I THOUGHT I WAS GOING to go mad with worry, but then a sound behind me made me turn around and I saw Theo coming through the door. The wave of relief that hit me was almost staggering, but it was followed by an equally strong wave of anger. I gritted my teeth, clenched my fists, and started toward him.

He stopped in the middle of the room, his gaze focused on me, and his shoulders tensed when I approached. I was about to yell at him for leaving me locked in here without a way out, but the look in his eyes and his stiff shoulders made most of my anger dissipate as if it had never been there. He was expecting me to hit him. It was written all over his face. Oh God.

I let my gaze travel up and down his body, and when I was sure there weren’t any new injuries, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him to me. He flinched, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he was surprised or because he was still in pain from his wound, so I stepped back.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said. “But I’m really pissed that you left me trapped in here. What if anything had happened to you?”

“A friend would’ve come for you and let you out,” he said, pulling out his phone and tapping the screen. “See?” He turned the screen toward me.

A friend was actually someone he hired to destroy this place in case anything happened to him, and the contract had been amended recently to include me too. At least he hadn’t forgotten to state I should be let out alive and unharmed. Geez.

“That’s super comforting.” I shot him an annoyed look. “Where’s my phone? I know you took it, so don’t pretend you don’t have it. My family and my friends will be worried about me if I don’t contact them. Maybe they’re already losing their minds.” I didn’t care about the gun right now.

“They’re not,” he said. “I sent them a text from your phone. They still think you’re at your apartment.”

“Of course.” I groaned. “My phone. Now.” I extended my hand toward him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out my phone, placing it in my palm. “What about your job? Is it done?”

He nodded. “Part of it, yes. That man will no longer cause any trouble for anyone.”

“Was he a Rosa Nera?” I asked as he started toward the computer.

“Yes.”

“What did he want? I saw he was in the area where my family lives. Are they okay? Was that man looking for them?” I went after him, and he stopped and turned toward me.

“Your family’s fine,” he said.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“And yes, he wanted you.” He took a step forward, his face only inches away from mine, his eyes flashing dangerously. “But if anyone’s going to kill you, it’s not going to be some random guy. I won’t let anyone get in my way.”

My breath got stuck in my chest because of his proximity, but I managed to focus on his words and I fought the urge to roll my eyes, because I believed that he would’ve killed me a long time ago if he’d wanted to. But instead, he was protecting me. He just didn’t want to admit it. “You said only a part of the job was done. What does that mean?” I said breathily. “The guy’s gone for good, right?”

He took a step back. “He wasn’t the only one.”

“Oh.” I ran my hand over my face as Theo went to the computer and brought up a set of images. “And that other guy who also wants to kill me... I assume he’s a Rosa Nera too?”

“Yeah.”

I wanted to tell him that it was really silly that he tried to pretend he still wanted me dead when he was willing to kill off the members of a gang he belonged to if they dared to threaten my life, but maybe I didn’t know the whole story just yet. “Why now? Why is everyone after me now and not months ago? That doesn’t make any sense.”

He didn’t say anything. I settled in the chair next to him so I could see what he was doing. A map was on the screen. A red dot was blinking in the middle of it and it was moving. He’d put a tracker on someone.

“Is that our guy?” I pointed at the dot.

His eyes briefly met mine. “Someone close to him.”

“Okay. So this Rosa Nera guy wants to kill me and he has friends. What do you know about him? What’s his name? And don’t say you’re going to handle it and that I don’t need to know anything, because you know that’s not true.”

He was quiet for a moment, but then he sighed. “His name’s Walter. He’s been a member of the Rosa Nera for about ten years. He messed up his chance to become Ingrid’s second because he couldn’t control his temper and she relegated him to a lower rank because he was still useful.”

“So the Rosa Nera truly is still active? Or trying to...?”

“Do you really think we’d go down so easily?” He gave me a long look. We. Great. So he still saw himself as a Rosa Nera, although it didn’t seem like he’d been doing anything for them lately.

“Who’s the leader?” I asked quietly. The Cobras hadn’t been able to find out if there was one because the Rosa Nera members had spread everywhere and it was almost impossible to tell who’d stayed and who’d moved on. Theo, though... I wasn’t sure what his role in this was. He’d been taking jobs unrelated to the Rosa Nera, and he was here, but if he still planned to go back or was actually following orders from a new leader...

He remained quiet.

“Is it you?” I searched his eyes when he looked at me. “Come on. You were Ingrid’s second, and I’m sure you were keeping her in check. You’d be the best candidate. I have the right to know if I’m in the same room as the Rosa Nera’s leader.”

“If I tell you that I am, will you call your friends to come rescue you?” His face was serious.

“And why do you think you being the leader would change anything?”

He focused back on the screen. “I’m not in charge of the Rosa Nera.”

“Then who is?” Maybe Theo preferred to be close to the leader, but not the one actually in charge because that kind of position brought a whole lot of trouble and he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere alone. His men would have to go with him to protect him, and I didn’t think he’d like any of that.

“At the moment, no one.”

“No one?” My eyebrows shot up. That was unexpected. “You can’t agree on who it should be or what?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Fine. But what about Walter? Is he after me because he’s trying to prove himself to the new leader or is he simply following orders? Because if the new leader wants me dead for some reason, then he’ll keep sending people after me. Unless Walter was secretly in love with Ingrid and wants to avenge her death. Then I only have to worry about him.”

“Why is everything always about love with you?” His brow furrowed.

“Because love is a very powerful motivator.”

His eyes met mine.

“It can make people do crazy things and take risks.” I gave him a small smile.

“You’re distracting me,” he finally said. “I have to track down Walter.”

“And until that happens, what are you going to do? Are you just going to tell me to stay here with you?” I looked around the room. Aside from the bed in the small bedroom, there wasn’t anything to sleep on, not even a sofa, and I didn’t think it was wise to go sleep outside with all that dust and whatever the hell had to be crawling all over the furniture.

He bit down on his lip as he glanced at me. I supposed he wanted to keep me safe here, but he wasn’t so sure about sharing such a small space with me. He hadn’t really thought that through, had he? At least my apartment had a sofa in the living room where I’d slept, but here... No privacy. And I didn’t have any of my things here anyway.

“If you want me to stay, you’ll have to lend me your shirt or something,” I teased, and his eyes widened slightly, his shoulders tensing, as if he’d just gotten all kinds of wrong ideas. I shifted in my seat, because yeah, the idea of wearing one of his shirts and sleeping in his bed gave me a lot of X-rated thoughts. Maybe he’d even forget I was here and come out of the bathroom naked. Okay, yeah, I didn’t like where this was going, so I cleared my throat.

“Maybe I should go home. I need to tell the Cobras and my friends about this. They have ways of tracking down people like Walter. It’ll be easier to find him if we all work together, don’t you think?”

He scoffed. “Do you really think those idiots will keep you safe? They haven’t even noticed you’re gone. You could’ve been kidnapped and killed and they wouldn’t even know.” A tic pulsed in his jaw. “Walter probably knows where you live. He’ll find you, and I can’t watch over you and search for him at the same time.” He was really cute when he was worried about me.

“I can go to Vix’s fight club. She has fingerprint scanners and alarms there, and as soon as she finds out my life’s in danger, she’ll help me set up everything so that no one can get to me. We have a small room there and I’ll be fine. I’m sure it shouldn’t take the Cobras too long to track down Walter.”

“No.” His eyes were hard on mine.

“Why not? Do you think they won’t let you anywhere near me either?”

“You’re perfectly safe here, and your phone’s signal will point to a different location as long as you’re in here.” He tapped the device next to the computer. Oh, so that was what it was for. “A lot of people know where you work. If your apartment is the first place they’ll check, your workplace is the second. Walter can team up with someone or the Cobras might have a traitor among them. Can you really be a hundred percent sure they won’t betray you or that they’re capable of protecting you?”

“And can I be sure you won’t betray me? I believe you still intend to kill me, or have you given up on that in the meantime and forgotten to tell me?”

“I’ll keep you safe while Walter’s out there. You have my word.” His hand reached out toward me, but he seemed to catch himself and let it drop to his side.

“Right.” It looked like he still wasn’t willing to admit the truth or maybe I was the delusional one here. God, I really hoped my gut feeling wasn’t wrong, because I’d made my decision. “Okay. I’ll stay here with you for now, but I’m going to call Vix and I’m going to tell her everything. I can’t just disappear and have everyone worry about me. Besides, the Cobras can set a trap for Walter if they know he’ll be coming.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but I raised my finger to shush him.

“You can’t change my mind on this. I’m not going to keep this secret from my friends any longer. They need to know about you and about Walter. Their lives are at risk too if Walter thinks they’re hiding me. I won’t leave them vulnerable like that.”

He must have seen the determination in my eyes, because he only nodded.