Page 181 of The Art of Ruin

“Adi,” Nico says again, sharper this time.

“Don’t,” Adriano says, and that one word makes even Nico go silent.

I should be terrified of him in this moment.

Maybe I am.

But not for myself.

Never for myself.

Adriano is looking at the gun, at Jasper’s hand, at the place where his arm is locked across my body, and I can see the restraint tearing through him in real time. He isn’t calm. He isn’t controlled. He’s holding himself together for me by force.

“You took everything from me,” Jasper says, his voice cracking now. “Everything.”

“No,” Adriano says. “You lost everything because you thought consequences were for other people.”

“You think she loves you?” Jasper spits. “You think that makes you special? She’s nothing. She’s a cheap whore.”

Adriano moves.

I don’t understand how at first.

There’s distance, and then there isn’t.

The gun is suddenly skidding across the concrete. Matteo’s arm hooks around my waist and drags me back so quickly that the breath leaves my lungs. Jasper hits the floor hard, and Adriano is on him with a violence that makes the entire warehouse seem to shrink.

“Don’t say another word about her,” Adriano says.

His fist connects with Jasper’s face and I flinch.

Not because Jasper doesn’t deserve it.

Because Adriano looks like grief has become a weapon in his hands.

“Adriano!” I shout.

He doesn’t hear me.

Or maybe he does and can’t stop or won’t stop.

Nico grabs his shoulder. Rossi moves toward the gun. Matteo keeps one arm around me, his body between mine and the chaos, murmuring something low I don’t catch because all I can see is Adriano kneeling over the man who took me apart with fear and lies and a gun.

“She was too good for you,” Adriano says, voice shaking now with something worse than anger. “She was always too good for you.”

Jasper laughs through blood, broken and wet. “And you deserved her?”

Adriano freezes.

Just for a second.

Long enough that the question lands.

And I hate Jasper for finding the one wound sharp enough to cut through him even now.

“No,” Adriano says, quieter. “But I know what she’s worth.”

Emotion breaks through my chest so suddenly I almost double over with it.