He chuckles, a low, tired sound. "Maybe. But I’m not sure I want to anymore."
My heart skips a beat. Those words. From him. It’s a victory more profound than any business deal, any operation. He’s admitting it. Admitting that I’ve cracked his armor.
I snuggle closer, resting my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. The night is still young, and the city outside hums with endless possibilities. But in this moment, in his arms, I feel a sense of peace, a dangerous, exhilarating calm.
I’ve unleashed the beast, and somehow, I’ve tamed him.
At least for tonight.
CHAPTER 20
RAFE
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three loud insistent knocks on the door to the suite. Only Enzo knocks like that. The sound slices through the still silence of the early morning, a brutal intrusion into our fragile bubble.
For a moment, I refuse to move. My hand remains draped over her hip, my face nestled in her sweet-smelling hair.
"Rafe." Enzo's voice slices through the thick wooden door, muffled but edged with urgency. "Open up."
I quickly grab a white robe from the chair and yank the door open. Enzo stands there, rigid, his face grim. "This better be worth it, Enzo. Whatever it is."
"We have a problem," he says without preamble. "A big one."
"Scorpione Nero?" I ask, though I already know the answer.
"They've escalated fast. The relationship photos worked too well. They don’t buy it as strategy. They think you’ve caught feelings. That you’ve gone soft. And when a man like you looks compromised, every predator in the room starts circling. They’re worried you’re weak. And they're moving soon to prove it."
I clench my jaw, grinding the rage down into something sharp and quiet. My fingers tighten on the back of the chair, the wood creaking under the pressure, but I don’t move. Not yet.
“They think I’m compromised,” I repeat slowly. “That I’ve gone soft.”
Enzo doesn’t respond. He doesn’t have to.
I nod once, coldly. “Fine. Then we’ll give them a performance they won’t forget. Something loud. Something permanent.”
“The clock is ticking. We don’t have much time.”
“How long?” I ask.
"They've set a deadline. They want proof that she's truly under your control, or they'll eliminate her publicly as a message."
Eliminate her.
The words echo in my head, and for a moment, I can't breathe. The thought of Nikki being reduced to a corpse, as a warning to me and others, makes something desperate claw at my chest.
“She’s not expendable,” I grit out. “She’s mine.”
"They've done their homework on her," Enzo continues. "They know about her real background. They know the trust fund story is fake. They think she’s a grifter who latched onto the wrong man. They don’t trust this situation and if things were reversed, we would feel the same way. " He pauses. "They want you to prove she's not playing you. They want proof the relationship's real. That Nikki's truly yours, under your protection. And if she's not…well we both know the answer to that."
Mine.
The word reverberates through me with a force that's almost violent.
Hell yes, she's fucking mine.
I grip the back of a chair to keep from putting my fist through the wall.
