“I’m going to marry her.”
The line goes dead for a beat. Then Valerio lets out a breath that sounds like disbelief wrapped in resignation.
“Please tell me this washeridea and not yours. Because surely you understand what marrying her will ignite, Matteo Andrea Davacalli.”
I expected the reprimand. I’m ready for it.
“I do,” I say, looking out over the city—my city. “And I’m ready to face it. She needs protection, and there’s no safer place for her than at my side, carrying my name.”
“He will start a war.”
“Then we go to war.”
Valerio tuts under his breath. “You would risk war for a woman?”
“I would risk my empire for her.” The truth tears itself out of me before I can control it. “I am marrying her, Valerio. My mind is set. And she’s pregnant.”
A low curse spills across the line. “Yours?”
“In all the ways that matter, yes.”
“Dio mio…” he mutters. “Sarai la mia morte.”You’ll be the death of me.
A sigh,then a shift—acceptance, loyalty locking into place. “Fine. I don’t agree with any of this. But you’re my boss, and my gun is yours. What do you need?”
This is why I trust him. No matter how catastrophic the path becomes, Valerio follows me straight into the fire.
“One of Giacomo’s brothels,” I say, my voice dropping into something cold enough to freeze the night air around me. “I want it gone. Tonight. Quiet if possible, loud if necessary. Something that reminds him exactly who he’s dealing with.”
“And what message are we sending?”
“That he will never lay a hand on Beatrice again.” My grip tightens around the ultrasound. “She belongs to me now.”
The wind rises, slapping cold against my face—but inside, the fire only burns hotter.
“He’s got a corner on 15th and Mirabella,” Valerio says. “Just renovated it. Moved new girls in last month. Supposed to be one of his biggest earners. If you want to send a message, that’s the one.”
Perfect.
“Get it done.”
Three simple words—enoughto light the fuse on a war that’s been years in the making. “And make sure no one is harmed.”
“On it, boss.”
The line goes dead.
I stay where I am, standing on the balcony with the city stretched beneath me like a kingdom waiting for its reckoning. The sun bleeds into the skyline, sinking behind concrete and glass, casting the world in shades of gold and fire.
There’s a strange calm up here. A stillness that settles right before the earth splits open. But I know—once Giacomo realizes what I’ve taken from him, what I’m claiming as mine—this peace will shatter.
War will come.
And when blood hits the streets of this city, it won’t be mine.
18
BEATRICE
