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Matteo POV
Isabella entered and froze when she saw us.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked, glancing between Nico and me. “Dinner’s ready. I gave the maid the day off.”
“Pizza,” Nico said, pulling her close and kissing her head. I shook my head. Nico had changed. The man who once chased every thrill now cherished small moments.
Isabella smirked at me. “Your conversation… about the runaway girl?”
I stayed silent. Nico shrugged.
“Why ask?” he said.
“Because Sofia ran,” Isabella said, grinning, “and she came to the only man she trusts her love. But Matteo, if you cross the line, know lives are at stake. Why does it have to be Luca’s daughter? You shouldn’t betray him.”
My eyebrows shot up. Shock was the only thing I could show.
“Don’t give me that look. You like her, Ricci… I mean, Matteo,” she said. “But she’s dangerous. She’ll do anything to get you. Her brain stops working. I don’t want her hurt.”
“So now you’re protecting her virtue?” I asked, sarcastic.
“No,” Isabella said firmly. “I just don’t want her to get hurt. If you had younger sisters. Wont you want to keep them safe?”
“I’d never do anything to hurt Sofia.”
I studied Isabella briefly, thinking of her connection to Sofia. I knew her brother was a soldier in New York, but Sofia never mentioned her. Nico trusted me with her, and I wouldn’t betray that.
The truth? I’d never been interested in Isabella. Beautiful, yes. Sexy, yes. But I’d never fantasized about her. Sofia was different. I’d imagined her naked beneath me more than once. Being close to her made me want to press her against the wall, have my way with her. That was a problem.
Maybe it was for the best that she left. But I couldn’t wait to see her again fuck the consequences
Sofia’s POV
The rain hadn’t stopped when I got home that night.
The city smelled like wet pavement and old memories. My clothes clung to my skin, my heart still pounding from the moment I left Matteo’s doorstep. I couldn’t tell if it was relief or regret keeping my chest so tight.
I locked the door behind me, leaned against it, and exhaled. The gun was still cold in my hand. I placed it on the counter and stared at it for a long time. That piece of metal had once meant safety now it just reminded me of how far I’d fallen.
My reflection in the window looked ghostly under the streetlight. The same girl who used to stand in silk gowns at the Romano estate now stood barefoot in an Ohio apartment, trembling because she’d seen the one man she wasn’t supposed to want.
Matteo.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him the way his voice cracked when he said my name, the quiet war behind his eyes. He still looked like the soldier my father had built, but there was something softer beneath all that restraint. Something that still saw me.
I pressed my palms against my face and let out a shaky laugh.
“I’m such an idiot.”
Freedom was supposed to feel lighter than this.
Across the city or what I now called a city the shadows had their own heartbeat. I didn’t know it then, but in New York, chaos was already unfolding.
Cole Voss wasn’t a man who forgave humiliation. A missing bride was one thing; a runaway bride who’d resurfaced under her former bodyguard’s roof was another.
By the time dawn crept over the East River, Cole’s patience had turned to suspicion.
He’d ordered men silent, discreet, and loyal to track Matteo Ricci. The word Ohio surfaced too many times in whispers from their network. Luca Romano wanted his daughter back alive. Cole didn’t care how.
He wanted her claimed.
And Matteo? He was now officially a problem.
The next morning, I woke to my phone buzzing. I groaned, reached for it, and froze when I saw the name on the screen.
Damian.
For a second, I just stared. I hadn’t heard from him since the night I left New York. He’d helped me disappear risked his life for it and then vanished himself.
I answered on the third ring. “Damian?”
“Sofia.” His voice came through rough but familiar, like a sound I’d been waiting to hear. “You’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” I lied.
“Good. Because your father’s not.” He sighed heavily. “Cole Voss and his men have been stirring up hell. They think Matteo helped you escape. Luca’s losing control of the situation. You need to stay hidden. Do you understand me?”
The sound of his name Matteo made my stomach twist. “They’re watching him?”
“More than watching,” Damian said quietly. “They want him gone.”
I pressed a hand over my mouth. The room seemed to shrink around me.
“Damian,” I whispered. “You can’t let that happen.”
“I’ll try,” he said. “But Sofia, listen to me don't go near him ever again. If they find out you’re together, they’ll use it against both of you.”
The call ended with static, but his warning stayed sharp in my chest.
Don’t go near him ever again.
As if I could stay away.
I went to the window and looked out at the quiet street below. The world felt deceptively calm, but I could feel the shift like the air before a storm.
I wasn’t naïve anymore. I knew what came next.
When men like Cole and Luca started to move, blood always followed.
And this time, the fire I’d started might burn the only person I ever loved
