POV: Aria
The bang split through the air like lightning–loud, sharp, terrifying.
My whole body locked up.
I stood frozen in the middle of my apartment, heart pounding so hard it hurt. For a second, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.
Then I saw him.
Henry.
He was on the floor, his hand pressed tightly over his shoulder. Blood poured out, soaking through his shirt, dripping onto my carpet. His face twisted in pain and disbelief.
“What the hell!” he screamed. “You shot me! You f*cking shot me?”
My lips parted, but no words came. I was too shocked. Too scared.
The air felt heavy. My chest burned like I’d forgotten how to breathe.
Footsteps echoed behind me. Three sets. Show. Calm. Like they weren’t in any rush.
I turned–barely.
Dante stood closest to me, arm still extended, the silver gun in his hand catching the light. Smoke curled from the barrel. His face was cold, eyes dark, like he hadn’t just pulled a trigger. Like he hadn’t just shot a man in my living room.
Behind him, Enzo and Matteo stood silently. Emau’s face was stone. Matteo’s jaw ticked with rage, his hands clenched into fists like he was trying to hold himself back
“Aria,” Dante said, voice low
My knees gave out before I could answer. I started to fall, but arms caught me strong and fast.
Dante.
He pulled me into his chest, holding me like I was something fragile. I felt his heart beat against mine, Steady. Calm. Nothing like the storm
inside me.
“1–he tried to–he was-” My words stumbled out, broken and jumbled
*I know,” Dante murmured, his voice brushing against my ear like velvet. “We saw everything,”
Henry groaned behind us, still squirming on the floor, clutching his bleeding shoulder. “Don’t kill me,” he cried. “Please–I didn’t mean–she
vited me here! She wanted me here?”
Enzo stepped forward, calm and quiet as he pulled out his phone. “Top floor,” he said into it. “Now.”
I looked up at him. His face didn’t show a single emotion. Like this was normal. Like calling men to handle a bleeding man in a woman s apartment wasn’t out of the ordinary
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Chapter 110
1 pulled away from Dante slightly. “I didn’t he wasn’t supposed to My throat felt dry. My heart was breaking, not from fear–but from guilt.
terught him here,” I whispered. “To make you mad.”
Matteo turned his head toward me, eyes narrowing. “What?”
brought him here to spite you,” I said, my voice shaking. “To get under your skin. I was stupid. I didn’t even like him. I just wanted to make you jealous.”
Dante didn’t move. His arms stayed around me, but I felt the tension in his body.
“You did make us jealous,” Enzo said quietly. His voice held no anger–just truth.
I bit my lip, heart thumping. “I didn’t know he’d try to… I didn’t know he’d get violent. I thought I was in control.”
“You weren’t,” Dante said. “He could’ve hurt you.”
“And now he’s hurt,” Matteo added coldly, walking over to where Henry was still groaning. He crouched beside him. “And if I were you, I’d stop whining before I lose my patience.”
“Please.” Henry whimpered. “Don’t kill me. I didn’t mean to–she was just-”
Matteo leaned closer and whispered something I couldn’t hear.
But Henry’s face changed. All the color drained from it. His eyes went wide with pure fear. He didn’t say another word.
Moments later, two men dressed in black suits entered the apartment. They looked serious. Professional. Dangerous. They didn’t ask questions. They didn’t say a word. They just picked Henry up like he was nothing and dragged him out.
He screamed once. Then the door closed behind them, and silence fell.
I looked around at the mess–broken glass, my ripped dress, blood on the floor. My knees were scraped from when I tried to run. My body ached, but not as much as my heart.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Dante helped me to the couch, guiding me gently like he was afraid I’d break. Matteo went to the kitchen, came back with a glass of water and a blanket. Enzo cleaned the cut on my arm with a cloth he found.
None of them said anything about the blood. Or the shooting. Or the fact that they just took someone out of my apartment like it was normal.
They just stayed.
“Are you scared of us now?” Dante asked softly, sitting beside me.
I looked at him. At his hard face, the gun still resting on the table. At his brothers. Three men who had killed, who had power and darkness in their eyes.
But all I saw was the way they looked at me.
And I wasn’t scared.
“No,” I whispered. “I’m scared of what he almost did. Not of you.”
Dante’s eyes softened. “Good.”
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Chapter 110
“You could’ve killed him,” I said.
“I still might,” Enzo replied without emotion.
I didn’t ask what they were going to do to him. I didn’t want to know.
“Why did you come? I asked instead.
“We were already on our way,” Matteo said. “We tracked his phone. And yours.”
“You’re tracking me?” My eyes widened.
“Yes,” Dante said. “You’re ours. We protect what’s ours.”
The way he said it–low, rough, final–it made my stomach flutter in a strange way.
“You’re safe now,” Enzo said quietly, handing me a fresh towel. “We won’t let anyone touch you again.“.
“You’re ours now,” Matteo added, sitting beside me. “Even if you don’t know it yet.”
I looked at all three of them.
And for the first time in a long time… I felt safe.
Even if everything in my life had just been turned upside down.
The silence that followed was thick, but it wasn’t empty. It was filled with the unspoken truth between us–that something had changed. Not just in the room, but in me. I had seen a side of them I wasn’t ready for, and yet, I wasn’t afraid. I felt claimed, protected… owned in a way that made my pulse race and my walls slowly start to fall.
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