ROM
Mia’s small body trembled in my arms.
She mumbled something that might have been you found me, and my cold, black heart broke at the thought of her locked in here, wondering if anyone was coming to get her out.
She’d never have to wonder again. She was fucking mine.
Leaning down, I brushed my lips against her ear. “I’ll always find you, Berry.”
My hands roamed over her back and arms, checking for any injuries. When I felt the bandage on the back of her head, my body stilled.
She must have felt the tension coiling inside me because she rubbed her cheek against my chest and whispered, “Just a cut. I’m okay.”
A cut. How?
My eyes snapped to the man responsible—her father. He stood frozen by the bed, his expression dark with rage.
“Who let you in?” he bit out.
I smirked coldly. “I have ten men with me. We let ourselves in.”
Mia pulled away and darted toward the bed. She grabbed something from behind the mattress before returning to my side.
Her father’s eyes never strayed from me. Maybe he knew better than to look away from someone who could end him within seconds.
Tempting. So fucking tempting.
‘What kind of father does something like this to his own daughter?’ I asked.
A flush crept up his neck, painting his face crimson. ‘I’m not going to stand here and be lectured by you.’
“I’m ready,” Mia said.
Morales’s jaw ticked. “I’m going to get you arrested for this, Ferraro.”
‘No, you’re not.” Mia’s voice was low but firm. “Do you really want me to tell the police, never mind the press, about how you sedated me and kept me locked up here against my will?”
Did she just say “sedated”?
I saw fucking red.
My fist collided with Morales’s nose before my brain could even fully process what I was doing. The need to make him pay was too strong to resist.
Morales fell onto the bed, clutching his face as blood dripped down his chin.
A hand appeared on my back, curling into my shirt. “Rom, don’t. I’m okay.”
Nah. I was only getting started.
I took a step and my shirt pulled around me.
“Rom. I want to go.”
I froze. She sounded tired. Spent.
Fuck. Of course she was. And I was here to get her someplace safe, not indulge my violent urge to make anyone who harmed her pay.
Morales could wait. He’d get what he deserved eventually.
‘You’re going to look back on this and realize it was the biggest mistake of your life, Morales,” I ground out at the pathetic man staring up at me.
Mia’s hand slipped into mine.
His eyes darted toward Mia. “You can’t trust him, Mia. He’s manipulating you. You’ll regret this.”
“The only thing I’m regretting is all the time I wasted helping you,” she said.
Pride surged through me. That’s my fucking girl.
“He’s a criminal,” Morales spat. “He’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars. Is that the kind of life you want?”
“I’ll choose him over you any day.”
God, I wanted to kiss her. To seal her words with a promise. But I needed to get her out of here first.
“Morales, if you ever try to hurt Mia again—if you even think about pulling a stunt like this—you’ll have a war on your hands. I will hunt you down and rip you apart limb by limb. So think carefully about your next move.” I tugged her closer. “Come on.”
We moved down the hall, flanked by my men. The two guards we’d taken down when we came in were now unconscious on the floor, wrists bound, duct tape over their mouths.
One of my guys was locked in a stare-down with a woman—Mia’s stepmother. She leaned heavily on her cane.
“If you walk out that door,” she called out, voice shaking, “you will never be welcome back, Mia.”
These fucking people. My protectiveness surged. I wanted to wipe those words from Mia’s memory so that they couldn’t hurt her.
But when I looked at her, all I saw was quiet resignation. No tears. No anguish. Just an unshakable calm.
‘You made it abundantly clear that I’ve never been welcome,’ Mia said, her voice even. ‘I thought about what you said to me earlier. Thought about it long and hard. You’ve always wanted kids. I could have been that daughter you wanted. I’m sorry that you didn’t have it in you to love me. That hurt you more than it will ever hurt me.”
The room went silent. The kind of silence where you could hear the faintest shift of breath.
Her stepmother’s grip tightened on the cane.
“Let’s go,” Mia said. “There’s nothing left for me here.”
We walked out. My men took the stairs while we got into the elevator. As soon as the doors slid shut, she sagged against me, her facade cracking.
I cupped the back of her neck, careful not to touch the bandage on her head. “I’m sorry it took me this long to get to you.”
Her body shook with silent sobs.
It fucking gutted me.
Why the hell did I wait? Twenty-four hours hadn’t felt like much at the time, but now I regretted every second I wasted hoping she’d call. I should’ve known better.
“Fuck, baby. I’m so, so sorry. I screwed up. But I’m going to make it up to you, I promise. I—”
She lifted her face from my chest and looked at me with her puffy, red eyes. “They wouldn’t tell me who died in the explosion until just before you showed up. The whole day, I thought you might be—” Her voice broke as she clung to me tighter. “All I could think about was if it was you.”
My chest clenched. They’d purposefully kept her in the dark. Purposefully made her worry.
Monsters. They were fucking monsters to do this to the sweetest goddamn girl in the entire world.
I cupped her cheeks, tilting her mouth toward me. “Berry, I’m hard to kill.”
A tearful laugh slipped from her lips. “Please stay that way.”
“I plan on it.”
And then I bent down and kissed her.
As soon as I got Mia into my car, something inside me unknotted. Mission accomplished. My body buzzed with relief as I hit the gas.
Outside, the city smeared past us in black and neon streaks. For a few seconds, we were silent, just basking in each other’s company. Her intoxicating lily-of-the-valley scent filled my lungs and squeezed like a fist around my heart.
I had her. And I wasn’t ever letting her go.
“Mia.” My voice was rough. “The last time we talked, I said a lot of stupid shit.” Stupid didn’t even begin to cover it. “I pushed you away because I didn’t think I was good enough for you. I ran because you called me something I couldn’t stomach. Something that made me feel weak. I acted like a fucking coward. But I’ve realized some things since then.”
She listened to me silently, her profile lit by the light coming from the dash.
“Maybe I was a victim back then,” I said quietly. “But I don’t have to keep being a victim of my past. Fuck the past. It doesn’t get to define me.” My palms tightened on the wheel. “Before, I only knew how to destroy. But now? I’ll learn how to build. If you’ll let me, I’ll build a life with you. One where you will feel safe, loved, and so fucking cherished that you will never doubt that you belong by my side. Not for a single second.”
She let out a small, shaky breath. “Rom…”
“I want to be the man you deserve and I know I fucking can be. If you give me another chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”
My heart thumped against my rib cage.
I waited for her to say something. Anything.
Finally, she sniffed. “I can do another chance.”
Relief flooded through me. Thank fuck.
Three simple words—the ones I should have said back at the hotel—burned in my chest, demanding to be set free.
I needed to look at her while I said them.
My foot pressed on the brakes. We were in the middle of a block. Cars cruised by. A couple headlights flashed. I didn’t care.
“Rom?” she asked, startled. “Why are we—?”
I unbuckled and turned toward her, every part of me trained on her face. She blinked at me, wide-eyed.
“I’m answering your question. The one you asked that night.”
A car honked behind us. Another. Didn’t matter.
I took her hands in mine and ran my thumbs across her knuckles. “I love you.” The words scorched their way out of me. “I love you like I’ve never loved anything in my goddamn life. It’s terrifying. It’s relentless. You’ve gotten under my skin and into my soul, and you didn’t even try. Somewhere along the way, I stopped being mine and became yours.”
Her lips wavered and tears clung to her lashes.
“I wasn’t living before I met you, Mia. I was just existing. Trying to drown the parts of me I couldn’t face. But you—you came in with all your light, and suddenly there was nowhere left to hide. You cracked me open. Made me feel again.”
She bit on her lip, emotions flickering across her face.
“I’d tried to run from those feelings. But I’m not running anymore. I fucking love you.”
She reached out and pressed a trembling hand against my cheek. “You’re not a coward,” she said softly. “You’re the very opposite. All you needed was a bit of time.” Her thumb brushed over my jaw. “I’m so proud of you, Rom.”
Inside me, everything melted.
A smile tugged on her mouth. “And I love you too. So damn much.” The next moment, her lips were pressing against mine.
I cradled her jaw and pulled her closer, my tongue sliding into her mouth, hungry to taste her, feel her, memorize her all over again. I kissed her like a man finally touching heaven after crawling through the pits of hell.
When we finally broke apart, she rested her forehead against mine, her breath shaky and warm. “I missed you,” she whispered. “When I thought you might be gone…” Her voice cracked. “I regretted not telling you I loved you earlier. I’d wanted to, you know. But I was scared too. Scared I’d misread you. Scared you’d break my heart.”
I brushed my cheek against hers. “You didn’t misread me, Berry. You saw me more clearly than anyone ever has. It was never about getting you out of my system. I just wanted to have an excuse, any goddamn excuse, to be close to you. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t stay away.”
She kissed me again. “You don’t have to try anymore. Just be with me, Rom.”
“HEY!” someone behind us yelled. “MOVE IT OR WE’RE CALLING THE COPS!”
Mia choked out a laugh, wiping her eyes. “Maybe we can continue this somewhere we won’t get arrested?”
I grinned and eased the car back into motion. “Fair. I’m not eager to end up in that precinct again.”
“They brought you in for questioning?”
“Right after the explosion,” I said. “Fucking mess. But I’m fine now. I’ve got you.”
She fell quiet, and then, softly, “I’m sorry about your dad.”
The grief hovered, just beyond reach. I hadn’t let myself feel it yet. Not fully. Not with so much chaos happening around me.
“I feel a hell of a lot better now that I have you with me. I’m taking you to my place. We’ll grab your things from your apartment tomorrow. I want you somewhere safe, while my brothers and I handle the fallout.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“Retaliation isn’t optional. If we don’t do anything, we’ll look weak. But there are a lot of unanswered questions.”
“Do you know who planted the bomb?”
“My aunt, but she’s long gone. We think the people behind her are the Santoros—this old mob family that’s suddenly resurfaced.” I paused, unsure if I should tell her more. I didn’t want to give her any more stress, but at the same time, she deserved the truth. “We’re almost certain they’ve been funding your dad, Mia. We don’t have proof yet, but there’s been too many signs that point that way.”
Mia was silent. She hesitated for a moment before slowly opening her palm to reveal a voice recorder. “I think I have something that can help you.”
I shot her a quick glance. “What’s on that?”
She held the recorder up. “Let me just play it for you.”
