Page 180 of The Art of Ruin

I don’t hear the voice on the other end, but I watch the blood drain from his face.

“What do you mean they’re outside?”

Everything inside me stops.

Adriano.

I don’t need proof. I have hope. Some part of me knows it instantly, with a certainty that feels carved into bone. He came for me like I knew he would. I don’t know what Jasper’s plan ishere but I have an awful feeling it involves me hurting in some way.

Jasper backs toward the grimy window, phone still pressed to his ear. “No. No, that’s impossible. There’s no way he found—”

A crash explodes through the warehouse.

The door at the side of the building bursts inward hard enough to slam against the wall, and voices flood the space all at once.

“Drop the gun!”

“Hands where we can see them!”

Then a voice that cuts through every other sound.

“Casey.”

Adriano.

My eyes find him immediately.

He steps into the warehouse like something lethal wrapped in rain and fury, hair damp, coat darkened at the shoulders, his face stripped of every mask I’ve ever seen him wear. Nico moves beside him with a gun raised. Matteo and Rossi spread out fast, controlled, violent in a way that feels practiced.

But Adriano only looks at me.

The moment his eyes land on my face, something breaks through him so visibly I almost cry out.

Relief. Fear. Rage. Love.

All of it is there, raw and awful and impossible to look away from.

“I’m okay,” I say quickly, though my voice shakes enough to betray me, and I’m sure I look like absolute hell.

Jasper grabs me before anyone can move.

His arm clamps around my chest and the gun presses against my side, cold even through my coat. My stomach turns over so violently I think I might be sick. His body is hidden behind mine like a human shield, but I don’t feel fear in the same way as before because Adriano is here.

“Don’t come closer!” Jasper shouts.

Adriano stops.

The room tightens at the sight of that gun against me. “Let her go,” he commands.

His voice is quiet, but lethal.

Jasper laughs, but his hand is shaking. I can feel it. “Or what?”

Adriano takes one careful step forward.

Nico says his name under his breath in warning, but Adriano doesn’t even blink. “Or I forget every promise I ever made about the kind of man my daughter deserves for a father.”

Jasper’s grip jerks tighter.