Chapter 2 - The Kiss That Changed the Rules
The attack lasted less than six minutes.
It felt like an hour.
By the time Matteo's men secured the estate, the library windows were cracked, two intruders were down, and Marco had a shallow cut across his forehead.
Elena sat on the floor with her back against the wall while a paramedic wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.
She hated the blanket.
It made her feel like someone fragile.
She was not fragile.
She was simply trying to understand why she had just watched three armed men invade a house she had entered five days earlier because her electricity bill had gone unpaid.
Matteo appeared at the library doorway.
His shirt was stained with blood.
He had refused the hospital.
Naturally.
His eyes found her immediately.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He looked at the paramedic.
The woman shook her head.
“She's fine.”
Matteo nodded.
“Good.”
He turned away.
“Wait.”
He stopped.
Elena stood.
“Sit down.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“You're giving me orders?”
“Yes.”
Marco, standing nearby, looked almost amused.
Matteo stared at Elena for a long second.
Then, unexpectedly, he sat.
Elena cleaned the bullet graze along his side.
It was not deep.
But it was close.
Too close.
“You need stitches.”
“No.”
“You need medical attention.”
“No.”
“You have a hole in your shirt.”
“I noticed.”
“You're impossible.”
“So I've been told.”
Elena shook her head.
“You hired me to take care of your daily requirements.”
“I did.”
“Getting shot is not a daily requirement.”
The corner of his mouth moved.
She cleaned the wound.
He watched her.
“You're not shaking.”
“I am.”
“No.”
“My hands.”
“Still steady.”
“Because I learned not to let people see when I'm afraid.”
He went quiet.
“Why?”
“My father.”
Matteo waited.
Elena hadn't intended to continue.
But something about the room, the gunpowder, the rain, and the fact that they were both still alive made silence feel less necessary.
“My father used to disappear for weeks.”
“What did he do?”
“Worked at the docks.”
Matteo's eyes narrowed slightly.
“The Rossi docks?”
“I don't know.”
“Your father’s name?”
“Gabriel Vasquez.”
Matteo went completely still.
Elena looked at him.
“What?”
He recovered too quickly.
“Nothing.”
“You know him.”
“I know the name.”
“How?”
“Because there are many Gabriel Vasquez.”
“Not many in that dock district.”
Matteo said nothing.
Elena finished wrapping the wound.
“There.”
He looked at the bandage.
Then at her.
“You should sleep.”
“I'm fine.”
“You're shaking now.”
She looked down.
He was right.
Her hands had started trembling.
The adrenaline was leaving her body.
Matteo stood.
He took the blanket from the chair and placed it over her shoulders himself.
Then he crouched in front of her.
“Sleep.”
His voice was softer than she expected.
“You're safe.”
Elena almost smiled.
“I've heard that phrase before.”
“What happened?”
“It usually meant the opposite.”
His expression changed.
“Then don't trust the phrase.”
“What should I trust?”
He looked directly into her eyes.
“Watch what I do.”
That stayed with her.
Watch what I do.
Not what I say.
Not what people claimed.
Not what newspapers printed.
What he did.
Over the next three days, Matteo proved himself in strange ways.
He fired one security man for opening an internal gate without permission.
He replaced the kitchen staff who had been sending messages to outsiders.
He doubled the medical staff at the house.
He had every lock changed.
But he also ordered the gardeners to leave the east flowerbeds untouched because Elena had once said the absence of flowers made the property feel dead.
She noticed.
He pretended he had not done it for her.
She pretended to believe him.
Then one afternoon, she found him in the kitchen.
He was standing at the counter staring at a plate of food.
“You haven't eaten.”
“I will.”
“That means no.”
He looked at her.
“You've become very comfortable ordering me around.”
“You've become very comfortable pretending you don't need anyone.”
His jaw tightened.
“I don't.”
“You do.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
He stared.
She folded her arms.
“Your right shoulder is stiff because you keep holding tension there. You’re not sleeping. You’ve barely eaten since the attack. And you keep checking the same security monitor every seventeen minutes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I've been watching you too.”
That stopped him.
Elena realized what she had said.
Silence.
Something shifted.
The room suddenly seemed too small.
Matteo stepped closer.
“Have you?”
She swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you're my employer.”
“That isn't the reason.”
She looked away.
“No.”
He came another step closer.
“Then tell me.”
“I don't know.”
He stopped only inches away.
His voice dropped.
“You do.”
Elena could feel her heart pounding.
She should have walked away.
Instead, she looked up.
“You scare me.”
His expression softened.
“Because I'm dangerous?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because you're not what I expected.”
He stared at her.
“What did you expect?”
“A monster.”
“And what did you find?”
Elena's voice became almost a whisper.
“A man.”
Something in his eyes broke.
Just slightly.
Elena did the first thing that came to her.
She touched his cheek.
Then, before she could think better of it, she leaned up and kissed him gently on the cheek.
“Thank you.”
Matteo froze.
“For what?”
“For keeping me alive.”
He stared at her.
Then his hand came around her wrist.
Not painfully.
Just firmly.
“Elena.”
Her breath caught.
He stepped forward.
She stepped back instinctively.
Her shoulders touched the wall.
Matteo placed one hand against the wall beside her.
Then the other.
He trapped her between himself and the stone without touching anywhere else.
His face was inches from hers.
“You don't get to kiss me like that,” he whispered, “and then walk away pretending it meant nothing.”
Elena's pulse raced.
“I was thanking you.”
“That isn't how your heart was beating.”
She swallowed.
“You can't know that.”
“I can.”
He looked at her mouth.
Then returned to her eyes.
“Because mine stopped the moment you kissed me.”
The intensity frightened her more than the guns had.
She whispered:
“Matteo.”
He immediately stepped back.
The distance returned.
He was still dangerous.
But he was not careless.
“I'm sorry.”
Elena stared.
“You stopped.”
“When you were uncomfortable.”
“Why?”
“Because I may be a lot of things, Elena.”
His voice was quiet.
“But I will never take something you don't freely give me.”
That night she could not sleep.
Not because of the attack.
Because every time she closed her eyes, she remembered his voice.
And the way he had stepped away.
The next morning, a package arrived.
It contained an old photograph.
Elena stared at it.
There was her father.
Standing beside a much younger Matteo.
Her father's hand rested on the shoulder of a boy.
Matteo.
And on the back of the photograph was a single sentence.
Keep Elena away from Matteo Rossi.
Elena looked up.
Matteo was standing in the doorway.
He had seen the photograph.
His face became unreadable.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was sent to me.”
“Who sent it?”
“I don't know.”
He walked toward her.
He took the photograph.
His fingers tightened around the edges.
“Your father worked for my family.”
Elena stared.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since the day I saw your application.”
“And you hired me anyway?”
“I hired you because I needed to know why someone was looking for you.”
Elena's face hardened.
“You knew I was in danger.”
“Yes.”
“And you put me in this house.”
“To protect you.”
“You should have told me.”
“You would have run.”
“Maybe I should have.”
Matteo met her gaze.
“Maybe.”
She looked at the photograph again.
“Who wants me dead?”
Matteo didn't answer immediately.
Then he said:
May you like
“The man who killed your father.”
Elena's blood went cold.
Related Stories
