Chapter 6 - The Kiss That Started a War
Chloe moved into the east guest suite.
Not Victor’s bedroom.
She made that distinction very clear.
Victor responded by assigning two guards outside her hallway.
She made her opinion about that equally clear.
“You’re turning my bedroom into a federal courthouse.”
“You complained about security.”
“I complained about secret security.”
“Now it’s visible.”
“You enjoy technicalities far too much.”
Victor almost smiled.
Tommy, meanwhile, thought the entire situation was fascinating.
He was moved temporarily into a private medical apartment near his dialysis clinic with round-the-clock protection.
When Chloe visited, Tommy looked at the security guard outside.
“Your boss knows we’re not the president, right?”
“Apparently not.”
“He really likes you.”
“Eat your sandwich.”
“That is not a denial.”
Tommy’s transplant evaluation moved forward.
For the first time in years, Chloe allowed herself to imagine her brother reaching adulthood.
College.
A job.
A terrible first apartment.
Normal problems.
But Victor’s world refused to remain in the background.
Three nights after the tracker incident, Bianca DeLuca returned.
She came alone.
Chloe found her standing in the foyer while snow melted from her boots.
“Hello again,” Bianca said.
Chloe nodded.
“Ms. DeLuca.”
“Bianca.”
“I’m working.”
“And I’m interrupting.”
“Yes.”
Bianca smiled.
“I like you.”
Chloe did not know what to do with that.
“Victor is in his study.”
“I didn’t come to see Victor.”
Chloe’s stomach tightened.
Bianca handed her gloves to a servant.
“Coffee?”
Twenty minutes later, Chloe sat across from a woman who could probably purchase the café table they were using without checking her bank account.
Bianca stirred her espresso.
“My father knows about you.”
Chloe’s hand paused.
“I figured.”
“He thinks you’re a problem.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor refusing me was business before.”
“And now?”
“Now it looks personal.”
Chloe looked out the window.
“There’s nothing between us.”
Bianca laughed.
“I genuinely respect how bad both of you are at lying.”
“Victor and I haven’t—”
“I don’t care whether you’ve kissed.”
Chloe’s face warmed.
Bianca leaned forward.
“I care that Bellini thinks you’re leverage.”
“That part I know.”
“What you don’t know is my father agrees.”
Chloe’s eyes sharpened.
“With Bellini?”
“Not openly.”
Bianca lowered her voice.
“Carlo DeLuca believes a marriage between our families would stabilize territory. If Bellini keeps applying pressure, my father may decide fear will change Victor’s answer.”
“Are you warning me about your father?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Bianca looked tired.
“Because I am thirty-one years old and exhausted from men using women as signatures on contracts.”
That answer made Chloe trust her.
Somewhat.
“What should we do?”
“We?”
Bianca smiled.
“You’re asking the daughter of Victor’s potential rival for strategic advice.”
“I’ve had a strange month.”
“Fair.”
Bianca became serious.
“Victor needs to know his internal security is compromised.”
“He knows.”
“No. Worse than he thinks.”
She slid a folded paper across the table.
Names.
Two warehouse managers.
A driver.
And one name Chloe recognized.
Elliot Crane.
Victor’s household procurement manager.
“He works here.”
“Yes.”
“He has access to staff schedules.”
“And vehicle assignments.”
Chloe’s blood turned cold.
“The tracker.”
Bianca nodded.
“Possibly.”
“Why give me this?”
“Because Victor won’t trust information from my father. He might trust it from you.”
“That feels manipulative.”
“It is.”
At least Bianca was honest.
That evening, Chloe found Victor in the private gym.
He was hitting a heavy bag.
No jacket.
Sleeves rolled.
Knuckles wrapped.
For several seconds, Chloe forgot why she had entered.
Victor noticed.
“Something wrong?”
“No.”
She looked away.
“Definitely nothing.”
Victor’s mouth moved slightly.
“What?”
Chloe handed him the paper.
The amusement vanished.
“Where did you get this?”
“Bianca.”
His eyes hardened.
“She approached you?”
“She warned me.”
“About her own father?”
“Yes.”
Victor read the names.
When he reached Elliot Crane, his jaw tightened.
“I want you upstairs.”
“Victor—”
“Now.”
“You said we were going to communicate.”
“I’m communicating. Go upstairs.”
“That is not communication. That is vocabulary wearing a dictatorship costume.”
Victor stared.
Under different circumstances, he might have laughed.
Instead, he called Anthony.
“Find Crane.”
Crane was gone.
His office had been emptied twenty minutes earlier.
Security footage showed him leaving through a service exit carrying a laptop.
Victor’s entire estate entered lockdown.
Chloe remained in Victor’s study despite repeated instructions to go upstairs.
At eleven sixteen, a window shattered.
Victor moved before the sound finished.
He pulled Chloe down behind the desk.
Gunfire cracked outside.
Not inside the house.
Security returned fire from the grounds.
Chloe’s heart slammed against her ribs.
Victor covered her body with his.
“Stay down.”
“Tommy.”
“He’s safe.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I have more men protecting that kid than most diplomats.”
Another shot.
Then silence.
Victor touched his earpiece.
“Report.”
Anthony’s voice came through.
“One shooter. Fled east. Nobody inside breached.”
Victor exhaled.
Chloe realized his hand was pressed against the back of her head.
Protecting it.
They looked at each other.
Too close.
His breath touched her cheek.
Everything outside that moment disappeared.
“You’re shaking,” Chloe whispered.
“I’m angry.”
“No.”
Victor’s eyes darkened.
“Don’t.”
“You’re scared.”
“I told you not to say that.”
“You’re still scared.”
He stared at her.
Chloe reached up.
Touched his cheek.
Victor stopped breathing.
“You don’t have to pretend with me.”
That was what broke him.
Not the gunfire.
Not Bellini.
Not years of grief.
Kindness.
Victor kissed her.
For half a second, Chloe froze.
Then she kissed him back.
It was not gentle at first.
It carried weeks of arguments, fear, sleepless nights, and everything neither had allowed themselves to say.
Victor pulled away abruptly.
“No.”
Chloe’s eyes opened.
“What?”
He stood.
“That shouldn’t have happened.”
Humiliation replaced warmth.
“Understood.”
“Chloe—”
“You don’t need to explain.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I’m your employee. You’re my boss. You panicked.”
“That isn’t why.”
She stood.
“Then why?”
Victor had no safe answer.
Because I want you.
Because I think about you when you leave rooms.
Because you are the first person whose presence has made me want tomorrow to arrive.
He said none of them.
Chloe nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
She walked toward the door.
Victor caught her hand.
“Don’t go.”
She looked at him.
“You can’t ask me to stay every time you’re afraid and push me away every time you’re not.”
The sentence landed directly in the center of him.
Chloe gently removed her hand.
“I’ll stay in the house because of security.”
Then she left.
Victor remained alone.
Minutes later, Anthony entered.
“We found something.”
Victor did not turn.
“What?”
“Crane accessed medical transportation schedules.”
Victor’s blood went cold.
“Whose?”
Anthony hesitated.
“Tommy Bennett’s.”
Victor was already moving.
At the same moment, Chloe’s phone rang upstairs.
It was Tommy.
She answered.
“Hey.”
But the voice on the other end was not her brother’s.
A man spoke calmly.
“Ms. Bennett?”
Chloe stopped breathing.
“Who is this?”
“I believe Victor Russo has something that belongs to Mr. Bellini.”
Chloe’s hand began trembling.
Behind the voice she heard Tommy shouting.
Then a sound like someone striking him.
“Tommy!”
The man continued.
“If Russo wants your brother returned alive, he will come alone.”
The call ended.
Chloe stood frozen.
Then Victor appeared in the doorway.
He saw her face.
He knew.
“No.”
Chloe’s voice broke.
“They took Tommy.”
May you like
Something inside Victor Russo went completely cold.
And the man who had refused every woman for six years realized the first woman he had allowed close enough to hurt him had just been given a reason to hate him forever.
