"Are you sure you can still win this battle, Cassidy?" Luca asked mildly, tilting his head.
Cassidy swallowed hard. His throat burned. His pride lay in ruins at his feet, trampled beyond recognition. "You win," he said hoarsely. "You win. You got the girl." His shoulders sagged, exhaustion flooding in now that resistance was pointless. "Now let me go."
Luca smiled. "Not yet," he said.
He circled Cassidy once. "Ground rules," Luca continued. "You will be watched twenty-four seven. Every call. Every step. Every breath." He stopped in front of him again. "If you even breathe ten centimetres around the police, you're a dead man."
"Vee does not love you," Luca went on, each word precise, designed to land where it hurt most. "Not when she has me. Someone who can actually protect her. I have more power in my little finger than you could ever rack up in your entire skeletal system."
"You were never a contender," Luca finished. "You were just something she outgrew."
