Page 50 of His to Destroy

He leans into my hand.

“Tonight, I realized something,” I add. “He’s not a little boy anymore. The last time he faced danger, he couldn’t sleep without nightmares. But now… he’s growing. And you brought him back to me before he could break.”

Gaspare presses a kiss to the inside of my palm, then stands and offers me his hand.

“Come back to bed,” he says. “He’s safe now. And so are you.”

I let him guide me back down the hall, fingers laced with his.

And when we slip beneath the covers, and he pulls me back into his arms, I rest my head over his heart and breathe in the truth I’ve been running from:

I trust him.

I love him.

And whatever comes next… I’m not alone.

Not anymore.

Chapter 13 – Gaspare

Some things, once threatened, become sacred.

And after Luca’s kidnapping, that’s what Almeria has become to me.

Sacred.

It’s not just a sense of duty or the fire that’s been building between us since she stepped back into my life. It’s become deeper now. More primal. Permanent.

I can’t lose her.

Not her, not Luca. Not what we’ve just begun to build.

I tap my fingers on my desk as my mind drifts back to three days ago. The night of Luca’s kidnapping.

I remember the call Maria had made to me. She had been crying, scared for the boy and frantic that she’d lose her job. She’s lucky Almeria has a heart of gold. I would have fired her on the spot before going to find the boy.

The warehouse where they kept Luca still smelled like metal and sweat. Blood. Rage.

I can perceive it even in my subconscious.

The boy had been tied to a rusted chair. He was blindfolded and visibly shaking.

It took everything I had not to kill the bastards on sight. I needed names.

I made sure I got them.

One of them cracked after five long minutes with a blade at his ribs.

Lombardi.

That name doesn’t just taste like blood. It tastes like betrayal.

I let the talker live, so he could pass a message. And so he could testify to anyone he knew that I kept my word of letting him live if he gave me a name.

But I’m certain he’s probably not alive right now. The people he gave up must have gotten to him by now.

The Lombardis were never friends of the Spadaforas, and by extension, that makes them enemies of mine now. I should’ve seen this coming the moment I put Almeria’s name next to mine.

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