Chapter 3

At dawn, a sharp pounding shattered the silence.

I opened the door to find Nico in black tactical gear, his face set in its usual cold severity.

"You were gone all night," he said. "The estate had no one on watch, and logistics fell apart. Do you know how close we came to a security crisis?"

I lowered my head and kept packing my design instruments.

In the past, I would have apologized first, explained later, and fixed the mess before he finished being angry. Today I slid a set of calipers into their case and closed the latch.

Nico's gaze fell on the equipment in my hands. Contempt sharpened his voice.

"Why are you still holding on to that outdated junk?"

Junk.

"Have you forgotten," I asked, "that this junk is what turned the tide for you?"

His expression darkened. He had no room in his face for my grief or my restraint.

"Did you finish what I assigned you yesterday? I'm leaving soon."

"No."

"Elena."

His tone carried the full weight of the Don's command. "This deal affects the Family's survival. Can you afford the consequences of delaying it?"

I straightened and met his eyes. "Handle it yourself. I'm tired of cleaning up after you."

For a second, he stared as if he had never seen me before.

Then he laughed under his breath. "You sit in logistics all day with everything provided for you, and a few files wear you out? Stop throwing a tantrum."

He sat on the sofa. A servant wheeled in a three-tiered buttercream cake. When the servant noticed me, his shoulders tightened.

It was not for me. Serena's name was written across the top.

Ten years ago, after we survived the worst siege of Nico's life, we hid in a border town with no money and no safe house. A bakery window displayed cakes in neat glass rows. Nico saw me looking and pulled a crushed burger from his jacket.

"Do you want cake?"

We had nothing. I shook my head quickly. "I'm just looking. I like burgers better."

He slammed his fist into the snowbank and swore, "Lena, when I make it, I'll buy every bakery on this street and have them all bake for you."

Later, after he made it, we passed a bakery and I tried to mention that day.

He cut me off before I finished. "How old are you? You still want children's things?"

The cake in front of him told me those promises had only been words to keep me going.

I took out my phone and called the Family's ceremonial office.

"Cancel the engagement ceremony."

Nico's eyes went cold. "Why are you canceling it?"

"Because there is no engagement."

He studied me for a long moment, then dismissed it with a tired breath. "We've been together ten years. A title is a formality. Don't make an issue of it."

I looked at him. "If I left one day, if I walked away for good, what would you do?"

He froze. Then he laughed, arrogant enough to be cruel.

"Elena, everything you have came from me. Without my protection, where would you go? You wouldn't dare leave. You couldn't if you tried."

Every word cut away the last thread.

Before I could answer, noise rose outside.

"You can't go in there. This is Ms. Rossi's private residence."

Serena pushed past my bodyguard and swept into the room.

Nico rose at once. The tenderness in his eyes was one I had never seen turned toward me.

"Nico, I'm here!"

No one in the organization called him by his first name. Even I was expected to call him Don De Luca in front of staff.

Serena saw the cake and clapped her hands. "You made me a cake yourself?"

Nico was allergic to eggs and never went near anything made with them. Once, a new cook asked about the allergy. By the next morning, the cook had vanished.

Serena ignored me and drew a revolver from her hip holster. "I've been practicing my aim. Want me to show you?"

She looked around for a target. Her gaze settled on me.

"How about her?"

My bodyguard stepped forward. "Watch yourself. This is Ms. Rossi. She is the underboss of this organization."

Serena's eyes filled at once. "I'm sorry. I just got here. I didn't know. Nico told me I wouldn't have to answer to anyone once I joined the Family."

Nico raised a hand, stopping her apology.

"It's fine. Elena is tough. A few bullets won't kill her."

Ten years of taking bullets for him. Ten years of steel pins holding my bones together.

Serena wiped her tears and smiled through them, glancing at me. "Someone as delicate as me can't compare to a battle-hardened veteran like Elena."

Nico sneered. "She's as rough as they come. Nothing feminine about her. Why compare yourself to that?"

One careless sentence erased ten years of sacrifice.

I picked up my bags and walked to the door.

For a moment, I turned back. "Nico, I'm leaving."

He was too busy cutting Serena's cake to look up.