Page 53 of The Cost of Silence

“Okay,” he repeats softly, like he’s claiming the word, claimingme.

Then he steals one more kiss, quick, possessive, leaving my lips tingling, before stepping back. “I have a meeting,” he says, breath still uneven. “You stay here. I’ll be back in a few hours.My men are outside the door.” He reaches the door before glancing over his shoulder. “And Isabella?”

“Yeah?”

His eyes burn. “No going back on your word. You’re mine now.”

Then he’s gone.

The door closes.

And I slide down the wall, breathless, shaking, smiling like a woman who just handed her heart to a predator and asked it to be gentle.

God help me.

I think I might actually survive this.

Or it might destroy me.

Either way, I’m in.

16.Nico

The door closesbehind me and the quiet hits hard. For a second, I just stand there in the hallway outside my own penthouse, palms braced on the cool wood of the door, heart punching against my ribs like it’s trying to get back to her.

Mine now.

The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them.

The worst part is I meant them.

I push off the doors, rolling the tension out of my shoulders as I walk toward the private lift that takes me down to the garage. Rossi falls into step beside me, a dark shadow in an expensive suit.

“She all right?” he asks.

I nod once. “She’s fine.” Fine is a fucking lie. She’s bruised, homeless, and just propositioned me with a no-strings fling like it wouldn’t cost her anything. Like it won’t cost me everything. “She’s scared,” I add. “But she’s trying not to be.”

Rossi gives a grunt that might be agreement. “She’s tougher than she looks.”

You have no idea.

The doors open, and we step into the underground garage. The air down here smells of concrete and gasoline and oldmoney. My driver waits by the car, holding the rear door open; I wave him off and slide behind the wheel myself.

Rossi raises a brow but doesn’t comment, he just takes the passenger seat.

I need control of something I can actually steer.

The engine purrs to life. I pull out, the city swallowing us whole as we move into traffic.

For a few blocks, neither of us speaks. My head is too full with the last ten minutes: the wall at her back, her chin tipped up, the way she saidI’m inlike she was stepping off a cliff and hoping I’d catch her.

Fucking reckless woman.

Reckless man.

“What’s the meeting, exactly?” Rossi asks, breaking the silence.

“Adi wants an update on Orlov’s financials. Matteo’s bringing gossip from the clubs. We see if anything intersects.” I tap the steering wheel with my thumb. “And we make sure no one has a gun pointed at my uncle’s head before we put one there ourselves.”