn’t even lukewarm about. Numbers weren’t my thing. The idea of doing business negotiations in board rooms while wearing a ten thousand dollar designer suit made my skin crawl. Hell, it was even a challenge to get me to wear a suit to formal events. But I didn’t feel like an outcast. I inherited the salt-of-the-earth personality from the McGrath side of the family. Outside elite gatherings, Mom still wore jeans and sneakers and Dad loved her just the way she was.
But they were united when it came to me getting an education. Mom even suggested NYU, which my snobbish eldest brother sneered at.
That was why I was in a shitty mood that morning.
Until I saw her.
Sheathes of golden hair drew my attention.
But what had me heading in her direction was her slumped shoulders and bowed head. She was using her hair to cover her face from embarrassment because that asshole Redmond Hilliard was taunting her.
I detested bullies. My brother Nico had been bullied in this very school and everyone ignored it. But when the truth came to light, the headmaster was investigated and booted out.
The institution regained its power and was not left to be ruled by the select elite with money.
Hilliard was surrounded by his minions. Football jocks and cheerleaders.
They were ganging up on her.
I clenched my fists.
“You’re my parents’ charity case. Couldn’t you have dressed better? You’re an insult to the Hilliard legacy.”
I hastened my steps.
“Yes, from what dumpster did you get those shoes?” a cheerleader said. “And those knee-high socks could have belonged to my nanna.”
Mocking laughter erupted around the girl.
My approach was from their side. All I saw was her upper body, but as I got closer, I spotted the shoes and socks in question.
I wasn’t a popular student by choice. My standoffishness to the elite had garnered me a bad boy reputation and yeah, I had my raging hormones and random hookups with girls in school, but I never had a girlfriend.
I had a feeling that was about to change.
I pushed through the crowed and stood in front of her, ignoring the gasps and protests that broke out. When she lifted her face to see what was going on, her ocean blue eyes struck me speechless. Adorable freckles dusted her sweet, vulnerable face. The organ inside my chest hammered like I’d sprinted a hundred yards.
At that moment, I fell.
I fell hard and kept falling.
My shitty day receded. My worries and uncertainties about Harvard disappeared. All I cared about was wherever this blonde angel was going, I wanted to be by her side twenty-four seven.
“What’s going on here?” I slid my hand into hers, gripping it firmly. I detected no resistance.
Redmond glared at me. “It’s none of your business, De Lucci.”
“Aw, see, it’s my business when someone is bullying my girlfriend.” I tugged her behind me so I could shield her from the rest of the crowd as well as invade Redmond’s personal space.
I was taller than him by a couple of inches. We were equally built and muscular. And with the way I was feeling, I could beat the shit out of him, but I had the overwhelming desire to keep the girl behind me safe.
“Your girlfriend?” Redmond gawked. “Since when is Liz your girlfriend?”
Ah, now we have a name.
“Since right now.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Got a problem?”
I glared around at the crowd. “Do any of you have a problem? Because after I make sure Liz is safe, I can meet any fucker. Any Time, Any Place.”
“What’s going on here?” a man repeated my question from earlier. It was George, the football coach, and he split a look between Redmond and me.
I wasn’t a member of the football team and I was buckling up to hold my ground in case he put me under suspension. After all, I proposed a brawl.
But Coach George was one of the good ones in matters of fair play. “Okay, break it up. Got me, Hilliard? De Lucci?”
“He started it,” Hilliard whined. His minions concurred.
Coach George hiked his brow at me. “Really?”
“No,” Liz spoke from behind me. She tugged her fingers free from my grip and stepped forward. “Redmond was badgering me and he”—she pointed at me—”made sure I was okay.”
“Since I’m her boyfriend,” I put in.
Her gaze snapped to mine. That’s right, Liz. You’re mine.
I didn’t remember what happened afterward or how the crowd dispersed, but it was dismissal time and I found myself following Liz. Unlike most of the students in school, none of my siblings, including me, used chauffeured limos. Prep school wasn’t that far from our row house on Fifth Avenue. So we either took the subway or walked. I had a feeling Liz was taking the subway too.
She made a right at the bottom of the steps, and I continued to stalk her. At a street corner, she stopped and turned around.
She gave me a timid smile. “Look, I really appreciate you standing up for me there, but I’m good from here.”
I glanced behind me, seeing Redmond and his friends dawdling on the steps watching us, and my gaze darted back to her. “I don’t think so. Where do you live?”
She sighed. “Maybe you should tell me your name.”
“Lorenzo De Lucci. But my family calls me Renz.”
“I’m Elizabeth Jackson. Liz, for short and in case you’re curious, Mom used to work for the Hilliard’s, so Redmond wasn’t far from the truth that I’m his parents’ charity case.”
“That doesn’t give him an excuse to bully you.”
“I’m used to it.”
“So your mom…”
“Is dead. I’m living with an aunt.” She closed her eyes as if it was another painful part of her life. “Look, I really appreciate what you’ve done. I didn’t even want to come to this Prep because I had no intentions of going to college.”
“Same here,” I shot back.
Her brows furrowed.
I grinned. “Looks like we have something in common, Liz Jackson.” I gripped her upper arms and pulled her closer before she got mowed down by Manhattan pedestrian traffic. “Listen, I’m hungry. Wanna grab a burger?”
She looked pensive and checked her phone, presumably for the time. “I have to work at the coffee shop.”
“Know what? Suddenly, I’m craving coffee.”
* * *
Present
Liz
I awoke with a start, but I could feel eyes on me. I sat back in my seat to see Renz staring at me with intense eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He gave a shake of his head, and a wry smile curved his mouth. “I was remembering the day we met.”
“Oh, the day you became my literal stalker?” During that time I’d been struggling to make sense of the loss of Mom so that I retreated into myself. Redmond Hilliard was the asshole son of my mother’s employers who’d been kind to me. Redmond thought my single mom was his father’s mistress, and he made it his mission to make my life miserable. I dreaded going to the prestigious prep school. I didn’t belong. I was fine graduating high school and taking community college courses on running a business.
“And your boyfriend,” he smiled.
Lorenzo De Lucci had crashed into my life, standing up for me against Redmond. No one had ever stood up for me before, even my mother. I was cynical enough to think he was doing a good deed for the day or he had a beef against Redmond and I was a pawn. That Renz was ridiculously attractive seeing how the girls ogled him added to my skepticism that he was just being performative in his defense for the poor student in a school full of rich, entitled kids. So I expected him to leave me alone after that encounter, even if I inwardly groaned that he had made things worse.
But Renz insisted on following me to my job—a coffee shop where I worked part time as a barista and stayed until closing. Then he rode the subway with me to my aunt’s apartment in Brooklyn, where I had been sleeping on the couch. By that time, we’d already exchanged phone numbers. Still, I hadn’t agreed to be his girlfriend, even when he insisted I was already his.
So cocky.
But he put in the effort. For several weeks, he appeared bright and early at my aunt’s apartment and accompanied me to school. I was a junior while he was a senior. Then he walked me to my job at the coffee shop. Sometimes he’d disappear to run some errands, but most of the time he’d just stay at the shop and study there. I’d researched him. They were billionaires. Why would he be interested in me other than a last fling before college? I wasn’t interested in casual sex. I was a virgin.
The door opened to the suite and Cesar walked in with paper bags of goodies and a carrier of coffee. “Good, you’re awake.”
With my bum leg from a previous injury, he and the guys took turns helping Renz to use the bathroom from midnight until this morning because my husband didn’t want to use a catheter or a bedpan. While Cesar helped Renz out of the bed, I went into the bathroom to get things ready for him and quickly rinse my mouth.
We had a rule about morning breath. Well, it was more my rule. Renz had no problem waking me up with his mouth between my legs.
I closed my eyes and berated myself with the inappropriate thoughts. This trip down memory lane was bittersweet and yet necessary. The pain in my leg felt more stark this morning after sitting in the chair and reminded me of the challenges Renz and I had to get through to get to this place.
Renz was walking on his own, but Cesar was behind him, just in case my stubborn man fell. I scooted out the bathroom door to let them in. My husband’s sharp gaze zeroed in on me.
“How’s the leg?”
“It’s fine,” I lied.
But Renz knew I was full of shit. “You shouldn’t have slept in the chair.”
“Argue later,” Cesar muttered. “I have coffee and a bagel with all the fixings for you, Liz.”
“Thank you.”
I heard the men exchange words until Cesar exited the bathroom with a look of mild exasperation. “He’s going to be a stubborn patient.”
“I heard that,” Renz called.
“Take your piss, so you can come and eat.”
“I’m really fine.”
Cesar and I exchanged glances and tired smiles.
“Looks like you haven’t slept?” I asked.
“Dom’s calling for cooler heads until we figure out what the fuck is going on.” His emphasis on the word fuck was frustrated and anxious and angry at the same time. “I’m ready to rain hellfire on the Rossis, except they have Bianca.”
Renz exited the bathroom and I walked-limped to his side. “Morning, baby.” He gave me a kiss that started like a brush, but a groan rumbled up his chest and he gripped me tighter to his side while kissing me deeper. I yanked my mouth away. None of the men were shy about public displays of affection, but I worried about his shoulder.
“How’s your shoulder?”
“Hurts like a motherfucker,” he gritted. “But that kiss is what I needed.”
He turned to Cesar. “Dom’s right. Though I hate Sandro for being a Rossi, he’s smarter than everyone else combined. Oh, and by the way, Sandro is now boss.”
Cesar’s face didn’t show surprise and, in fact, grew more foreboding.
“You knew that?” I asked.
“There was a rumor that Luca facilitated a made man ceremony, and with what Renz said yesterday about the switched grooms, it didn’t take us long to conclude that was the only way Raffa would allow the match.”
“Who’s Raffa?”
“Someone who hates my guts,” Cesar said grimly.
A nurse entered the suite and clucked, “Back to bed, Mr. De Lucci. I need to check your vitals.”
“I’m fine. When can I go home?”
The nurse raised a brow. She appeared to be in her forties and an expert in handling belligerent patients. “Not until the doc says so. Now back to bed, boy.”
I stifled a laugh and a faint smile broke through Cesar’s stern face while Renz grumbled at the nurse.
“Make sure he eats,” Cesar told me. “Nico will be back later to help him take a shower. I’ll see when Ava can bring Sam.”
While the nurse redressed Renz’s bandage and checked his vitals, I called Ava to check on Sam. My mother-in-law told me not to worry, but I detected strain in her voice, which had turned gravelly from the lack of sleep. I couldn’t imagine their distress over Bianca being held captive by the Rossis. It was up to me to make sure Renz didn’t add to their worries, and even if I felt immense relief getting my husband back safely, I knew nothing would be more healing to him than having Bianca back with the De Luccis.
After the nurse left, Renz patted the space on his right side. “Come here.”
How could he be wounded in a hospital bed and still sound so commanding? “I don’t think the bed is wide enough.”
“It is. Come here.”
I could complain that my leg was killing me, but then my stubborn husband would probably get out of bed and haul me up. There was a step stool under the bed. Someone brought it in for Samantha. I used the stool to hop on the bed on Renz’s uninjured side.
“No coffee for you,” I said and dragged the overbed tray closer.
“I don’t like anyone’s coffee but mine,” he replied. “How can you drink that shit?”
“You’re such a snob,” I teased, loving the warmth of his body. I cupped his cheek. “You’re not that hot anymore.”
“No more fever,” he said. “They’re just making sure there’ll be no further complications from the backroom surgery.”
While Renz dozed off last night, his doctor came in to speak to me. He was recommending three days to monitor for blood clots and infections.
“What I am is hungry,” he said. “What did Dad bring for me?”
“Scrambled eggs and oatmeal.” Renz made a face, and I laughed. “It’s better than hospital food.”
“I guess.”
“I’ll share a bite of my bagel,” I teased.
He mock-pouted, which was incredibly cute considering his stubble roughened face, but then his gaze softened. “I missed you, baby.”
“I’m thankful you came back to us.” A sob snagged in my throat. I’d been straddling the line between relief and worry because Bianca’s fate was still unknown.
Renz’s gaze grew intense as he said fiercely, “I’ll always make my way back to you and Sam.”
His words reminded me of the day he found me after a rival crime family kidnapped me and broke my leg. I had been twelve weeks pregnant with twins. I lost one of them. What happened during the rescue was kept between the guys and me. Ava was against Renz taking part in the rescue because he was only eighteen, but he was the one who found me. He was the one who shot and killed the soldier guarding my room.
He was told to stay in the car, but he didn’t listen. That was why Renz didn’t question why Bianca snuck into the Rossi gathering. He’d told me once, “The obsession wants what the obsession wants.”
As if reading my mind, he said, “Dad and the guys might not see it yet, but Sandro will do everything in his power to protect Bianca.”
I smiled up at him. “I believe you. I think Sandro is just as obsessed with Bianca as she is with him.” I opened the thermos that held his oatmeal. “Now let’s get you stronger.”
I spooned the warm gruel and held it out to him.
“I love you so much, baby.”
I planted a kiss on his mouth and said, “I love you too.”
Then I fed my husband. We had a long road ahead of us for his recovery and Bianca’s future was unknown, but I believed in the strength of the men and women in this family.
And I believed in a De Lucci’s obsession.
We will be okay.