“I’m choosing,” I said. “With my eyes open. I’m staying, at least for today. At least until I understand what ‘safe’ actually means in your world.”
Relief broke over his face, unguarded for just a moment, before the careful control slid back into place. “Then let me show you,” he said, standing, offering me nothing more than his hand across the counter, “what safe actually looks like. Because I intend to make Castellano regret every second of last night.”
PART 6 — Learning the Rules of a Different World
Over the next three days, Blackwood Estate’s ruins made every front page in the state. The official story, carefully managed by people whose entire job was managing stories, described a gas explosion and an electrical fire. Eleven guests were treated for smoke inhalation. Two security guards were listed in stable condition. No mention of Castellano. No mention of gunfire. No mention of me.
I learned, in those three days, that Damian’s world ran on a different set of physics than the one I’d grown up in — where problems weren’t solved so much as managed, where danger was a permanent weather system you built your house to withstand rather than an emergency you waited out.
I also learned things about him that had nothing to do with danger at all.
He drank his coffee black and made a face every time, like he’d never quite gotten used to it and kept ordering it anyway out of stubbornness. He read three newspapers every morning, cover to cover, and argued with the opinion columns under his breath. He checked on Marcus twice a day without fail, and once, when I walked past the recovery room, I heard him quizzing Marcus’s daughter over speakerphone about her team’s chances on Saturday with the gravity of a man discussing a merger.
“You’re different around him,” I said afterward, when he’d hung up. “Softer.”
“Marcus has worked for me for nine years. His daughter used to fall asleep on my office couch when her mother worked nights.” He shrugged, almost embarrassed by the admission. “Loyalty runs both directions in my house, Nora. It has to, or none of it means anything.”
