**Rose's POV**
I throw open Celeste's car door before it even stops moving.
"Rose, wait—" Dante reaches for me.
I'm already out, stumbling onto the sidewalk. My apartment building looms behind us. Police lights flash everywhere. Officers swarm the entrance. I need to get away from Celeste, away from her threats, away from everything.
Dante catches my arm. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Anywhere but with her!" I yank free and start walking. No plan. No destination. Just moving.
Dante's footsteps follow. Of course they do. He never could let anything go.
"Rose, stop." His voice is sharp. Commanding.
I spin around. "Don't order me around. I'm not yours to command anymore."
"The hell you're not." Dante moves closer. His jaw is tight. Dangerous. "Those papers you signed? They're not filed yet. Until Monday, you're still legally my wife."
"A technicality." But my voice wavers.
"A fact." Another step closer. He's backing me against a brick wall. I didn't even realize I was moving backward. "And I protect what's mine."
"I'm not yours!" The words explode out of me. Three years of being ignored, dismissed, treated like I didn't exist. "You gave up that right when you stopped seeing me. When you made me invisible in my own marriage."
Pain flashes across his face. Quick. There and gone. "I know what I did. I know I destroyed us. But that doesn't change what's happening right now."
Luca appears beside us. "Hate to interrupt this moment, but we've got maybe two hours before every Giordano soldier in the city knows where Rose lives. They'll check hospitals, friends' houses, anywhere she might run."
"Then I'll disappear." I push past Dante. "Change my name. Leave New York. Start over somewhere they'll never find me."
"They'll find you." Dante's voice is flat. Final. "The Giordanos have connections everywhere. Police. Judges. People in every city who owe them favors. You run, you die alone in some random place."
The truth of his words hits hard. I stop walking.
"Two hours," Luca repeats gently. "That's all you've got. Come with us willingly, or Dante carries you. Either way, you're not staying exposed."
I turn to face them both. Dante stands there, covered in blood that isn't his, looking at me like I'm the only thing that matters. Three years he couldn't look at me. Now he won't look away.
"Why?" My voice cracks. "Why do you suddenly care if I live or die?"
Dante flinches. Actually flinches. "I always cared."
"Liar." Tears burn my eyes. I refuse to let them fall. "You stopped caring the day we came home from our honeymoon. Every day after, you pushed me further away until I was nothing to you."
"You were never nothing." His voice drops to almost a whisper. "You were everything. That's why I had to push you away."
I laugh. It sounds broken. "That makes no sense."
"It does in my world." Dante runs a hand through his hair. Frustrated. Struggling to find words. "The more I loved you, the bigger target you became. Every enemy I have would have used you against me. So I made you seem unimportant. Made everyone think our marriage was just business."
"You didn't just make everyone think that." My throat is so tight it hurts. "You made me think that."
"I know." His eyes meet mine. For the first time in years, I see real emotion there. Regret. Pain. "I know I broke you. I know I deserve you walking away. But Rose—" He steps closer. "Let me keep you alive. Then you can hate me forever. Just let me keep you breathing."
Sirens wail closer. Voices shout nearby. Time is running out.
"If I come with you," I say slowly, "it's temporary. Just until the threat is gone."
"Deal." Dante agrees too quickly. Like he's lying. Like he has no intention of letting me leave once I'm back in his world.
But what choice do I have? Stay and die? Run and die alone?
At least with Dante, I might survive.
"Fine." The word tastes bitter. "I'll come with you."
Relief floods Dante's face. He reaches for my hand. I pull back.
"This doesn't fix anything between us," I warn. "I still signed those papers. Come Monday, we're done."
"We'll see." Dante's smile is small and sad. "Come on. My car is two blocks away."
We start walking. Luca leads, constantly scanning for threats. Dante stays close to me. Not touching, but near enough to move if danger appears.
My mind races. I'm going back to Dante's world. Back to the compound where I lived like a ghost for three years. Back to the place where my marriage died slowly, day by painful day.
"It won't be like before," Dante says quietly. Like he can read my thoughts. "Things are different now."
"You're right." My voice is hard. "Before, I cared. Now I don't."
Another lie. I still care so much it hurts. But I can't let him know that. Can't give him that power over me again.
Dante's car appears ahead. Black. Expensive. Bulletproof, probably. Everything in his world is designed to stop violence but somehow violence always finds him anyway.
"Wait here," Luca orders. He approaches the car carefully, checking underneath, looking in windows.
I glance back at my apartment building. My window on the third floor. The window I climbed out of minutes ago while running for my life.
Something glints in the darkness.
A tiny red dot of light.
My blood freezes.
The dot moves across the brick wall. Searching. Hunting. It passes over other windows. Gets closer to mine.
Stops exactly where my head would be if I was still inside.
"Dante." My voice won't work properly. I grab his arm. "Dante, look."
He follows my gaze. Sees the red dot. His whole body goes rigid.
"Sniper," he breathes. "Luca, get her in the car. Now!"
Luca doesn't question. Just grabs my arm and pulls me toward the vehicle. Dante shields my body with his, making himself the bigger target.
The red dot moves again. Sweeps down from the window. Searches the street below.
Finds us.
The dot lands on Dante's back. Right over his heart.
"Get down!" I scream.
I tackle Dante sideways just as something whistles through the air where his chest was. The sound of metal hitting brick echoes behind us.
We crash to the ground together. Dante twists so he takes the impact, protecting me even while I'm trying to protect him.
"Go!" Luca yanks open the car door. "Both of you, move!"
We scramble inside. Luca dives into the driver's seat and floors it. The car shoots forward like a rocket.
More whistling sounds. The back window cracks but doesn't shatter. Bulletproof glass.
I'm pressed against Dante in the back seat, both of us breathing hard. His heart pounds against my arm. Or maybe that's my heart. I can't tell where he ends and I begin.
"You tackled me." Dante's voice is stunned.
"You were about to get shot." My whole body shakes. "What was I supposed to do?"
"Let me." His arm wraps around me. Pulls me closer. "I'm supposed to protect you, not the other way around."
"Maybe I'm tired of being protected." The adrenaline is wearing off. Everything hurts. "Maybe I'm tired of being weak."
"You've never been weak." Dante's voice is fierce. "You survived three years married to me. That takes more strength than most people have."
I don't know what to say to that. Don't know how to process Dante holding me, talking to me, seeing me for the first time in forever.
Luca's voice cuts through the moment. "We've got company."
I look out the back window. Three cars follow us. Black SUVs with tinted windows.
The same vehicles that were outside my apartment earlier.
"They're not giving up," Luca says grimly. "We've got multiple teams hunting her."
Dante's arm tightens around me. "Then we lose them."
"In the middle of New York City?" Luca shakes his head. "Not without drawing every cop in the borough."
"I don't care about cops." Dante's voice turns cold. Deadly. "I care about keeping Rose alive."
The SUVs get closer. One pulls alongside us. The passenger window rolls down.
I see the gun before I hear it.
Glass explodes inward.
Luca swerves hard. We careen around a corner on two wheels. My head slams against Dante's shoulder. He doesn't let go.
"Compound is twenty minutes away," Luca shouts. "But we'll never make it with them on us."
"Then we don't go to the compound." Dante pulls out his phone. Makes a call. "Alessandro. I need the safe house. Now."
A pause. Then Dante's face hardens.
"I don't care if you're in a meeting. Rose is in danger and I need—" He stops. Listens. His jaw clenches so tight I hear his teeth grind. "Fine. We'll go to the docks. But if anything happens to her, I'm holding you personally responsible."
He hangs up. Looks at Luca. "Change of plans. Pier 47."
"The abandoned warehouses?" Luca sounds doubtful. "That's not exactly secure."
"It's not on any Giordano radar. They'll never think to look there." Dante's eyes meet mine. "We hide until reinforcements arrive."
Another bullet hits the car. The driver's side mirror explodes.
"Hiding sounds good," I manage. "Hiding sounds great."
Luca takes another sharp turn. We're heading toward the water now. The city lights fade behind us. Ahead, abandoned buildings loom against the night sky.
The SUVs follow relentlessly.
We pull into the warehouse district. Luca kills the lights and parks behind a massive container. Cuts the engine.
Silence.
We wait.
The SUVs pass by our hiding spot. Keep going. Their tail lights disappear around a corner.
"They lost us," Luca breathes. "For now."
"How long until reinforcements?" I ask.
Dante checks his phone. "Thirty minutes."
Thirty minutes hiding in the dark with men hunting us. Thirty minutes where anything could happen.
I should feel terrified.
Instead, pressed against Dante's side, his arm still around me, his heartbeat steady against my shoulder—I feel safer than I have in three years.
God help me, I still love him.
I still love the man who destroyed me.
Luca suddenly tenses. "You hear that?"
We all listen.
Footsteps. Lots of them. Echoing through the warehouse district.
They didn't lose us after all.
They were herding us.
Dante's phone buzzes. He looks at the screen. His face goes white.
"What?" I whisper.
He shows me the text.
Unknown number: *Thanks for leading us right to you. The warehouse is surrounded. Come out, or we burn it down with you inside.*
Dante meets my eyes. "Rose, I'm sorry."
Before I can ask why, the world explodes into flames.