Safe Between Monsters

Chapter Six

WINTER POV

The sound of the door splintering echoed through the house like a gunshot before the actual gunshot came.

Marcus stood in the wreckage of the front door, smoke curling around him from the early morning light behind his back. The gun in his hand looked steady. Comfortable. Like it belonged there.

Like I belonged to him.

My body forgot how to breathe.

“Miss me, Winter?” His voice was smooth, almost amused, like we’d run into each other at a café instead of him breaking into a house with a weapon.

Dante stepped in front of me without hesitation. Luca moved to my left. Kai to my right.

A wall of muscle and fury.

Marcus laughed softly. “How cute. The Boy Scouts.”

“Put the gun down,” Dante said calmly. Too calmly. The kind of calm that hides violence underneath.

Marcus tilted his head. “Or what?”

Kai’s voice was light, but his eyes were deadly. “Or you leave here in a body bag.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. This wasn’t a nightmare. This wasn’t a shadow in my room.

This was real.

Marcus’s eyes found mine over Dante’s shoulder. The world shrank until it was just the two of us again.

“You look good,” he said. “Healthier. They feeding you well?”

I swallowed hard. “What do you want?”

“You.” He didn’t hesitate. “Come here, Winter. You don’t belong with them.”

Luca’s hand brushed mine lightly. Grounding. Not controlling. Just there.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Luca said quietly.

Marcus’s gaze flicked to him, then back to me. “Are they touching you?” His voice darkened. “Are they making you think you’re safe?”

“I am safe,” I whispered, though my legs were shaking.

His jaw tightened. “You don’t get to decide that.”

Something inside me snapped at that.

“I don’t get to—?” My voice cracked but I forced it steady. “You don’t get to decide that anymore.”

The room went still.

Marcus’s eyes turned cold. “You think they can protect you from me? You think three rich boys with security cameras scare me?”

“They’re not scared of you,” Kai said.

Marcus lifted the gun slightly.

Everything happened at once.

Dante lunged forward, knocking the aim off just as the gun fired. The shot blasted into the ceiling. Plaster rained down. Luca shoved me behind the kitchen island as Kai tackled Marcus from the side.

The gun skidded across the marble floor.

I screamed.

Marcus punched Kai hard enough that I heard the crack. Dante grabbed Marcus by the collar and slammed him into the wall. The house shook with the impact.

Marcus laughed. Actually laughed.

“You think I won’t kill you?” he spat, elbowing Dante in the ribs.

Luca grabbed the fallen gun before Marcus could reach it and aimed it straight at him.

“Move,” Luca warned.

Marcus froze—but only for a second.

Then his eyes shifted to me again.

Always me.

“Winter,” he said softly, ignoring the gun pointed at his head. “You know me. You know I would never hurt you.”

“You already did,” I whispered.

The words hit him harder than Dante had.

For the first time, I saw something flicker in his expression.

Not love.

Not regret.

Possession.

“They filled your head with lies,” he said. “You’re confused. You get like this when you’re overwhelmed.”

“I’m not confused.”

He smiled like I was a child throwing a tantrum.

“You belong with me.”

“No.” My hands were shaking, but I stepped out from behind the island anyway. “I don’t.”

“Winter, get back,” Dante growled.

But I didn’t.

I was done hiding behind people.

Marcus’s eyes softened when I came closer. “There you are,” he murmured. “Come here. We’ll go home.”

Home.

The word made my stomach twist.

“That was never home,” I said.

His expression hardened instantly. “Careful.”

“No.” My voice got stronger. “You don’t get to scare me anymore.”

His gaze flicked to the three men around him. Calculating. Outnumbered.

Sirens wailed faintly in the distance.

Kai must have called security and the police.

Marcus heard them too.

His lips curved slowly. “This isn’t over.”

Luca stepped closer, gun steady. “It is if you don’t walk out that door right now.”

“You think a restraining order and a few guards will stop me?” Marcus asked.

“No,” Dante said quietly. “But a bullet might.”

The tension in the room was suffocating.

Marcus looked at me one last time.

“If you stay here,” he said softly, “they will die because of you. One by one. And when they do, you’ll come back to me. Because I’m the only one strong enough to survive you.”

My breath caught.

Kai moved fast and punched him square in the face.

Marcus staggered back, blood spilling from his lip.

“Get out,” Kai snarled.

The sirens were louder now.

Marcus straightened slowly, wiping the blood with his thumb. His eyes never left mine.

“This isn’t your choice,” he said.

Then he turned and walked out the shattered doorway just as black SUVs screeched to a stop outside.

The house fell silent except for my ragged breathing.

Luca lowered the gun.

Dante was still staring at the door like he wanted to chase him.

Kai rolled his shoulders, jaw tight.

I felt like my bones had dissolved.

“He’s going to come back,” I whispered.

“Yes,” Dante said without sugarcoating it.

I nodded slowly.

At least he wasn’t lying to me.

Security flooded the house. Questions. Chaos. Broken glass crunching under boots.

But all I could see was Marcus’s face when I said no.

That crack in his control.

Luca turned to me carefully, like I might shatter.

“Are you hurt?”

I shook my head.

Kai stepped closer, gently checking my arms anyway. “Did he touch you?”

“No.”

Dante exhaled slowly, tension bleeding from his shoulders inch by inch. “He escalated faster than we expected.”

“He was never going to wait until tonight,” Luca muttered.

I wrapped my arms around myself. “He meant what he said.”

Dante’s eyes softened when they met mine. “So do we.”

“What does that mean?” My voice trembled. “Because he won’t stop.”

Kai gave me a small, dangerous smile. “Neither will we.”

I looked between the three of them.

They weren’t scared.

They were angry.

Protective.

United.

And for the first time since Marcus reappeared in my life… I didn’t feel alone.

Dante stepped closer but didn’t touch me. “Winter, listen to me carefully. He thrives on fear. On isolation. On making you think you’re the problem.”

I swallowed.

“You’re not,” Luca said quietly.

“He’ll try to break you,” Kai added. “He’ll try to break us.”

“Can he?” I asked.

Dante’s gaze turned cold again—but not at me.

“No.”

A crash from upstairs made me flinch violently.

Luca instantly pulled me behind him.

“It’s just security clearing rooms,” Kai said softly.

My hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t hide it anymore.

Dante noticed.

He stepped closer slowly. “Can I touch you?”

The fact that he asked almost broke me.

I nodded.

He wrapped his arms around me carefully, like I was something fragile but valuable. Luca’s hand rested on my back. Kai stood close enough that I could feel his warmth.

A circle.

A shield.

Marcus’s words echoed in my head.

They will die because of you.

Tears burned my eyes.

“He’s going to try to hurt you to get to me,” I whispered into Dante’s chest.

Dante’s jaw tightened.

“Let him try.”

The front door hung off its hinges. The house was a mess.

But I was still standing.

Marcus didn’t drag me out.

He didn’t pull me back into the dark.

I said no.

And I was still here.

Kai brushed his thumb under my eye, catching a tear before it fell. “You did good.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

“It will,” Luca said.

Outside, the sirens finally faded.

But I knew this wasn’t over.

Marcus had looked at me like I was a challenge now.

Not a possession.

And somehow… that was worse.

Dante pulled back just enough to look at me. “He made a mistake today.”

“What mistake?”

“He came into our house.”

Kai’s smile was sharp.

Luca’s grip on the gun hadn’t loosened.

“He just declared war.”

And this time… I wasn’t sure who I was more afraid for.

Marcus.

Or anyone who tried to stand between him and me.