Page 63 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

Enzo pushes away from the shelf and crosses his thick arms over his chest. "So what do we do? Lock her in the basement until we hunt them down?"

Matteo snorts and taps his screen. "I'd pay good money to watch you try locking her anywhere. She bit you last week just for bringing her cold coffee."

"It was disgusting dishwater and you know it," I bite back, glaring directly at both cousins.

"The plan is I stay right in the middle of this," I break in, cutting off whatever stupid idea they are about to pitch. "You don't shove the fixer in a closet when the house is burning down."

Matteo points at me with his beer bottle. A loud bark of laughter breaks out of him. "I swear to God, I love her. She fights like an angry stray dog and talks like a sailor."

I cross my ankles. "Sweet talk won't help you with me, Matteo. Though you might get the good rolls at dinner."

Luca squeezes my knee hard enough to bruise, reclaiming control of the room. "We reinforce the perimeter tonight. Adrian, double the rotations on the east road. Enzo, you and Matteo take the southern access points. No one drives out alone."

"And Nora?" Enzo asks.

"Nora stays with me."

I turn my head and glare at him. "I am sitting right fucking here. You can use my name without treating me like a piece of luggage."

His mouth twitches. Almost a smile. Almost. "Nora stays where I can see her. Better?"

"Better. But I'm charging you extra tomorrow for having to deal with your bossy attitude."

"Add it to my tab," he murmurs, his grip relaxing just enough to glide his thumb along the hem of my shirt.

Nonna appears in the doorway with a wooden spoon and the expression of a woman who has outlived three dons and will outlive a fourth if he keeps talking nonsense. "You will eat before you go play soldiers. All of you. Including the English one."

"I am Scottish on my mother's side," I offer.

Nonna taps her spoon against the doorframe to underline the verdict. "You are skin and bones and talking too much. Kitchen. Five minutes. Or I feed your portions to the guard dogs."

The meeting breaks the way these things always break. Men peel off with phones already in hand. Adrian lingers long enough to give Luca a look that says more than a report, then follows Enzo out. Matteo salutes me with two fingers and a grin that promises chaos later.

When the door shuts, the library feels smaller.

"Prime leverage," I mutter, rolling the words over my tongue while I stare at the floor. "That sounds fancy. Do I get a gold trophy for this?"

Luca stands. He cups the back of my neck, thumb brushing the short hair at my nape, and the contact lands like a promise he has not decided how to keep. "You are not leverage. You are the reason I will burn their docks if they try."

"Sweet. A little crazy, but I can work with it."

He exhales a rough puff of air, his chest rising against my knee. "We leave in twenty minutes. Go find your jacket."

"Bossy tonight," I remark, staying firmly put.

"Always," he snaps back, though his thumb lingers right against the pulse point in my throat.

"Where are you taking me, exactly?" I ask, arching an eyebrow.

He pulls himself up tall and looks down at me. "The docks and the supply warehouses down south. If Bellini is moving his gear around, I want to shut it down before his men can even unpack."

I fold my arms tightly against my chest. "And you need to drag me along for the ride because why, exactly?"

"Because your eyes catch small things everyone else walks right past," he murmurs, his thumb brushing my bottom lip. "And I'm not leaving you behind here when half my men are spread thin."

I slide down off the chair onto my feet. "Fine. But if I get killed out in some rusty storage shed, my mum is going to write a nasty murder mystery about you."

"I will take the risk."