But she isn’t looking at him.
She’s looking at me.
At the man who killed for her.
Her eyes are enormous, pupils blown wide. Her chest rises and falls too fast, the fabric of her shirt trembling with every breath. Dirt streaks her cheek, and near her collarbone—where the blade almost kissed her skin—there’s a faint smear of blood.
She doesn’t touch it.Doesn’t even seem to notice.
She’s locked onto me like she can’t look anywhere else.
My throat goes dry.
“I—” The word barely forms.
Her lips part. She takes a shaky step closer.
“You…” Her voice trembles, but she keeps going, eyes searching my face like she’s trying to understand something impossible. “You didn’t even hesitate.”
The truth hangs between us.
No, I didn’t.
Not when it mattered.Not when her life was in front of me.Not when every instinct Giovanni forged in me finally sank its teeth into something worth protecting.
“I—” I start again, but what wants to come out isn’t holy.No apology.No remorse.Just the raw, brutal truth pounding inside me.
I’m not sorry.Not even close.
I glance down at Rocco’s crushed throat, then back up at her.
If I had to choose again — if I had to do it a hundred more times — I already know exactly what I’d do.
I’d kill for her.
Again.And again.
The realization slices through me like a blade.
I’m not the man I pretend to be.And I don’t want to be—
Not when it comes to her.
You Saved Me
Pia moves first.
Not me.Not the man still kneeling beside a fresh body.Not the priest whose hands are shaking from the kill.
Her.
She steps toward me slowly, cautiously, like she’s approaching something wounded and dangerous—an animal half-feral, half-starved, half-ready to bite. Her boots scrape softly across the stone. Her breath is uneven. Her hands tremble, barely, but she does not hide it.
Then she kneels in front of me.
Deliberate.Measured.A woman lowering herself before someone who could shatter her or save her—and she hasn’t decided which one I’ll be.
Blood speckles my collar, my face, my hands.All of it feels like a sin I should confess, but won’t.
