They pinned my face to a map and called it leverage.
Nico De Luca—scar on his jaw, a pale crescent at his wrist, hands that steer the city's dark and make strangers obey. He smells like espresso and lemon oil. He is dangerous and precise and tells me, once, that I shouldn't be seen with him.
I met him in a vault. He draped his jacket over my shoulders and handed me a folio like an offering. He sketched me and watched me like I was worth stealing. He brought coffee to my desk and then brought me into his life. He guarded books and then my body. He taught me the language of his family and then broke its rules for me.
Then someone decided to name me. A gossip feed. A photo. Marco's thin smile. An anonymous account with a pin on a street I know. The threats started surgical and small. They said: make her disappear or make us disappear.
He offered a choice I can't accept. Hide and be safe. Stay and be a target. He put a ring on my finger and said, fiercely, he'll take the blunt end.
So we choose each other. Out loud. Will his family let us keep each other alive? Or will loving him cost everything I am?
Nico De Luca—scar on his jaw, a pale crescent at his wrist, hands that steer the city's dark and make strangers obey. He smells like espresso and lemon oil. He is dangerous and precise and tells me, once, that I shouldn't be seen with him.
I met him in a vault. He draped his jacket over my shoulders and handed me a folio like an offering. He sketched me and watched me like I was worth stealing. He brought coffee to my desk and then brought me into his life. He guarded books and then my body. He taught me the language of his family and then broke its rules for me.
Then someone decided to name me. A gossip feed. A photo. Marco's thin smile. An anonymous account with a pin on a street I know. The threats started surgical and small. They said: make her disappear or make us disappear.
He offered a choice I can't accept. Hide and be safe. Stay and be a target. He put a ring on my finger and said, fiercely, he'll take the blunt end.
So we choose each other. Out loud. Will his family let us keep each other alive? Or will loving him cost everything I am?