Marcello didn’t dress it up.He laid it out the way it was—clean, blunt, leaving no room for her to twist the situation into something it wasn’t.
“The only reason Machado didn’t try anything here at the villa was because he knew this is our territory and all hell would rain down on him if he attacked a Cavalho stronghold.”
Raze’s cousin spoke calmly, but I heard the warning in his tone.
Machado had shown restraint because he wasn’t stupid, not because he was harmless.
“But,” I cut in, my voice louder than I meant it to be, “he was desperate enough to send men from Spain to get to her.Now they’re dead, he’s lost that leverage—so he needs a new plan.He’s going to escalate.”
Silence dropped.
Raze’s attention slid to Tone.Slow.Controlled.Dangerous.
“How the fuck,” he said, each word tight, “did you get involved with someone like that?”
His voice cracked through the room.
She didn’t flinch.She met it straight on—chin up, gaze steady in that same cool, infuriating way that had every protective instinct in me sharpening.
“I didn’t,” she said, even.
“The man is crossing borders for you.”
“And that’s somehow my fault?”
“You didn’t think to say anything?”
The room tightened around Raze’s question.
Tone straightened, shoulders back, jaw set—but her eyes never left his.
“Say what, exactly?”she shot back.“He’s the reason I left Spain.The reason I came home.How was I supposed to know the man was unhinged?”
Even Raze faltered for a second.
“What happened with Machado?”Atlas asked.“All of it, Tone.”
She didn’t look at any of us.Her gaze fixed somewhere past the wall.
“He started pursuing me while I was there.At first—dinners, gifts, invitations I never accepted.Then it escalated.Flowers sent to places I hadn’t given him.Cars outside my apartment.Men watching.”Her mouth flattened.“He thought he could charm me with his persistence.Instead, I just found him creepy.”
Raze swore under his breath.
Gianni pushed off the wall, attention sharpening.
Tone didn’t react as she kept going.
“That’s why I left early and came home before I was meant to.I thought distance would end it.”
“It didn’t,” I said.
Her eyes met mine.
No—it hadn’t.
Raze moved then, a step forward, anger rolling off him in clean, controlled waves.
“How the fuck did you not tell me this?”
