Let’s play.
“Cugì, have you lost your mind?” Alessio hisses beside me.
I grin. Maybe I did, but Fedor is going down.
“Leave you for one hour and you’re plotting with the enemy’s daughter? You really don’t want us to get any rest here, do you?”
Myko barges in, his voice slicing through the tension—I almost laugh. Almost.
But then Roran does something that makes my breath catch. Makes both me and Alessio freeze.
She drops to her knees.
Right there on the training room floor.
Eyes down. Shoulders squared.
“Thank you,” she says quietly. “I’ll owe you my life.”
Roran
Inever thought I’d beg a man again. Not after everything. But this time, I swear it would be the last.
Every step toward him is heavy with the weight of what I’m about to face. I’ll never trust a man to take care of me and Diana—not fully, not ever again. But Maleciandro… maybe he’s different. Maybe he hates my father enough to do what I never could. Enough to protect her when I can’t.
Better to stay here, working with Diana under their watch, than risk being shipped off to Miami with that monster, leaving her at the mercy of a man who doesn’t even know the meaning of the wordfather. The thought twists my chest like a vise, and I can taste the tension in my mouth.
The elevator doors open, and Maleciandro’s grip tightens on my arm, pushing me forward. Not painfully—but firm. Every muscle under his grip seems coiled, a warning and a shield at once. I flinch slightly, feeling how tense he’s gotten with me in this tight space, but I keep my face calm, forcing my resolve into the smallest lines of my body.
When we climbed up the stairs from the training room, I heard Alessio throwing a jab about how his parents were upstairs now—together—and how he left before the “noise” started.
Whatever the hellthatmeant.
But the second he said it, Maleciandro looked like he wanted to claw his ears off and bleach his brain.
The way they talk to each other—the way theytease—it’s so foreign. Is that how real families act?
I don’t even remember the last time my fatherreallysmiled, let alone laughed. Not even next to his golden boy. And the way Maleciandro’s aunt and uncle treat him—the way theyspeakto him—it’s not fear. It’s something else. Respect. Maybe even love.
I never even dared to crave something like that.
A family who actually has your back.
He’ll save Diana. He has to.
Now, more than ever, I believe it. Hegetswhat she means to me. I can’t trust men—but I can trustthat.
The elevator doors open on the third floor. I move to step out first, before he has the chance to drag me. I need him to know I’m serious. I’m in. I’m going to do whatever is needed for us to stay safe. For Diana.
But he doesn’t move.
“Alessio, go home. Go get your aunt, we’ll leave from the beach house.” He nods toward his cousin, who doesn’t argue or jab for once. Just leaves.
That’s when I know something’s serious.
What beach house?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a beach outside of the ones on the Konfetki laptop’s auto-generated screensaver. I never even let myself think it was a luxury I could have. Do I evenowna swimsuit?
