The trattoria wasn’t fancy. Red-checked tablecloths, baskets of warm bread, the walls cluttered with photos of villages no tourist cared about. Old men argued over soccer, kids clutched tiny espresso cups like trophies.

Eva sat stiff, Sophia squirming beside her in a bib smeared with sauce. Across the table, Alessandro looked like sin in rolled-up sleeves, perfectly undone hair making him less lawyer, more man.

“Here.” He lifted a spoonful of pastina. Steam curled. “Every Italian kid eats this before they have teeth. Cures everything.”

Sophia opened wide. Alessandro blew on the spoon, fed her. She squealed, clapped, and kicked.

Eva bit the inside of her cheek, holding down a smile.

“This,” Alessandro pointed at his gnocchi, “dates back to the fifteenth century. Easy for kids to eat. Better than French fries.”

Sophia smeared tomato across her bib like war paint, laughed so hard her tiny body shook. For a minute, the world outside—Marcella, CPS, Grayson didn’t exist.

Then the bell over the door chimed.

Giovanni walked in with a woman on his arm. Katerina. Dark hair. Sharp smile. Money draped over her like perfume.

Eva’s pulse stumbled. Not for Giovanni—she’d never trusted him—but for the woman beside him. Once “sister.” Once conspirator. Now traitor.

Katerina slid into a booth. Laughed too loudly. Her gaze flicked to Eva’s table once—only once—and that was enough.

“Hello, cousin…” Her heels clicked as she crossed the room. That smirk, sharp as glass, locked on Alessandro before dipping to Sophia.

“Wow,” she crooned, fake-sweet, “messy, greedy, loud. Just like a Ricci.”

Eva slid her arm in front of the highchair. Barrier. Warning.

Alessandro set down his fork. His voice didn’t rise, but the edges cut. “Katerina. Giovanni. To what do we owe the intrusion?”

Giovanni draped an arm across her shoulders, a lazy grin in place. “Family dinner. Thought we’d join. Strengthen ties.”

Eva’s lips curved, ice-cold. “Funny. Last time you wanted to strengthen ties, I bled for it.”

Katerina leaned closer, her jeweled bracelet glinting where Sophia’s curious hands reached. “Careful. Children remember more than they should. What they see stays.”

Sophia whimpered, pulling back.

Alessandro’s arm went around her at once. His voice dropped. “Enjoy your meal elsewhere, cousin. Before I forget, we’re in public.”

Katerina tilted her head. Smile sharpened. She set both palms on the table, leaning forward so every man in the room stared.

“Announcement,” she purred.

Giovanni tapped his knuckles like a drum roll. “She’s got herself a new job.”

Katerina’s gaze slid over Alessandro like oil. “Grayson hired me. Government likes me better than family ever did.” Her smile curved, slow. “Ambition’s sexy.”

Eva’s stomach knotted. Every word, every glance wasn’t aimed at Giovanni—it was knives for Alessandro.

Alessandro’s jaw ticked. He didn’t look away.

Eva’s voice cut the air, cold enough to burn. “Be careful. Men worship until they don’t. Giovanni’s an expert at switching sides.”

Katerina laughed, raw and filthy. Her lips brushed Giovanni’s cheek. She whispered toward Alessandro’s side of the table, close enough for Eva to hear:

“Switching sides can be fun.”

Sophia whimpered again, sauce sticky on her fists.

Alessandro’s hand pressed flat to the table. His voice was low, lethal. “Enjoy it while it lasts, Katerina. Grayson doesn’t hire partners. She hires sacrifices.”

For a heartbeat, her smirk slipped. Then she laughed louder, blew a mocking kiss, and let Giovanni drag her out. Their laughter echoed even after the door slammed.

Sophia trembled against Eva’s chest, whimpering, with wide eyes still fixed on the door.

“She felt it,” Eva murmured, rocking her.

“She’s a baby,” Alessandro muttered. “She doesn’t know the difference between a predator and a storm cloud.”

Eva shook her head. “No. She knows.”

Alessandro leaned forward, lowering his voice. “Grayson. Giovanni. Katerina. They’re tightening the net. We need a plan.”

“You don’t,” Eva snapped.

“Eva—”

“The last time I shared a plan, my uncle nearly died. I ended up kidnapped. By your people.”

The words landed like a gunshot.

Alessandro froze. His jaw clenched, eyes hard, unreadable.

“All I care about is her,” Eva said, pressing Sophia tighter. “I won’t let anyone hurt her.”

His voice dropped, raw. “You think I would?”

She didn’t answered fast enough.

His palm slammed the table. Cutlery jumped. Sophia shrieked, clung to Eva’s blouse, screaming into her chest.

Eva’s fury flared. “Do you see? This is why. She feels it the second the air turns violent.”

Alessandro stared at them, chest heaving, face cracked open between rage and something worse. “Don’t you dare compare me to the monsters who made her like this. I’d die before I touched her.”

“Words,” Eva bit out. “That’s all you’ve ever had. Words. And every time I trusted them, someone bled.”

Silence. The kind that burns.

He leaned across the table, so close his breath grazed her lips. “God help me, Eva. I can’t decide if I want to strangle you… or remind you how you sounded when you screamed my name.”

Her lips parted—memory slicing open scars.

Sophia whimpered again, trembling in her arms.

Eva tore her gaze away, rocking hard. “This is why I don’t share plans with you. You burn. And I won’t let her burn with us.”

The silence pressed down, molten.

Finally, Alessandro shoved back from the table. His voice cracked at the edges. “You don’t trust me. But one day you’ll see—you don’t get to keep me out. Not from her. Not from you.”

He walked out, leaving the air buzzing, leaving Eva shaking, leaving Sophia sobbed softly into her blouse.

***

The city pulsed like it was holding its breath—horns, neon, sirens bleeding into the night. War wasn’t official, not yet, but everyone felt it.

Alessandro walked through it like he owned the silence. His suit was perfect, his hands in his coat pockets, but the fury beneath his skin was loud.

Grayson had made her move. Giovanni had chosen his side. And Eva—Eva thought she could shut him out.

She couldn’t.

He’d let her doubt him once. He’d buried the cost of it every night since. But not this time. Not when Sophia slept against her chest like a promise he couldn’t afford to lose. Not when Eva’s stubborn fire kept pulling her farther from him, even as she burned for the same air he breathed.

The weight of his watch pressed against his wrist. Tick by tick, like a reminder that he was running out of time.

And then he saw her.

Eva. Coat drawn close, pace quick, the baby curled into her sling. The streetlights caught the line of her jaw, the glint of her eyes, the soft rise and fall of Sophia’s tiny breaths. For one stolen second, Alessandro stopped walking. Just to watch. Just to imagine what it would be like if this were his family, his street, his life.

Then she heard him.

“Eva.”

Her shoulders went stiff before she even turned. Her eyes—hard, unyielding—met his across the narrow stretch of pavement.

“What are you doing here?”

He stepped out of the shadows. “Making sure you’re not walking these streets alone.”

Her laugh was sharp, humorless. “I’ve been alone for years. Don’t pretend this is about me.”

He stopped close enough to breathed her in—coffee, soap, something warmer underneath. “It’s about her.” His gaze dropped to the bundle on her chest. “And you know it.”

Eva’s chin lifted, defiance sharp as glass. “And if I tell you to walk away?”

His mouth curved, dangerous, not quite a smile. “Then I ignore you.”

Silence stretched. The baby sighed against her chest. Eva’s pulse leapt, traitorous, visible at the base of her throat.

Alessandro lowered his voice, steel wrapped in velvet. “Get in the car.”

Her eyes flashed. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” He didn’t raise his tone—he didn’t need to. “You’re not walking home with her. Not with Grayson out there. Not with Giovanni. Not with Katerina. So either you get in the car… or I put you there.”

The fury in her glare was volcanic, but beneath it—damn her—he saw it. The part of her that still wanted to believe him. The part that hated how close he stood.

She pressed her lips together, then said flatly, “Fine. But don’t mistake this for trust.”