“Youknew!” I whirl on her, and I must look insane because she actually takes a step back. “You’ve known forweeksthat Salvatore Romano killed Marco. That he orderedmydeath and got my cousin instead. That I’ve been—” My voice cracks. “I’ve been negotiating with him. Doing business with the man who destroyed my world, and you saidnothing!”
“I already told you I was terrified!” She’s shouting now too, matching my fury with her own. “You think I wanted to keep that secret? You think it didn’t eat at me every single day, watching you torture yourself?” She grabs her hair in frustration. “But what was I supposed todo, Luca?” She looks at me plaintively with those big brown eyes of hers. “Trust the man who was planning to kill me anyway?”
Some of my anger dies at that moment. Because, yes, she’s right.
Iwasplanning to kill her. According to my original timeline, she should have been dead already, her death the final act in my revenge against Antonio. How could I expect her to trust me with information that made her either too valuable or too dangerous to keep alive?
But it doesn’t matter. Not when every moment between us has been revealed as a foundation built on lies. Not when she watched me suffer, watched me talk to Marco’s killer atour wedding,and said absolutely nothing.
“I fell in love with you,” I hear myself say, and my voice sounds broken and unfamiliar. “I gave up three years of revenge planning. I chose you over justice for Marco. And the entire time, you were protecting his killer.”
“I was protectingmyself!” Tears stream down her face now, her composure finally shattering. “I was protecting my father. I was trying to survive in a situation where every choice could get me killed.” She glares at me, tears tracking down her cheeks. “You don’t get to act betrayed when you were the one who made me afraid to trust you in the first place!”
Fuck me, she’s right again. But it doesn’t ease the rage burning through my veins or make the betrayal hurt any less.
“Get out.” The words come out flat, emotionless, more terrifying than any scream. “Get out of my office before I do something we’ll both regret.”
She actually looks stricken. “Luca?—”
“Get the fuck out!” The roar tears from my throat with enough force that Gigi actually flinches. “Go back to your room. Lock thedoor. And stay the hell away from me while I figure out what to do with you.”
She stares at me for one more heartbeat, and I see the exact moment when cool fury takes over her expression. Then she’s gone, the door slamming behind her hard enough to rattle the frames on my walls.
The silence that follows is deafening.
I sink onto the leather sofa, my hands covering my face, trying to breathe through the chaos of emotions threatening to tear me apart. Rage at Romano. Betrayal from Gigi. Grief for Marco that feels fresh again, raw as the day I found his body. And underneath all of it, the horrible realization that she’s right about everything.
I made her afraid to trust me. I planned her death while she was falling in love with me. I created this situation where her survival depended on keeping secrets from the man who held her captive.
How can I blame her for protecting herself when I gave her every reason to believe I’d destroy her?
But the betrayal still burns. The knowledge that she sat through a dinner with Romano, smiled at him,let me handle business with himwhile knowing he killed Marco?—
I knew he was planning something. Discussed it with Viktor. But is somehow worse.
My fist drives into the wall before I can think better of it. Pain explodes across my knuckles, but it’s not enough. Not nearly enough to drown out the roar of fury and grief andbetrayalchurning in my chest.
I punch the wall again. And again. Each impact sends fresh agony shooting up my arm, but the physical pain is easier to process than the emotional devastation. It’s easier than facing the truth that I’ve destroyed the best thing that ever happened to me through my own inability to be the man she needed me to be.
“Fuck!” The scream comes out of me, raw and anguished. “Sheliedto me, Marco! She knew who killed you and she saidnothing!”
But Marco’s not here to answer. Marco’s been dead for three years, and his killer has been walking around free, building his empire,shaking my handwhile I remained oblivious.
Because Gigi didn’ttell me.
The door opens. I don’t have to turn around to know it’s Danny. No one else would dare enter when I’m like this.
“Luca—” he starts, but I cut him off.
“Danny,do not.” I’m still staring at the blood on my knuckles, watching it well up from split skin. “Do not tell me to calm down. Don’t tell me she had her reasons. Don’t tell me any of the rational, logical things you’re thinking right now because I can’t—Ican’thear it.”
“Then don’t listen.” Danny moves closer, and I can hear the careful control in his voice. The tone he uses when he thinks I’m about to do something irreversible. “Just let me say what I need to say, and then I’ll leave you alone.”
I don’t respond, which he takes as fucking permission.
“You had something real with her,” Danny says quietly. “You threw it away to maintain a lie about your disposal plan.”
My head snaps up. Is he fucking seriously takingher side?
