Page 28 of Bound By Honor

I wait until the house settles into night’s silence before making my move. The sympathetic maid slips me Luciano’s hospital information with my dinner tray, her eyes full of pity.

Getting past the guards is easier than expected—years of sneaking out have taught me every weakness in the mansion’s security. The night air bites at my skin as I slip through the gates, my heart pounding with every step.

The hospital corridors are eerily quiet at this hour. I follow the signs to ICU, my pulse thundering in my ears.Room 312.The door feels heavy as I push it open.

The ICU wing feels wrong somehow—too quiet, too still. A shadow moves at the edge of my vision, but when I turn, there’s nothing there. The hair on the back of my neck rises as I approach Luciano’s room. Something about the half-open door sends a warning shiver down my spine, but I push forward anyway. I’ve come too far to turn back now.

He looks so small, so fragile, lying there with machines breathing for him. This isn’t the Luciano I know. This is a man I could lose.

“Oh God.” The words escape in a broken whisper as I move to his bedside. Tubes and wires connect him to softly beeping machines, his usual strength replaced by stark vulnerability.

I take his hand, careful of the IV line. His skin is warm—proof he’s alive, fighting. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper, pressing his knuckles to my lips. “This is all my fault.”

“Now, now,piccola. Self-blame doesn’t suit you.” Alessandro’s voice slithers through the darkness like a serpent’s hiss. My body recognizes the threat before my mind does—muscles tensing, pulse racing, every instinct screaming at me to run. But I won’t leave Luciano. Not like this. Not with him.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he says softly, moving closer. “It’s not safe.”

“Neither should you.” I grip Luciano’s hand tighter. “What do you want?”

“To help, of course.” He circles the bed like a predator. “My brother needs protection while he’s... indisposed.”

“He has protection.”

Alessandro’s laugh is silk over steel. “From Dom? The man who put him here?” He stops beside me, too close. “No, what he needs is family. Real family.”

“You’re not his family.” I stand my ground despite my racing heart. “You lost that right when you disappeared.”

“Did I?” His hand shoots out, gripping my chin. “Or did I just see the truth about our dear Luciano before anyone else?”

“Let go of me.”

“Make me.” His thumb traces my lower lip. “You know, you look so much like her sometimes. Like Maria.”

Ice slides down my spine. “Don’t.”

“Why not? Afraid to hear the truth?” His grip tightens. “About how my brother’s obsession with protecting you mirrors exactly how he failed to protect her?”

“You’re lying.”

“Am I?” He pulls me closer, his cologne suffocating. “Ask him about the night she died. Ask him why he wasn’t there to save her.”

“Stop it.”

“Ask him about the choices he made.” His lips brush my ear. “About how history has a way of repeating itself.”

I try to pull away, but his grip is iron. “Let me go, or I’ll scream.”

“No.” His smile turns cruel. “You won’t.”

The needle prick in my neck is so slight I almost miss it. The world starts to spin, colors bleeding together.

“Shh,” Alessandro whispers as my knees buckle. “Let’s see how far you’ll go for your precious Luciano.”

The last thing I see is the hospital fading in the rearview mirror as darkness claims me. The last thing I hear is Alessandro saying, “Some stories are worth repeating, wouldn’t you agree?”

12

DOM POV

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