“I really don’t want to go,” she says. “I’ll be fine at the apartment. Really.”
I blink at her, stunned.
I’m not used to anyone questioning my word, let alone outright rejecting it. For a second I just stand there, thrown off balance, because people usually fall in line when I say something.
But Elizabeth doesn’t.
And that shock hits deeper than it should.
“Sienna,” I say evenly. “Give us the room.”
“Dad—”
“Now.”
She huffs, but she knows that tone. With a muttered, “Fine,” she slips out, closing the door behind her.
The silence that follows is heavy. I take a step closer to the bed, letting the weight of my presence fill the space before I speak.
“Sienna’s boyfriend is dead,” I tell her, my voice low, but even. “His blood still stains the entryway of your apartment.”
Miss Miller’s eyes widen, but I don’t stop.
“Your friend, Dave, is dead too. So are three others from the party.” My voice stays level because the truth doesn’t need theatrics to terrify. “And the men who tried to take my daughter won’t be a problem again, because they’re dead as well.”
Her breath stutters, just barely.
I step closer, watching the way her eyes widen, watching the way her fingers curl into the blanket like she’s trying to anchor herself from the truths I’m telling her.
“The police will be there for days,” I continue, each word dropping heavy between us. “Glass, blood, and chaos everywhere. That’s what’s waiting for you back at that apartment.”
I pause long enough for the weight of it to sink in and long enough for her pulse to thrum visibly in her throat. And then I finish, softer but far more final.
“So no, Miss Miller.You won’t be going back there for a very long time.”
She stares at me, pale and silent, horror flickering across her features as realization takes hold. She finally understands that whatever world she’s stumbled into is far darker, far sharper, far more lethal than she ever imagined.
Her lips part and her eyes dart—fight or flight simmering just beneath the surface.
Good.
She needs to be prepared.
Because monsters are real in my world.
And tonight, she learned exactly what happens when they come knocking.
3
Birdie
Sienna’s dad steps out when the nurse comes back in, and I finally feel like I can breathe for the first time since he walked into the room. The air seems to settle, heavy but still, like the storm’s passed. For now.
Lorenzo Conti is intense—dangerously so—but more than that he’s gorgeous in a way that feels almost unfair. When he first stepped into the room, shadows carved along the hard line of his jaw and the sharp cut of his cheekbones. The black suit he wore didn’t hide a damn thing. Certainly not the muscles beneath. No, it only emphasized the power coiled beneath it. And, god, he’s tall. There’s a quiet force to him, something deliberate and controlled, like he knows exactly what kind of effect he has on a room and on me.
His hair is dark with flecks of silver at his temples, the kind that makes a man look even more dangerous.
And when his dark gaze pinned me I couldn’t look away. The air shifted, charged, like a storm gathering right above my skin.I’m still feeling the echo of it, humming through me, refusing to fade. My damn nipples are so pebbled that they hurt.
