And then… there is Stefano.
Salvatore will kill him. Break him, for letting me go.
What will you do for the people you love?
“Don’t you dare.” Gio is pale now, his hands shaking on my face as he reads it, reads the agony there. The decision in my eyes. “Come home, Caterina. Come home, to the people who love you. We’re all waiting for you.”
Pain.
“Ti amo,” I breathe. I slam my mouth against his, breathing him in.
He pushes me back, shaking my shoulders. “No. Cat – we haveone chance. I’m begging you.”
But I shake my head. Take another step backwards. “Come back for me, Gio. When you have her. Come back, and we’ll burn this place to the ground.”
I can’t walk away from this. Can’t risk my daughter.
But I won’t leave Stefan either. Won’t leave Iliana Asante to pay the price for my escape.
I’m going to make Salvatore Asante pay.
Cecile, too.
I am notdone.
“Please.” It’s a whisper now, an agonized whisper. “Come home,il mio cuore.”
But he knows. Heknows.
“I love you.” I let the tears free as I step back into him. Wrap my arms around him, one more time. “I love all of you, with everything that I am. Tell them that, Gio. Tell them I’m still fighting, and I’m coming home.”
His face crumples. “Cat –please.”
But I shake my head, stepping back. It hurts to look at him, but I force myself to do it, force myself to take him in.
“Don’t you dare.” Raw, naked anguish on his face. “Don’t you look at me like it’s the last time, Caterina Corvo.”
He steps closer. “Youstay alive. You stay alive, and you come home to us. You hear me?”
I nod, his face blurring beneath the sheen of tears.
It feels like torture, to step further away. To duck back into that doorway, my eyes traveling over him.
“I love you.” His jaw is tight, his own indigo eyes glinting. “You infuriating, stubborn woman.”
My laugh is half-sob. “That’s why you love me, Gio Fusco.”
He swipes his hand over his eyes. “Always. Go. Before they find you here.”
He pushes the door as I step back. Slowly, as if praying for me to change my mind. I brush my fingers over his before they disappear, the door sliding back into place.
Shuddering, I stare at that door.
And then I break into a run. I run for the side door, feeling for the edge and grimacing when I don’t find it.Don’t be locked, don’t be locked—
I breathe out when I find the ridge that lets me open it, dragging it towards me and slipping through. Stefano must have gone around the side, to feign assistance with whatever explosion he set up.
I slip through the halls. So many of them, all the fucking same with their bare walls and slitted windows. Intentionally disorientating.
