Chapter 10: His Angel: Chapter 10

I shove the glass door shut behind me, stepping out on the deck.

Leandra leans against the rail, sage dress rippling in the breeze, dark hair whipping loose around her shoulders like a storm’s edge.

My hand drags through my hair, sweat slicking my palm, and I pace—three steps, turn—burning off the itch under my skin.

“What was that about, Leandra?”

“My concern for you.” She doesn’t look back, grips the railing, knuckles whitening as the wind tugs at her.

“Your concern for me has you snapping at the woman I love?”

This makes her turn, green eyes slicing into me. “You love her?”

“With everything I am.”

“Then why are you lying to her?”

I balk, frowning, her question filling my gut with concrete. “I’m protecting her.”

“If it were purely for her protection, you would have told her already.” Leandra frowns. “Unless…you’re afraid you’ll lose her.”

“Of course I’m afraid of that,” I snap and hold my arms out wide. “Why else would I go to these extremes to protect her?”

Leandra stares at me, like she knows exactly how my mind works, what storm is raging inside me. And she probably does, because no one knows me as well as she does. Not even my brothers.

“I love her, Leandra.”

The words hang between us, echoing in the sea’s roar below. A gull caws, piercing through the silence, a momentary distraction before Leandra speaks. “There is nothing as powerful, consuming…and destructive as a Del Rossa’s love.”

I smirk. “You would know.”

“I would.” She smiles. “Loving your brother changed my life. Being loved by him nearly ruined it.”

“I know. I was there, remember?” I point at the scar under my jaw. “Have the mark to prove it.”

There’s a flash of vulnerability in her eyes as I stoke the memory. Alexius beat the shit out of me that day. I was consoling his pregnant wife, comforting her because he was too much of a jackass to do it himself. My brother went apeshit, his jealousy spilling into a rage that almost killed me and nearly destroyed her.

Her hand lifts, brushing my arm, light but sure, the way she’s done so many times before whenever I thought the dark would swallow me. And I pull her close, my arms around her, pressed against my chest like I’ve done all the times she felt alone. When she was alone, Alexius’ life hanging by a thread.

“You’re coiled,” she says, voice low, threading through the waves’ roar, not accusing, just knowing. “Too coiled.”

I snort. “No shit. Apparently, Del Rossa men do that a lot when it comes to the women we love.”

She steps back, shooting me a half-smile, quick and private, the one she’s always kept for me. Not Alexius’ wife. Not the polished queen. Just Leandra. The woman who has her own insecurities. That’s what makes our relationship so special. So…unique. It’s not romantic. It’s not sexual. It just…is.

The wind snags her hair again, tossing it across her face, and she sweeps it back, eyes meeting mine, searching like she’s prying me open.

“What is she doing to you?” Her tone stays steady, but her fingers flex, fear flickering.

“She’s mine,” I reply. “That’s what.”

“I’m sorry.” She turns toward the ocean, gaze stretching far. “I had no right to speak to her that way.”

“No. You didn’t.” I step in next to her, staring out in the same direction. “But I get it.”

“This is such a dangerous game you’re playing with the Paladino family.”

“I’m well aware.”

“I can’t lose you, Isaia.” The desperation in her voice brushes against my soul. She glances at me. “You know me. I’m not a selfish person. But my confrontation with Everly was out of purely selfish reasons, and nothing more.”

“Leandra—”

“You are the one person I can turn to whenever the responsibility of being a Del Rossa becomes too heavy. The one person who⁠—”

“—gets you?”

She smiles. “Yes. Who gets me.”

“And you’re the one person who understands me,” I say. “Which is why you of all people should know I won’t risk the lives of my family for just anyone. I won’t go around slaughtering people, painting a church red, if I didn’t love this woman. And I do, Leandra. I love her so much it scares me, keeps me up at night, because for the first time in my life, I have a taste of what it feels like to be happy, and what happens if she gets taken away from me? Just the thought of it chokes me.”

“We all live with that fear, Isaia. God, I lived through it, remember? When I thought I was going to lose Alexius. When we weren’t sure he’d pull through, it felt like I was holding my breath the entire time until it burned.”

“I remember.” I reach up and brush my thumb up her cheek. “Everly? She’s my burn, Leandra. My fight. And just like I know Alexius will fight until death for you, I’ll fight until I drown…for her.”

Her lips part, letting out a soft sound, placing her hand on my chest where my heart is, feeling the chaos beneath. “Do you truly love her, Isaia?”

I place my hand over hers. “My mom had this saying, that love isn’t the butterflies you feel when you’re together. But the emptiness you feel when you’re apart.”

Leandra smiles at that.

“And when they took her from me, I felt that emptiness, Leandra. I felt so fucking deep, it pulled me under, into a void where nothing mattered anymore. Nothing but her.”

The warmest smile spreads along her beautiful face, her kindness, her heart shining through as it always does. “Then I support you.”

“That’s all I’m asking for.”

“Just please don’t make me bury you.”

“I won’t promise you that,” I confess. “Because if it comes to choosing between my life and hers, there won’t be a moment’s hesitation.”

Something between sadness and understanding flashes in her eyes. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Leandra—”

“But,” she presses, “it’s my fear. My worry. And I can’t make that your problem. You deserve to find love, even if it cuts deep. And if your love for her is just a fraction of the love I share with your brother, it’ll be worth bleeding for.”

She leans in, wrapping her arms around me in a comforting hug. “If Everly is what will keep you alive, then fight for her. Just come back to us, okay?”

“That’s the plan, Mrs. Del Rossa.” I squeeze her back. “That’s the plan.”