Chapter 4

The security training before the engagement was set for the Bellini family's private range.

I didn't want to go. My weapons access had already been frozen, so even if I showed up, all I could do was watch.

But Luca came to pick me up himself.

"It's just training today. It's not a punishment."

He opened the car door for me. "If you don't want to shoot, you don't have to touch a gun."

I got in and buckled my seatbelt.

"Even if I wanted to shoot, I couldn't right now. Could I?"

Luca went still. "Isabella."

"I'm not picking a fight." I leaned back in my seat. "Let's go."

The range was packed. Everyone who mattered in the Moretti and Bellini families was there, my father included. Viola wore a brand-new training outfit. She'd barely ever fired a gun, but my father walked her straight over to Luca.

"Teach her."

Luca frowned. "The instructor can handle it."

"She gets scared around strangers."

Viola looked up at Luca and asked in a small, timid voice, "Luca, am I going to be a bother?"

I stood about 40 feet away and watched Luca hesitate. In the end, he took the gun from her hand.

"Keep your wrist firm."

He stood behind Viola and held her wrist, adjusting her aim.

They were standing way too close.

The sight dragged up a memory I'd buried. Years ago, he'd stood behind me just like this and taught me to shoot. I leaned back on purpose and bumped right into his chest, and he went red to the tips of his ears. When he realized I was teasing him, he pinned me against the car door that night and kissed me until I could barely breathe.

The memory came flooding back, and a sharp pain stabbed through my chest.

Viola seemed to notice my expression. She turned and flashed me a taunting smile.

I looked away.

When it was time for the timed drill, I borrowed a training gun from the instructor, Daniel Hayes. Luca glanced at me but didn't stop me. He only warned me, "Just this one."

"I know."

The start signal lit up, and I moved through the first few sets of targets with clean, steady shots. When the last set popped up, I fired several rounds in a row. The instant the fourth bullet left the barrel, the range's warning light flashed red.

Someone had crossed the safety line.

I'd taken my finger off the trigger, but the bullet was already in the air.

Viola had stepped right over the safety line. The bullet grazed her shoulder, and bright red blood soaked through the fabric of her training outfit in seconds.

The range erupted into chaos.

Luca was the first one to reach her.

Viola clutched her injured arm. Her face was ghost-white, and her voice was thick with tears. "Sis, you saw me coming..."

"I didn't."

I lowered the training gun.

"When the red light came on, I'd already stopped shooting."

"Don't you dare make excuses!" my father snapped.

Daniel, the older instructor, frowned and stepped forward. "Viola was the one who crossed the safety line first—"

"What happened here today stays here." My father cut Daniel off just like that. "We can't have a scandal right before the engagement."

I took it all in and no longer felt like defending myself.

My father didn't even care to find out who was really at fault first.

His first concern, always, was the Moretti family's image.

Luca sent the medics to treat Viola's wound, then walked over to me.

Everyone around us held their breath and watched.

He held out his hand.

"Hand over the gun."

I didn't move.

"Luca."

"Give me the gun."

"You won't even ask what really happened?"

He stared me down. "A partition blocked the cameras' view. They didn't capture anything."

"So?"

"Right now, the only thing we know for sure is that you fired that bullet."

When he was done, all I could think was how ridiculous this was. And how familiar.

"Funny. I've heard this one before."

Luca's frown deepened.

I set the gun in his palm.

But it didn't end there.

In front of everyone, he unbuckled the backup holster at my waist and took my armory keycard. Then he turned to one of his men. "Drive her car back to the Moretti estate."

The air seemed to freeze.

No one dared to look me in the eye.

And the way they all looked away without a word made it twice as humiliating.

I looked at Luca.

"You believe her?"

"I believe you didn't mean to hurt anyone." His voice was heavy. "But you knew perfectly well how on edge you were, and you still pulled the trigger."

"I was just doing the drill like everyone else."

"That's enough for today."

"Luca." I cut him off. "If what you need is a fiancée who'll never put you in an awkward spot, why not just pick her?"

His face went cold. "Don't use the engagement to test me."

"I'm not testing you."

"I told you. You're the only one I'm marrying."

He took a step closer and lowered his voice. "This has nothing to do with whether I love you."

I looked at him. It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard.

He talked about loving me all the time.

That meant he could take my gun in front of everyone and call it keeping me safe.

He could trust his own judgment first and leave me to prove my innocence later, and call it protecting my dignity.

So that was how it worked. As long as he called it love, he could justify all the ways he hurt me.

"Take her home." Luca gave the order.

I didn't fight it anymore.

Before I got in the car, I glanced back.

Viola's arm was bandaged now, and she was standing next to Luca. When she caught me looking, a smug little smile tugged at her lips.

Back at the Moretti estate, I went straight to the bedroom that used to be my mother's.

There was a small safe hidden at the very back of her walk-in closet. The combination was my birthday. I turned the dial and opened the door.

Inside, next to a stack of old papers, lay a handgun my mother had left behind. The gun was old, but it had been kept in perfect condition. It had never been registered in the Bellini armory system, so Luca had no way to freeze it.

I slipped the gun into my backpack, took out my phone, and texted Colin.

"Speed everything up."

"I don't want to wait three more weeks."