The blue neon glow of the security monitors painted long, erratic shadows across the panic-room floor.

By dawn, the storm over Lake Michigan had cleared, leaving the Chicago skyline sharp and washed in silver light.

Federica stirred slowly. Her eyelids fluttered against the morning glare, and a sharp hiss of pain escaped her lips as she tried to shift her weight. Her left shoulder throbbed where a heavy boot had caught her against the concrete pillar in the steam tunnels.

"Don't move too fast," a deep voice raced across the silence.

Federica froze. She turned her head, wincing, and found Gabriele Romano sitting in an armchair beside the bed. He wasn't wearing his suit jacket; his white shirt sleeves were rolled up, exposing the dark, intricate ink of Italian tattoos curling around his forearms. A cup of black coffee sat untouched on the side table.

"Mr. Romano," she whispered, her voice dry as sandpaper. She blinked, panic suddenly flooding her chest. "Leo—where is Leo? Did they—"

"Leo is sleeping in the adjoining nursery," Gabriele interrupted, his tone uncharacteristically soft, though his eyes burned with an intensity that made her breath catch. "Safe. Fed, he's safe because of you."

Federica stared at him, her glasses resting crookedly on the nightstand. Without them, her green eyes looked wide, vulnerable, and starkly exposed. "I... I didn't mean to get involved in an ambush. I was just checking the transit manifests for the South Side distribution hub like you asked me to last week, and—"

"You saved my blood," Gabriele said, standing up and walking slowly to the edge of the mattress. He leaned down, placing his large, warm hand gently over her uninjured fingers. "In my world, people sign contracts, take bribes, or run when the first shot is fired. You walked into a crossfire, took a beating from Victor Sterling’s primary enforcers, and carried a six-month-old baby through two miles of underground utility shafts."

"They were going to hurt him," Federica whispered, a solitary tear breaking free and tracking down her bruised cheek. "I couldn't just sit in my sedan and watch. I have a little sister... I know what it’s like to be small and unprotected in a city full of monsters."

Gabriele’s jaw tightened. He reached out with his thumb, wiping the tear from her cheek with a tenderness that defied every rumor ever printed about the Romano syndicate.

"You aren't small, Federica," he murmured, his voice dropping into a dark, resolute register. "And you certainly aren't unprotected anymore. From this moment on, nobody touches you. Nobody even looks at you twice without my explicit permission."

Before she could process the weight of his words, the bedroom door swung open. Marco stepped inside, holding a secure tablet with a grim expression.

"Boss," Marco said, glancing briefly at Federica before looking back at Gabriele. "We traced the leak. The reroute order for Federica’s car didn't come from an outside hacker."