Page 76 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

I close my eyes. For once, I let someone else keep watch.

And for once, it doesn't feel like losing.

Chapter 29

LUCA

Old cedar and black ink hang thick in the quiet air of the study. Down the corridor, behind my locked bedroom door, Nora is still sound asleep under heavy blankets, her breathing slow and steady after hours of fighting exhaustion. But here, across the mahogany desk, Adrian stands like a statue carved out of stone. He grips the London flight manifest in one hand, thumb pressing into the paper, his head bowed to avoid my gaze.

Adrian keeps his voice low and tight. "The London guards on her family are in place. Her father's restaurant has four plainclothes men outside, and her mother has someone watching her around the clock. They are safe. Bellini has no idea."

I sink back into my leather chair. "Good. At least that part is handled. So why do you look like a man waiting to get shot?"

Adrian tucks the folder under his arm, his jaw clenching hard. "Sofia has been trying to talk to me since after the kidnapping."

I tap my pen on the blotter. "And what did you do?"

"I told her my post was at the west gate and that you ordered everyone to stay indoors," Adrian answers, his knuckles going pale against his clipboard.

I stare at him. Adrian has been my brother in everything but blood since we were boys sleeping under wool blankets in this drafty fortress. He came to our home after his parents were murdered right in front of him, covered in their blood, dragging himself here just to keep me safe. I know the exact tremor in his voice when he is lying to himself. He remembers every single day with Sofia since he arrived at eleven, bruised and half-starved, and Sofia had marched right up at four years old to thrust a bruised pear into his dirty hands. Adrian had kept that fruit until it rotted because nobody had ever given him anything before.

He has spent his whole life watching over her. When Sofia broke her arm climbing the fig tree at eight, Adrian carried her two miles down the hill to the clinic on his back, weeping harder than she did while he swore on his life he would never let her fall again. When she was twelve and terrified of thunder, he sat on the cold floor outside her bedroom door all night with his back against the wood, tapping twice every hour so she knew he was there. Even now, he remembers how she leaves fresh pear on his window when he works guard shifts in the rain, the sound of her laugh echoing off the stone stairs, and how she tucked a silver medal into his vest before our first raid in Palermo.

And I know about the pantry before the kidnapping. I found the two of them breathing hard in the dark behind the wine racks, Adrian's hand pressed against the stone next to her cheek, his mouth red and swollen while Sofia clutched his collar like he was the only solid thing left in the world. He had backed away from her like he burned himself on hot coals.

I push back my chair. "You broke her heart, Adrian. She is sitting out in the garden crying into a scarf because you talked to her like a prison guard."

"It is my job to keep her alive!" Adrian snaps, his voice cracking down the middle. His chest heaves under his black vest as he slams a fist against the desk. "You saw what Bellini did! He stole her right out of our grip, and Nora and Nonna had to buy her safety back with blood and nerve. If Bellini discovers Sofia is my weakness, he will take her again just to break me. I cannot protect her if I am holding her hand!"

"So you push her away completely?" I take a step around the desk, stopping right in front of him. "You think ignoring her keeps her safe? You are hurting her yourself, Adrian."

Adrian grits his teeth, knees locked tight against swaying. "I am doing my job for this family. She almost died out there. Nora and Nonna saved her life, not me. She deserves a normal man, Luca. Someone who doesn't wash gunpowder and blood out of his cuffs before dinner. I am backing out now before Bellini uses me to get her killed."

I don't argue with him. I pull my arm back and drive my fist straight into his jaw.

The crack echoes off the high ceiling. Adrian's head snaps sideways, his boots skidding across the rug as he crashes into the heavy oak side table. Books tumble onto the floor with a loud thump. He shakes his head, spitting a bead of dark blood onto the hardwood.

"That was for talking down about my sister," I growl, shaking the sting out of my knuckles. "And for acting like a coward."

Adrian wipes his mouth with his sleeve, glaring up from the floor with wide eyes. "Luca..."

I jab a finger at his face. "You love her. You have loved her since you were both kids. Do not sit there and pretend this is about duty. You are just terrified of feeling something you cannot control with a gun."

The heavy study doors swing open before Adrian can answer. Matteo strolls in with an apple in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other, Enzo trailing right behind him with a smug grin plastered across his face.

Matteo tosses the apple into the air and snatches it clean. "Well, look at that. Luca finally cracked your jaw. I had fifty on that. Pay up, Enzo."

Enzo nudges Adrian's dropped folder with the toe of his boot. "I'm not paying shit. Not when we've got bigger news. Sofia has a date tonight. We're setting the itinerary."

Adrian freezes while wiping blood from his chin. "She does not have a date."

Matteo leans his hips against my desk with a grin. "She does now. Paolo from the Naples crew. Good smile, nice bike, doesn't scowl at her like a cemetery statue. We're sending them to that seafood place by the harbor with the candlelit tables."

"That place is an exposed security nightmare," Adrian grits out, his hands balling into white-knuckled fists at his sides. "The perimeter has three blind spots and the terrace faces open water."

"Which makes it romantic, you idiot," Enzo snorts, his gaze fixed on his nails. "Paolo says he's going to order the lobster for her. Sofia loves lobster. And he's bringing her those little yellow buttercups she likes from the hillside."

"Yellow freesia," Adrian snaps without thinking, his chest hitching. "She hates buttercups. They make her sneeze. And she gets sick on shellfish if it isn't fresh off the boat."