Chapter 17 #2
Magnus shifted closer. His hand rose from hers to cup the side of her face, his thumb resting lightly along her cheek as if confirming she was real and standing safely in front of him. “You understand what that means?”
“That you’re going to start a war for me,” she replied.
A faint hint of a smile touched his mouth. “That I’m going to end one before it reaches you.”
Before she could answer, he bent and kissed her.
The kiss wasn’t hurried. It carried everything he’d just promised. His mouth moved over hers with slow certainty, drawing her closer until her hands slid up the front of his shirt and held him there. For a few minutes the world outside the office disappeared entirely.
When he finally lifted his head, his jaw rested briefly against the top of her head. His hand lingered along her cheek before dropping back to her hand. Only then did he reluctantly release her.
“Stay inside today,” he said, his voice rougher now. “I’ll deal with the rest.”
She nodded again. When he left the room, the emptiness that followed pressed against her ribs. For several minutes she remained exactly where she stood. Then she turned and walked back through the study.
The brothers were still working through the legal structure. None of them stopped her when she left the room.
No one imagined she might not return.
ELIA DROVE HERSELF into the city barely an hour after leaving the study. The Severin gates opened automatically as the car approached. The guards recognized Magnus’s vehicle immediately and waved her through without hesitation.
Sunlight flashed across the windshield as she navigated the late-morning traffic, the downtown streets busy with office workers, taxis, and delivery vans moving through the financial district.
Her thoughts remained calm.
Magnus intended to destroy the Donatis. She understood why. They had tried to kill her, and Captain Severin didn’t forgive that kind of mistake. But violence wasn’t the only way to end the conflict. The simplest solution lay in her hands.
She parked outside a high-end office building, its glass facade reflecting the noon sun and the steady movement of traffic along the avenue.
People in tailored suits moved in and out of the revolving doors while a uniformed attendant stood near the entrance greeting arrivals. Elia stepped inside without hesitation.
When she emerged again, two hours had passed.
Her expression remained composed as she stepped out into the bright midday light.
The wide avenue shimmered with heat and motion, polished glass towers rising on either side while pedestrians threaded along the sidewalks with practiced urgency.
Cars rolled steadily past the curb, horns and engines blending into the constant pulse of the downtown streets, the city continuing its routine without the slightest awareness of the choice she had just made.
Elia returned to Magnus’s car and started the engine. For several seconds she remained parked at the curb, her hands steady on the wheel. Then she eased into traffic and pulled into the street. The road leading away from downtown split at the next intersection.
One direction led back toward Severin territory.
The other led toward the Donati estate.
Elia didn’t hesitate.
She turned toward the estate.
MAGNUS KNEW SOMETHING was wrong the moment he stepped into the bedroom he and Elia had begun sharing.
The bed had been made in their absence, the covers pulled tight and the pillows aligned, as if a housekeeper had already come through after they left that morning.
The careful order only emphasized what was missing.
Sunlight spilled through the tall windows, bright and indifferent, illuminating a room that should have held some trace of her. Instead it stood silent and empty, and the absence struck him immediately as wrong even before he understood why.
He stepped back into the hallway and signaled to one of the guards. “Where is she?”
The guard blinked in confusion. “She left earlier, sir.”
“Left where?”
“We assumed she was meeting you in the study.”
A cold realization settled through Magnus.
He moved down the hall toward the security office with long strides that did nothing to disguise the surge of dread tightening through his chest. The guards inside straightened immediately when he entered.
“Pull the cameras,” Magnus said, his voice cutting through the room like a pistol shot. A guard immediately turned to the console and brought up the estate surveillance.
Within seconds the footage appeared on the screen.
Magnus leaned closer. The footage unfolded with brutal clarity.
Elia crossed the courtyard, her dark hair lifting in the wind as she moved quickly toward the garage.
She unlocked the car and slid behind the wheel.
The gates opened. The vehicle rolled through them and disappeared onto the road beyond.
The timestamp warned it happened nearly two hours ago.
For a moment Magnus didn’t move. The room around him seemed to tighten, the air turning sharp in his lungs as the reality of what he was seeing settled with brutal force.
She hadn’t gone for a walk through the gardens.
She hadn’t retreated to another wing of the house.
Elia had taken one of his cars and driven out of the gates alone.
After the attempt on her life. After he had sworn she would never face danger without him again.
A hard, dangerous fury surged up through his chest, tangled with something far worse.
Fear. Not the cold tactical awareness he used in a fight, but a raw, vicious surge that slammed straight into his gut.
If the Donatis had touched her again—if this had anything to do with them—there would be nothing left of that family when he was finished.
Magnus straightened, every line of his body tightening with lethal purpose as he turned toward the men in the room. “She’s going to the Donatis,” he announced.
Leif looked up sharply from across the room. “You think she would walk into that house alone?”
Magnus’s face went completely still. “Yes,” he said.
The word dropped into the room like a live round.
For half a heartbeat no one moved. Then every man in the room reacted at once.
Chairs scraped hard across the floor. Leif swore as he reached for the weapon on the table beside him.
He shoved to his feet, his expression turning cold and murderous as the implications landed.
Alaric was already moving toward the door, phone in his hand, issuing rapid orders to the security teams stationed outside.
Elia had already proven she possessed a courage that refused to bend under pressure.
The memory of the study rose sharply in his mind now.
The way she had watched him. The steadiness in her voice.
The strange calm that had settled over her after he showed her the shield on their palms. At the time it had only unsettled him.
Now the pieces began to shift into place with brutal clarity.
Fury and fear surged through his chest so hard it stole the air from his lungs.
She hadn’t warned him. She hadn’t asked for protection. She had simply gone.
Magnus grabbed his leather jacket from the chair beside the wall. “Security, weapons,” he said, his voice lethal. “Now.”
The room erupted into disciplined violence. Drawers opened. Slides were checked. Magazines were slammed home with hard metallic clicks that echoed through the study.
Leif moved to Magnus’s side, already armed. “If the Donatis touched her—”
“They didn’t,” Magnus said, cutting him off with absolute certainty. “She went there on purpose.”
That realization burned through him with equal parts pride and dread.
Alaric turned back toward them from the doorway. “Cars are coming around.”
Magnus headed for the hall.
“Move.”
Within minutes the Severins and their security were in their vehicles. The drive to the Donati estate passed in a blur of headlights and tightening fury. Magnus’s mind replayed the possibilities with ruthless precision. If Vittorio touched her again...
The thought ended there.
By the time the estate gates appeared ahead of them, Magnus was already planning the destruction of everyone inside.
The guards barely had time to react before Severin vehicles flooded the driveway.
Magnus stepped out of the car and crossed the stone courtyard, moving swiftly while his men surrounded the Donati guards.
If Elia wasn’t inside that house alive and unharmed, there wouldn’t be a Donati estate left standing by nightfall.