Her voice is quiet, devastatingly so. “I wish I could believe you.”
They shatter something in my chest, a clean, brutal break that leaves no room to pretend it doesn’t gut me to hear that. I know she wants to trust me. I can see it in her eyes.
But wanting isn’t the same as believing.
In that moment, I understand with terrifying clarity that protecting Luca won’t just mean creating a brilliant strategy to get everything I want. It will mean earning back the faith of the woman who knows exactly what my world costs and is no longer sure she can afford to pay it.
17
ELENA
Since speaking with Dante days ago about the bounty on Luca’s head, I haven’t let my son out of my sight.
Not for one single second.
If he’s awake, he’s with me. If he’s asleep, I’m close enough to hear every intake of breath he takes, every small sound he makes when he shifts in his dreams. I sleep lightly now—if I even sleep at all—half-dressed and alert, my body coiled tightly with a readiness to move at the subtlest alarm.
The house feels different now. Every unfamiliar sound sends my heart racing, my mind immediately supplying images I can’t seem to shut off of hands grabbing Luca and him crying out for me the way he did that night during the raid.
I watch him constantly, memorizing the small things the way I did when he was a baby. The way his nose scrunches when he laughs, how he curls into my side without thinking, trusting me completely to keep him safe and protected.
It guts me.
I am devastated in a way that feels bone-deep. Every fear I’ve carried for years has finally clawed its way into the light. I always knew Dante’s world was dangerous. That was why I ran, why I had to disappear before anyone knew I was carrying the Cosenza heir. It was the main reason I raised Luca in a life of anonymity.
I let myself believe that my fears were okay to let go of. That my old wounds had finally healed after discovering the truth about my father and realizing that the man who had been blamed for so much pain was innocent after all. I thought maybe the universe had finally balanced itself out when Dante accepted it too and knew that turning his sights on the real culprit would finally get us all out of this mess.
I had been wrong to believe the world wouldn’t always punish us for being connected to Dante. I know better than that. I always knew karma would finally come for us, intending to collect its debt eventually and deciding Luca is the price it’s demanding.
I don’t know how to reconcile the love Dante promises with the danger that follows him like a shadow. I don’t know how to trust the vows he’s made in a world where children are reduced to leverage.
All I know is I will not lose my son.
I refuse to.
If the universe thinks that this is the price I’m meant to pay for loving the wrong man, then it’s going to have to go through me first.
I sit up in bed with a sharp inhale, the decision settling into my bones all at once.
I’m done waiting.
I’m done lying here counting footsteps in the hallway, jumping at every shift of the guards passing by outside Luca’s door, expecting it to be another infiltration. I’m done pretending that patience is protection and something I can afford to wait on. Waiting is a luxury for people who aren’t already marked by the hands of the Devil himself.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and press my feet to the cool floor. The room is dim, washed in the soft lighting from Luca’s nightlight.
My thoughts are painfully clear. I need to get Luca out of Italy.
Now.
Every instinct I’ve ignored for days comes roaring back to life within seconds. If I can get us back to the States, I can disappear us again. I’ve done it once. I can do it again. Maybe I can even find my father.
The thought hits hard enough to make my chest ache.
I don’t know where he is now, only that he wasn’t in New York when Luca and I were. If anyone understands hiding, it’s him. If anyone knows how to vanish without a trace, it’s my father. All I need is to find a way to get in contact with him. Maybe once I do, we can finally reunite again.
I push to my feet and cross the room quietly, careful not to make a sound and wake Luca. I reach the window and peer out, my breath fogging the glass slightly as I scan the grounds below. Lights dot the perimeter as guards move in slow, predictable patterns. Dante’s security is thorough, as it always is.
There is a village close to the villa that we can reach on foot if we’re careful. If I can get Luca down there without being seen, Ican bribe one of the locals into giving me a ride to the embassy. Money talks. It always does.
