“Oh, come on. If anyone attacks us or finds us here and you...”

“I’ll be fine. You can always punish me for it once we get out of this alive.” Amusement filled his eyes.

A smile tugged at my lips as I bit down on my lip. “Maybe I will.”

“We should get out of here and find some food.” He made his way to the window and pulled the thick curtain aside a little. “Before too many people show up.”

“I know.” I looked around for my clothes and found them neatly piled up on the bed next to me. “But what are we going to do? We can’t be on the run forever. I’m Arianna Monti. I can’t let the Desaltis play with me like this.”

“They won’t stop until you’re dead.” His face was serious as he let go of the curtain.

“They will if Romeo Desalti dies first.” I ground my teeth. Where was Romeo now? Probably enjoying a coffee and a nice breakfast in his lavish house as he waited for his assassins to call him and tell him they’d done their job.

“You can take a page out of his book and hire someone to go after him.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to be like him. I’d love nothing more than to put a bullet in him myself for all the trouble he’s put me through, but he hides behind his guards and I’ll never be able to get to him.”

James was quiet for a few moments, his face pensive.

“It looks like you might have an idea, so tell me.” I gave him an expectant look.

“There might be a way for you to get to Romeo, but it’s very risky.”

“Riskier than trying to outrun the assassins?”

He shrugged. “You’d have to lure Romeo out.”

“Lure him out? Yeah, I wish I could do that somehow, but I’m not sure what kind of bait I’d need for him to get out of his area. He’s not going to put his life at risk, and he’d never come to my territory where I could attack him. And if I sent my men to his area, we’d very likely lose.”

“You’d be bait.”

I gaped at him. “Me?”

“Yeah. He wants you, and if he saw that you’re alone and unprotected, he might come after you to end you himself. If he did that, the whole city would be talking about him and about how he finally defeated the great Montis.”

I eyed him carefully. “I’m not sure that would be enough for him to come into my territory, and he’d know it’s a trap. He’d just send his assassins after me, although yeah, that wouldn’t be the same as if he killed me himself in front of everyone.”