Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Matteo
Dr. Reeves finishes wrapping the bandage around my arm and starts packing up his medical kit. The bullet graze isn't deep but it bled enough to make a mess of my shirt, and the stitches pull when I move.
"Keep it clean and dry for the next few days." He's talking to me but looking at Alessia sitting in the chair across from us. "She needs rest and monitoring."
"I'll take care of her." I stand up and my arm protests but I ignore it. "Thank you for coming so quickly."
He nods and leaves, closing the door behind him quietly. Isabella hovers near the window looking like she wants to say something but doesn't know where to start.
"I'm fine, Isabella." Alessia sounds tired but alert. "Just a bump on the head."
"You're not fine, you're concussed and covered in bruises." My sister crosses her arms. "But at least you're alive."
I close my eyes and draw in a long breath. The war is over. Emilio and Lorenzo are dead. The Morettis have been wiped out and there's no one left to challenge my claim. But there's still one more thing I need to do before I can really call this finished.
Romeo.
The bastard who sold us out for a year needs to die and I need to be the one who does it.
A knock at the door interrupts my thoughts. Enzo's voice comes through. "They're ready for you."
I look at Alessia and she's watching me. "What are you about to do?"
"Cleaning up." I don't elaborate. "Stay here with Isabella. I'll be back in twenty minutes."
She doesn't argue and I follow Enzo out into the hallway. We walk in silence down to the basement level where we keep people who need questioning. The room is cold and smells like concrete. Romeo is zip-tied to a chair in the center with two of my men standing guard.
His head comes up when I enter. "Don Romano, please, I can explain—"
"There's nothing to explain." I pull my gun and check it. "You fed information to the Morettis for a year. You helped them take Alessia. You betrayed everyone in this family."
"They threatened my sister, they said they'd kill her if I didn't—"
"Everyone has someone they love." I raise the gun. "That's not an excuse. I would have helped you and your sister had you asked."
I fire three times and he slumps in the chair, blood spreading across the concrete. I should feel something but I don't. This is what happens when you betray the family.
"Clean this up." I tell the guards. "I don't want any trace of him left by morning."
Enzo follows me back upstairs. "You good?"
"Yeah." The war is over and the traitor is dead and Alessia is safe. "I'm good. You can go home and rest, I know you and the boys’ve been more here than your own houses."
“Are you sure?” He pats my shoulder.
“Yes, but we can drink whiskey later if you’re free.”
“Sounds like a plan, fratello,” and with that he leaves.
Isabella is gone when I get back and Alessia is sitting on my bed looking wiped out. There is still blood in her hair and there are bruises forming on her face but she's here and alive and breathing.
I almost lost her. That thought keeps hitting me over and over. Five minutes later and Lorenzo would have strangled her. Five minutes and she'd have been dead and I'd have gotten there just in time to see her body.
I can't think about that without my chest getting tight.
"Is it done?" She asks.
"It's done." I close the door and lock it. "Romeo's dead. The Morettis are dead. It's over."
She stands and she's steadier now, which is good. "What happens now?"
That's the question I've been avoiding since I pulled the knife out of Emilio's chest. What happens now that there's no war to fight, no enemy to destroy, no strategic reason to keep her here. She could leave. Walk out that door and I'd have no legitimate claim to stop her.
"That depends on you." I reach up and brush hair back from her face, careful around the stitches. "On whether you want to stay."
"Stay? Here with you?"
"Yes." Christ, I'm terrible at this. My father taught me how to kill and strategize and command respect, but he never taught me how to tell a woman she's become more important than territory or power.
"I want you to stay. Not for any fucking strategy or leverage or any of that.
I want you here because the idea of you not being here makes me want to put my fist through a wall. "
She's staring and I'm making a mess of this but whatever, too late now.
I've spent seventeen years building walls around anything that could be weaponized against me. Seventeen years not letting anyone close enough to matter. My father died because he trusted the wrong person and I swore I'd never make that mistake. Never give anyone that kind of power over me.
But Alessia already has it. Has had it for days and I've been too stubborn to admit it.
"I've spent seventeen years not letting anyone get close." The words feel clumsy in my mouth but I force them out anyway. "Not letting myself feel anything that could be used against me. And then you showed up and broke through every defense I had without even trying."
"Matteo—"
"Let me finish." I need to say this before I lose my nerve. "I walked into that warehouse unarmed because getting you back mattered more than staying alive."
My hands are shaking and I shove them in my pockets because I don't want her to see. I've faced down armed men without flinching but telling this woman how I feel is more terrifying than bullets.
She's crying now and I watch tears track through the dried blood on her face.
This is it. This is where I either say it or spend the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I'd been brave enough.
"I love you."
Alessia
The words slam into me and I forget how to breathe for a second.
Matteo Romano just said he loves me.
The man who spent weeks pretending nothing mattered, who told me I was leverage, who built walls so high I thought I'd never see past them.
He loves me.
"Say that again." My voice comes out shaky.
"I love you." He says it steadier this time and I can see how much it costs him to be this vulnerable. "I don't know if I'm any good at this but I love you and I want you to stay. Not as a hostage, but as my wife. For real this time."
My legs go weak and I have to sit back down on the bed before they give out completely. He loves me and he just said it out loud.
"I love you too." The words spill out and I'm crying harder now. "When Lorenzo pointed that gun at you tonight, I thought I'd have to watch you die and I couldn't—I couldn't breathe thinking about it."
He crosses the room and pulls me up into his arms and kisses me like I'm the only thing keeping him alive. I kiss him back and taste salt from my tears.
When he pulls back, we're both breathing hard and his forehead rests against mine.
"Marry me." His voice is rough. "Not for any damn strategy. Marry me because I want to wake up every morning for the rest of my life and see your face first thing."
"Yes." I don't need to think about it. "Yes, I'll marry you."
He kisses me again and I can feel the tension draining out of his body. He was actually worried I'd say no. That I'd walk away from him.
"Take me to bed." I pull back enough to see his face. "I want to fall asleep next to you and know this is real."
He helps me into bed and climbs in beside me, careful of both our injuries. I curl into his side with my head on his chest and his heartbeat is steady under my ear. His arm comes around me and holds on tight.
"I'm not going anywhere." He says it quietly into my hair. "I'm right here."
I close my eyes and let exhaustion pull me under. The war is over. The monsters are dead.
For the first time since my father died, I'm not afraid of what tomorrow brings.
For the first time since Lorenzo put that ring on my finger, I feel like I belong to myself.
And I chose to give that self to Matteo.
Because I want to.
Because I love him.