"I won't."
"And don't die."
Something shifts in his expression. The darkness recedes slightly, replaced by something softer. Something that looks almost like hope.
"I'll try my best," he says.
It's not a promise. We both know it. But right now, it's enough.
I lean into his chest and let him hold me.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Dante
The water runs hot enough to burn.
I stand under the spray with my palms pressed flat against the tile, letting the heat scorch my skin. Steam fills the bathroom, thick and suffocating.
Half-brothers.
The words echo in my skull. Over and over. A loop I can't escape.
Giuseppe raped my mother. Giuseppe ordered the hit on my family. Giuseppe took me in and shaped me into a weapon to use against his own enemies.
And he destroyed everything I loved.
My fist connects with the tile before I realize I've moved. Pain shoots up my arm.
I agreed to Alejandro's terms.
Every single one.
I nodded and said yes to all of it, because that's what survivors do. They adapt. They wait. They plan.
But Marina can never know what I agreed to. She can never know the things Alejandro asked me to do.
She won't understand.
She'll look at me the way she looked at me in Chicago—like I'm a monster wearing human skin. Like every gentle touch was a lie. Like the man who held her while she cried doesn't exist.
Maybe he doesn't.
Maybe I've always been exactly what Giuseppe made me. A weapon. A tool. Something to be pointed at enemies and fired.
The water pounds against my shoulders. I drop my head and watch it swirl down the drain.
Alejandro will stop his operations for now. No more surveillance. No more threats. He's giving me time to prove my loyalty before the real work begins.
One week.
Marina and I stay here for one more week. Then I ask Lorenzo to bring us back to Chicago. And then...
Then the plan starts.
The bathroom door opens.
I go still. My hand moves instinctively toward where my gun would be, but I'm naked and unarmed and?—
