Chapter 2 - Leah returned to the flowers.
“Go be late to your own event.”
He stayed until Raphael carefully said:
“Boss.”
Only then did Dante leave.
At 6:40, Leah stood in her room with 2 dresses spread across the bed.
For the first time in a long while, she wanted an evening that belonged to her.
Not Bianca’s rescued girl.
Not the Raviieri estate manager.
Not dependable Leah.
A woman.
Simply that.
She chose deep green silk.
Low back.
Simple lines.
Her hair remained down.
Small gold earrings.
Nothing she would later accuse herself of wearing for Dante.
Still, when she looked in the mirror, she thought of him.
That irritated her enough that she nearly changed.
She did not.
Leah drove herself.
Carlo argued until he reached the limit of what he dared.
The Melli ballroom glittered beneath crystal chandeliers and white orchids.
Elena found her near the bar.
“You came.”
She kissed Leah’s cheek.
“And you look so good I almost regret introducing you to anybody.”
“That sounds dishonest.”
“It is.”
Elena smiled wickedly.
“Come meet Julian.”
Leah closed her eyes.
“You really did it.”
“I arranged a conversation. Not your future.”
“Still too much arranging.”
Julian Mercer turned toward them.
Tall.
Approximately 30.
Warm brown eyes.
An easy face.
A man who looked as though he had never frightened anyone deliberately.
His suit fit well.
His smile did not ask for anything.
“This is Leah.”
Elena was far too pleased with herself.
“The woman I told you about.”
Leah looked at her sharply.
Julian smiled.
“That sounded dangerous.”
“It usually is.”
He laughed.
Leah’s irritation eased.
The introduction should have lasted several polite minutes.
Instead, Julian proved painfully normal.
He listened.
Did not interrupt.
Did not mistake competence for invitation.
When Leah explained that she managed operations for a private estate, he did not reduce the work.
“That sounds like running a small kingdom without getting any credit.”
Leah laughed before she could stop herself.
Elena heard.
Her smug expression became almost criminal.
The first 30 minutes passed easily.
Then another 30.
Julian knew enough about city politics to be interesting, but not enough about the Raviieri world to turn every silence into risk.
When he lightly touched Leah’s elbow to guide her away from a cluster of donors, it felt ordinary.
That alone almost undid her.
Ordinary had become a luxury.
At 9:15, the ballroom was crowded.
Elena was pulled into another conversation.
Leah remained with Julian near the champagne tower.
He made a dry comment about an auction painting.
Leah laughed.
Real laughter.
Unthinking.
The room changed.
Julian noticed first.
His eyes shifted past Leah’s shoulder.
“Friend of yours?”
Leah turned.
Dante stood at the far end of the ballroom.
Raphael 1 step behind.
2 men at his side.
Dressed entirely in black.
Hard stillness surrounding him.
He had not been expected yet.
Leah knew his schedule because she had arranged the car for his downtown meeting.
Dante was looking at her.
More precisely, at Julian’s hand resting near the exposed skin of her back.
Leah went cold.
Dante began walking toward them.
“Should I be concerned?” Julian asked.
“Possibly.”
Dante crossed the room with controlled menace.
Conversations subtly changed as people realized where he was going.
When he stopped, Leah said his name.
“Dante.”
He did not answer her.
He looked at Julian.
Then at Julian’s hand.
“Take your hand off her.”
Julian blinked.
“Excuse me?”
Leah went still.
“What are you doing?”
Dante looked at her.
“What are you doing?”
The question hit harder than it should have.
Leah stared at him.
“Standing at a charity event.”
Julian straightened.
“Is there a problem?”
Dante looked at him.
“There will be if you touch her another second.”
Heat rushed through Leah.
Not shame.
Fury.
Humiliation.
“Enough.”
The room had become quietly attentive.
Julian slowly removed his hand.
That was almost the worst part.
The way men reacted to Dante’s anger as though it were weather.
“Walk with me,” Dante said.
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Leah.”
“You are not dragging me across a ballroom because you forgot how to behave.”
Raw panic flashed beneath his control.
Julian spoke.
“Maybe this conversation should happen later.”
Dante turned toward him.
“This doesn’t involve you.”
Leah stepped between them.
“It involves me.”
Elena arrived.
“What is wrong with you?”
She hissed the words toward Dante.
Raphael stayed several steps back with the expression of a man who had predicted a disaster and wished he had been wrong.
Leah turned toward Julian.
“Give me a minute.”
“Of course.”
Dante disliked even the ease with which Julian obeyed.
Leah saw that too.
“Balcony.”
She looked at Dante.
“Now.”
Outside, cold night air struck her face.
The city stretched beneath them in black glass and white light.
“What the hell was that?”
“Who is he?”
Leah stared at him.
“That’s your answer?”
“It’s a question.”
“No.”
She moved closer.
“That was a public claim you had no right to make.”
Dante’s face changed slightly.
“No right?”
“Yes.”
Her voice shook with anger.
“You don’t get to look at another man like that when you spent years making sure I understood exactly what I was not to you.”
He said nothing.
So she gave him the sentence he had earned.
“You called me like a sister.”
Dante’s mouth tightened.
“Do you remember? Or was it so easy you forgot the moment the words left your mouth?”
“Leah.”
“No.”
She folded her arms against the cold.
“Don’t say my name like it changes anything.”
Every time the air between them changed, Dante had used the same description.
Every time someone saw too much.
Every time Leah allowed herself to forget her assigned place.
Like a sister.
A locked door.
“So no.”
Her anger deepened.
“You do not get to walk into 1 room, see me with 1 man, and act as though I betrayed something sacred.”
“There was never anything sacred.”
“There was your lie and my silence.”
Dante said nothing for several seconds.
Then:
“I am jealous.”
The honesty shocked her.
“You don’t get to say that now.”
“I know.”
“No. I don’t think you do.”
Her throat tightened.
“If you understood what that sentence costs, you would have stayed away from me years ago.”
He laughed once without humor.
“You think I didn’t try?”
“What does that mean?”
Dante looked through the glass toward Julian.
“It means tonight isn’t the first time another man near you made me want to break things.”
Leah’s pulse jumped.
“Then why keep calling me that?”
“Because it was safer.”
“For who?”
Dante looked directly at her.
“For you.”
Leah almost laughed.
“No.”
Her voice became quieter.
“For you.”
She told him the truth.
He had kept her close.
Watched her as though she mattered.
Protected her as though she belonged beneath his roof.
Then, whenever any of it became real, he used the safest lie available.
“Do you know what that did to me?”
Something changed in him.
Before he could answer, the balcony door opened.
Raphael stepped outside.
“Boss. Fior saw.”
Dante turned.
“Saw what?”
“The scene. Mercer. Her. You crossing the room.”
Raphael hesitated.
“He asked who she was.”
Leah looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Neither answered quickly enough.
That was enough.
Dante became the man the city feared.
“Keep him away from her.”
Raphael nodded and left.
Leah turned immediately on Dante.
“This is exactly what I meant.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Her voice went low.
“Your feelings never stay feelings. They become walls. Orders. Men with guns at doors.”
She gestured through the glass.
“You crossed 1 room, and suddenly I’m not a woman at a gala anymore.”
“I’m a weakness.”
“You were never a weakness.”
“Then what was that?”
Dante answered:
“A mistake.”
Leah froze.
“You mean I was a mistake?”
“No.”
His eyes sharpened.
“That room was.”
Dante told her she should go home.
She accused him of always withdrawing when conversation reached the cost of his world.
Before he could answer, Raphael returned.
“Mercer wants to know if she’s leaving with him.”
Dante answered immediately.
“No.”
Leah turned toward him.
“You do not answer for me.”
Dante’s eyes remained toward the ballroom.
“He is not taking you anywhere.”
Every instinct told Leah to walk back inside and leave with Julian solely to prove Dante could not decide for her.
Then she remembered Fior.
The men watching.
Raphael’s face.
Julian had no place in this world.
Neither did Elena.
She hated that Dante’s warning contained truth.
“Tell him thank you.”
Leah spoke to Raphael.
“Tell him I’m leaving alone.”
Dante said:
“You’re coming with me.”
“No.”
“You are not leaving alone tonight.”
“Watch me.”
“Leah. No.”
She moved toward the door.
Dante caught her wrist.
Not hard.
Not cruelly.
But with the grip of a man who could not separate fear from possession.
Leah looked down at his hand.
“Take your hand off me.”
He released her immediately.
That almost made it worse.
He still had control.
Every line crossed remained a choice.
Leah returned inside.
Julian offered to take her home.
For 1 second she nearly accepted.
Then she remembered Fior.
“I can’t.”
Julian understood.
“Because of him?”
“Because of his world.”
He did not make her explain.
“I won’t make tonight harder than it already is.”
The kindness nearly broke her.
Julian lightly touched her hand before leaving.
Across the room, Dante saw.
His expression changed.
Julian let go.
“Good night, Leah.”
Elena left after making Leah promise to call.
Within seconds, Dante approached again.
“We’re leaving.”
Leah looked toward Fior across the ballroom.
For once, she obeyed the danger rather than Dante.
“Fine.”
He offered his hand.
She ignored it.
The first several minutes of the drive were silent.
Raphael sat in front with the driver.
Dante faced Leah in the rear.
“If you begin with ‘I told you so,’ I’ll open this door while we’re moving.”
Raphael made a sound suspiciously close to laughter.
Dante ignored him.
“You shouldn’t have come without security.”
“There it is.”
“It isn’t a joke.”
“No. Tonight wasn’t.”
Dante told her what Fior’s attention meant.
A woman close to him could become a message.
Leah repeated the phrase.
“A woman beside you.”
Then:
“That’s what I am tonight?”
May you like
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
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