Page 16 of His to Destroy

“You’re listing all these like you’re doing it for my safety,” I cut in. “I’m not a fool, Gaspare. At least not anymore. And I know there’s something else you’re not saying.”

“What are you asking?”

“Why are you doing all these? What does my protection have to offer you apart from rid you of the guilt you claim to have been carrying for years?”

He remains quiet for a while. A few minutes really, but it feels so much longer to me that I start to dread the answer before he opens his mouth again.

“I want to protect you, Almeria,” he begins. “You have more pros in this than I do. The people who are hunting you – I have my guesses. If they are who I think they are, and I capture them, I get a promotion in rank, yes, but...”

“Of course,” I scoff and let out a little chuckle. “Why did I even ask? I could have guessed that answer. It always comes back to power with you. Always a deal, always leverage. You think I’m just going to throw my son into the fire because you want another rung on your empire ladder?"

He doesn't flinch. But I see the flicker in his eyes.

"It’s not like that."

"Isn't it?" I rise from the table, my voice shaking. "Luca cried in his sleep the entire night. He kept waking up from one nightmare after the other. Guess what he mumbled in his sleep. Questions, asking if the bad men were coming back and if I’d let them take him. I had to hold him until dawn and pretend the world wasn’t crumbling around us."

I face him fully now, my hands trembling.

"He’s seven. Seven. And already, he’s seen more fear in a single night than most kids see in a lifetime. You think I’ll let that become normal for him? That I’ll let your world swallow him whole because you showed up with a security team and a ring?"

Gaspare is silent.

"I will burn the world to the ground before I let what happened last night become part of his everyday reality. Do you hear me? I will rip apart every wall you build around us before I let him wake up in a world where men with guns are the answer to safety."

He looks at me, and for once, he doesn’t look powerful. He looks like a man trying to hold something fragile with bloodstained hands.

"Is this you refusing my protection?" he asks quietly.

I swallow the lump in my throat.

"I want safety. Real safety. Not one that invades my privacy or comes with conditions and terms that I’d rather have a knife to my throat than adhere to.”

He nods slowly.

His voice is rough. "Agreed. But Almeria, I can’t protect you if I don’t invade your privacy. If the attack had happened anywhere else but your shop or your house, Luca might not be here right now.”

I close my eyes for a long breath. “Don’t voice that last sentence out ever again.”

“But you know it’s the truth,” he insists. “Think this over. I don’t guarantee you have much time. We need to move fast. But whatever your decision, I’ll work with that. I just hope you make the best one for not just you, but Luca too.”

And with that, he leaves, leaving me in the kitchen with my confused and muddled thoughts.

Chapter 5 – Gaspare

There are decisions you make with blood on your hands.

Not because you want to. Because you have to.

Protecting Almeria and Luca isn’t a gesture of remorse anymore. It isn’t just guilt or unfinished business. It’s necessity. Survival. Syndicate politics don’t care about morals. It cares about leverage. Allegiance. Power.

And Almeria, whether she likes it or not, has become a symbol.

Someone out there wants her gone. They came for her son.

That’s not something I forgive.

And the next time they try, I might not get there fast enough.

---