When I get backto the apartment, it's late afternoon. The light coming through the windows is golden and warm, making everything look softer and gentler, less dangerous than it actually is. Savannah is sitting on the couch, and she looks up when I come in. I can see the anxiety in her face, and all I want is to wipe it away. To make her life everything she’s ever wanted.
"How did it go?" she asks quietly.
I cross the room and sit down next to her, close enough that I can feel the warmth of her body but not touching. Respecting the boundary she set last night, even though every instinct I have is screaming at me to pull her into my arms and never let go. "My father agreed to back me," I say. "Conditionally. He wants proof that I can handle the situation without creating more problems for the family."
"And can you?" There's no judgment in her voice, just genuine curiosity—a need to know if I'm capable of what I'm promising.
"Yes." I meet her eyes, and I let her see the certainty there, let her see that I'm not just making empty promises. "Luca's helping me build a case against Whitmore—evidence of embezzlement, fraud, connections to money laundering. Within a week, maybe less, we'll have enough to make him drop the assault charges and disappear from your life permanently."
"You're going to destroy him." It's not a question.
"Yes."
She's quiet for a long moment, and I can see her processing what it means that I'm willing to ruin someone's life to protect her, to protect us. "And my father?"
"We're preparing for the possibility that he escalates. But my father thinks he'll back off once he sees that I’m not backing down." I pause. "He's a businessman, Savannah. He's not going to risk his empire over this. Not if we give him a way out that lets him save face."
"So you're going to negotiate with him."
"If that's what it takes." I shift slightly closer, and she doesn't pull away. I take that as permission to continue. "I know you want to fight your own battles. I know you want agency in your own life. But right now, the best way I can protect you—the best way I can protect our child—is to handle this the way I know how. Strategically, without putting you in more danger than you're already in. I'm going to use every resource I have. Every connection. Every piece of leverage. I'm going to be ruthless and calculating, and exactly what my father trained me to be. Because that's what it takes to keep you safe."
"And after?" She bites her lip, looking directly at me. "After you've destroyed Thad and negotiated with my father and handled all the threats—what then? Do you go back to being that man permanently? Do you become your father?"
It's the same question I've been asking myself, the same fear that's been growing in the back of my mind since I walked outof Dante's office. "I don't know," I admit. "I don't know if I can be both—the man who's ruthless enough to protect you and the man who's gentle enough to love you the way you need to be loved. I don't know if those two things can exist in the same person."
"They have to,” she whispers. "Because I need both, Romeo. I need you to be strong enough to protect us, but I also need you to be vulnerable enough to let me in. I need you to figure out how to be both."
"I'm trying." My voice is rough, and I can feel all the emotion weighing me down, as if years of feeling nothing have coalesced into a boulder crushing me. "I'm trying to be what you need. But I don't know if I know how."
She reaches out and takes my hand. It's the first time she's touched me since last night, and the feeling of her skin against mine makes something in my chest loosen. "Promise me you'll try."
“That’s an easy promise to make. It's going to be over soon, Savannah. I promise. If you'll just trust me."
She looks at me, and I can see her wanting to do just that—to believe that I can do this, and that I can also be the man she needs. “I’ll try, too,” she whispers.
I know it’s the best she can give me right now. And I have to try to prove to her that I’m worthy of more.
22
SAVANNAH
The call comes at two in the morning. I'm half-asleep when my phone buzzes on the nightstand, and I jolt awake. I’ve been on edge for days, and the call could be Romeo if he left to handle something, or my father, or Thad…
I look at the screen and see Giulia’s name. When I answer, her voice sounds tight and panicked.
"Savannah, listen to me carefully. Romeo's been arrested."
The words don't make sense at first. I sit up in bed, my heart already racing even though my brain hasn't caught up yet. "What? When? What happened?"
“He was on his way back to the penthouse when they pulled him over about an hour ago. They had a warrant—weapons possession, racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder." She's talking fast, like she's trying to get all the information out before I can interrupt. "It was a setup, he said, but Thad has judges and prosecutors in his pocket, and he's using them to?—"
"How long?" My heart is beating too hard in my chest, and I struggle to think clearly. "How long will they hold him?"
"Seventy-two hours minimum before the lawyers can get him released on bail. Savannah, you need to listen to me. You'renot safe there alone. I'm coming over. Don't open the door for anyone except me. Do you understand?"
"I understand." I’m still trying to process the fact that Romeo is in custody. "Giulia?—"
"I'll be there in twenty minutes. Lock the door. Don't answer if anyone knocks." She hangs up before I can say anything else.
