DANTE POV
I'm making a mistake.
I know it the second the words leave my mouth. "You were always meant for Konstantin. I was just the delivery boy."
Octavia's face goes pale. The hurt in her eyes is a knife to my gut.
Good. Let her hate me. Hate is safer than whatever dangerous thing was building between us over breakfast.
The boutique is one of Konstantin's favorites. He sends all his collectors here when they need to dress up their... acquisitions. The staff knows not to ask questions.
Octavia walks through the door like she's walking to her execution.
"Mr. Corsaro!" The manager—a thin woman named Claudette—rushes over. "So wonderful to see you. And this must be the special guest for tonight?"
"Yes. She needs everything. Dress, shoes, jewelry. Make her perfect."
Claudette's eyes light up. She sees dollar signs. "Of course! Come with me, dear."
Octavia doesn't move. She's staring at a mannequin in the window wearing a white wedding dress.
"Octavia," I say quietly. "Move."
"Why?" Her voice is hollow. "What's the point? If I'm meeting Konstantin tonight anyway, why does it matter what I wear?"
Because I need time. Because Felix hasn't gotten the raid authorization yet. Because I'm stalling and lying and trying to figure out how to save her without blowing five years of undercover work.
But I can't say any of that.
"Because Konstantin rewards obedience and punishes resistance," I tell her instead. "Impress him tonight, and your parents live. Disappoint him, and—"
"I get it." She cuts me off, voice sharp. "Be a good little slave or people die."
She follows Claudette into the dressing area. I watch her go, hating myself more with each step.
My phone buzzes. Felix.
I step outside to answer. "This better be good news."
"Raid authorization is stuck in bureaucracy. Could be days. Weeks even." Felix sounds frustrated. "Can you stall?"
"Konstantin wants her tonight."
"Tonight?" Felix swears. "Dante, if you deliver her—"
"I know what happens if I deliver her!" I snap. A passing couple stares. I lower my voice. "You think I don't know?"
"Then don't. Abort the mission. Get her out."
"And let Konstantin go free? After what he did to Isadora?" My sister's name tastes like poison. "No. I'm too close."
"You're too attached," Felix counters. "I can hear it in your voice. This girl—Octavia—she's getting to you."
He's right. I've collected dozens of people for Konstantin over five years. Never learned their names. Never cared about their stories.
But Octavia with her gray eyes and sharp tongue and determination to survive—she's different.
"I can handle it," I lie.
"Can you? Because from where I'm sitting, you're about to hand an innocent woman to a monster to catch a different monster. How does that make you better than him?"
The question haunts me as I hang up.
Through the boutique window, I see Octavia trying on dresses. Claudette fusses around her, pinning and adjusting. Octavia's face is blank. Empty.
I did that. Broke something in her with my lies.
My phone buzzes again. A text from an unknown number:
Heard you're bringing fresh meat tonight. She better be worth it. Konstantin doesn't like disappointments. - S
Sienna. Always watching, always reporting back to Konstantin.
I text back: She'll be perfect.
Another message immediately: Attached photo
My blood turns to ice.
It's a surveillance photo of me and Octavia from this morning. Outside the boutique. She's looking up at me, and I'm—
I'm looking at her like she matters.
Sienna's next text: Careful, Corsaro. You're looking at the merchandise like you want to keep it. Konstantin won't like that either.
I delete the texts and pocket my phone.
She's right. I need to be more careful. Need to remember Octavia is a mission asset, not a person I'm starting to—
No. I'm not going there.
Claudette emerges from the dressing room, all smiles. "She's ready for you to see!"
Octavia steps out wearing a silver dress that makes her look like moonlight. Her hair is styled, makeup subtle. She's breathtaking.
And she won't meet my eyes.
"Perfect," I manage. "We'll take it. And everything else you selected."
"Wonderful! I'll have it all sent to your address."
As Claudette bustles away to process payment, Octavia finally looks at me.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Depends on the question."
"Why did you tell me you were keeping me?" Her voice is soft, dangerous. "Why lie about that if you were always planning to give me to Konstantin?"
Because I was keeping you. Because the plan changed the second I saw you fight back. Because I'm an idiot who's compromising five years of work for a girl I've known two days.
"Does it matter?" I ask instead.
"It does to me."
Before I can answer, my phone rings. Konstantin's name flashes.
Octavia sees it. Goes pale.
I answer. "Yes?"
"Change of plans." Konstantin's voice is oily. "Bring her to my estate now. I want to meet her before the party."
"Now? We're still shopping—"
"Now, Corsaro. Or should I assume you're having second thoughts about our arrangement?"
The threat is clear. Refuse, and he knows something's wrong.
"We'll be there in thirty minutes."
"Make it twenty." He hangs up.
Octavia heard every word. Her breathing is rapid, panicked.
"I need to use the bathroom," she says.
"We don't have time—"
"Please." Her eyes are huge, terrified. "Please, just give me two minutes."
Against my better judgment, I nod.
She disappears into the boutique bathroom. I check my watch. We really don't have time for this.
One minute passes. Two. Three.
"Octavia, let's go!"
Silence.
Warning bells scream in my head. I push open the bathroom door.
Empty. The window is open—barely big enough for a person, but she's small enough—
I run outside just in time to see her sprinting down the alley.
She's running. Actually running.
Pride and panic war in my chest. She's got survival instinct. But if Konstantin finds out she ran from me, we're both dead.
I chase her. She's fast but I'm faster. I catch her two blocks away, pull her into a narrow space between buildings.
"Are you insane?" I pin her against the brick wall. "Do you have any idea what you just—"
"Let me go!" She fights like a wildcat. Scratches my face, aims for my eyes. "I won't go to him! I won't!"
"Octavia, stop—"
"No! You said I belong to you, then you said that was a lie, and now you're taking me to him anyway!" Tears stream down her face. "I don't understand what you want from me!"
The truth crashes over me like a wave.
She's right. I've been playing both sides—FBI agent and criminal, captor and protector, liar and... something else.
I can't keep doing this. Can't keep hurting her to maintain my cover.
I have to choose.
"Listen to me." I grab her face, force her to look at me. "I lied earlier. In the car."
"About what?"
"About you belonging to Konstantin." The words come fast, desperate. "You don't. You belong to me. And I'm going to protect you."
"How? By taking me to him?"
"By playing the game long enough to destroy him." I check over my shoulder. We're running out of time. "I can't explain everything now. But Octavia, you need to trust me."
"Trust you?" She laughs bitterly. "You kidnapped me!"
"I know. And I'm sorry. But if you don't get in that car and come with me to Konstantin's estate right now, he'll send people to find you. And they won't be gentle like me."
"Gentle? You call this—"
"Yes!" The word explodes out. "Compared to what Konstantin does? Yes, I'm being gentle! He breaks people for fun, Octavia. Destroys them. Makes them wish they were dead!"
She's trembling now. From fear or cold or both.
"Why should I believe anything you say?"
"Because—" I stop. Because why? Because I'm FBI? I can't tell her that. Because I care about her? That's insane after two days.
Because somewhere between kidnapping her and watching her throw breakfast plates and listening to her talk about textbooks she can't afford, she became more than a mission.
"Because I'm asking you to," I finally say. "Please. Trust me for two more hours. Just until we get through this meeting. Then I'll explain everything."
She searches my face, looking for the lie. Looking for the trap.
"If you're lying again—"
"I'm not."
"—I'll find a way to make you pay. I swear it."
Despite everything, I smile. "I don't doubt that."
She takes a shaky breath. "Okay. Two hours. But then you tell me everything. The truth. All of it."
"Deal."
We walk back to the car. She lets me help her inside this time.
As we drive toward Konstantin's estate—toward danger and lies and the man who killed my sister—Octavia sits rigid beside me.
"Dante?"
"Yes?"
"Earlier you said you intercepted my collection. That you weren't supposed to keep me." She turns those gray eyes on me. "What changed your mind?"
The truth? Everything. Her defiance. Her strength. The way she looked at me in that destroyed apartment—terrified but fighting anyway.
But I can't say that. Can't admit that keeping her was the first genuine choice I've made in five years of being Dante Corsaro.
"I don't know," I tell her. Another lie. Or maybe the only truth I can give.
She nods slowly. Doesn't push.
We drive in silence until the estate comes into view—massive gates, armed guards, security cameras everywhere.
Konstantin's fortress.
And we're walking straight into it.
"Dante?" Octavia's voice is small. "What if he doesn't give me back to you?"
The question I've been avoiding.
"He will. Because I'm valuable to him. And because—" I cut myself off.
"Because what?"
Because I'll burn this whole place down before I let Konstantin touch you.
But I don't say that. Instead, I squeeze her hand once—brief, reassuring.
"Because you're mine. And I protect what's mine."
The gates open. We drive through.
Octavia's hand tightens around mine. She doesn't let go.
And as we approach the mansion where the devil himself waits, I realize I've made my choice.
Mission or girl. Justice or mercy. Revenge or redemption.
I'm choosing her.
Even if it destroys everything I've worked for.
Even if it kills me.
The car stops. A guard opens the door.
Konstantin Voss stands on the steps, silver-haired and smiling.
"Dante! And you must be the lovely Octavia." His eyes rake over her like she's meat. "Come inside. Let's get acquainted."
Octavia looks at me, silently begging.
I nod once. Trust me.
She steps out of the car and walks toward the monster.
And I follow, praying I haven't just made the biggest mistake of both our lives.