The Bishop (The Holy Trinity Duet Book 1)

by M. E. Clayton

  “Yeah, but I’m not Luca,” I reminded him. “I’m not going to take Sienna to The Funhouse to prove a point.” Whenever I think back on how Luca had taken Remy to The Funhouse and had tortured a man to death in front of her, so she could get a feel for what she was dealing with, it made me cringe. It’s a miracle Remy hadn’t lost her mind that night. Instead of running for the hills, she had married Luca, demons and all.

  “Yeah, well, like I said, everyone had their own idea of romance.”

  Before I could tell him to go eat a dick, my phone started ringing, and when I pulled it out of my pocket, I saw that it was Sienna. Waving my screen in his direction, I said, “Speaking of…”

  I answered the phone, and my entire body ran cold with the sounds on the other end.

  “Sienna?”

  “…going…fine, Sienna…your legs…Leo Benetti…”

  “Fuck,” I growled.

  Sal was on his feet and around the desk before I could even put the phone on speaker.

  “…what…are you talking about…”

  “…your boyfriend…ruining…”

  “…what…”

  Listening in, it sounded like a fight between Sienna and Ryan. He was blaming her for my visit yesterday, not knowing that she had no idea I’d gone to see him.

  “…get your hands off me…”

  And that’s when Sal race back behind his desk. “What’s her number?”

  I rattled off her phone number, still trying to make out what I could from the phone call. I was going to kill him. There was no doubt about that. I just had to find them.

  “Her locations are on and it’s showing that she’s still at the hospital,” Sal said.

  “Okay. Then we-”

  Sienna’s screams pierced the room, and I couldn’t recall ever feeling such a paralyzing fear.

  “I’ll drive,” Sal insisted, which was probably a good idea.

  Making sure our guns were ready, we headed out, Romeo and Carlo getting in the backseat as Sal jumped in the driver’s seat and I got into the passenger’s seat.

  With my phone still connected to the call, Sal tossed me his phone. “Call Luca.”

  That threw me for a bit. “Why?” We were grown men who were trusted to handle our shit. Luca didn’t babysit us. He really didn’t care what we did as long as it was done the Benetti way.

  Sal was pulling out onto the street, Sienna’s cries still coming through my phone a muffled mess. “If you think he’s not going to see this as someone coming after a Benetti, you’re wrong,” Sal answered. “From the second you told us about her and claimed her as yours, Sienna Conti became a Benetti, Leo. Luca’s going to want to know about this.”

  I wasn’t too sure about that, but I didn’t argue. I didn’t have time to get into a discussion about how my oldest brother’s mind worked, so I made the call.

  Luca answered on the second ring. “Sal.”

  “It’s Leo,” I corrected, and if you could feel energy over the phone, you could feel Luca’s entire demeanor change as soon as I said the words.

  “What’s going on?”

  “We’re on our way to Huntington Heights Hospital,” I told him. “Sal’s driving.”

  “Why?”

  My voice sounded steady to my ears, but I wasn’t entirely sure it was. The unknown was playing with me in a way it never has before. “I’m not sure if it was on purpose or accidental, but I got a call from Sienna and we could hear her arguing with Ryan Trent,” I told him, and knowing that Sal had delivered the same report to Luca that he’d given me, I knew Luca knew who I was referring to. “The call sounded like he was blaming her for the visit I paid him.”

  “And?”

  “And it also sounds like he put hands on her, Luca.”

  “We’ll meet you there,” he said before ending the call.

  I handed Sal back his phone. “He said he’ll meet us there.”

  Just then, I heard Sienna’s voice over the phone. “Hello? Hello? Nine-one-one?”

  Calling on everything I had in me not to lose my fucking shit, I put the phone to my ear. “Sienna?”

  “What? Hello?”

  “Sienna, baby, it’s Leo.”

  “Leo?”

  “You accidentally called me,” I told her.

  “I…I need, oh, God…”

  “Sienna, where are you? Baby, listen to me. Where are you?”

  “My leg is broken, Leo,” she sobbed. “It’s crushed, I think.”

  My fist hit the dashboard.

  “Sienna-”

  “I’m…I’m…in the emp…employee’s parking garage area,” she stammered. “I don’t see anyone. I can’t stand up or-”

  “Sienna?” I interrupted. “Baby, I’ll be there in five minutes. Can you call someone? Not nine-one-one, but the hospital receptionist or someone who can help you?”

  I could hear her taking deep breaths over, and over again. “Yes. Yeah…I, okay…I can do that.” She took another deep breath. “I…I don’t know why I didn’t th…think of that.”

  Probably because you’re in so much fucking pain. But I didn’t say that. “I’ll be there in five minutes, Sienna. Five minutes.”

  “Okay…I…okay…”

  “And Sienna?”

  “What?”

  There was no way I couldn’t say the words. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

  “Leo…” she sobbed, her breaths ragged attempts at getting air into her lungs.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I told her, no point in discussing it further. “And Sienna?”

  “Ye…yeah?”

  “I love you, baby.”

  And what a fucking way to realize it.

  Chapter 20

  Sienna~

  I had no idea where I was, but I knew it wasn’t a regular hospital room. In fact, I’d never seen one of these hospital rooms in the whole time I’ve worked at Huntington.

  After I’d gotten off the phone with Leo, I had called Pam at the ER receptionist desk and had told her what happened. Not the fight with Ryan, but that I’d been involved in a hit-and-run. After Ryan had run over my left leg with his lifted truck, I’d been in so much pain, it had taken me a while to crawl towards my phone. I had called out, hoping someone else had been in the parking garage, but it’d been empty of any possible help.

  Within a couple of minutes, a gurney had been making its way towards me, Mallory and Jack, two graveyard nurses, pushing it towards me. After securing me to it, Mallory had been kind enough to gather my purse and anything that had spilled out, then they had rushed me back inside the hospital.

  Warding off questions I hadn’t been ready to answer, I had kept the focus on my leg and the x-rays. Broken in three places, the only good thing that could be said was that they were clean breaks. No reconstructive surgery, just a reset, a cast, and a whole lot of pain.

  But do you want to know what really surprised me?

  There’d been no police called.

  The hospital was equipped with security cameras, even in the parking garages, so it would have been easy to pull up the footage of Ryan and I arguing, then him hitting me and running over my leg. As a reported hit-and-run, that’s the first thing the hospital would have done.

  But no.

  After setting my leg and given enough pain medication to knock me out, I’d woken up in a recovery room that I never knew existed in this hospital.

  But stranger than that?

  The three men in the room with me who looked like they leapt straight out of a person’s nightmares.

  Staring at all three, it wasn’t hard to figure out who they were. They all looked alike. Same black hair, same facial structure, same stance. The only difference was that the harder looking one had black eyes while Leo and the other guy had green ones.

  These were Leo’s brothers.

  Supporting my weight with my palms, I shifted, sitting up as I looked over at Leo. He was the only one sitting down, his chair next to my bed. “Where am I?” I croaked out
.

  “It’s a private room,” he said, confirming my suspicions.

  “Okay…” I mumbled because I didn’t know what else to say. These men gave off a serious intimidation vibe.

  Leo smiled softy. “Baby, these are my brothers, Luca and Salvatore.”

  I quickly glanced their way before looking back at Leo. “I figured,” I replied. “You three all look exactly alike.” I cleared my throat. “But, uh, why are they here?”

  “Sal was with me when I got your call,” he explained. “He drove us here.”

  I jerked my head a little in the direction of the black-eyed one. “And him?”

  Leo’s hand came up and ran his thumb across my split lip. “Ryan Trent went after a Benetti,” Leo calmly added. “That’s why Luca’s here.”

  My eyes bugged out in surprise as I looked over at the eldest Benetti. “But…I…”

  Luca Benetti put his hand up to stop my rambling. Stepping towards the end of the hospital bed, he said, “Ms. Conti, I don’t have very much time,” he said. “As a rule, we’re never in the same place at the same time, so us being here is an issue.” Okay. “The only reason I am here is to reiterate that Leo has my full support in how he chooses to handle Ryan Trent.”

  “But…” I glanced at Leo before returning my attention back to Luca Benetti. “But I’m not a Ben-”

  His hand went up, shutting me up again. “Perhaps, not legally yet, as that’s for you and Leo to decide at a later date,” he said. “But make no mistake, Ms. Conti. You are a Benetti as long as my brother sees you that way.”

  Even if I wanted to argue, I knew better. Even without knowing that these men were Mafia royalty, one look at Luca Benetti and you knew not to mess with him. Hell, one look at any of them and you knew not to mess with them.

  “So…what now?”

  “We took care of the surveillance evidence, so only the four of us know that Ryan Trent is the one who did this to you,” Salvatore Benetti said, further surprising me.

  “How did you guys-” I shook my head. “Never mind,” I mumbled.

  “The hospital’s security is weak,” he went on to say. “The guards who were supposed to have been monitoring the footage were flirting with two nurses when we came in. I was able to manipulate the footage to show nothing untoward happened.”

  “Okay, so…” I looked between all three men. “I really don’t know what to say,” I admitted. “This is new, and…quite frankly, you guys are intimidating as hell.”

  “You’ll need to get over that,” Luca instructed. “Also, I need to take my leave.” I just stared at the man because…well, what was there to say to that? Then he let out subtle sigh, making him seem almost human. “Ms. Conti, as soon as you are released, you will be transported to Leo’s home where you will remain there as you recover. Tomorrow, after you’ve had sufficient rest, we can answer whatever questions you may still have.”

  I glanced at Salvatore Benetti and he just winked at me.

  Luca Benetti didn’t give me a chance to comment. He simply acknowledged us all with a terse head nod and exited the room.

  When the door shut behind him, Salvatore said, “You’ll get use to him.”

  I shook my head, though it didn’t do anything for the headache that was beginning to form. “I seriously doubt that.”

  Salvatore walked to the edge of the bed, grabbed my big toe that was peeking out from my cast, and said, “You’re probably right.”

  The odd show of affection left me speechless.

  Leo chuckled beside me. “Thanks, Sal.”

  Salvatore smiled and dimples as deep as caverns popped out like an aphrodisiac to all women everywhere. Leo’s dimples were significant, but Salvatore’s were prominent with any facial expression he gave you.

  Wow.

  “No problem,” he replied. “I’m going to be heading out. Let me know when you’re ready.” Leo gave him a nod, and with that, Salvatore Benetti walked out, leaving just the two of us in the room.

  I looked at Leo. “I…I’m not sure how I feel about all this.”

  “That’s understandable,” he granted. “However, your confusion changes nothing, Sienna. Hearing your screams over the phone did nothing but confirm how I feel about you.”

  “Leo-”

  “I understand if you need more time, but I love you, Sienna,” he said easily. “And I’m not letting you go. Meeting Luca should be enough proof of that.”

  “I’m just so confused, Leo,” I told him honestly. “I care about you so much, and I-”

  “I’m going to kill Ryan Trent, Sienna,” he announced, cutting me off and I wish I could feel shocked at his statement, but I didn’t. “I’m going to kill him. Slowly. So, tell me, does that change how you feel about me?”

  God forgive me, but it didn’t. While I didn’t think what Ryan did warranted death, the knowledge that he was going to die did nothing to touch what I felt for Leo.

  Hell, maybe it was love.

  Or insanity.

  “No,” I whispered, actually upset at myself because it didn’t. What kind of person did that make me?

  “Now, tell me what happened in the parking garage,” he ordered, and so I told him everything.

  In return, he told me about the visit he paid Ryan, and suddenly everything made sense. Those videos were the reason why he could sleep with so many women here and still skate by drama-free. I still didn’t think he needed to die for his sins, but it wasn’t my call anymore.

  “Leo-”

  “I’m taking you to my place where you’ll be taken care of, but then…” His green eyes held my gaze in complete conviction. “I’ll be gone for the rest of the night, maybe into tomorrow.”

  “You’re really going to kill him?” I asked, knowing the answer already.

  “Yes, I am,” he replied. “He touched what’s mine, Sienna, and I can’t allow that.”

  “No, I supposed you can’t,” I replied, sealing my fate with Leonardo Benetti’s.

  Chapter 21

  Leonardo~

  After I’d gotten Sienna situated in my condo, I had waited until she had fallen asleep before calling Robbie and asking her to come over and sit with her. Ciro wasn’t one to let Robbie out of his sight much but I knew he’d make an exception this time. So, Robbie had left Mattia with Frankie and Phoenix since Ciro was busy doing whatever it was he did, and she had come over about an hour before I had left to go after Ryan Trent.

  And in sticking with tradition, Luca had already dispatched a group of movers to pack up Sienna’s apartment and move her stuff into my place. With her leg broken, she wasn’t going to be able to work for a long while and it made no sense to pay rent on a place she wouldn’t be staying at. Besides, I would have moved her in soon, even without this turn of events.

  And now I was at the Grandstone Hotel, room 405, looking down at Ryan Trent, sleeping peacefully in the bed.

  Too peacefully in my opinion.

  After what he did to Sienna and knowing what was coming for him, I expected him to be a bit more restless. But then arrogant people had a way of thinking they were always the smartest people in the room. For whatever reason, Ryan thought I wouldn’t be able to find him if he ran. But even three cities away, I’d found the bastard.

  Properly attired, I slapped a gloved hand over his nose and mouth, and the asshole immediately shot awake. When I switched the nightstand lamp on, his eyes widened in panic and he started thrashing about. My gun to his temple quickly squelched that, though.

  “I try to be self-aware, Trent,” I told him. “I try to see beyond my own ego to see the big picture, and because I try to do that, I can see that I underestimated how much your little blackmail scheme meant to you.” I tapped his temple with the gun’s tip. “A mistake, for sure, and one that I intend to make up for. I failed to see the potential threat in you and that’s something I will have to apologize to Sienna for.”

  When his face started turning blue, I pulled my hand off his face and he started choking as
he desperately grasped for air. I waited patiently as he collected himself, and once he did, I straightened and put my gun back in my waistband.

  Ryan scrambled off the bed, dressed in his boxers only, color coming back into his face. “It was an accident!” he lied. “I didn’t mean-”

  “To hit her across the face?” I supplied. It was amazing how calm I could act when I was anything but. I really wanted to put a bullet in this asshole’s face, but for the first time in my life, I really wanted to torture the wrong out of someone. I was dragging this asshole back to The Funhouse with me, effectively announcing to the world what Sienna meant to me.

  The right woman, or rather, the right woman for you, changed everything. A man doing things he’d never done before was a sure sign of love. While I’ve killed and tortured before, the need never sang in my blood the way it did now. I’ve never been one to stomach the hard stuff. I’ve always been happy to leave that shit for Sal or Luca. But then this motherfucker had to go and hurt the only woman I have ever been in love with.

  Yeah, that changed a man.

  “Look, I-”

  “Look, nothing,” I said, cutting him off. “Did you really have hope that you were going to survive this? I mean, are you really that fucking stupid, Trent?”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt her,” he lied again.

  “But you did,” I pointed out. “So, your intentions, whatever they may have been, no longer matter.”

  His shoulders sagged, the writing on the wall clear. “I just…you were ruining everything,” he explained lamely, and I was across the bed, my hand around his throat, before he knew what was happening.

  “I was ruining everything,” I spat in his face. “I was. Me. But instead of coming to me, dealing with it like a man, you took it out on Sienna.” My hand tightened around his esophagus. “And for what? Pussy?”

  He looked like he was struggling to say something, but done with this part of the night, I stepped back, threw my right, and knocked the asshole out cold. Grabbing him in a fireman’s hold, I walked him over to the bathroom window where I shoved his body through, Romeo catching him outside.