Page 34 of The Bodyguard's Vow

“You couldn’t have talked me out of it, Leo,” I grunted. “And even if you’d convinced me back at the apartment, I’d still be in this bed.”

He watched me silently for a moment, then placed his hand on my shoulder for a beat before turning and walking out of the room.

“You’ve made your point, Domenico,” Rafa murmured, his tone devoid of inflection. “But I already knew Leo didn’t support your decision or even know for sure what you’d decided.”

“How?”

He didn’t answer right away, as if he couldn’t decide how to respond. Then he wrapped both hands on the rail at the foot of the bed and leaned forward as though he was too tired to hold his weight up on his own.

“Because the only man besides my father and brothers who had my complete and unconditional trust was you. And I still don’t doubt that if someone was disloyal to me, you wouldn’t stop to think, you’d act. They’d either be dead or locked in one of our holdings before they knew what was happening. So I knew Leo wouldn’t have encouraged you in an act of betrayal. You wouldn’t have let him.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond. He wasn’t wrong. I might not execute my brother for crossing Rafa, but letting him get away with it would never cross my mind.

“Before we get to anything else, you should know, we dismantled Oswald’s and Snyder’s operations.”

“Dismantled?”

Rafa cocked his head to the side. “Things tend to fall apart when most everyone in a syndicate is dead.”

“She’s safe,” I rasped, the relief taking away my aches for a moment.

“Yes. So now what? What are my choices when I am betrayed by the man I know—without a doubt—would never allow anyone else to do it?”

Rafa raised his head and met my gaze. The mask he usually wore had dissolved, and I was no longer looking at my boss, the ruthless Mafia leader. I was faced with my friend and surrogate brother.

With each breath I took, it felt like I had an ice pick in one of my lungs. But when I saw the deep hurt in Rafa’s eyes, the sadness there…it shocked me and intensified the pain I felt in my chest.

I’d always known he would be furious when he found out about my relationship with Gabriella. That he would feel betrayed. But I hadn’t expected it to cut so deep, as if I’d bruised his heart.

Rafa shook his head, and his mouth twitched. “In some ways, the perplexed expression on your face answers my question.”

“Pardon?”

“Sometimes, I forget that, unlike me, you don’t truly wear a mask. You have walls, but even those of us you’ve allowed past them don’t see a version of you that is completely different. You are not ruled by emotion, by your heart. You assign value to people based on their actions, and since there is no constant in that way of viewing things, people don’t know where they stand with you. It’s one of the things that makes you so fucking good at what you do. The only thing predictable about you is that you’re unpredictable.”

Again, I couldn’t disagree. “I know my mind and heart don’t work the way they should.”

Rafa shook his head and sighed. “Believing that about yourself is why it’s so hard for you to understand how your actions have cut me so deeply. It also helps me to understandwhy, instead of coming to me about your feelings for Gabbi, you fought them until they broke you.”

I wasn’t sure where he was going with all of this, and I was too fucking exhausted to try to puzzle it out myself.

“Can I see her?” I asked tiredly.

“I haven’t decided yet,” he replied with complete honesty.

“You know I won’t stay away from her,” I warned. “You’ll have to kill me if you want me to leave Gabriella.”

“Another reason you aren’t rotting in a trash dump.”

Again, said with complete honesty.

“Are you trying to make my head explode with all this cryptic bullshit?” I blurted, frustration coloring my tone.

Rafa silently studied me for so long that I’d nearly given up waiting for him to answer when he finally moved. He grabbed a chair and brought it over to the side of the bed. “Answer some questions for me, then I’ll make a decision and explain,affare?”

“Sì.”

“Do you love her?”

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