Page 26 of Under His Watch

I gawked at her again. I was raped. She’d been kidnapped. We needed to talk for hours.

“Yeah, it’s complicated. But I’m safe. Dante and I are engaged. We’re having a baby. Romeo’s protecting you. We will be safe.” She backed up the promise by grabbing my hands and squeezing them without touching the bandages.

“Don’t…” She winced and studied me. “Don’t let these labels intimidate you. The knowledge that Dante and Romeo are Mafia men. They aregoodmen.”

I held up my hand. “No. No. I’m not…” I sighed, hoping I could explain. “I’m not worried about Romeo being in the Mafia. I’m not scared of him.” I loved her all the more for rushing to console me, but it wasn’t necessary. “Somehow, I know he won’t hurt me.”

She whooshed out a deep breath of relief and hugged me again. It seemed like she couldn’t get enough of holding me close, as though she needed to make up for all the lost time.

I wasn’t nervous about Romeo. I wasn’t scared of him. He wasn’t a threat. I knew that from the bottom of my heart, and I didn’t care how quickly that idea had settled in. It was a fact. I felt safer when he was near. I felt stronger and supported when he was within reach. I wondered if it was a sign of an attachment issue, an instant sense of hero worship because he’d saved me from those men and then killed them for what they did to me.

And if I am falling under some spell or suffering from an attachment issue…

I wouldn’t want it any other way. Being near or connected to that sexy, tatted Mafia prince didn’t sound like a bad thing at all.

“I kept texting you and calling you,” Nina said as the front door opened downstairs.

“Tess?” Romeo called up.

I smiled quickly, liking how he shortened my name. “Up here.”

“It’s all clear,” Dante yelled up to us.

Nina and I left the room to meet up with them, but she didn’t stay quiet. “I kept calling and texting you. I was so worried when you didn’t reply.”

I frowned at her. “Me too. I kept texting and had no clue why you went AWOL on me.”

“Huh.” She scrunched her face. “I’ll ask Dante to have someone look into it. I got a new phone because mine was so old that it broke, but the number is the same.” She shook her head. “I got scared that your parents or Elliot coerced you into an elopement and I’d never hear from you again.”

I took her hand and squeezed it as we walked down the stairs. “Never. We’re best friends for life.”

Seeing her grin at me was the reward I didn’t know I’d needed.

But spotting Romeo down in the foyer felt just as good. In a different way.

Attachment issues or not, I lit up at his presence.

“We’ve got to move,” he announced, looking me over as if he was worried I’d been hurt, not just scared. “The MC knows I’m here, and it’s no longer safe.”

“What about the guard?” I asked, feeling stupid to mention it.

“They killed him,” Dante said as Nina went to him. “You need more security, and this place won’t be easy to patrol with the state that the property is in.”

All those weeds sure would make it easy to hide.

“Franco is arranging for more men to help as a security force,” Dante said, “but it’s unwise to stay here.”

“But what does this mean?” I locked onto Romeo’s ice-blue eyes.

“It means I’m taking Nina home. Now,” Dante told us as he focused on my friend. “We can talk later.” When he looked atme, then Romeo, he said, “You can remain under the protection of the Constella forces, Tessa. It’s up to you where you’d want to go.”

“The family has—” Romeo stopped, looking between me and Nina. “Did she fill you in? That I’m Romeo Constella and he’s…” He gestured at Dante.

I nodded. “The boss of the Constella Mafia.”

“I started to catch her up on what’s happened since we worked together at the Hound and Tea,” Nina replied.

Romeo faced me. “The family has multiple properties. I'd planned to stay here for a while and renovate this place, but I’ll move to another location after Joseph was attacked.”

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