Chapter 25 -
Leo and Nia stood in the hallway, ten feet of space between them that felt like a canyon.
"You should not have been listening," he said finally.
"You should not have had that conversation where I could hear it."
"Fair point." He ran a hand through his dark hair, messing it up in a way that made him look less like the untouchable Enforcer and more like a man who was drowning. "How much?"
"All of it. The threats. The deadline." She paused. "You defending me."
His jaw tightened. "I was defending my methods. Not you specifically."
"That is not what it sounded like."
"Then you misheard."
"Did I?" Nia took a step closer, emboldened by something she did not fully understand. Maybe it was anger. Maybe it was fear. Maybe it was the desperate need to understand what the hell was happening between them. "Because it sounded like you care whether I live or die. Like you actually see me as a person, not just leverage."
"You are leverage," he said harshly. "That is all you have ever been."
"Then why did you threaten to kill your own cousin for me?"
The question hung between them, sharp and unavoidable. Leo stared at her, something cracking in his carefully constructed armor. For a moment, just a moment, she saw past the Enforcer, past the cold ruthless man who had kidnapped her and threatened her and held her captive.
She saw someone who was just as trapped as she was.
"Because," he said quietly, the word seeming to cost him, "Santiago is a snake. And snakes cannot help but bite. Someone needed to remind him that some things are off limits."
"Things," Nia repeated, feeling something twist in her chest. "Not people. Things."
"Do not do this."
"Do what? Try to understand why you keep me here? Try to figure out if you actually want to hurt me or if you are just doing what you think you have to do?"
"It does not matter what I want," Leo said, and for the first time, she heard exhaustion in his voice. "Want has nothing to do with this. I made a promise to Andrea. I made a promise to the Don. And I will keep those promises, no matter what it costs."
"Even if it costs me?"
He looked at her for a long moment, and she saw the answer in his eyes before he spoke. "I don't give a fuck shit about you."
The words should have terrified her. They should have sent her running back to her room, should have made her hate him even more than she already did. But instead, she felt something else entirely. Something complicated and painful and entirely too human.
"Two weeks," she said softly. "That is all I have left before the Don gets tired of waiting. Before he sends someone like Santiago to finish what you started."
"Well better hope Alex shows up."
"And if he does not ?"
Silence. Heavy, oppressive silence.
"Then I suggest you pray," Leo said finally. "Because I will not be able to stop what comes next."
He turned and walked away, his footsteps measured and deliberate, disappearing into the shadows of the mansion. Leaving Nia standing alone in the hallway with the weight of his words pressing down on her chest like a physical thing.
Two weeks.
Fourteen days.
Three hundred and thirty six hours.
That was all she had left to find a way out of this nightmare. To convince Leo she was not the enemy. To survive in a house full of predators who saw her as nothing more than a means to an end.
Matteo appeared around the corner, his expression carefully blank. "Miss Wallace. Your room."
She followed him in silence, her mind spinning with everything she had heard. Santiago's threats. Leo's deadline. The way Leo had sounded when he promised to kill his own cousin if he touched her.
Back in her room, she stripped off the burgundy dress and changed into a simple nightgown, her hands shaking the whole time. She sat on the edge of the bed, staring at nothing, trying to process the impossible situation she found herself in.
Leonardo DeSanto was dangerous. He was her captor, her jailer, the man who held her life in his hands. He had threatened her, intimidated her, made it clear she was nothing more than a tool to be used and discarded.
But he had also defended her. Protected her. Put himself between her and Santiago's malice.
And in that hallway, when he had looked at her with something raw and unguarded in his eyes, she had seen the truth.
He did care. Whether he wanted to or not. Whether he would admit it or not.
He cared.
And that made everything so much more dangerous. Because caring implied vulnerability. And vulnerability in a world like this was a death sentence.
Nia lay back on the bed, staring up at the chandelier with its dozens of glittering crystals. Two weeks. She had two weeks to figure out how to survive. Two weeks to find Alex or some miracle that would save her.
Two weeks to understand the man who held her captive and the impossible, terrifying feelings growing in her own traitorous heart.
Somewhere in the mansion, a clock chimed midnight. The sound echoed through the empty halls like a countdown.
Tick tock.
Tick tock.
Time was running out.
And Nia Wallace was running out of options.
But as she closed her eyes and tried to find sleep that would not come, one thought kept circling through her mind.
If Alex does not show up, she is dead.
Outside her door, Matteo resumed his post, his hand resting on his weapon, his eyes alert. He had heard everything Leo and Santiago had said. He knew what was coming.
And he knew, with absolute certainty, that before those two weeks were up, blood would be spilled in the DeSanto mansion.
The only question was whose.