This lockdown wasn’t just protection

Liliana Grace Harlan POV

Dante swiped to answer without a flicker of hesitation.

“Yeah?” His voice was calm, professional, the same tone he used when delivering bad news in an exam room.

I strained to catch Dad’s words, but they stayed muffled, distant. Dante’s gaze flicked to me briefly with a quiet reassurance before he spoke again.

“She’s right here.” A short pause. Then, softer: “Hold on.” He lowered the phone and extended it toward me. His expression gave nothing away except that faint, lingering sadness in his eyes, the one that always made my chest ache even when I didn’t understand why.

“Your dad wants to talk to you.”

My fingers trembled as I took it. I lifted it to my ear, voice barely more than breath. “…Dad?”

His reply came low, the voice he only used when the world had already gone sideways. “Pumpkin, listen to me. It’s urgent. Pack a bag.”

My stomach plummeted so fast the room tilted. “What? Why?”

“You know I told you there’s been a break in the case.” Exhaustion bled through every word, worry sharpening the edges. “I don’t think I can come home tonight. The guy we’ve been after… he’s started going after families of the officers on the task force. I don’t want you alone in that house. There’s a killer out there, Lil. My case. I can’t keep you safe if I’m in the field. The estate is locked down like a fortress. They’re already running security rotations.”

Cold dread coiled through me like ice water in my veins.“…Safer where?” The question scraped out, barely audible.

A beat of silence too long, too heavy. “I’m sending you to stay with them.”

For one suspended heartbeat the room went deathly still. I forgot how to breathe. My pulse roared back to life thudding in my ears, my wrists, low between my legs where everything still felt too raw, too exposed.

The same men who’d walked in on me midshatter, moaning their names into the dark, were now the only place Dad trusted to keep me alive.

He kept talking, gentle but unyielding. “Pack enough for a week. They’re taking you with them. No arguments.”

“I wasn’t going to,” I whispered but the words I meant to keep inside slipped out anyways“I have to stay… with them?”

“Yeah,” Dad said, softer now, almost apologetic. “The guys. My best friends. I’m certain they’re there with you right now. I forgot to tell you because I’ve been buried in the case completely.”

My stomach flipped so violently I tasted bile. Those guys. The ones who’d just walked in on me naked, legs spread, sheets soaked, moaning their names like a filthy prayer.

“Yes… they’re…” My voice died.

“Good, Lil.” His tone tightened, distracted, already halfgone into the next briefing. “All four of them are taking you to the estate right now. Safest place on the planet. Please don’t be stubborn with them, okay? Be obedient. Do exactly what they say.”

“Dad, what”

“Lil, just listen to me.” The clipped edge returned, the one that meant no more discussion. “There’s no time. Pack a bag. Now. They know who I am, the people I’ve been chasing. They’ve made threats against our family. You’re not safe at your place. I’m sending you to the compound. The guys will take care of you.”

“Dad… you mean”

“The estate", he cut in, firm, final. “Dante’s place. They’re already there with you, right? Good. They know the protocol. They’ll keep you under lock and key until I can neutralise this bastard. No arguments, Liliana. Pack light. They’ll handle the rest.”

The compound. Their mansion on the city’s edgeforty acres of gated silence, cameras in every shadow, and security none of them ever explained. I’d only seen the sunlit parts growing up, barbecues, holidays, laughter. Never the locked wings. Never the basement levels I wasn’t supposed to know about.

“Lily.” His voice cracked just once before the steel snapped back into place. “These aren’t people who bluff. I’m in too deep to pull out, and I won’t risk you. Dante, Jaxon, Nikolai, Elias, they’re the only ones I trust with your life. You stay there until I say otherwise. No arguments.”

I opened my mouth, but the line went dead. The phone slipped from my fingers. Dante caught it before it hit the sheets.

Silence swallowed the room again, thicker now, heavier with the weight of what had just been decided.

Jaxon’s jaw ticked once, a sharp, silent pulse of restraint. Nikolai’s grin unfurled slowly and predatory, like he’d already won something I hadn’t named yet. Elias’s eyes darkened another shade, pupils swallowing the last traces of hazel. Dante’s thumb resumed its slow, hypnotic circle on the inside of my wrist steady, grounding, possessive in the gentlest possible way.

They stood there, four walls of heat and history, staring at me like the little girl they used to tease at summer barbecues had vanished, leaving only this flushed, trembling woman in ruined sheets.

One truth sank into my bones with terrifying clarity, This lockdown wasn’t just protection. It was possession and everything was about to change.

The part of me still throbbing between my legs, the part that had shattered screaming their names wasn't afraid. It was already aching for whatever came next.