Chapter 1
SOFIA
“You posted this?”
Mila was already laughing before I even turned my phone toward her.
On the screen, I was standing on top of her coffee table from the night before, half drunk, singing into a wooden spoon like I was performing for a sold-out crowd. Then I tried to spin, my foot slipped off the edge, and the video shook violently as Mila completely lost it behind the camera while I disappeared out of frame.
“You can literally hear you laughing while I almost die.”
Mila bit her lip, trying and failing to stop herself as she kept her eyes on the road. “You should’ve seen your face when you fell.”
“I was there, Mila.”
That only made her laugh harder.
I shook my head and looked back down at the video while she reached over to skip another song, making a face at the screen before dropping her hand back onto the steering wheel.
“Oh, by the way,” she said casually. “We need to stop at my brother’s place first.”
I looked up from my phone. “Why?”
At the next red light, she leaned toward her bag, dug around for a few seconds and eventually pulled out a silver key.
“Dante gave me his spare while he was away last week because I couldn’t find mine. I found it again yesterday, and apparently getting his back has become the most important fucking event of his life.”
I glanced at the key before looking at her.
“I told him I’d drop it through the mailbox, but of course that wasn’t good enough.”
That caught my attention. “Why the hell not?”
“Because Dante is convinced someone will see me put it in there, wait until I leave, pull it back out and rob him.” She rolled her eyes as the light turned green and she pulled away. “Then I got a whole lecture about how I trust people too easily and apparently have no survival instincts.”
“Okay, that’s a little paranoid.”
“Suspicious,” she corrected, lowering her voice in what I assumed was supposed to be an impression of him. “‘There’s a difference, Mila.’”
I smiled. “He actually says that?”
“All the fucking time. Dante assumes everyone has an angle until they prove otherwise. He notices everything, questions everything and trusts almost nobody.” She let out a long sigh, shaking her head. “It’s exhausting.”
“You’re making him sound delightful.”
“Oh, he’s a fucking dream.”
I was still laughing when Mila pulled up outside a dark, modern-looking house.
The place was darker than I expected—modern brick, clean lines, big windows and nothing particularly welcoming about it. Mila was already out of the car before I had properly put my phone into my bag, so I followed her up the path.
She reached the front door and pressed the bell.
Nothing.
She waited maybe two seconds before doing it again, then a third time.
I leaned against the wall beside her. “You know pressing it more doesn’t make him walk faster.”
Mila ignored me and held the button down this time.
I stared at her finger. “Jesus, Mila. At this point you’re not ringing the doorbell. You’re threatening it.”
“I know he’s home.”
The door opened before she could press it again.
“Easy.” The deep voice came with a rough edge of sleep. “I fucking heard you.”
My smile disappeared.
Not because he looked angry.
Because Mila had somehow failed to mention that her brother looked like that.
He stood barefoot in the doorway wearing only black sweatpants sitting low on his hips. His dark hair was flattened slightly on one side and messy on top, like he’d dragged his fingers through it without bothering to check a mirror. Tattoos covered one arm, moved over his shoulder and chest and disappeared beneath the waistband of his sweats. Dark stubble shadowed his jaw.
Then my eyes dropped.
A gun was tucked into his waistband.
Not hidden somewhere behind the door or placed carefully on a nearby table.
Just there against his bare skin, like it belonged there as naturally as his phone.
I lifted my eyes again before he could catch me staring.
Too late.
His eyes were already on me.
Mila didn’t even glance at the gun. She planted one hand on her hip and studied her brother’s face instead.
“Why do you look like you’ve been sleeping? It’s noon.”
Dante dragged a hand over his face before letting it fall, his expression somewhere between exhausted and deeply unimpressed.
“That would probably be because I was sleeping, Mila. And I would’ve continued sleeping if somebody hadn’t tried to break my fucking doorbell.”
“You’re welcome.”
He gave her a long look before shaking his head, but the second his attention returned to me, something changed.
His posture straightened slightly, the sleepiness fading from his eyes as they settled fully on me.
His gaze moved over my face slowly, then lower, not rushed and definitely not shy. He wasn’t even pretending he wasn’t checking me out.
But there was more than attraction in the way he watched me. His eyes lingered like he was trying to place me, taking in every detail before returning to mine. Whatever sleepiness had been there a second ago was gone now, replaced by something sharper.
“You bringing people to my house now without telling me?” he asked Mila, although his attention stayed mostly on me.
So this was what she meant.
He didn’t just look at people.
He assessed them.
Mila gave him the kind of look that told me she had dealt with this side of him a hundred times before.
“Relax. She’s not here to rob you. This is Sofia, my best friend.”
His attention slid back to me.
I tilted my head slightly. “Dante.”
One corner of his mouth lifted, and suddenly he looked far less irritated about being awake.
“You know my name.”
It wasn’t really a question.
“Yeah.” I smiled. “Mila talks about you.”
His eyes moved briefly toward his sister. “Does she?”
“Mostly annoying things.”
Mila made a sound beside me. “Oh, fuck you.”
I laughed, and Dante’s smirk grew wider as he folded his arms across his bare chest and leaned one shoulder against the doorframe.
“That sounds like my sister. She’s been talking shit about me since she learned how to speak.”
Mila rolled her eyes, but Dante barely seemed to notice. His attention kept finding its way back to me, and judging by the slight change in his expression, he knew I had noticed.
Neither of us said anything about it.
Mila broke the moment by holding the key out toward him.
“Anyway, your precious fucking key is the reason I’m standing here instead of eating.”
Dante glanced down at it but didn’t take it immediately.
“You rang my bell like the house was on fire for a key I asked you to bring three days ago.”
A quiet laugh escaped me.
His eyes came straight back to mine, and for the first time, the suspicion in them softened into something almost amused.
He finally took the key from Mila, turning it once between his fingers.
“There. Nobody stole it,” she said. “Your kingdom is safe.”
His brows lifted slightly. “You post half your fucking life online. I wouldn’t trust you with anything that gives someone access to my house.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
His expression suggested he had definitely considered it.
Mila narrowed her eyes. “Asshole.”
Dante’s mouth twitched like that was exactly the reaction he had expected.
She was already turning away when I followed, but after a few steps I looked back over my shoulder.
“Nice meeting you.”
He was still standing in the doorway, the key hanging loosely between his fingers.
His gaze moved over me once more before settling on my face.
“Yeah,” he said, quieter now. “You too, Sofia.”
I turned around before Mila could catch the smile pulling at my mouth.
She caught it anyway.
We had barely reached the sidewalk when she bumped her shoulder into mine.
“No.”
I looked at her. “No what?”
“That face you’re making. You’re thinking about my brother.”
True.
“I knew you had a brother,” I said, glancing back toward the house once more, “but you somehow forgot to mention that he was fucking gorgeous.”
Mila stopped walking.
Actually stopped.
She turned toward me slowly. “Sofia.”
“What? Are you serious? That feels like important information.”
“It’s not relevant.”
I stared at her. “How is it not relevant?”
“Because he’s my brother.”
“To you.” I pointed at her and then at myself. “You see an annoying older brother. I just opened my eyes and got tattoos, abs and black sweatpants.”
Her face twisted immediately. “Please never describe my brother’s abs to me again.”
I burst out laughing when she shoved my shoulder.
“He answered the door half naked. That’s hardly my fault.”
“No, but the fact that you were basically undressing him with your eyes is.”
“I didn’t need to. He’d already done most of the work.”
Mila stared at me for half a second before a laugh escaped her despite herself.
We started walking again, her arm slipping naturally through mine.
For a few seconds neither of us said anything, but my mind went back to the house we had just left.
“What does your brother do for work?”
“He buys and sells luxury cars.”
I frowned, thinking about the gun tucked into his waistband.
“Okay… then why the fuck does he need a gun?”
Mila’s expression changed slightly. Her smile disappeared, and her grip around my arm tightened.
“Because the cars aren’t everything.”
I looked at her. “What does that mean?”
She exhaled and looked ahead.
“It means he’s involved in things you really don’t want to know about.”
My steps slowed.
Suddenly the way he had looked at me made a lot more sense.
Not just attraction.
Caution.
Mila glanced at me and must have seen something change in my face.
“And before your brain starts turning that into something mysterious and exciting, don’t.”
I looked at her. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.” Her eyes narrowed slightly as she studied me. “I know you. I saw the way you looked at him, and I saw the way he looked at you.”
Heat crawled up my neck.
“That doesn’t mean I’m about to jump him.”
“I know.” Her expression softened, but the humor didn’t return. “I’m telling you now because I’d rather say it before this becomes something. Dante is my brother. I love him, and he would burn the whole fucking world down for me if he had to. But his life is complicated, and sometimes it’s dangerous. You don’t need to get mixed up in any of that.”
I watched her face.
She wasn’t trying to make him sound evil.
That almost made the warning worse.
“So you think I should stay away from him.”
“I know you should.”
Her certainty made me smile a little. “You make it sound like I’m already planning our wedding.”
Mila gave me a flat look. “I’m not worried about a wedding. I’m worried about you being curious.”
That shut me up for a second.
Because she knew me too well.
My curiosity had gotten me into trouble before.
And Dante?
Dante looked like trouble had learned how to walk around in black sweatpants.
I hooked my arm tighter through hers. “Fine. I heard you.”
“That is not the same as promising.”
“I’m not making a promise about a man I’ve known for five minutes.”
Mila pressed her lips together as she looked at me.
“Exactly the answer I was afraid of.”
I laughed and rested my head briefly against her shoulder as we kept walking toward the car.
But she wasn’t wrong.
I was curious.
Far more curious than I should have been.
Mila had said dangerous like the word was supposed to close a door.
Instead, something in me wanted to look through it.
I kept seeing those dark eyes on me and the way his expression had shifted from suspicion to interest.
The tattoos.
The gun.
That fucking smirk.
Everything about Dante sounded like a reason to stay away.
So why the hell did every warning make me want to know more?
