3.
Mia didn’t sleep that night.
Not after the attack.
Not after watching Kane destroy men with his bare hands just to keep her breathing.
Not after seeing the familiar darkness in his eyes—the same one she’d thought died with him three years ago.
Kane sat across from her in her tiny apartment, bleeding into a towel, silent as a storm waiting to break.
She hated this silence.
This tight, suffocating tension between them.
It meant something awful was coming.
And Kane—
Kane looked like a man who’d been running from the truth for too long.
Finally, she whispered, “Tell me why.”
His head lifted.
“Why what?”
“Why you left me in a grave,” she said, voice cracking, “when you were still alive.”
Kane flinched. The slightest movement—but enough.
He dragged a hand through his blood-matted hair, exhaling like the truth tasted worse than the pain.
“Mia… you don’t want to know.”
She stepped closer.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
His jaw tightened, then slowly—like it cost him everything—he nodded.
“Fine,” he said hoarsely. “You want the truth? Here it is.”
He met her eyes, and she felt the world still around them.
“Three years ago, Romano territory was collapsing. Our allies were turning. Rival families circling the city like vultures. And every single one of them knew exactly where to strike me.”
He didn’t blink.
“You.”
Her breath caught.
But he wasn’t finished.
“They threatened to take you,” he said, voice hollow, “to force me into an alliance. To use you as leverage. And my family—” Kane laughed bitterly. “My family told me to let them.”
Mia pressed a hand to her mouth.
“No…”
“Yes.” His eyes burned—raw, stripped of armor. “They told me sacrifice was part of leadership. That if you died, it would send a message.”
Her body went cold.
Kane leaned forward, elbows on his knees, like the memory still carved through him.
“I refused,” he whispered. “I fought them. Fought the families coming for you. But every path ended the same—you dead.”
Mia’s heart twisted painfully.
“So I made the only choice left,” Kane said. “I killed Kane Romano.”
She gasped softly.
He wasn’t looking at her now—he was staring at the floor, as if remembering the night he’d destroyed everything he was.
“I staged my death. Burned everything. Walked away from the only identity I ever had.” His voice turned gravel-deep, trembling. “Because as long as I was alive, they’d never stop coming for you.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Mia felt something inside her unraveling—slow, sharp, inevitable.
“And now?” she whispered. “Why come back now?”
Kane’s head lifted sharply.
Because this was the part that mattered.
The part that terrified him.
The part he couldn’t hide.
“There’s an insider in the family,” he said. “Someone leaking that I’m alive. Someone who wants you to die first.”
Her knees weakened.
“My fake death isn’t protection anymore,” he continued. “Your name is on every threat I intercept. They’re not after me this time, Mia.”
His voice cracked.
“They’re after you.”
Mia’s breath trembled out of her. “Kane…”
He rose from the couch, crossing the room in two strides, stopping just inches away.
Close enough she could feel his heart hammering through his ribs.
“I left you,” he whispered, “to keep you alive.”
He reached out—then stopped, fingers shaking, like he was afraid she’d disappear if he touched her.
“I came back,” he breathed, “because losing you once destroyed me.”
A beat.
“And I won’t survive losing you again.”
Her chest caved in, emotion choking her.
She hated him.
She loved him.
She wanted to scream at him.
She wanted to fall into him.
He was the wound and the cure.
The boy she’d mourned.
The man who’d broken her to save her.
“Kane…” Her voice trembled. “I don’t know what to feel.”
His eyes softened—dark, devastated, reverent.
“Feel whatever you want,” he whispered. “Hate me. Curse me.”
He stepped closer.
“Just stay alive.”
Her heart hurt.
Everything hurt.
Because this wasn’t a love story.
This was a war.
And Kane had already chosen his side:
Her.
Every time.
Even if it killed him.
Mia wasn’t supposed to hear the plan.
She wasn’t supposed to know the enemy intended to use her—
her—as bait to drag Kane out from whatever shadows he fought in.
But once she knew, something inside her snapped into clarity.
For the first time in her carefully controlled life, she chose danger.
Chosen him.
When she walked into the safe house, Kane stopped mid-stride as if someone had gripped his spine and yanked. His eyes widened, the kind of raw, terrified anger only he could wear.
“Mia,” he breathed, voice low and sharp. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I should,” she said, stepping closer. “And I’m staying.”
His jaw locked, every muscle in his body wound too tight. “They’re using you. They want me out in the open. You don’t understand how this world works.”
“I understand enough.” She lifted her chin, refusing to let her voice shake. “You’re not meant to fight in the dark alone. I can be your light.”
Kane blinked—once, twice—like he didn’t know how to process hearing something that gentle directed at a man like him.
“Mia…” His voice cracked. “Don’t ask me to put you in danger.”
“I’m not asking.”
She reached out, letting her fingers graze his wrist.
“I’m asking you to trust me. To stop treating me like something fragile. I choose this. I choose you.”
For a moment, he closed his eyes as if the words physically hurt him.
But he let her stay.
The warzone was a derelict warehouse on the South Side—cold metal, oil fumes, and the metallic promise of violence filling the air.
The ambush hit fast.
Gunfire cracked like lightning.
Shouts ricocheted off concrete.
Kane pulled her behind a crate, shielding her with his entire body even while firing back with his free hand. He moved like a man who’d lived half his life in blood and ash.
And then—a flash of movement.
A muzzle pointed at Mia.
Kane saw it first.
“NO!”
He threw himself between her and the bullet, shoving her down, taking the shot meant for her.
The sound of impact tore something animal out of her throat.
“KANE!”
He staggered, hand clutching his side, blood seeping through his fingers—but he still turned, still positioned himself in front of her like she was the only life he had left to protect.
The man who once disappeared to save her…
Was now bleeding because he refused to leave her again.
Mia scrambled toward him, grabbing his face between her palms.
“You idiot,” she whispered, tears blurring her vision. “Why would you do that?”
His breath hitched.
“Because losing you—” He coughed, pain slicing through his voice. “I couldn’t take it. Not again.”
She threw her arms around him, holding his shaking body against her.
“Listen to me,” she said, her voice breaking. “If you ever leave me again, Kane… I’m the one who’ll die.”
He froze in her embrace.
Then slowly—slowly—he let his forehead fall to her shoulder, his body collapsing into the first real surrender he’d ever shown.
For once, the bad boy didn’t save the good girl.
The good girl saved him right back.