Page 107 of I See You

Ariel’s heart dropped. Her one hope of witnesses—gone. Now it was just her, this man, and the sharp edge of danger in his eyes.

"I don’t give a fuck about that lil’ bean in your fucking stomach," he said, stepping in close, so close she could see the gold in his tooth glint under the sun. "But I don’t play about that one," he said, jerking his thumb back toward the Lamborghini, where Dorian sat stewing in the passenger seat. "So if you wanna wake up tomorrow, I suggest you act like this whole thing never happened."

“You don’t scare me,” Ariel spat, blood hitting the side of Roman’s face as she tried to summon some shred of courage. “Do you even know who my father is?!”

Roman grinned.

Hewipedthebloodfromhischeekwithhisthumb,slowand deliberate, then stepped in—close enough for her to feel the heat rolling off him. In one swift motion, his hand wrapped around her throat, tight.

Her breath caught. Eyes bulged. He leaned in, voice low, lethal.

“Do you know who I am?” he whispered coldly, the pressure tightening. “'Cause if you did… you’d know better than to talk slick with my hand around your fuckin’ neck.”

Ariel clawed at his wrist, gasping for air, her vision blurring. The sirens were closer now, but they might as well have been a mile away. She looked around—no one. Nowhere to run. No help.

He stared into her eyes, seeing every ounce of panic, every drop of fear. He wanted her to feel that. To never forget it.

Finally, he let go.

Ariel dropped forward, coughing and choking, gripping her knees as she tried to suck in oxygen.

“Gothefuckhome,”Romansaid,voicelikestone.“BeforeI change my mind.”

She glanced up at him, face twisted in horror. Roman just smiled— slow, cold, and terrifying.

“Be smart, sweetheart.”

Withthat,heturnedaroundandstrolledbacktohiscarlike nothing happened. Doors slammed. Engine roared.

And just like that, Roman was gone. But Ariel?

She'd never forget the day she looked a monster in the eye and realized—she was lucky to walk away breathing.

As they sped down the highway, Dorian glanced over at Roman, taking in the sharp set of his jaw, the steady grip he kept on the wheel, and the eerie calm he wore like armor. He had just saved her from catching an assault charge and damn near choked a woman out in broad daylight—without even asking for the full story. Any normal woman would be terrified of a man like him. But Dorian wasn’t normal, and Roman? He wasn’t just some hood nigga with a temper. He was lethal, controlled, and unpredictable in a way that made her pulse skip.

She and Sevyn might’ve grown up in the suburbs, but their parents didn’t shelter them from the real world. Public school taught her more than textbooks ever could. Dorian had always been drawn to rough dudes—but none of them came close to the raw, dangerous energy Roman carried in his silence. And the way he protected her? Without question? That shit did something to her.

"You keep staring at me like that, you gon’ make me crash," Roman said finally, eyes flicking over to hers. They weren’t cold like before—like when he was threatening Ariel. They were soft now. Too soft for a man like him. And that’s what had her heat rising.

Dorian looked out the windshield for a second, trying to calm the fire sitting in her chest. “You really choked that girl out in front of security cameras.”

“She still breathing, ain’t she?” Roman replied with a shrug, not even a drop of guilt in his tone. “I could’ve done worse.”

Dorian couldn’t help it—she laughed. “Yeah, and ended up with a damn murder charge.”

He just smirked. “Nah.”

The way he said it, so sure of himself, like the law never applied to him. Like consequences were beneath him. It should’ve made her nervous. Instead, it made her clench her thighs.

“You crazy as hell,” she muttered, her voice full of disbelief, but the twitch of her lips gave her away.

Roman leaned back a little, one arm resting lazily on the steering wheel, the other now resting on her thigh like it belonged there. “You already knew that.”

Their eyes locked. Dorian should’ve been angry. She should’ve been worried about her business, about jail time, about how they’d just left a bleeding woman in a bank parking lot. But none of that was on her mind.

All she could think about was the man next to her—the one who just proved he’d raise hell behind her without hesitation.

And her heart? It wasn’t thumping from fear. It was thumping from him.

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