Save Me (#1 In Billionaires Obsessed Series)

Damien

Monty: Left the party. She's with me. Don't worry.

I read Monty's text repeatedly, but no matter how many times I went over it, the anxiety gnawing at me wouldn't ease. Why did he have Dahlia? Why had she left me behind?

Pacing in the library, I glanced at my phone again. Dahlia's phone was off, and Sebastian was ignoring my calls—over fifty of them by now. Though I trusted Monty to protect her with his life (he knew what I would do to him if he failed), it did not stop the flood of worst-case scenarios tormenting me. I knew Dahlia well enough to understand she would not have left without at least saying goodbye unless something was terribly wrong. She should have been home by now.

Tonight was not supposed to end like this. Dahlia and I had been making progress, and if we had returned home together after the gala, I might have finally gotten a taste her lips—if she'd let me. And then there was the ambush by Alessandra fucking Russo. She claimed she came to congratulate me on my marriage but decided to do it by shoving her tongue down my throat. For a few seconds, I was too stunned to react before I shoved her away. Who the fuck did that?

Then again, I would not expect anything less from Alessandra. I did not often label women as crazy, but Alessandra Russo was genuinely unhinged. She was the granddaughter of Mario Russo, the Don of the most powerful Italian mob organization in the country. Therefore, I knew exactly who had told her I was married. Lorenzo Russo.

After my mother had been murdered and the scum that killed her fled like the spineless fucker he was, child protection services tossed me into an orphanage. At age thirteen I was fostered by Loretta and Bill Jones. Loretta was kind, but I never trusted Bill, and my instincts were right—the bastard sold me to the mafia to settle his gambling debts. I was, however, more fortunate than most trafficked children and ended up as a stable boy in the Russo estate. Over time, I became familiar with the staff and showed my knack for technology by helping them solve tech problems.

That is where I honed my programming skills. I pointed out weaknesses in their systems, vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks. They eventually let me secure their data and even hack into rival networks for intel. It wasn't long before Mario Russo noticed me and brought me into his inner circle.

I met Alessandra when I moved from the servant quarters to Mario's mansion. Proximity forced us to talk, and we bonded over our messed-up lives. She was the first person I fucked. Before her I had never thought I could have sex with anyone since I did not want to be touched, but she introduced me to ways I could fuck her without her touching me. I was incapable of love, but as years passed, I grew fond of her. Alessandra was also the first person I allowed to touch me since after leaving my childhood home. However, I could only handle letting her touch my shoulders.

After I freed myself from the mob at age eighteen, I left her behind. And I had not heard from her or even seen her until tonight when she appeared out of nowhere like an old ghost.

Rattled didn't even begin to cover how I felt. I wanted to hold Dahlia, to have my world go quiet again. Instead, I was left pacing, growing more restless by the second. I dialed Monty's number again, relief washing over me when he finally picked up. But irritation followed swiftly—what had taken him so fucking long?

"Where is she?" I snapped.

"You haven't tracked her down yet?" he asked, sounding surprised. He knew I could easily find them if I wanted to.

"I vowed to be less controlling with her." A vow I had only broken once when I tracked her to the bar a few weeks ago. She'd sounded drunk, and when I heard a man's voice my instinct to protect her had trampled doing the right thing.