The Enforcer's Ward

Sera Bianchi is nineteen, hiding under a false name, and one wrong signature away from being dragged back to Connecticut and married off to a man she's never met. Luca Moretti is the enforcer for the prep school's junior team, and the nephew of the capo Sera is running from. He was supposed to turn her in. Instead he filed her schedule into his phone, learned every shift she works, and started watching her himself. He gets her a job. He moves her into his apartment. He keeps her name off every list that matters. When the family finds her anyway, he offers them the only thing that buys her safety — himself, in Connecticut, on the family's terms. She stays. She finishes. She builds something. A year later, he comes back for it — for her — with nothing left to owe anyone.