“Why?”
Magnus leaned back against the seat, but there was nothing relaxed in it. He looked as though every muscle remained ready for another fight. His uninjured hand braced against his thigh. His jaw hadn’t unclenched since the attack.
“Several reasons make sense,” he said. “None of them improve Donati’s position.”
She almost laughed at the coldness of that. Almost. Fear left no room.Understanding slid into place in her mind with cold clarity.Bianca and the sons had spoken freely in front of her at the house, discussing the contract and the structure of the trap because they believed she was harmless. Powerless. Property that could be moved, sold off, or discarded. They had never considered the possibility that she might walk away from them and carry everything she had heard straight into Severin territory.
She lifted her eyes to Magnus. “It’s because I know too much, isn’t it?”
He watched her for a moment, as if confirming she had reached the same conclusion he had. Then he said, “Yes. You know too much for the Donatis’ peace of mind. About the contract. About the trap hidden inside it. About the way Bianca and the sons spoke in front of you because they assumed you were too powerless to matter. Men like that never fear a witness until the witness changes sides.”
Elia looked down at the cloth over his arm. “They still think of me as theirs.”
“Exactly.” His gaze hardened. “And once they understood you were no longer part of their household, no longer dependent on them, that changed the equation.”
“Because I might talk.”
“Yes.”
The city slid past the darkened windows in fractured ribbons of light. Traffic signals flared red and green across the glass. Neon spilled over Magnus’s face and vanished again as the car moved throughthe night.
Then Elia said the next thing because it was already assembling itself in her mind and because if she didn’t speak now, the fear might own her instead.“And they tried to take me out because it hurts you.”
Magnus looked at her.
She held the stare and kept going. “Killing me in public, beside you, at a gala where everyone was watching. That wasn’t only about removing a problem. It was a message. If they can strike at me while I’m standing with Magnus Severin, then they can humiliate you and the family at the same time.”
Something flickered in his eyes. Approval, maybe. Or satisfaction that she saw what he saw.“Yes,” he said. “That too.”
“There’s more.”
His expression shifted slightly, the smallest tightening around hiseyes.
“They know you’re keeping me,” she said. “Permanently.”
“They suspect it.”
She shook her head, more firmly this time. “No. They know.”
Magnus didn’t interrupt, so she continued, forcing the logic into the open.“They watched you take me away from them. They watched you refuse to return me. Tonight proved it. If they thought I was temporary leverage, they would wait. They would negotiate.”Her gaze held his.“They didn’t negotiate. They triedto kill me.”
The words came more steadily now because once she saw the pattern, she could not unsee it. “I was standing beside you tonight. Wearing your diamonds. Dancing with you in front of everyone. You took me out onto that balcony because the whole room was staring and you didn’t like it. They saw that. They know I’m not a temporary problem anymore.” Her fingers tightened over the blood-soaked handkerchief. “If I stay with you, they lose me.”
For a few seconds neither of them spoke. The car hummed through the night, engine low and steady, city light sliding across Magnus’s face and vanishing again. He watched her with that same ruthless focus he’d used on the balcony, as if he were waiting to see how far her mind would go before he answered.The revelation didn’t surprise him. It deepened him. Darkened the dangerous restraint already riding beneath hisskin.
Her mouth went dry as her mind finished the pattern with chilling clarity. They knew Magnus was keeping her now. Everyone at the gala had seen it.“If they can’t get me back,” she said, forcing out the words, “no one gets me.”
Magnus didn’t react the way another man might have. No surprise. No denial. His gaze only settled more firmly on her, as if the conclusion merely confirmed something he had already decided.“Then they’ve already lost.” A heartbeat later his voice dropped, absolute and unyielding. His gaze didn’t move from hers.“You’re mine now.”
The words struck her like a physical force. She could only stare at him, breath stalled somewhere in her chest. There was no hesitationin him. No negotiation. He stated it the way a man stated gravity—an unalterablefact.
The certainty moved through her likefire.
He wasn’t threatening her enemies or boasting about what he’d done. He was simply declaring reality. He had killed a man tonight and sat here bleeding without once considering surrendering her, and that certainty pressed so hard against her ribs she could scarcely drawair.
Her hand shifted slightly on the cloth.
Magnus’s eyes dropped to the movement, then rose again.“I should’ve dragged an answer out of him before I threw him off the balcony.”
