“But you stay beside me.”
She smirks, resting a hand on her neck. “Bossy.”
“Alive. The word is alive.”
Ritchie clears his throat. “As much as I enjoy this toxic foreplay, Ettore?”
I forgot our team and my cousins were here. It felt like it was just me and Serenity in that moment.
I look back at the map.
“We hit before dawn. Minimal civilian traffic. Less visibility. Everyone wears tactical gear. Full armor.”
“Kill order?” Catch asks.
I glance at Serenity.
She doesn’t hesitate.
“Everyone dies.” Her voice is cold enough to freeze blood.
Then she lifts a finger.
“Except Ettore.”
The room goes quiet.
I study my wife.
No emotion on her face. No visible cracks. Just ice.
Her gray eyes meet mine. “He joins Aleksandr.”
Cold. Sharp. Absolute.
A proud heat moves through me.
Something in her tone makes everyone at the table pay attention.
Serenity slowly walks along the stainless steel countertop, fingertips gliding over the edge like she’s thinking through every ugly memory.
“When I was fourteen, Ettore sent men to my family’s home.”
No one speaks.
“They weren’t there to negotiate. They weren’t there to scare us.”
Her jaw tightens.
“They were there to kill me, my brother, and my mother.”
Her eyes move over us. “Dad gave up his territory without a second thought. For us. His family. But that just wasn’t enough. They wanted my father left alive to suffer the loss of his family.”
Serenity’s voice drops lower. Deadlier.
“One of Ettore’s bodyguards beat my mother so badly she lost the baby she was carrying. My sister.”
My blood goes cold. Hearing her relive that moment again rips something inside my chest.
