Page 32 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

"They're paying us a lot of money to say yes."

"Then tell them no, professionally, and bill them for the privilege of hearing it," I instructed. Enzo was grinning now, openly, enjoying the absolute circus of my real life.

"Fine. Also your mum called the office looking for you. Twice."

My stomach dropped to the floor. "What did you tell her?"

Amelia's keyboard clacked furiously over the line. "That you're unreachable on a client retreat and doing very important secret work. Which, again, is what I keep telling everyone, and it's starting to sound like I'm covering for an affair."

"You are covering for something," I muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Good work. Keep saying exactly that." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I'll call her myself when I can."

"Please do, because she asked me if you'd eloped, and I did not have a good answer for that."

Enzo was full on laughing now, silent, shoulders shaking, one hand pressed to the bandage on his ribs like laughing hurt and he refused to stop anyway.

"Bye, Amelia," I said, and hung up before she could ask me anything else that required actual truth.

Enzo wiped his eyes. "Eloped. Blake, if this is your version of a honeymoon, I'm worried about your standards."

I pointed toward the open doorway. "Get out." A sharp laugh broke past my teeth anyway. I shook my head, pressing two fingers against my temple as the sheer absurdity of it all cracked right through my defenses.

He left with the notepad and my three rules and a look on his face that was almost gratitude, which he clearly didn't know what to do with, so he covered it by insulting my handwriting on the way out the door.

Luca showed up an hour later, dressed in a sharp black suit without a single weapon in sight. Three slow, deliberate raps sounded against the wood before the latch shifted, and he paused in the frame until I offered a silent nod of permission.

He shut the heavy door quietly behind him. "Enzo tells me you fixed his problem in twenty minutes."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I gave him some simple rules. Real advice would take longer and cost a lot more."

"He said you called murder boring."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I called it manageable. Simple is how you stay out of trouble."

The corner of his mouth twitched, the barest hint of amusement breaking through his usual stone mask. He crossed the floor and halted beside the glass, slipping his hands into his pockets while scanning the hedges below for any sign of movement.

He leaned one shoulder against the glass and let his gaze drift back over to where I stood. "You didn't have to help him."

"No." I held his gaze without flinching. "I could have let your little brother panic and bring the feds down on your heads. It would have been fun to watch."

He tilted his head slightly and studied my face. "Why didn't you?"

I met his hard stare without blinking. "Aside from not wanting armed cops swarming the pool while I'm trying to relax?"

I paused, letting the silence stretch between us. "Because he looked like he needed someone to tell him what to do, that wasn't a threat," I said. "And because a version of this family surviving intact is apparently good for my own continued survival. Selfish, really."

"Selfish," he repeated, like he was testing the word for weight and finding it lighter than advertised.

"Don't read into it," I warned. "I still fucking hate you for the kidnapping."

"Noted," he replied, his voice dropping an octave. "For the record, I never doubted that."

His shoes click against the polished wood as he bridges the distance between us, moving with that deliberate, unhurried stride of a man who takes up space because nobody has ever dared to stop him. He stops barely a foot in front of me. I tilt my chin back to keep my eyes locked on his, refusing to give an inch of ground. The space between us tightens instantly, stripped of the shouting and gunfire from the night before, leaving only the quiet scrape of his gaze against mine and my own stubborn refusal to blink first.

He stopped so close I caught the scent of cedar and clean soap. "You did well last night. Watching a man die in front of you. Most people freeze up."