Chapter 140. Pretty on Paper

Rico was not used to being looked at that way. People usually looked at him with fear, with caution, or with expectation. They looked at him like he was something to respect or something to survive. No one ever looked at him the way Calla just had, as if she could see past the title, past the power, past the temper, and still decide to stay.

It unsettled him more than he wanted to admit.

He had spent years building himself into someone untouchable. Someone who did not need comfort, who did not wait to be chosen, who did not break. Yet the way she said she saw him, not the Capo, not the man everyone feared, but him, made something shift in his chest in a way he did not understand.

He did not know what to do with a woman who claimed she was still there. He did not know what to do with someone who stayed after seeing his worst side. And that scared him more than bei