Rafael leaves in one piece.
Barely.
Luca walks him back to the gate with two guards flanking them. Dante stays in the gatehouse, watching the monitors until the SUV pulls away, his expression the kind of flat that means he’s thinking about every possible way this could have gone wrong.
Even after the car disappears around the bend, the air in the corridor tastes like ozone and teeth. It's like something that cracked but didn’t quite break.
Mia finds me there, leaning against the wall like I forgot how to stand up without support.
“Well,” she says. “That was…horny and terrifying.”
“I feel like my life has turned into a very niche fanfiction trope,” I say. “Two men arguing over who gets to die for me while I stand in the middle with unresolved trauma.”
“You forgot ‘expensive wardrobe,
