Luca exhaled shakily, stepping forward before the men could move.
"Stand down," he ordered the guards. "This is Damian Moretti."
Shock rippled through them.
The guards lowered their weapons instantly, bowing with a mixture of awe and disbelief.
Luca approached Damian slowly, looking him over the cuts, the bruises, the haunted look in his eyes.
"What did they do to you?" Luca whispered, voice low, tight with anger.
Damian smirked faintly.
"Everything they could."
"And yet you're here."
"Because she's here," Damian replied.
Luca swallowed hard.
"She changed, Boss. She's stronger. Harder. She's… not the same woman you left behind."
Damian's jaw tightened.
"I don't need her to be the same," he murmured. "I just need her alive."
Luca nodded but didn't step aside.
"You're not going in yet, are you?"
Damian's pov.
Damian shook his head.
His eyes lifted toward the upper windows of the fortress toward the rooms that once belonged to him, and now belonged to her.
