Chapter 6 - The Don Who Needed Training
The black vehicle stopped thirty yards from the cottage.
Two men stepped out.
Luca pushed Sophie behind the stone wall beside the entrance.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“This is not the moment.”
“It is exactly the moment.”
“Sophie.”
“You don’t get to tell me trust matters and then immediately decide I’m furniture.”
Despite everything, Luca almost smiled.
“You are impossible.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Titan stood between them and the road.
One of the men raised his hands.
“Romano!”
Luca recognized the voice.
Not an assassin.
Anthony Caruso.
A rival businessman.
Dangerous, but not suicidal.
Luca stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
Caruso remained near the vehicle.
“Vale offered us your security schedules.”
“Then you’re admitting involvement.”
“No. I’m telling you why you were attacked.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
Caruso tossed a phone onto the snow.
“Vale was selling access to three groups. Mine refused.”
“Why tell me?”
“Because one didn’t.”
Sophie watched.
“Who?”
Caruso looked toward her.
“Dominic Reyes.”
Luca’s face changed.
Sophie noticed.
“Who is that?”
“Someone I should have dealt with years ago.”
Caruso left.
The phone contained messages proving Adrian had sold Luca’s schedule to Reyes, a man Luca had forced out of Chicago business six years earlier.
The timing matched Titan’s rescue.
Reyes had owned the warehouse.
The dogfighting operation had belonged to him.
Suddenly everything connected.
Titan was not merely Luca’s dog.
He was living evidence of a humiliating defeat Reyes had never forgotten.
Making Titan unstable served two purposes.
It weakened Luca’s security.
And destroyed the symbol of the night Reyes lost.
Sophie sat at the kitchen table.
“So this started six years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And Vivienne didn’t know?”
“No.”
“She was being manipulated too.”
“She made her own choices.”
Sophie nodded.
That mattered.
Understanding was not forgiveness.
By evening, Marco’s team secured the cottage.
Luca wanted Sophie transported elsewhere.
She refused again.
Finally he stopped arguing.
“You know, most people listen when I give instructions.”
“Maybe that’s your problem.”
“My problem?”
“You’re surrounded by people who do what you say.”
“That is generally considered useful.”
“Not if nobody tells you when you’re wrong.”
Luca stared.
Titan sat beside Sophie.
She pointed at the dog.
“He agrees.”
“You speak for him now?”
“I’ve been elected.”
Luca shook his head.
“You are both exhausting.”
Sophie smiled.
For the next three days, Luca coordinated with law enforcement through attorneys and trusted contacts.
Reyes was arrested before another attack could occur.
Adrian accepted a plea agreement.
Peter cooperated.
Vivienne faced charges connected to bribery and animal abuse but avoided involvement in the attempted murder case because evidence supported her claim that she never knew Adrian was selling information.
When the danger finally passed, Luca returned to the estate.
Sophie returned too.
But something had changed.
She no longer wore the maid uniform.
Luca had offered her another position.
Animal welfare coordinator.
Sophie laughed when he first suggested it.
“You have one dog.”
“We also own three working-dog facilities.”
She stared.
“You do?”
“I apparently own many things I don’t personally inspect.”
“That sounds irresponsible.”
“See? You’re already qualified.”
Sophie accepted.
She reorganized Titan’s care.
Removed restraint equipment.
Required humane handling policies.
Brought Noah in to establish medical standards.
And, to Luca’s irritation, occasionally challenged him in front of staff.
One morning she found Luca trying to command Titan into the grooming room.
“Stop.”
Luca turned.
“I’m working.”
“You’re ordering.”
“He understands orders.”
“He also understands choice.”
Luca sighed.
“Sophie.”
She held out chicken.
Titan immediately walked past Luca toward her.
Luca stared.
“This is bribery.”
“This is positive reinforcement.”
“I preferred bribery. It sounds more respectable.”
Sophie laughed.
Weeks passed.
Titan’s hip improved.
His aggression disappeared almost completely.
He tolerated a new groomer.
Eventually he entered the bathing area voluntarily.
On the day that happened, Sophie looked toward Luca.
“See?”
Luca crossed his arms.
“I see my dog being manipulated with chicken.”
“He’s happy.”
Titan wagged his tail.
Luca stared.
“Disloyal.”
Sophie stepped closer.
“He loves you.”
“You sound confident.”
“He watches every door until you enter.”
Luca’s teasing expression disappeared.
“He does?”
“Yes.”
“Then why does he sleep outside your room?”
Sophie smiled.
“Because I’m nicer.”
Luca looked at her for a long moment.
“That is becoming a problem.”
Her smile faded slightly.
“What?”
“You.”
Sophie’s breath caught.
Luca moved closer.
“I have spent months pretending I come to the west wing because of Titan.”
“You’re very concerned about his schedule.”
“Extremely.”
“And the laundry room?”
“Critical security location.”
She laughed.
Luca did not.
“Sophie.”
Something in his voice changed the moment.
She looked up.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Ask someone to stay without making it an order.”
Sophie’s heart moved strangely.
“Then practice.”
Luca looked almost offended.
“Practice?”
“You said Titan wasn’t the only one who needed retraining.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to that.”
“You didn’t.”
She stepped closer.
“Try.”
Luca exhaled slowly.
“Sophie Bennett.”
“Yes?”
“Would you have dinner with me?”
She waited.
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“A little.”
“Would you?”
“Yes.”
His shoulders relaxed.
Sophie smiled.
“See? Nobody died.”
“Yet.”
Their first dinner was a disaster.
Not because of danger.
Because Luca Romano, feared businessman and master strategist, was terrible at normal dates.
He had arranged a twelve-course dinner in the formal dining room.
Sophie stopped at the doorway.
“No.”
Luca frowned.
“No?”
“I’m not eating twelve courses under a chandelier while four people watch us.”
“They are staff.”
“They are staring.”
“They are trained not to.”
Mrs. Turner immediately looked away.
Sophie laughed.
“Kitchen.”
They ate pasta at the kitchen island.
Titan sat between them.
Luca complained that the dog was ruining the atmosphere.
Sophie fed Titan a piece of chicken.
Luca accused her of conspiracy.
It was the best dinner he remembered having.
Months later, Sophie would remember that evening as the moment everything truly changed.
Not the attack.
Not the frozen courtyard.
Not Titan choosing her.
The kitchen.
Because Luca stopped being the Don for two hours.
He was simply a man.
He told her about his father.
She told him about her grandfather.
He admitted he hated large parties.
She admitted she had once been fired from a bakery after dropping a four-tier wedding cake.
Luca laughed so hard he had to put down his glass.
“You dropped the entire cake?”
“It leaned.”
“It fell?”
“Eventually.”
“How long?”
“Three very emotional seconds.”
Titan rested beneath the table.
Sophie looked toward him.
“He started all this.”
Luca followed her gaze.
“No.”
She turned.
“You did.”
“How?”
“You slipped.”
“That is not romantic.”
“It’s accurate.”
She laughed.
Luca reached across the table.
His fingers touched hers.
This time neither moved away.
“Stay,” he said softly.
Sophie raised one eyebrow.
“That sounded like a dog command.”
Luca closed his eyes briefly.
“I told you I need training.”
She squeezed his hand.
“Then ask properly.”
He looked at her.
“Stay because you want to.”
Sophie smiled.
“I already am.”
From beneath the table, Titan’s tail struck the cabinet once.
And for perhaps the first time in Luca Romano’s life, losing control of something felt remarkably like winning.
But one final choice remained.
Because Sophie had accepted Luca.
Titan had accepted Sophie.
May you like
The question was whether Luca could transform the dangerous world he had built into a home safe enough for both of them.
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