I didn't answer, just pressed harder on the accelerator, weaving through traffic with brutal precision. The Maserati roared under my hands, the powerful engine eating the distance between us and the city’s outskirts.
The SUV kept pace, creeping closer.
Not part of the plan. Giuseppe's men weren't supposed to mobilize this quickly.
I'd accounted for her father's security, for the wedding guests' confusion, even for her own route selection. But I hadn't anticipated how swiftly her uncle would move to reclaim his niece—and the inheritance she represented as long as Giuseppe married her off to someone who had his best interest at heart, and not his brother’s.
"Friends of yours?" Sienna asked, her fists tightening again in her lap.
"Not the friendly kind," I muttered.
Without warning, I jerked the wheel hard, taking a side street barely wide enough for two cars. Tires screeched, the Maserati fishtailing for a split second before gripping the pavement. I shot another look behind us.
The SUV hesitated.
Amateurs.
Another sharp turn, another alley, and the black beast behind us disappeared into the maze of crumbling warehouses and neon-soaked streets.
Only when the road emptied around us did I allow myself a breath.
Sienna sat motionless, but when I glanced at her again, her face was pale beneath the mess of her hair. Her breathing came shallow and fast.
"Still think you don't need me?" I said roughly, voice low.
She didn't answer. She didn't have to.
For the first time that night, the armor cracked.
I caught it—not in her words, but in the trembling of her hands, the slight quiver of her lower lip before she clamped her teeth down hard. Not fear of me. Fear of being powerless. Fear of being a pawn in games older and bloodier than either of us.
The sight of it—the naked, unguarded fear she couldn't quite suppress—punched something deep inside my chest.
It was easier when she was spitting fire, throwing her fists, clawing at me with all that stubborn fury. This...this vulnerability was a blade sliding under my ribs, carving open something I had no business feeling.
I shifted my gaze back to the road, every muscle straining against the urge to reach for her, to promise something dangerous and foolish—like safety. Like loyalty.
I couldn’t afford either.
Protecting her was a strategy. Protecting her was survival.
It had to stay that way.
And yet, as the city bled away behind us, the silence between us grew heavier—twisting into something neither of us could escape.
The silence between us thickened, vibrating with everything we refused to say. The Maserati purred beneath us, a beast caged in steel and speed, but neither of us moved to break the fragile thread of quiet.
Finally, Sienna spoke, her voice low, cutting. "You think kidnapping me makes you any better than the monsters waitingat the altar?"
"Saving your life isn't kidnapping," I said coolly, eyes pinned to the road.
She barked a humorless laugh. "Right. Because being forced into a marriage with a man I despise is so much better than being forced into a marriage with a stranger."
A muscle jumped in my jaw. "I'm not a stranger."
"No," she snapped. "You're worse. You're the man my father warned me about."
I flicked a glance at her, meeting the storm in her eyes. "Smart man, your father. Maybe you should've listened to him for once."
