I force myself to take a breath, to push down the rising panic. I look at Rafe, searching his face, trying to find an answer, a plan, anything. For the first time since I met him, I don't see the careful strategist, the cold, calculating mob boss. I see a manstanding on a cliff’s edge. His eyes are haunted, his jaw clenched, and there's a desperate uncertainty in his gaze that terrifies me.
For a second, silence settles between us. Then he says it. "I don't know yet. But don’t worry, I’ll take care of it."
Not whispered.
Not shouted.
Just… honest.
Oh, shit.
And that's when I feel it.
Not just fear.
Not just the cold dread of realizing my life's hanging by a thread. But something worse. Something far more unsettling.
Doubt.
Because if Rafe, the man who controls everything, the man who always has a plan, doesn't know what to do, who does?
CHAPTER 22
RAFE
Nikki's scared. I saw it in her eyes, that raw, unmasked fear that briefly extinguished her usual fire. And she has every right to be.
The danger's real. But she's also right about something else. This started out as a clean operation that should’ve worked. A simple, logical equation.
But nothing about her has been clean since day one. Nothing about her has been simple. She's chaos personified.
And now the clock's ticking down fast.
If the Scorpione Nero suspects I've gone soft, if they believe for a second that she's an uncontrolled element within my operations, they'll take her out. They'll make it messy. Loud. Viral, even. It will be a public execution with a message sent in blood.
Her blood.
I escort Enzo to the hallway outside the suite so we can talk in private.
"You need to make a decision fast," Enzo says. "This can't be allowed to fester. Indecision is perceived as a weakness."
"I know," I reply.
"If you go dark, they'll assume you're hiding her. If she vanishes from the public eye, they'll think she's dead. Or worse, that you've eliminated her because she became a liability. Either way, it invites prying eyes."
I nod once, a sharp, decisive movement. He's right. He always is about the mechanics of power, about the brutal logic of our world. We need the opposite of disappearance. We need a distraction so grand, so compelling, that it blinds them to the truth.
“The photos made it look too real,” I mutter. “Instead of reassuring them, it did the opposite. It proved I care and we all know caring is a danger in our world. They're convinced she's a liability. We need to show them she's an indispensable asset who's so integrated into my life and my operations, that any attack on her is a personal attack on me."
Enzo lifts a brow. “What’s the plan then? Scorpione Nero won’t be impressed by Instagram likes."
"It has to be a public engagement," I reply. "To show them she's not a problem anymore. She's my future wife. The world needs to believe that. And they will if we sell it hard enough."
"Rafe," Enzo interjects in warning. He takes a step forward, his eyes wide with disbelief. "You'll be tying your life to an uncontrollable element. To a woman who's already a known variable, a woman who's shown a propensity for… improvisation. This goes beyond strategy. This isn’t just reckless. It’s dangerous, for her and for you. You’ve never blurred the lines like this before. You’re too close.”
"They want to send a message by making her vanish. That'll happen over my dead body. We’ll put her on every screen. Every headline. If she disappears, they’ll make her absence the story. If she’s everywhere, they can’t touch her without making noise they can't control.”
"Do you think she'll agree to it, though?" Enzo asks. "You know her temperament. You can’t keep a woman like Nikki in a cage forever."
