Chapter 4

That night, Rio came into my room. His knuckles were still smeared with blood he hadn't bothered to wash off.

He'd come straight from handling something outside. Gun oil and blood, the smell made me wrinkle my nose.

He looked hurt. I couldn't help myself. “Good.”

He wasn't in the mood to take it. He slammed his gun down on the table hard enough to rattle the glass beside it.

“Go see Cole. The drug's still in his system.”

“That's not your call to make.” I glared at him. “He never said anything.”

“So you're not going?”

He smirked. “Still saving yourself for your fiancé?”

Then his voice dropped, colder. “Refuse, and once we hit land, I'll have someone kill him. You don't want that on you.”

I went rigid. “How can you be this cruel?”

How could anyone be this cruel?

To him, Leo and I meant nothing. Less than a bullet in his gun.

Rio laughed, no warmth in it. “We're the same, you and me. You ran straight to Cole to get me punished, didn't you?”

“Now go.”

“Your fiancé would be happy for you if he knew you landed a Don.”

My chest was so tight I could barely breathe. “You'll pay for this.”

“I'll be waiting,” he said.

When Cole found out, he had Rio beaten. Twenty hits, then two days locked up.

For the next seven days, Cole barely left my side.

Those seven days showed me a version of this world I hadn't expected.

He wasn't the ruthless Don everyone talked about. Not with me. Even when someone knocked in the middle of the night with business, he'd step outside and keep his voice down so it wouldn't wake me.

It was hard not to feel something for a man like that.

In bed, I stopped being shy. I stopped just letting it happen to me. I started wanting it, reaching for him first.

We fit together better every time.

If it had stopped at that first night, none of this would have grown into something real. But it didn't stop there.

On the seventh day, Cole held me close.

“I've made up my mind. Once this settles, I'm telling the family. I'm making you mine.”