I didn’t respond.
“Atlas.”His voice was stern.“You know I can’t leave you on your own.”
“You can and you will.I’ll still be here when you come back.”
He stared at me, unconvinced.
Gianni sighed.“Okay.Fine.Let’s try this another way.I’m not asking you to stay home and knit.I’m asking you to call me if you’re going to do something that’s going to make Marcello start foaming at the mouth.”
“I don’t need to call you.”
“You do,” he corrected.“Because if you vanish again, I’m the one who gets sent after you.And I swear to God, I’ll crash your jet into the sea out of spite.”
I lifted my gaze to him then.The light from the window caught the hard line of my jaw, the tired shadows under my eyes.I didn’t look like a man who was about to behave, and Gianni could obviously read that.
“I think sometimes you forget who you’re talking to.”
His mouth tightened.“Promise me.”
I held his stare a beat too long.
It was funny, in a sick way.I ran an empire.Men bowed when I entered a room.Entire families rose and fell based on decisions I made with a single phone call.And yet my cousin was standing in my office like my keeper, trying to make me swear I wouldn’t do something reckless.
Gianni wasn’t afraid of me.That was his flaw.And, occasionally, his value.
“I’ll call if I need anything,” I promised, my tone flat.
He didn’t accept it.“And you won’t get into trouble.”
I almost smiled.It didn’t reach my eyes.“Trouble finds me.”
“Atlas.”
I exhaled slowly, like I was releasing something heavy from my chest.“Fine.I won’t get into trouble.”
Gianni’s eyebrows rose, like he didn’t believe I could even say the words without choking on them.
“And I’ll call you,” I added.
He nodded, satisfied, but still wary, like he expected me to break the promise the second he turned his back.“Good.Because Mikayla’s already texted me twice.She’s counting.If I don’t show up, I’ll be sleeping in the garage with the dog.”
“You don’t have a dog.”
“Exactly,” and he pointed at me.“See?That’s the level of suffering I’m dealing with.”
I didn’t respond.I watched him.His energy was too bright for my office.Too alive.Too normal.Like he belonged in a different world than mine.I wondered if maybe marriage had made him soft.
He stepped backward into the hall, still staring.“Call me.”
I gave him a look that could’ve stripped paint.
Gianni smiled anyway.“I’m serious.”
“I heard you.”
He finally turned and walked away, still muttering to himself as he got into the elevator.
The door shut.