Page 86 of My Best Friend Is Broken
“Yeah, I’m here. I’ll be at the meeting.”
“Good. And Nicolo? Make sure your own house is in order. If they’re going after soft targets, you need to think about who in your life fits that description.”
The call ends, and I stand in the dark hallway for a long moment, my mind racing through scenarios and contingencies. Security measures I should have implemented months ago. Precautions I’ve been too complacent about taking. All the ways I’ve left Liam vulnerable because I wanted to give him a normal life, wanted to keep him separate from the darkness that defines my world.
But you can’t keep the darkness separate when you live in it. It bleeds through eventually, contaminating everything it touches.
I look back toward the bedroom, where I can just make out Liam’s form in the bed, peaceful and trusting and completely unaware of the danger circling closer. The thought of someone hurting him, of using him to get to me, making him pay for my choices and my life… fills me with a murderous, possessive rage I didn’t know I was capable of.
I’ve killed people. It’s part of my job, part of who I am in this world. But the cold, calculated violence I’ve employed in the past is nothing compared to what I would do to anyone who touched Liam. That would be personal. That would be the kind of rage that doesn’t stop until everything is burned to the ground.
The realization is both terrifying and clarifying. I’ve been so focused on helping Liam heal from his past trauma, on protecting him from his own mind, that I’ve been blind to the very real external threats my life poses to him.
I can’t let anything happen to him. I won’t.
The meeting the next morning is tense, the air thick with barely contained violence. Dario sits at the head of the table in his private office, looking every inch the powerful man he is. Sharp suit, sharper eyes, and an aura of controlled danger that makes even the most hardened soldiers sit up straighter.
But I can see the worry underneath. The way his fingers tap against the table, the tightness around his eyes when Molly’s name comes up. He’s terrified, and trying desperately not to show it.
“The Russians are testing us,” he says, his voice carrying easily through the room. “They think we’ve gone soft, that our move toward more legitimate business means we can’t fight back the way we used to.”
“Then we show them they’re wrong,” Carlo says from across the table, his usual easy demeanor replaced by something harder, colder. “We hit them back twice as hard.”
“We will,” Dario agrees. “But first we protect what matters. Our families, our people, anyone who might be vulnerable. The Russians play dirty, they’ll go after soft targets if they think it will hurt us.”
His eyes find mine across the table, and I see the question there. Are you prepared for this? Do you understand what’s at stake?
I nod slightly. I understand perfectly.
“Molly will be moved to a secure location,” Dario continues. “Somewhere the Russians don’t know about, with protection.”
“My place,” I hear myself say before I’ve fully thought it through.
The room goes quiet, everyone turning to look at me. Dario’s eyebrows rise.
“Your apartment?” he asks carefully.
“It’s not on any of our official properties. Not in my name, purchased through a shell company years ago. And I’m pretty much a low-ranking nobody. The Russians wouldn’t know or think to look there.” I lean forward, committed to this now that I’ve said it. “And I’ll be there. He’ll be safe.”
What I don’t say, what everyone in this room understands, is that offering to protect Molly is offering to take on the single most important responsibility in Dario’s world. Molly isn’t just his boyfriend, he’s the reason Dario does any of this. The center of his universe, the thing he’d burn the world to protect.
Trusting me with Molly’s safety is trusting me with everything.
Dario studies me for a long moment, weighing, calculating, reading me the way he’s learned to read everyone who works for him. “You’re sure about this?”
“Completely.”
“What about Liam? He’ll be there too.”
“He will. And I’ll keep them both safe.”
The words come out with more confidence than I feel. Because the truth is, I’m terrified. Not of the Russians or the violence that might come, I can handle that. But of failing, of letting my guard down for one crucial moment and losing everything that matters.
Of becoming the thing that destroys Liam instead of protects him.
Dario stares at me some more, his dark gaze boring into my soul. I don’t try to hide the calculated part of my move, because it isn’t anything to be ashamed of.
Placing the center of Dario’s world next to the center of mine, means that all of my boss’s formidable skills, contacts and resources are going to be wrapped around Liam too.
