It took everything I had not to lunge at him. This was my wife he was talking about.

Although, I couldn’t very well blame him for his callousness. He learned from the best, and they called me a heartless beast.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” came her stone-cold response but when I turned to face her, I could see that hearing his detailed plan had shaken her to the core. She stepped into the kitchen and looked at me then. “Will it, husband?”

The steadiness in her voice. Her unblinking gaze. The angry pink hue in her cheeks.

Fuck me.

I didn’t think she had it in her and, right then, I was filled with swelling pride. “I don’t think so.”

A quiet moment passed.

“What the fuck?” I bristled at my brother’s slow glance up and down the length of her soft, curvy body. Daniele spun on me wearing an expression of utter confusion. “You brought her home? Already?” I was about the respond and tell him that my decisions were my own and I didn’t answer to him when he began to shake his head. “No, no, no. I’m out.” He slammed the fridge door shut, set his bottle down so hard the beer frothed over and I saw his eyes brim with anger. “Fuck this.” He pointed a hard finger at Vittoria, fuming. “And fuck you.”

Sometime during the short outburst, Vittoria gravitated towards me. Her side bumped my front as she blindly sought me out, knowing I would keep her safe.

And, God.

She would never know what that did to me.

It unleashed something. An arcane protectiveness that I’d never before felt. Not even with my children’s mother.

I vowed to keep her safe, by any means necessary.

My little wife may have looked small and weak, but everyone was so struck by her gentle beauty that they forgot to notice she wore jagged armor. I loathed to think on why she required it. Perhaps some things were better left alone because if I found out who was responsible for my softly-spoken Vittoria needing a shield, I would make them regret having not crafted one themselves.

My position meant I had the ability to destroy people and although I seldom used it, that didn’t mean I didn’t receive an obscene amount of joy when I did. And my brother was walking on very thin ice.

The front door slammed shut and her body lurched along with the bang. I looked down at Vittoria and uttered a deadpan, “I think he likes you.”

Her jaw tightened and I fought the urge to laugh when she prickled, “Yeah, about as much as a prostate exam with no lube.”

My arm banded around her. I pulled her softness into my firm torso and pressed my lips to her temple. “He’ll come around.”