The Russian's screams echoed off concrete walls. Dante worked with the precision of a surgeon and the coldness of death itself.
And when it was finally over, when the room fell silent except for our breathing, Dante turned to me.
Blood splattered his face and hands. His grey eyes were empty. The monster fully unleashed.
"Now you've seen it," he said quietly. "The worst of what I am. The thing I tried to protect you from. Are you going to run now, Isabella? Are you going to fear me?"
I should have. God knows I should have been terrified, horrified, desperate to escape.
But as I looked at him standing there covered in the blood of the man who'd tried to hurt me, all I felt was safe.
"No," I said, standing up on shaking legs. "I'm not running."
"Why not?"
"Because he tried to take me. To hurt me. To use me as bait to kill you." I moved toward Dante, closing the distance between us. "And you made sure he'd never threaten me again. You protected me. Violently, brutally, but you protected me."
"You're not scared of me?"
"I'm terrified of you." I reached up and touched his blood-stained face. "But I'm more terrified of what this world would do to me without you."
Something shifted in his expression. The emptiness faded, replaced by something achingly human.
"You're not normal," he said with the ghost of a smile. "Most women would have run screaming by now."
"Most women weren't sold at auction and forced to adapt to survive." I stood on my toes and kissed him, tasting copper and salt. "You've made me into something else, Dante Moretti. Something that belongs in your world."
"Mine," he growled against my lips. "You're mine, Isabella. Not property. Not a prisoner. Mine."
"Yours," I agreed. "And you're mine. My monster. My protector. My everything."
We kissed there in that blood-stained basement, two broken people who'd found something twisted and real in each other. And when we finally broke apart, both of us were crying.
"I need to clean up," Dante said, looking down at the blood covering him. "And then I need to find Sergio before he runs."
"Your cousin betrayed you."
"Yes. Which means he dies." No hesitation. No mercy. "Family or not, betrayal is unforgivable."
"Will you let me come with you? When you find him?"
He looked surprised. "You want to watch me kill my own cousin?"
"I want to be by your side. In all of it. The business, the violence, the war. If I'm really yours, if this is really my life now, then I need to be part of all of it."
Dante studied me for a long moment, and I could see the internal war playing out behind his eyes. The part that wanted to protect me from his darkness. The part that wanted to share everything with me. The part that was falling deeper in love with every word I said.
"Alright," he finally decided. "You come with me. You see everything. But" He gripped my shoulders. "You follow my orders without question. If I say run, you run. If I say hide, you hide. If I say kill, you kill. Can you do that?"
"Yes."
"Even if it means becoming like me? A killer?"
I thought about the Russian upstairs. About how I'd felt smashing that bookend into his skull. About the cold efficiency with which Dante had just extracted information and delivered justice.
"Maybe I'm already like you," I said quietly. "Maybe that's why this works. Why I'm not running. Why I can stand here covered in someone's blood and feel nothing but relief that you're safe."
"Then welcome to the mafia, Isabella Martinez." He kissed my forehead, gentle despite the violence surrounding us.
"Welcome to my world. Our world now."
Later, after Dante had cleaned up and made calls to track down his traitorous cousin, I stood on the balcony of his bedroom watching the sun set over the estate.
Rosa found me there, her expression knowing.
"You went downstairs," she said. Not a question.
"Yes."
"And you're still here."
"Yes."
She was quiet for a moment. "You love him."
"I do. Is that crazy?"
"Love always is, child. But this…" She gestured around us, at the mansion and the guards and the world we lived in now. "This is crazier than most. Are you sure you can handle it? The violence? The danger? The moral compromises?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "But I know I can't imagine my life without him anymore. In five days, he's become everything. My protector, my lover, my partner. And I think" I paused, gathering courage. "I think I was always meant to end up here. With him. In this world."
"Your mother would be proud of your strength. Horrified by the circumstances, but proud of how you've adapted."
"My mother would tell me to find the weakness in his organization and exploit it for escape."
"And yet you're not trying to escape."
"No. I'm not." I turned to face her. "Because this isn't a prison anymore, Rosa. This is home. He's home. And I'd rather fight beside him than run from him."
"Then you're truly one of us now." Rosa squeezed my shoulder. "Welcome to the family, Isabella. May God have mercy on all our souls."
That night, I lay in Dante's arms while he planned war against the Volkovs and his own cousin. I listened to him make calls, give orders, arrange for violence with the same casualness most people used to plan dinner parties.
And I didn't flinch. Didn't cringe. Didn't question my choice.
Because this was my life now. This was my love. This was my future.
Bought at auction. Forced into a monster's world. Falling in love with the devil himself.
And somehow, impossibly, finding exactly where I belonged.
"Isabella?" Dante's voice pulled me from my thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"When this is over when the Volkovs are dealt with and Sergio is dead and things settle down" He paused, seeming uncertain for once. "Will you stay? Not because you have to, but because you want to?"
"I'll stay," I promised. "Not as your prisoner or your property. But as your partner. Your equal. Your love."
"My queen," he corrected, pulling me closer. "The queen of my empire. Standing beside me as I build something your mother would have been proud of. Something Sofia would have wanted. A kingdom built on loyalty, not just fear."
"A kingdom built on love," I whispered.
"Yes. On love." He kissed me softly. "I love you, Isabella Martinez. More than I've ever loved anything. And I swear to you—I'll protect you, honor you, stand beside you for as long as I breathe."
"I love you too, Dante Moretti. My monster. My king. My home."
We fell asleep like that, wrapped in each other's arms, two broken souls who'd found healing in the last place either of us expected.
In violence.
In darkness.
In a love forged in blood and sealed with loyalty.
Welcome to the mafia.
Welcome to forever.
Welcome home.