Page 69

The words won't leave my head.

I return to a quiet villa after midnight, my footsteps echoing on the marble as I climb the stairs.

Lucia’s waiting for me, curled on the couch with a medical journal open in her lap. The reading lamp casts soft golden light across her features. She looks up when I enter, and the relief in her eyes, hidden fast but not fast enough, hits like a clean body shot.

“I was starting to worry.” She sets down the journal and crosses over to me. “Enzo kept you late.”

I reach for her, needing to touch her. My hands settle on her hips and tug her close. I inhale the scent of her, jasmine and warmth and home. “Three days. We move in three days.”

Her breath catches against my chest. “That soon?”

“I wanted you to hear it from me.” I rest my forehead against hers. “You’ll stay here, protected and surrounded by Benedetti soldiers. You’ll be safer at the villa than anywhere else.”

“But—”

“I need to know you’ll be okay, Lucia. If you come with me, my focus will be split, and that gives Bruno’s men an opening.”

“And you?” Her voice is barely a whisper. “Will you be okay?”

I want to lie and promise her that we’ll be fine, but she deserves better.

“I’ll be careful.” I draw back far enough to meet her gaze. “I’ll come back to you. That’s a promise.”

She studies me, and then she nods, clearly satisfied.

“We should finish the rest of the conversation from earlier.” Her hand comes up to rest over my heart. “About us.”

Every instinct I have urges me to deflect, change the subject, and find a mission to run or a fight to pick. Instead, I hold her hand. “Okay.”

“Talk to me, Marco.” A ghost of a smile touches her lips. “Tell me what’s in that head of yours.”

I lead her to the couch and pull her down beside me, keeping her hand pressed to my chest. The words are harder to say than they should be, so I keep my gaze on wall. “For my whole life, I’ve been used as a tool. Bruno used me for glory. The kickboxing world used me for entertainment. Enzo uses me for protection. And that’s fine. It’s what I’m good at.” I swallow. “But you’re different.”

Her fingers curl against my chest.

“You look at me like I’m more than just what I can do for you. You make me feel like my existence alone matters.” I finally meet her eyes. “I don’t know how to be the person you see. But I want to try. For you, I want to try.”

Her eyes glisten. “Marco…”

“Let me finish.” I cup her face in my hands. “I love you. I’ve never said that to anyone and meant it, but I love you. And I’m terrified, because when you love someone, they can hurt you. I’ve been dealt serious enough wounds to understand that I wouldn’t survive the blow of you leaving me.”

“I won’t leave. You won’t lose me.” She covers my hands with hers. “I chose you. That doesn’t have an expiration date.”

My fingers close over hers, gripping tightly enough that my knuckles ache. “I need to know that our feelings will last beyond this mission. Will stopping Bruno and liberating Matteo’s ghost shatter the love between us?” My voice cracks. “When this war ends, will you walk away?”

Understanding dawns in her eyes. The worry in my heart must be written all over my face.

“Oh, Marco.”

She climbs into my lap, straddling me and cradling my jaw.

“Listen to me,” she says softly. “I might have latched on to you because you could help me find Bruno, but this has become so much more than just a search for answers. You matter to me, Marco. You’re the man who anonymously pays for children’s surgeries and teaches sick, abandoned kids how to defend themselves. You held me when I fell apart without asking for anything in return. You move me in ways I don’t even know how to explain.”

My heart starts racing, and I can’t put any thoughts together. Thankfully, she doesn’t need them right now. She leans close, her lips brushing mine. I lap at her until she opens her mouth, and then I claim her as if I need to extract the air from her lungs.

My fingers tangle in her hair and anchor her to me. When we come up for air, she sighs, her green eyes dark as a nighttime forest.

“I’m not moving from here. Not ever. You’re stuck with me, Santori.”