“He’s gone,” I say.

“Gone?” She furrows her brow. “What did you do?”

“Scared him off. You won’t have to see him ever again.”

She lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

And then she wraps her arms around me. I don’t know if it’s because she’s really grateful Filippo is gone or because she’s just too shaken up to care, but I wind my arms around her too. And it’s so fucking nice. For once, I feel like I did the right thing. Now I’ll know Chiara will be safe from Filippo forever.

“But what about any others who she’ll meet?” a tiny voice at the back of my mind asks.

I ignore it because Chiara is still in my arms, and it feels like she fits there perfectly.

The door handle rattles.

“Okay, now seriously!” someone yells outside and bangs on the door. “How much longer are you gonna be in there?”

“We should get out of here. Are you feeling okay enough?” I ask, because if Chiara isn’t ready, I’m going to tell the woman outside that the toilets are fucking broken.

“I am.”

I offer her my hand and she takes it. The older woman outside goes quiet when she sees us. She shoots us a dirty glare and storms inside, slamming the door behind her.

Even better. Now she’ll think Chiara and I were fucking in the restroom. No one will ever assume I did anything unsavory.

I stop and place my hand on her cheek so she’ll look at me.

“Everything will be okay,” I say, because I feel like I have to.

She gives me a small smile.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a movement. For a split second, I see Matteo at the end of the hallway. I keep staring, but I don’t see anything anymore. Maybe it wasn’t him. It could’ve been anyone, but he moved so damn fast.

Fuck! Matteo is the last person who should be here.

“We should say goodbye to everyone and go home. We can say you had an allergic reaction to your makeup.” Because I’m sure someone will ask.

People are nosy as fuck.

“Okay.” Chiara is still in shock, or she would’ve scowled at me the whole time and told me my apartment was not her home.

Filippo now only might be a ghost inside her mind, but I’ll make sure to chase him out of there too before I have to let her go.

There’s somuch traffic that I lose sight of my guards. I can see a suspicious car in the rearview mirror, but no one is moving. Someone keeps honking like crazy. Chiara is just staring through the window next to me.

Maybe I should’ve had one of my men drive instead, but I didn’t expect there’d be a traffic jam at this time. Something must have happened, probably an accident. Since Rocco is dealing with Filippo’s body, I don’t want to bother him and ask him to find out. It doesn’t matter. I know a shortcut.

“Did Filippo tell you anything?” Chiara suddenly asks.

I meet her gaze. “Tell me what?”

“I don’t know. How did you get him to leave?” Her eyes search mine.

Does she suspect something? Is she hoping he’s dead? There’s no point in keeping it from her if she’s ready to hear it. She already knows I’m capable of a lot of things, and this is just one more of those.

I shouldn’t even be contemplating what she might think of me. I don’t give a fuck what people think about me, as long as their opinion doesn’t interfere with my business. Her opiniondoesn’t matter either, except... it feels like it does, or I would’ve already told her everything.

I don’t want to mull over it. For now, I’ll tell myself it’s just because none of this is her fault, and I can’t have her fall apart and not stick to the story later.