I always told myself the club was just a temporary stop—good tips, loud music to drown out my thoughts, and lights dim enough that no one could see the fear I carried like perfume. But every night when I step behind the bar, I feel his presence before I see him: Luca Moretti, the owner, the son of a crime family everyone in this city pretends not to know about. He watches everything with those sharp, quiet eyes—danger wrapped in a tailored suit. I should quit, run, disappear, but there’s something magnetic about the way he moves through the shadows, something that keeps me coming back even though I know better. And when he says my name, soft and deliberate, I can’t tell if I’m being protected… or marked.