CASSIAN

I walked up and took the cigarette from between his fingers. I didn’t ask. I just took a drag and handed it back.

Julian watched me, a little half-smile pulling at his mouth. "You don’t smoke," he said.

"I do now, apparently," I replied. "Your family is exhausting."

"They’re not my family," he said.

"Marceli talks about you like you are."

Something flickered in his eyes. It wasn’t simple. "He talks about you like you’re the crown prince," Julian said. He tried to say it lightly, but the weight was there.

The quiet settled over us. We could hear the muffled noise of the party inside, but out here, the air was cool. Julian looked at me sideways.

"You looked good in there," he said. "At the table. You looked like you belonged."

"Don’t say that," I snapped.

"I’m just saying—"

"I know what you’re saying. Don’t."

Julian went silent. He took a long pull from the cigarette. Then he leaned his head back against the wall. "She’s pretty. Lucia. She looks at you like you’re the only man in the world."

"Julian." I stepped closer, into his space.

"I’m serious," he said, though his smile was starting to look fake. "You’d look good together. Her father already loves you. You’d have the whole empire. You wouldn’t have to worry about anything ever again."

I reached out and grabbed his jaw. I tilted his head up so he had to look me in the eye.

"Are you finished?"

He met my gaze. The fake smile died. Something more honest took its place.

"Maybe."

"Good," I said.

I kissed him. It was fast because we were outside and there were windows everywhere, but it was real. It was the kind of kiss that reminds you that the stakes aren’t small.

When I pulled back, Julian looked at the garden. "I know we can’t keep doing this," he whispered. "Pretending in there. It isn’t going to last, Cassian."

"I know," I said. "I’m working on it."

He looked at me, frowning. "Working on what?"

"Getting us out," I said. I made it sound simple. "Both of us."

Julian’s face opened up for a split second.

Hope is a dangerous thing, and I saw it hit him like a physical blow. Then he pulled the mask back on. "You don’t have to do that."

"I know I don’t have to."

We stood there in the silence, the cigarette burning down between his fingers, forgotten.

I had been planning for months. Every job I did, every envelope of cash that came my way, I took half and put it aside.

I moved it through accounts that had nothing to do with the Lorenzo name.

It was a lot of money. It was enough for two people to disappear and start something that didn’t involve blood.

Julian had always wanted something of his own. Not a job handed to him by a Don, but something he built. I wanted to give him that.

I told him about it again after that night in the apartment.

We were sitting on the floor eating takeout. I laid it out quietly... the different city, a legitimate business, a life where we didn’t have to look over our shoulders.

Julian went completely still. He looked at me like I had just told him I could fly. "You’re serious."

"I’m always serious."

He touched the jade pendant, his fingers shaking just a little. "When?"

"Soon," I said. "I have to close things out the right way, then we’re gone."

He nodded. He wanted to believe me so badly it hurt to watch. He had been let down so many times that believing was a risk he wasn’t sure he could afford.

I asked for a meeting with Marceli in his private office. The room always smelled like old wood and expensive tobacco. It was the place where he decided who lived and who died.

"I’m leaving," I said. I didn’t lead up to it. I just put the words on the desk. "Not today. But I wanted you to hear it from me."

The silence lasted a long time. Marceli didn’t move. He was a man who hated being surprised, and I had just handed him a shock. "Why?"

"It’s time," I said.

"I’ll double what I pay you," he said. He didn’t even think about it.

"No."

"Triple."

"It’s not about the money, Marceli."

He leaned back, assessing me. "Then what is it?"

"I want something different. That’s all."

He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the city he owned. "You’re the best I’ve had in almost twenty years," he said. His voice was flat. "I want you to understand what that costs me, letting you walk away."

"I do."

He turned back around. "If you insist... then one job. The last one. If you do this for me, I won’t stop you from leaving."

"What is it?"

"The Vincenti family," he said. I knew the name. They were rivals. They’d been fighting us over territory and trade routes for two years.

People were dying on both sides, and it was getting expensive. "I want a truce. I want you to be my voice. Sit down with the Don and make a deal. We’re both tired of bleeding money."

I looked at him. "And you trust this?"

"I trust you to make them believe it," he said. "The old man is tired. He wants peace as much as I do. Go make it happen."

"One meeting," I said.

"One meeting. Then you’re done."

The weeks leading up to the meeting were strange. The daily work kept going, but something was shifting in Julian. He was still there, still laughing and teasing me, but he felt far away.

He started having assignments that took him to different parts of the city. Sometimes I’d come home and the apartment would be dark. He wouldn’t be there.

I told myself it was just work. We had always had separate jobs.

But a part of me noticed that he’d been quieter ever since I mentioned leaving. It was like he didn’t know how to handle the idea of actually being happy.

One night, we were on the rooftop with our beers, watching the lights of the city. Neither of us spoke for a long time.

"Are you scared?" Julian asked eventually.

"Of what?"

"Leaving," he said. "Starting over. Being normal."

"No," I said.

He looked at me. "You should be. It’s a big thing, Cassian. People like us... we don’t usually get to be normal."

"I’ve handled bigger things than ’normal’," I told him.

He gave me that quiet, sad smile and looked back at the city. "Yeah. I know."

He didn’t say he was scared. I didn’t ask. We just sat there in a city that wasn’t ours anymore, even though we were still in the middle of it.

...

The meeting was in a warehouse on neutral ground. It was one of those buildings that didn’t exist on any map, a place for men to talk about things that couldn’t survive the light of day. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

I went in representing Marceli. Julian was with me, along with three other guys for backup.

On the other side was the Don of the Vincenti family. He was old, but he had a sharpness in his eyes that told you he had survived for a reason.

Beside him was his son, Emilio. He was young, maybe in his early twenties. He had the kind of energy that made me want to hit him Immediately.

He looked at the room like he owned it just because his father did. He hadn’t earned a thing in his life, and it showed in the way he stood.

This kid is going to be a problem, I thought.

We set it up so the principals could talk in private. I went into an inner room with the Don.

Julian and the others stayed outside with Emilio and the rest of the Vincenti crew. Emilio was already pacing, looking bored and annoyed that he had to be there at all.

The talk with Emilio’s father went well. We were both professionals. We went over territories, routes, and boundaries.

We were close to a deal. I could feel the finish line. I could feel the life I wanted with Julian getting closer with every sentence.

Then the door burst open. One of Vincenti’s men ran in and whispered in the Don’s ear.

His face went cold. The tiredness disappeared, replaced by a hard, mean look. He turned to me. "It seems one of your men has caused trouble."

I went perfectly still. "What kind of trouble?"

The door opened wider.

Julian was dragged into the room by two men. His face was a mess. His nose was broken, and dark blood was smeared across his lips. He looked like he could barely stand, but his eyes found mine instantly.

Behind him came Emilio. His face was marked up, too... a swelling eye and a crooked nose. He looked furious. He looked like a spoiled brat who had just been told ’no’ for the first time in his life.