Chapter 7: The King's Queen
The retaliation was swift, silent, and absolutely catastrophic.
I didn't ask Salvatore what he did to the Moretti family over the next forty-eight hours. I didn't need to. The news channels reported a string of "unfortunate accidents" and "sudden disappearances" sweeping through the rival syndicate's upper management. By the end of the week, the Moretti name was entirely eradicated from the Chicago underworld.
The estate was cleaned, the glass repaired, and the security doubled. But the psychological air in the mansion had shifted.
I was sitting in the library, staring out at the dark, churning waters of the lake, when Salvatore walked in. The violent, blood-soaked kingpin from the solarium was gone. In his place was the quiet, deeply intense man I had fallen in love with.
He walked over and sat beside me on the sofa. For a long time, neither of us raised our hands. We just sat in the heavy, comfortable silence, watching the moonlight reflect off the water.
Finally, Salvatore turned to me.
“I brought you into this house to protect you,” Salvatore signed, his movements slow, deliberate, and heavy with guilt. “But my world followed me to your doorstep. They almost killed you, Tessa. Because of me.”
I frowned, turning to face him fully.
“You have an empire,” Salvatore continued signing, his eyes dark with an agonizing vulnerability I had never seen before. “I have a private jet fueled and waiting on the tarmac. I have set up an offshore account in your name with enough money to ensure you and Leo can live anywhere in the world, in absolute luxury and complete safety. You will never have to look over your shoulder again. You will never have to wash blood off your hands.”
My breath hitched. My heart felt like it was physically tearing in half.
“You’re sending me away?” I signed, my fingers shaking.
Salvatore reached out, gripping my wrists. His grip was entirely desperate.
“I am giving you a choice,” he signed, his eyes shining with unshed emotion. “Because if you stay... if you stay in this house, with me, I will never let you go. If you stay, you are accepting the darkness. You are accepting the violence. I am a selfish, ruthless man, Tessa. If you do not leave tonight, I will bind you to me for the rest of my natural life. I will consume you.”
He dropped his hands, leaving the space between us cold and empty.
I looked at the man who had bought a restaurant to save my pride. The man who had saved my brother's life when the world had turned its back on us. The man who had walked through a hail of gunfire without a second thought just to shield me from the bullets.
Safety without him wasn't a life. It was just a different kind of silence. A cold, empty silence that I refused to live in.
I didn't sign my answer. I didn't need to use my hands.
I leaned forward, bridging the gap between us, and pressed my lips fiercely against his.
Salvatore went entirely rigid for a fraction of a second before a low, guttural groan vibrated in his chest. His massive hands tangled in my hair, pulling me flush against his hard body. He kissed me with the desperate, starving intensity of a man who had been wandering in the dark his entire life and had finally found the sun. The kiss tasted of absolute surrender, of violent protection, and of a love so deep it defied every law of nature.
When we finally broke apart, we were both breathless. I rested my forehead against his, our breathing perfectly synchronized.
I pulled my hands back just enough so he could see them.
“I don’t want the world,” I signed, my movements slow, steady, and entirely absolute. “I want my king. I am staying.”
Salvatore’s devastating smile returned. It wasn't the cold smirk of a mafia boss; it was the radiant, unbreakable smile of a man who had just conquered the universe.
He gently lifted my left hand, kissing my knuckles before looking deep into my eyes.
“Then you are my Queen,” Salvatore signed back, his thumbs brushing over my skin. “And from this night forward, Chicago bows to you.”
May you like
He pulled me back into his arms, burying his face in my neck as the fire crackled warmly in the hearth. The shadows of his world would always be there, lurking just outside the reinforced glass. But as I held the most dangerous man in the city against my heart, I knew I would never be afraid of the dark again.
Because the monster in the shadows belonged entirely to me.
