“What intel?” she demands.
I hesitate. My lips press into a thin line as the weight of the words settles heavily in my throat.
“What intel, Dante?” she snaps.
There’s no more room to soften what’s about to come. No way to dress this up as anything but the grim reality we might soon face.
My lips part slowly. “There has been a bounty placed on his head?—”
Her knees buckle beneath her before I finish, her body giving out all at once as if something vital has been cut loose inside her. She slips through my grip and sinks to the floor, folding in on herself as broken sobs tear from her chest. They rack her frame, raw and unrestrained.
I drop down with her immediately, crouching in front of her. My hands hover uselessly for half a second, caught between wanting to pull her against me and knowing that touching her might only make things worse.
I settle them on her shoulders instead. “Elena, listen to me.”
She doesn’t. She folds in on herself, covering her face with her hands as if she can block the world out if she tries hard enough. Her shoulders shake violently, breath hitching in sharp, broken gasps.
“No. No, no, no. No. I knew it. I knew this would happen if you found us.”
The words hit harder than any accusation ever has. My heart lurches violently, a painful, involuntary reaction I can’t control. “Elena…”
“I knew he would be caught up in this,” she continues, completely ignoring me. “Why do you think I kept him away from you? Why do you think I never told you about him?” Her fingers part just long enough for me to see her tear-streaked face before she covers it again. “Iknewyou wouldn’t be able to protect him. And now look what’s happened.”
Each word lands like a blade struck straight through my heart. It isn’t because what she says is particularly cruel but because her words are honest. Because this, this exact moment, is the one nightmare she’s been running from.
“God, I should’ve known better. I let myself believe—” She chokes on the rest, shaking her head violently.
I tighten my grip on her shoulders, just enough to make her stop rambling. “Elena, stop. Look at me.”
She doesn’t.
She can’t.
Her breathing borders on hyperventilating, fear swallowing logic whole. Her panic echoes off the walls in a way that makes a savage protectiveness stir in my chest.
I move closer, lowering myself fully in front of her until I’m on her level, until there’s nowhere for her gaze to go but me when she finally peeks through her fingers again. I make myself solid, an unmoving, fixed point against the chaos.
“I won’t allow anything bad to happen to him. Luca is not unprotected,” I tell her,promisingher.
She lets out a broken sound, grief and terror tangled together so tightly, it’s impossible to separate them. “I should’ve stayed gone… I should’ve run away from you when I had the chance. From all of this.”
The words cut deep, but I don’t pull back. I lean in closer until my forehead is nearly touching hers.
“And then what?” I ask quietly. “You spend the rest of your life running? Looking over your shoulder? Teaching him to hide from his own name forever?”
Her breath stutters.
“I would find you eventually. You know I would,” I add, just as softly.
She doesn’t answer me, nor does she argue.
“I won’t pretend my world is safe,” I continue. There’s no point in lying now. “It never has been. But I will not accept that I can’t protect my own son. Not from them. Not from anyone. You are bothmine.”
Her hands finally fall away from her face, fingers trembling as they drop into her lap. She swallows hard, throat working as her red-rimmed eyes meet mine. I lift my hands and cup her face gently. Both thumbs brush beneath her eyes, wiping away the tracks of tears.
“I swear to you, nothing will happen to Luca. Not while I’m breathing.”
She stares at me for a long time. Long enough for hope to flicker inside my chest and then falter just as quickly when she finally speaks again.
