Her shoulders slumped, and she covered her face with her hands as she sobbed.
My chest tightened. I couldn’t even imagine what she was feeling. She may have been born into the mob life, but she definitely wasn’t exposed to the grittier side of it. I was overwhelmed and I was used to this shit.
I wrapped my good arm around her waist and pulled her into my lap. She came willingly, almost collapsing into me, hands clutching my back like she needed to feel the solidity of me to believe I was still there.
“I was so scared,” she whispered into my skin. “I kept thinking I’d look up and you’d be—”
I pressed my palm to the back of her head. “Hey.” My voice was rough, low. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You could’ve died.”
“But I didn’t,” I murmured into her hair, holding her tighter. “I’m right here.”
Her breath trembled against my skin as she pulled back to look at me. Our eyes met.
“And I’m not going anywhere.”
Something melted in her eyes — fear, relief, longing — all tangled together.
She inched closer, slowly, deliberately, until her thighs bracketed mine on the couch, and her hands cupped my jaw.
“Enzo,” she whispered.
I rested my forehead against hers.
Her breath mingled with mine. Her hands trembled where they held me, and I covered them with my own.
“This scared me too,” I admitted, voice low. “More than I expected.”
Her eyes flickered with understanding; with something deeper.
We stayed like that; breathing each other in, holding each other together.
Just us.
Alive.
Bruised.
But together.
And for the first time since this started, I let myself lean into her warmth instead of pushing her away.
Once Gianina fell asleep, I went to work disposing of the bodies. I didn’t want her to be reminded of that night so I stayed up until the job was done and they were all melting away in barrels.
Then, I cleaned up the blood and all the broken furniture. Why did these stupid assholes always have to leave a mess?
Once I had finished everything, the sun was rising. I found my burner phone and sent a text to Domenic:
They found us, but I took care of them. She’s safe.
I sat down in my chair and sighed. Even though we were out of danger, I wasn’t happy. I should’ve been excited to get back home and put all this shit behind me.
But I wasn’t. The thought of bringing Gianina back to her father and going on with my life like nothing had happened between us made my stomach heavy.
I didn’t want to let her go.
I’d said that whatever happened between us stayed in the cabin. At the time, I’d meant it. I’d only been thinking aboutgetting my dick wet, but so much had happened since then; so much had changed about how I felt about Gianina.
