kidn*pped BY MY BROTHER'S BEST FRIEND

CHAPTER 2

DANTE'S POV

I’ve killed men for less than the way Sebastian Crowe looked at her. I tell myself that as I watch Aria sleep, curled on her side in the room I fortified like a war zone. Steel doors. Armed perimeter. Eyes everywhere. And still, it doesn’t feel like enough. She looks fragile like this. Smaller. Nothing like the girl who lifted her chin at me tonight and dared to call me the villain. I deserve it, though.

Lucas would tear me apart if he knew what I’d done. Correction — if he knew why I’d done it. I run a hand through my hair and turn away from the glass wall separating my office from her room. I don’t trust myself to look too long. I mean, I’ve been watching her for years, not like a stalker at first. It was just habit.

From picking her up from college when Lucas couldn’t to making sure her security was clean and removing threats before they even reached her doorstep.

And then she smiled at me one night. All of a sudden, everything went wrong.

Sebastian Crowe was never supposed to get close to her. I flagged him the first time his name crossed my desk — shell companies, missing funds, people who vanished quietly. He hid it too well. When he proposed to her, I almost broke my own rules and put a bullet in his head.

Instead of that, I waited, and that was my mistake.I step closer to the glass and lower my voice, even though she can’t hear me.

“I won’t apologise,” I murmur. “Not for this.”

I took her, yes, but I also took her away from a man who would’ve destroyed her slowly, behind smiles and champagne toasts.

If loving her makes me a monster…then I’ll be the worst one she’s ever known because no one — no one — gets to own Aria Vale except herself.

And if she chooses me one day?

I’ll burn the world to deserve it.

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I didn't sleep. I stood in the hallway outside her room long after the lights dimmed, listening to her breathing through the door. It's crazy how one woman sleeping behind reinforced steel has my hands shaking.

Lucas would say this is where I lost control. Well, he's wrong. I was never in control where Aria Vale was concerned. I glanced at the security feed again. She hasn’t moved in twenty minutes. No pacing. She didn't try any escape attempts, and that worries me more than if she were screaming. I unlock the door quietly and step inside. She’s sitting up in bed now, knees pulled to her chest, dark hair falling loose over her shoulders. Her eyes snap to me instantly — alert, guarded. Great. Fear sharpens people; it keeps them alive.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” she says.

“You’re safe,” I reply, keeping my tone neutral, distant.

“I wanted to make sure you ate.”

I place the tray on the table near the bed and step back. I never turn my back on threats.

Right now, I'm hers. She studies the food like it might bite.

“You think feeding me makes this okay?” she asks.

“No.”

Her gaze flickers, surprised.

“I think keeping you alive does.” She exhales slowly, then lifts her chin. “You don’t get to decide that.”

“I already did,” I say, then soften my voice just a fraction. “But you get to decide everything else.”Her brows draw together.

“You’re lying.”

“No,” I correct. “I’m choosing my words carefully.”

I take one step closer, then stop — deliberately. “Your fiancé came by your apartment two months ago,” I say quietly. “You weren’t home.” Her face turns pale.

“He threatened the doorman for your schedule,” I continue. “Asked which days you were alone.”

Her fingers curl into the sheets. “He was just worried,” she says weakly.I shake my head.

“No. He was planning.”

“If I wanted to hurt you,” I add, my voice low, “you wouldn’t be sitting upright right now.”

She looks at me then — she has doubt. That’s enough.

I turn toward the door. “Eat,” I say.

“We’ll talk again when you’re ready to ask the right questions.” As I lock the door behind me, my chest tightens painfully because the truth is I don’t know if I can survive the moment she finally believes me.

ARIA POV

The door clicks shut behind him, loud in the quiet room.I didn’t move for a long time. My heart is pounding too hard, too fast, like it’s trying to escape my ribs. Dante is dangerous; everyone knows that, but dangerous men don’t leave food and step back like they’re afraid of crossing a line.I swing my legs off the bed and stare at the tray. Still warm. Real food, carefully cooked.

My hands tremble as I pick up my phone. No signal. Of course.I should hate him for that. Instead, my mind keeps replaying his words.

Which days you were alone.

Sebastian had always asked questions like that, but they were casual questions, well, protective ones. Hadn’t he?

A chill crawls up my spine.I think of Sebastian’s voice on the phone earlier — sharp, annoyed, and not worried at all. It was so strange; I hadn’t noticed it before because I hadn’t wanted to.

I push the tray away and wrap my arms around myself.

This is so wrong. All of it. I realised something that terrifies me more than being kidn*pped.

If Dante is lying, he’s risking everything for it.

If he’s telling the truth…Then I was about to marry a man who never planned to let me leave.

I close my eyes. I wonder—If I scream right now…Would Dante come running to protect me? Or is he the one I need protecting from?