“My brothers saved me, but he got away. The PTSD after was bad. I didn’t want to burden anyone, so I kept it to myself. It ate at me. Destroyed me. I’d wake up in a sweat, hearing their cries and pleas for help,” he choked out, his voice stripped down to nothing but pure raw pain as he held on to me. “One night, I woke up and went to get a drink in my office. I stared at the bottle of Legacy Ridge, and memories of you calmed me down. I felt at peace for the first time in over a year.”

A harsh sob rattled free from my lungs as I held him as tight as I possibly could.

“Anytime PTSD hit, I focused on you instead,” he began again as he continued to remain a rock of strength. “You became my refuge—the memories of you, your sweetness and innocence, the opposite of everything that happened in that room.”

His warm breath at my neck slipped over my skin as he stroked my back, consoling me when I needed to be offering him solace instead.

“I had my designer create this room as a physical place to escape the pain when it was too much. So, you see, you helped me get better. Helped me fight my demons and come out on top.”

He eased back and cupped my face, his eyes glimmering as he allowed one more tear to break through his defenses. Meanwhile, I was an absolute disaster.

“You saved me.” He brought his forehead to mine. “You saved me, and you didn’t even know it.”

I sniffled, doing my best to calm down so I could talk. “Please tell me he’s dead.”

“Last year, I killed him. Slit his throat and shot him myself.” His breaths quickened as if he were losing the battle to keep his emotions in check. “He got his hands on my brother Alessandro but we found him in time before Rocco could do everything to him that he did to me.”

He righted his head to look at me. His lashes were wet, and his eyes were coated in a liquid sheen, but he wasn’t surrendering more tears, just holding them captive.

Those dark pools of sweet humanity focused on me, and another stuttering breath passed from my lips to his skin.

I’d give anything to convey everything I was feeling and sum those emotions up into words that held more weight than a singular apology. But how?