Toward the door.
The realization hits me so fast my body reacts before my mind catches up. I step in front of him.
“No.”
His eyes come to mine.
Not Adrian from the bedroom. Not the man who smiles against my throat. Not the man who touches me like I am something precious.
The soldier.
“Move, Caterina.”
“No. You are not going out there.”
“My people are out there.”
The words are flat. Final.
“I know,” I say, my voice breaking despite every effort to hold it steady. “I saw.”
“I can’t leave them like that.”
Nick steps forward immediately. “Neither can I.”
Adrian’s gaze cuts to him. “You stay here.”
Nick’s expression hardens. “Those are my people, too.”
“I know.”
“Then you know I’m not sitting in a locked room while they’re out there getting killed.”
“I’m sorry,” Adrian says, and there is nothing soft in it despite the words. “But you have no formal combat training. You go out there, you become another liability I have to protect.”
Nick’s eyes flash.
Lucia’s face goes pale. “Nick.”
He looks at her, at Gabriel in her arms, at Sofia and Charlotte pressed against her sides.
That stops him in a way Adrian’s words do not.
But Vito is already moving.
“No,” Adrian says. “Absolutely not.”
Nico sets Emma into Erica’s arms and turns toward Adrian. “I’m not staying in here.”
Adrian’s jaw tightens. “Yes, you are.”
“You can say that to him,” Vito says, jerking his chin toward Nick. “You can’t say it to us.”
“I can.”
Vito’s eyes go dangerous. “Careful.”
“No,” Adrian says. “You be careful. Those people out there are not just here for Caterina. They are not just here for the women and children.”
