Chapter 6 - The Perimeter of ForeverI hesitated for a fraction of a second, then walked across the marble floor, my rubber-soled housekeeping boots clicking softly against the stone.
When I reached Dante's side, he didn't look down at his cowering cousin on the floor. He looked entirely at me.
"Take his car keys," Dante instructed quietly, nodding toward the ring dangling from Julian’s belt loop.
"My... my car keys?" I blinked, confused.
"Julian’s car is parked outside the main gate," Dante said. "It's a fully fueled Mercedes sedan with a clean title. His apartment in downtown Baltimore is paid up through the end of the year, and his bank accounts have just been legally transferred into your name as restitution for the property damage incurred on this estate tonight."
Julian let out a strangled, furious yell from the floor. "You can't do that! That's all my money!"
"It's the price of trespassing," Dante replied without even glancing down at him. He turned his full attention back to me, his dark eyes softening into something raw, fierce, and entirely devoted.
"You wanted to go home, Rosalie," Dante said, his voice dropping into a register meant only for me. "You wanted your apartment, your independence, your quiet little life in Dundalk where nobody threatens you."
I looked down at the keyring in my hand, then up at Dante’s face. The storm outside was beginning to break, the first rays of gray dawn piercing through the heavy clouds over the Baltimore harbor.
"And if I don't want to go back?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper above the sound of the receding rain.
A slow, profound smile broke across Dante’s harsh features—a look of pure triumph that made him look less like a feared mob boss and more like a man who had finally found the one thing he had been searching for in the dark.
"Then you stay," Dante said, reaching out to take my hand, lacing his calloused fingers firmly through mine. "You take over the estate's medical wing, you look after Titan, and you let me spend the rest of my life making sure nobody ever touches you or your brother again."
I looked down at Titan, who let out a contented huff and rested his heavy chin gently against my boot, as if casting his own vote in the matter.
Then I looked back at Dante Caruso—the man everyone in Baltimore feared, the man who owned the shadows, the docks, and the blood on the floor.
"My brother Marcus gets a proper job at your shipping docks," I negotiated, a tiny, defiant smile touching my lips. "With full benefits and no loan sharks."
Dante laughed—a deep, rich sound that seemed to chase away every shadow lingering in the glass atrium.
"Done," Dante said, pulling me gently against his chest, right where Titan’s head had rested earlier in the basement sink. "Marcus starts Monday. And you, Rosalie Whitaker... are never leaving this house."
Behind us, Vance dragged a screaming Julian out toward the gates, while the morning sun finally broke over the horizon, painting the Baltimore harbor in brilliant shades of gold and silver.
I didn't run.
May you like
For the first time in six weeks, as Dante’s arms wrapped securely around me and Titan let out a final, peaceful sigh at our feet, I knew I was exactly where I belonged.
Inside the perimeter. Safe, untouchable, and entirely his.
