The Moretti name was a curse.
Not just for Adair, but for the city itself.
In the dimly lit backroom of La Rosa Nera, five men sat around an oak table scarred by years of spilled whiskey and blood-stained bargains. The air was thick with cigar smoke, every eye fixed on the man at the head of the table—Lorenzo Ricci, the self-styled kingmaker of the northern quarter.
"They failed," he said flatly, flicking ash into a glass tray. "Five men, armed, and still they couldn't bring her in. Do you know what that means?"
"It means," another man muttered, "that Wolfe is protecting her."
At the name, a ripple of unease passed through the room. Dominic Wolfe was not a man easily challenged. His name carried the weight of brutal victories and ruthless strategy. If he had chosen to shield Adair Moretti, then she was no longer a frightened girl hiding from her father's shadow. She was under the wing of a wolf who had no equal.
Lorenzo's lip curled. "Wolfe was meant to keep the city balanced. Dangerous, yes—but predictable. Now?" He leaned forward, eyes narrowing. "Now he bleeds for her. And men who bleed for women become reckless."
The others exchanged glances. Some looked hungry at the thought, others wary. But all of them understood: Dominic's weakness was no longer a rumor. It was visible, alive, and standing in the rain-soaked alleyways where his fists defended the cursed daughter of Victor Moretti.
"Then we use her," Lorenzo concluded. "Not to kill her. Not yet. But to drag Wolfe into a war he cannot win."
Meanwhile, across the city, Adair sat in Dominic's car, the leather seat cold beneath her damp clothes. She hugged herself, replaying the attack in her mind, the way his hand had cupped her jaw, the way his voice had torn between fury and confession.
Dominic hadn't spoken since they left the alley. He drove like a man with too much to lose, every muscle taut, every shadow on the road another enemy waiting.
She wanted to break the silence, to demand what war raged inside him—but instead she turned her gaze to the window. Beyond the glass, the city pulsed with life and secrets, and for the first time, she realized something chilling:
The attack hadn't been random.
Someone wanted her alive.
And if Dominic knew it too, then both of them were caught in a game far bigger than either dared to admit.