Chapter 24
Dante
"Sofia..."
Her name comes out rough, barely above a whisper. My head is pounding, and every muscle in my body feels like it's been put through a blender, but none of that matters compared to the sight of her kneeling beside the couch, her eyes red-rimmed and exhausted.
She saved me. She could have left me to die in that wreck, could have taken her chance at freedom, but instead she dragged me through a storm to safety.
"How...?"
"Long story. You crashed the car avoiding a deer. I dragged you here." I check the bandage on his forehead, relieved to see the bleeding has stopped. "How do you feel?"
"Like I got hit by a semi.” His eyes focus on my face, and I can see the moment awareness starts to return. "You were in the car."
"Yeah."
"You could have left me."
I meet his gaze directly. "Yeah. I could have."
"But you didn't."
"No. I didn't."
I try to sit up, but she pushes me back down with surprising firmness.
"Don't. You have a concussion, and you lost a lot of blood."
"How long was I out?"
"A couple hours. Long enough for me to think you might not wake up." There's something in her voice—fear, relief, exhaustion all mixed together.
I study her face in the dim light. There's a cut on her forehead, and mud streaks her clothes. She looks like she's been through hell.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. Just a bump on the head." She waves off my concern. "Dante, what happened at the meeting?"
The question I've been dreading. The conversation I don't want to have but know I owe her.
"You really want to know?"
"I have a right to know."
She's right. After what she just did for me, after proving that she'll choose my life over her freedom, she deserves the truth.
"Vito called a summit. Tomorrow night. All the families, all the major players in our network." The words taste like ash in my mouth. "They're going to vote."
"Vote on what?" But I can see in her eyes that she already knows.
"On whether to hand you over to the Costellos or go to war."
The color drains from her face. "A vote. They're putting my life up for a vote."
"Sofia—"
"You know how that's going to go." Her voice is barely a whisper. "You know exactly what they're going to choose."
I want to lie to her. Want to tell her that maybe the vote will go differently, that maybe the families will choose war over sacrificing an innocent girl. But I can't. Not after what she just did for me.
"Yeah. I know."
She's quiet for a long moment, and I can see her processing the reality of what's coming. When she looks at me again, there are tears in her eyes.
"Dante, please." Her voice breaks on my name. "Please don't bring me back there so they can do that to me. Please."
The words sink deep into my soul. I've heard Sofia angry, defiant, sarcastic, scared. But I've never heard her beg. Never seen her look so utterly defeated.
"Sofia..."
"I know what they'll do to me. I know what Kieran Costello is like, what his family does to their enemies. They say he wants a wife, but what they really want is revenge. And I know that once they vote, once they decide I'm expendable, there won't be any coming back from that."
"I won't let them hurt you."
"How?" She laughs, but there's no humor in it. "How are you going to stop an entire room full of men who've already decided I'm worth sacrificing? How are you going to protect me from a family that specializes in making people disappear?"
I don't have an answer. Because she's right—once that vote happens, once the decision is made, there won't be anything I can do to save her.
"I can't go back there, Dante. I can't sit in a room while strangers decide whether I live or die.
I can't marry a man who'll hurt me just to prove a point.
" Tears are streaming down her face now.
"I won't survive it. Even if they don't kill me outright, I won't survive becoming whatever they want to turn me into. "
"Then don't." The words are out before I can stop them.
She stares at me. "What?"
"Don't go back. We disappear. Both of us. Tonight."
"You don't mean that."
"Don't I?" I sit up despite the pain in my head, despite her attempts to push me back down. "You just saved my life, Sofia. You chose to save me instead of saving yourself. That means something."
"It means I have a functioning conscience. It doesn't mean you should throw away everything you've worked for."
"Everything I've worked for?" I laugh bitterly. "You mean my loyalty to a man who's willing to hand over an innocent girl to save his own skin? My devotion to a family that treats people like chess pieces?"
"Vito took you in. He gave you everything."
"And now he's asking me to deliver you to your death. Does that sound like the man who taught me about loyalty? About protecting people who can't protect themselves?"
Sofia is quiet, watching me with an expression I can't read.
"Fifteen years," I continue. "Fifteen years I've followed orders without question. Fifteen years I've told myself that loyalty to the family was the most important thing. But you know what I realized tonight?"
"What?"
"The family was never about Vito or the Commission or the businesses. It was about the people. About protecting the people we care about. And right now, the person I care about most is sitting right here, asking me not to hand her over to be tortured."
"Dante—"
"I love you."
The words hang in the air between us, raw and honest and terrifying. I've never said them before, never even let myself think them, but sitting here in this cabin with rain pounding on the roof and Sofia's eyes wide with shock, I know they're true.
"I love you," I repeat, my voice stronger now. "I love your stubbornness and your intelligence and the way you refuse to back down even when you're terrified. I love that you chose to save me instead of saving yourself. I love that you make me want to be better than I am."
"You can't." Her voice is barely a whisper.
"I can't what? Love you? Too late for that, princess."
"You can't throw away your whole life for me."
"What life?" I reach for her hand, and she doesn't pull away. "Following orders? Being a good soldier? Watching the woman I love get handed over to our enemies because it's convenient?"
"But if we run—"
"If we run, we run together. We figure it out together. We build something new together."
Sofia stares at me for a long moment, and I can see the war playing out in her eyes. Hope fighting with disbelief, love fighting with fear.
"They'll never stop looking for us."
"Then we'll stay ahead of them."
"They'll kill us if they catch us."
"Then we don't get caught."
"Dante, you don't understand what you're saying. If you do this, if you choose me over them, there's no going back. Ever."
I lean forward, close enough that I can see the flecks of gold in her green eyes, close enough that I can feel her breath on my skin.
"I chose you the moment you asked me not to take you back. Hell, I probably chose you weeks ago and was just too stubborn to admit it."
"You're hurt. You're not thinking clearly."
"I'm thinking more clearly than I have in years." I cup her face in my hands, my thumbs brushing away the tears on her cheeks. "Sofia, I would rather spend one day free with you than a lifetime following orders that go against everything I believe in."
"You mean that?"
"I've never meant anything more in my life."
For a moment, we just stare at each other. The storm outside, the danger we're in, the impossible choice we're facing—all of it fades away until there's nothing but this moment, this connection, this choice between duty and love.
And then I close the distance between us.