I am trying to make a point.”
For one dangerous second, silence held.
Then Carlo looked down to hide what might have been a smile.
Vincenzo sneered. “You think standing beside him makes you powerful?”
Niko moved before the final word had settled.
He seized Vincenzo by the throat and drove him back against the wall. The silverware rattled on the table. The guards tensed, but no one interfered.
“Speak to her again,” Niko whispered, “and the basement will feel merciful.”
Vincenzo’s face reddened. For the first time, real fear entered his eyes.
Niko released him.
“Take him.”
The guards dragged Vincenzo toward the doors.
He shouted then. He cursed. He called Niko weak, blind, ruined. He called Alessia worse.
Niko did not react.
That frightened everyone more.
When the doors closed, the dining room seemed to breathe again.
Alessia swayed.
Niko crossed the room and caught her before she could fall.
“You are impossible,” he said.
“So I have been told.”
He looked at her father. The older man stood trembling near the table, tears in his eyes.
“Your debt is gone,” Niko told him. “Every paper. Every signature. Every lie Vincenzo used. Gone.”
The man covered his mouth.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Niko’s gaze flicked to Alessia.
“Do not thank me yet.”
Later, when her father had been taken to a safe room and the house had settled into uneasy silence, Niko brought Alessia back to his suite.
She sat near the window while the city glowed beneath them in the morning light.
He stood across from her, hands in his pockets, looking more tired than she had ever seen him.
“You are free,” he said.
She blinked.
“What?”
“Your father owes nothing. You owe nothing. When you heal, Carlo will arrange whatever you need. Money. Documents. A safe apartment. A new city.”
Her face changed in a way he could not read.
“You are sending me away.”
“I am giving you a choice.”
“You think those are the same thing?”
His jaw tightened.
“I think you came here because of a debt that should never have belonged to you. I think men have been deciding where you stand and what you are worth for too long.”
Alessia looked down at her hands.
“And what do you think I am worth?”
Niko looked at her then, and the answer cost him more than any territory he had ever surrendered.
“More than this house. More than my name. More than every empire built by men who bleed other people and call it power.”
Her eyes lifted.
He forced himself to continue.
“That is why I will not ask you to stay.”
The room went quiet.
Outside, the city continued without them.
Alessia stood slowly, pain tightening her mouth, but she refused his help when he stepped forward.
“You are very noble when you are terrified,” she said.
Niko frowned.
“I am not terrified.”
She gave him a look.
He almost smiled despite himself.
Then her expression softened.
“I was terrified in that alley,” she said. “I thought I would die there. I thought the last thing I would hear would be rain hitting garbage cans and those men laughing.”
His face darkened.
“But then I heard your voice.”
Niko looked away.
She stepped closer.
“I did not feel owned
