Chapter 23
Raze
I had been half-asleep, buried inside her warmth, when my phone vibrated on the nightstand.
Izzy was draped over me, her leg tangled with mine, her hair fanned across my chest. Light cut through the curtains in thin silver lines. Her breathing was slow. Steady. Peaceful.
I didn’t move at first.
Only urgency would call at this hour.
I reached for the phone without disturbing her, thumb already sliding across the screen.
“What.”
There was no greeting.
“Boss.” Matteo’s voice was tight. “We’ve got a situation at the front gate.”
My hand stilled against Izzy’s back.
“What kind of situation.”
“A man. Says his name’s Nathan Azzopardi.”
Nathan fucking Azzopardi.
Izzy’s ex.
“He say what he wants?”
“He’s demanding to see his girlfriend,” Matteo reported, voice flattening. “Miss Izzy.”
Everything inside me went still.
Slowly, deliberately, I lifted my hand from her waist.
“Keep him at the gate. I’m on my way,” I bit out.
Izzy settled against me, unaware what was happening.
Her ex. The parasite. The leech. The one who drifted. The one who’d cleared his things out and vanished like a coward, leaving her to get roughed up by a pair of hoodlums.
And now he was at my gate. Demanding to see her.
I pressed a kiss to Izzy’s temple before easing out from beside her. She stirred, blinking up at me.
“What’s wrong?” she murmured.
“Nothing baby.” I was already standing. “Go back to sleep.”
But she must have seen something in my face, because she persisted.
“Raze?”
I dragged on a pair of jeans and a shirt, not bothering with the buttons. My feet slid into my trainers without socks, careless and fast. The air in the room was sharper now, charged, like something unwelcome had slipped in and was waiting to be dealt with.
“I’ll be right back.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “It’s late. Where are you going?”
I met her gaze. The one thing I didn’t want to do is start a life with her based on lies.
“Nathan Azzopardi’s at the gate.”
The color drained from her face.
I didn’t wait for more.
By the time I stepped into the foyer, the house was already humming. Security tightening. Cameras focused. Men positioned.
Matteo met me near the front door, his eyes on the security monitor. I followed his gaze.
Nathan Azzopardi was thinner than I expected. Jittery, his eyes darting in every direction. But there was arrogance in the set of his shoulders.
I stared at the screen.
“You want him inside?” Matteo questioned.
“No,” I replied calmly. “I’ll go to him.”
I stepped out of the house and walked the short distance to the gate. It slid open with a slow mechanical growl as I approached.
Nathan didn’t look relieved. He looked expectant.
I walked toward him without rush, gravel crunching under my shoes. The night air was cool against my skin.
He smiled when he saw me. Actually smiled.
“You Raze Cavalho?” he demanded.
“I am.”
He stuck out his hand. I looked at it. Then at him.
He dropped it awkwardly.
“Look,” he glanced toward the house. “I just need to talk to Izzy. She and I—”
“She and you,” I repeated.
He straightened. “Yeah. She’s my girlfriend.”
The word detonated in my chest. I took one step closer.
“She was,” I amended quickly, temper rising. “Note the use of past tense.”
“You know how it is. We’ve got history. She and I—”
“Careful. I want you to understand that you are responsible for every word that comes out of your fucking mouth.”
He laughed. “You can’t keep her from me.”
“Can’t I?” I raised a brow in question.
“You can’t do this. She’s my girlfriend,” he argued.
My jaw locked so hard I tasted blood.
“You sure about that?” I give him a minute to mull on that before I add; “then why am I the one standing here and not her?”
“You can’t keep her from me!”
“I can, and I will. You will turn around if you want to save yourself. Don’t contact her again. Don’t even think about her.”
“She doesn’t even know I’m here, does she? Bitch would’ve come crawling on her knees if she knew…”
Something snapped.
I don’t remember crossing the distance.
I only remember the impact of my fist against his jaw.
He hit the gravel hard.
I was on him before he could breathe.
I dragged him up by the collar and slammed him against the iron gate.
“You,” I muttered, voice low and shaking with contained violence, “fucking imbecilic moron…”
“She’s not yours—” he choked.
I hit him again.
Blood sprayed.
“You got your chance with her,” I relayed, almost conversationally. “And now she’s mine.”
He wheezed.
“Not yours—”
I wrapped my hand around his throat.
“Mine,” I told him.
His heels scraped uselessly against the gravel as I lifted him over the ground.
“I should break you. Then deliver what’s left to the men you owe.”
His eyes bulged.
And I would have done it. God help me, I would have crushed his windpipe and felt no remorse.
“Raze!”
Izzy’s voice cut through the night.
She was barefoot on the driveway, hair loose, wearing one of my shirts.
She ran toward us.
Matteo moved to intercept her, but I held up a hand without looking.
She grabbed my arm.
“Stop.”
“You got hurt because of him,” I reminded her, not taking my eyes off him.
“I know.”
The words stunned me.
She stepped in front of me, placing her body between mine and his.
“Let him go.”
“He doesn’t get to breathe the same air as you.”
Her hand came to my face.
“Raze. Let him go.”
There was no fear in her eyes. Only certainty.
Slowly, reluctantly, I released him.
Nathan collapsed to his knees, coughing violently.
Izzy looked down at him.
“I was nothing but a roof and a wallet to you. You used me. You lied to me. And now you’re here…for what?”
He wiped blood from his mouth. “Iz, I was desperate—”
“Don’t you dare say my name.”
Her voice was steel.
“You don’t get to say my name anymore.”
He tried to stand. Matteo shoved him back down.
“I don’t want your apologies,” she hissed. “I don’t want your desperation.”
She glanced back at me briefly before she faced Nathan again.
“You will leave. You will not come near me. You will not say my name again. If you do—”
She didn’t finish the sentence. The words settled into my bones.
He looked at me. And he understood.
I crouched down so we were eye level.
“If you ever come within a hundred meters of her again,” I warned him, “the Russians will be the least of your concerns.”
He swallowed.
“Get him out of my sight,” I told Matteo.
They dragged him toward the gate.
Izzy released a slow breath.
I turned to her.
Rage still burned hot under my skin.
She stepped closer, pressing her palm to my chest.
I wrapped my arms around her then, pulling her into me with a force that bordered on feral.
My hands slid into her hair, gripping, anchoring.
“You saved his life,” I murmured into her temple.
“No,” she breathed. “I saved your soul.”
I pulled back slightly.
“He’s not worth you becoming that,” she warned me.
My jaw flexed.
“For you…,” my voice was rough, “I would become anything.”
She rose onto her toes and kissed me.
It wasn’t soft or fragile. It felt very much like she was laying claim to me as the gates closed behind us with a thunderous clang, shutting Nathan Azzopardi out.
I wasn’t finished with him yet. I knew he’d be back, because leeches didn’t just stop leeching.
He’d learn that Izzy wasn’t his.
She was my line in the sand.