My stomach started to churn as I realized this was bigger than me.
Max wouldn’t give up the marina, and my father wouldn’t walk away without it.
“You think?” I asked, grasping for any sense of hope I could cling onto. “My father wouldn’t hurt Max. He also wouldn’t have pushed this marriage on me if he was going to end up killing him. He would’ve told me.”
Sean glanced at me, his expression no longer kind. It was ... regretful. “I know your father, Rose. He wouldn’t let Max take the marinaandyou.”
The marina had always been my father’s symbol of power—something he was fiercely protective of. But I’d never considered it might be tied to me, to my future, like this.
“What are you saying?” I asked quietly.
Sean took a deep breath, his eyes avoiding mine as he focused on the road. “Your father is a smart man. He knows what he wants, and he’ll do whatever it takes to protect it. Anyone who’s ever challenged him for the marina has ended up dead.”
I wanted to argue, to insist my father was a kind man, someone who couldn’t be so cold, but deep down, a part of me was certain Sean was right. My father was a complex man, and his love for me didn’t mean he wouldn’t make hard decisions if he thought it was necessary to protect what he valued most.
I couldn’t figure out if it was me or the marina he cared for more.
He’d forced me to marry Max to keep the family safe, yet here he was, putting me in the middle of a battlefield.
“Do you really think he’s capable of ... of hurting Max?” I asked, the words catching in my throat.
Sean hesitated, his expression pained. “I think he’s capable of doing whatever he believes is right to protect you and the family legacy. And if he thinks Max is a threat to that, then ... yes, I think he might be willing to take drastic measures.”
It didn’t shock me. I’d grown up listening to my father’s hatred of the Romanos. He’d said they were liars, and he’d been right. He’d said they were thieves, and he’d been right. My father’s actions would be justified in his eyes, but never in mine.
Sean turned the car down the road I hadn’t wanted to take. But now there was no turning back. He threw the car into park and took the keys with him.
“Stay put. I’m going to try to de-escalate the situation.”
He expected me to stay put when every instinct screamed at me to follow him? The idea of sitting in the car, powerless, was nearly unbearable.
As Sean walked into the warehouse, my mind raced. I knew he was trying to protect me, to keep me out of harm’s way, but this was about more than just my safety. This was about Max, about my father, about everything that had been leading up to this moment. How could I just sit here and wait, not knowing what would happen?
CHAPTER 50
MAX
Liam’s jaw tightened, the internal struggle evident in his eyes. “You’ve taken everything from me!” he screamed. “The marina! My daughter! Mylegacy! You’ve taken what I’ve spent my entire life putting together.”
I could see the hatred in his eyes, a deep-seated resentment that had been festering for months. He blamed me for corrupting his daughter; for bringing her into a world he’d fought so hard to shield her from.
“You made a choice, Liam,” I said, my voice steady despite the pounding of my heart—the pulse he was moments away from stopping. “You chose this life, just like I did. You know what will come of this.”
He lowered the gun but didn’t holster it. Instead he paced the room once more, running a hand through his hair. “You think I don’t know that?” he growled, stopping to stare at me. “You think I haven’t considered the consequences?” Suddenly, his anger reached its peak. “I have spent the past few weeks trying to get back what was mine, and I’m not leaving until I have it.”
I coughed up a bit of blood and spat it out onto the floor. “The marina, or your daughter?” I asked.
Liam’s face twisted with rage, his knuckles white around the gun. “Don’t you dare put those two together. One is business, the other is blood.”
“Both seem pretty tangled.”
His eyes narrowed. “You think you can take my daughter’s loyalty too? You think she’ll stand by you?”
Did I really stand a chance? Rosalie didn’t trust me no matter how many reasons I gave her to believe me. Every promise, every act, seemed to fall on deaf ears. I’d always known that one way or another, my life would eventually be in her hands. I’d hoped when the time came, I’d have earned enough of her trust to prove myself to her.
I was supposed to have been a married man ten minutes ago. Rosalie wasn’t going to come looking for me. She was going to make sure she’d never have to see my face again after I’d humiliated her like this.
Blood trickled down from my eyebrow. I lifted my tied hands and wiped it away with the back of my wrist, feeling the sharp sting.
