Page 88 of Savage Don's Captive

“I want to trust you,” I whisper as we part, my lips still tingling from his kiss. “So no more secrets, no more lies. I don’t want you to keep me in the dark.”

“Alright, cara mia,” he nods, his expression growing serious. “I guess there’s no point hiding what the second thing the Commission wanted then?”

My stomach drops, ice spreading through my veins. “What?” I straighten instinctively, creating distance between us.

“They wanted an update on our progress,” he answers, watching my reaction carefully. “And they’re coming down to see me tomorrow for brunch.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I pull away completely, the silk robe slipping further down my shoulder.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” His voice hardens with sarcasm. “I want you to be there tomorrow with me and show them that you’re not just another one of their collaterals.”

Fear and adrenaline spike through me, my heart hammering against my ribs like it’s trying to escape. “I don’t have balls like that!”

“But you do,” he insists, eyes gleaming with dangerous confidence. He reaches for me, fingers curling around my wrist with gentle yet firm pressure. “And the moment they so much as lift a finger against you, I’ll make sure they regret ever being born.”

His next words land like stones in still water, rippling through me with their implications.

“Fuck the button and fuck the Commission. They can all bleed out before they touch what’s mine.”

The weight of his declaration hangs between us—this man who’s sacrificed everything for power just offered to throw it all away for me.

My heart pounds wildly, caught between terror and exhilaration. I’ve just chosen to step back into the world I’ve been running from my whole life and now I might be the reason Dominic loses everything he’s worked for.

Whatever happens tomorrow, there’s no going back for either of us. The thought settles in my bones with terrifying certainty.

Chapter twenty-six

Dominic

Thepackagehasbeensecured.

TJ’s text sits on my screen like a contract signed in blood. I slide my thumb across it, phone tucked beneath the table where the Commission can’t see. Marco Russo—contained, exactly where I want him. One problem handled. In this business, that just means the next threat gets its turn.

Men think going to war is hard. Try sitting at a table with people who’d slit your throat for showing weakness. These Commission fucks watching me like I’m meat—Fabio, Paolo, Vincenzo—they think I’m still the dog they can order around. They haven’t realized the leash broke a long time ago.

I adjust the cufflinks my mother gave me before she died—small silver pistols with pearl handles—a ritual that grounds me before every significant meeting. The weight of my shoulder holster presses against my ribs, the Beretta nestled inside a constant reminder of what I am and what I’ve done to get here.

I glance at the empty chair to my right, my pulse quickening at the thought of Alessa joining us. Bringing her today breaks every rule I’ve lived by. Never show attachment. Never reveal a weakness. Never let them see what matters to you. The moment you do, you’re giving them a blade and painting a target on your own throat.

My father taught me that lesson with his dying breath, blood bubbling between his lips as he gripped my shoulder,“They’ll use what you love to destroy you, figlio mio.”Yet here I am, about to parade the one thing that could destroy me in front of the most dangerous men in the country.

Twenty years of brutality of building walls so high nobody could climb them, all of it compromised because I can’t keep her at arm’s length like I fucking should.

Somewhere in Maine, Marco Russo is strapped to a chair in a basement with a bag over his head. TJ confirmed they took him at 4:13 this morning. Clean extraction, no witnesses, no trail. All because Alessa gave me the location—information she never should have shared. Information that makes me wonder if she’s starting to see this world the way I do. The thought shouldn’t satisfy me, but it does.

I check the time. Eight minutes until Alessa joins us. Eight minutes until I break the cardinal rule my father taught me as he bled out in my arms in the backseat, outside that warehouse in Boston— ‘never let them see what matters to you.’The old man died with his eyes open, hand gripping my collar, blood bubbling between his lips as he forced out his final lesson. I was fifteen. By midnight, I’d ordered my first hit.

“Are your brothers coming, Gianelli?” Fabio Giovani’s voice cuts through my thoughts. The old bastard sits to my left in his yacht club getup—turtleneck, chinos, aviators hiding eyes that have ordered the deaths of entire bloodlines. His fingers drum against his drink like he’s keeping time with a funeral march.

I’ve seen what Fabio does to people who disappoint him. This man ordered his own nephew’s tongue cut out for speaking disrespectfully at Sunday dinner. He’s the kind of old-school monster who believes in examples over mercy. The type who’d sooner exterminate a bloodline than forgive a slight. Yet he sits here, drinking my limoncello like we’re friends.

“No. They’re... occupied.” I maintain eye contact—in our world, looking away is offering your throat. Luca and Matteo are handling their assignments. Enzo is campaigning—getting further from family business with each passing day. My most political brother, with his secrets and his membership in that “club” downtown where politicians go to satisfy the kind of appetites that would destroy their campaigns if exposed. We all have our vices. His just comes with higher stakes.

“Is my daughter?” The question drips venom.

My muscles tense under my suit. Gabriella. Under my protection since the night Fabio tried to sell her to the Grimaldis like she was property. Blood of my blood as far as I’m concerned, even without shared DNA. If Fabio thinks he’s getting to her through me, he’s gravely miscalculated what I’m willing to do to keep my family safe.

I still remember her showing up at my door, soaked from the rain, eyes wild but voice steady:“I’ll put a bullet in my head before I let him use me as a bargaining chip.”I promised her sanctuary. Fabio’s been looking for a way in ever since.

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