"Answer it," I say quietly.
He pulls back and checks the screen and his expression shifts immediately into something dark.
"It's Rafael."
He answers. "What?"
I watch his face as he listens, watch it go from concerned to furious in the space of seconds.
"When?" A pause. "How many casualties?" Another pause. "I'm on my way."
He hangs up and looks at me and I can see him already shifting gears, already moving from this moment into whatever crisis is unfolding.
"There was an attack," he says. "One of our fabrication plants on the east side. The O'Rourkes hit it an hour ago. Rafael needs me to go there now with him to assess damage and coordinate response."
My stomach drops.
"How bad?"
"Bad enough that I need to go." He cups my face. "I'll be back as soon as I can. A few hours at most. And then we go to Matteo together and we tell him everything. Okay?"
"Okay."
He kisses me once more, hard and possessive, and then he's helping me down from the counter and we're both getting dressed quickly and I'm watching him transform back into Enzo the enforcer, Enzo the strategist, Enzo who can compartmentalize anything.
I miss my Enzo already.
"Stay inside the house," he says as he checks his gun. "Don't go anywhere without other guards around. I'll have Rafael send extra security to the compound."
"I'll be fine."
"Isabella." He stops and looks at me directly. "Promise me you'll be careful. Promise me you won't do anything stupid while I'm gone."
"I promise."
He nods and kisses my forehead and then he's gone, the door closing behind him, and I'm alone in the bathroom with swollen lips and marks on my neck and the knowledge that everything is about to change.
I look at myself in the mirror.
Tomorrow was supposed to be my wedding day.
But tomorrow I'm going to tell my brother that I'm in love with his best friend and I'm not going through with the marriage that's supposed to save our family from the O'Rourkes.
Tomorrow everything falls apart or everything comes together.
And for the first time in weeks, I feel like I can breathe.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I'm furious that I have to leave.
Not at Rafael. Not at the situation. Just furious at the universe for giving me this night, this moment where Isabella finally chose me, where she said the words I've been waiting four years to hear, and then immediately ripping me away from her to deal with O'Rourke bullshit.
I'm driving too fast and I know it, my hands tight on the wheel, my mind half in the car and half back at the compound with her still in that bathroom, still marked from my mouth, still looking at me like I'm the only thing that matters.
"Slow down before you kill us," Rafael says from the passenger seat.
I don't slow down.
