So am I.
Aurelio's study is at the end of the east wing. Heavy oak doors, always closed, guarded by two men who step aside when they see me coming. I push through without knocking.
He's standing at the window, looking out at the courtyard. His hands are clasped behind his back. He doesn't turn when I enter.
"Close the door," he says.
I close it.
The silence stretches. Ten seconds. Twenty. I stand in the center of the room and wait. I've played this game before. Aurelio uses silence like a weapon, letting it build until the other person breaks. I learned it from him. I won't break first.
Finally, he turns.
His face is unreadable. Grey eyes flat, mouth set in a thin line. He looks at me the way he looked at me twenty years ago, when I was a seventeen-year-old kid with blood on my hands and nowhere else to go. Assessing. Calculating. Deciding whether I'm worth the trouble.
"Fourteen men," he says.
"Fifteen, including the spotter on the roof."
"Fifteen men. A Castillo safehouse. Against my direct orders."
"Not technically. You said go."
"And the girl?"
"Safe. At the east side location."
He nods slowly. Walks to his desk. Sits down. His movements are deliberate, controlled, giving nothing away.
"Castillo called this morning," he says. "He's demanding blood. Your blood, specifically. He wants you delivered to him in chains, along with full territorial concessions and a public apology."
"And your response?"
"I told him I'd consider it."
My jaw tightens. "Aurelio."
"I told him I'd consider it," he repeats. "That's what you say when a man is screaming in your ear, and you need him to stop long enough to think." He leans back in his chair. "What I'm actually going to do is something different."
"Which is?"
"That depends on you."
He gestures to the chair across from his desk. I sit.
"You defied me," he says. "First time in twenty years. I gave you a direct order and you walked out of my war room and did exactly what I told you not to do." He pauses. "Why?"
"You know why."
"I want to hear you say it."
I meet his eyes. "Because she matters more than your orders. Because I would rather burn my entire life to the ground than let someone take her from me. Because you asked me if she was worth everything, and the answer was yes, and I meant it."
Aurelio studies me. Then, slowly, he smiles.
It's not a warm smile. Aurelio doesn't do warm. But there's a look in it I haven't seen before. Understanding.
"Your father said something similar to me once," he says.
