The Mafia Boss’s Dog Chose the Plus-Size Woman Everyone Ignored—Then Refused to Leave Her Side

Chapter 10

Ruby slowly placed the file in her hands onto the desk. “Where’s Caesar? At home? Is he sick?”

“No. Not eating. He had steak. Restless.” A pause. “He’s asleep on my bed, where he is forbidden to sleep.”

Ruby waited. Luca offered no excuse. She folded her arms over her soft stomach. “Then why are you here?”

He looked around the center. Nothing important had changed, yet he studied the room as if he had been away for years. The pink pig’s empty place remained visible inside the toy basket. His old chair still stood near the window. Ruby watched him carefully, uncertain whether she wanted him to speak or leave before the ache in her chest became obvious.

“The men who followed you are no longer a threat,” Luca said. “The person who ordered it has withdrawn from the city. No one is watching Harbor Light.”

Ruby nodded. “Then Caesar can come back.”

“I did not come because of Caesar.”

The words silenced her. For months, the dog had been Luca’s reason for every visit — Caesar could not eat, Caesar could not sleep, Caesar wanted that street, that toy, that woman. Ruby had always known the excuses were weak, but they had allowed both of them to avoid the truth, to sit across from each other pretending a dog was all that lay between them. Now Luca stood before her without the dog, and there was nothing left between them at all but the truth they had both been hiding from.

“Then say why you came,” Ruby said, her voice quieter.

Luca Marchetti had faced armed rivals without hesitation. The answer seemed to cost him more than any of it. “Because my house has become unbearable.”

Ruby raised one eyebrow. “That sounds like a problem for an interior designer.”

“It’s too quiet.”

“You own thirty rooms.”

“They’re all quiet.”

She almost smiled, but Luca continued before she could interrupt. Caesar waited beside the door every evening, he said. He carried the pink pig from room to room, then placed it near Luca’s chair and stared at him as if expecting them to leave for Harbor Light. The dog sat there with the toy between his paws, looking at the door with the patience of a creature who had stopped counting the hours. And Luca, who had spent his entire life commanding loyalty from men who needed something from him, had found himself sitting down beside the dog and waiting, too — for a bell that never rang, for a woman who had told him, with her whole body, that she would not be ordered into safety.

“I used him as an excuse after the second visit,” Luca said. “He needed this place — but I wanted to see you.”

Ruby looked down briefly. Luca stepped closer, though he stopped before entering her space.

“I wanted to hear you insult my decisions. I wanted to watch you pretend you were not pleased when I brought food. I even missed seeing you trip over objects that have been in the same place all day.”

“That part damaged the confession,” Ruby said.

“I’m not skilled at this.” A faint smile appeared on his face, then vanished.

He told her that staying away had seemed safer. It removed her from his world and gave her back the peace she demanded. It also taught him that protecting someone from every possible danger could become another way of keeping them at a distance. “I was wrong,” he said.

Ruby studied him. Luca Marchetti did not apologize easily. Even now, the words seemed to cost him more than money or power ever had.

“And if I tell you to leave?” she asked.

His jaw tightened. “I leave.”

“You wouldn’t send food tomorrow?”

“No.”

“Or buy the building?”

“No.”

“Or claim Caesar has developed a rare emotional disease?”

Luca paused. “He has become dramatic.”

Ruby tried not to laugh. She failed.

He reached inside his coat, but Ruby immediately lifted one hand. “If that is another contract, the answer is no.”

He removed nothing. “I came to ask you to dinner.”

Ruby stared at him.

“No gala,” he added. “No charity announcement. No security meeting. Just dinner.”

“And Caesar?”

“Not invited.”

“Cruel.”

“He will survive.”

Ruby picked up her coat and walked around the desk. “One dinner.”

Luca opened the door for her. “One dinner.”

“And you are not buying the restaurant.”

He looked at her with complete seriousness. “That could be difficult.”

Ruby stopped. Luca allowed the silence to hold for two seconds before adding, “That was a joke.”

She stepped outside beside him. “You’re improving.”

Across the city, Caesar slept in the center of Luca’s bed with the pink pig beneath one paw, having finally succeeded in sending his master somewhere without him. He had placed the toy exactly where Ruby used to sit, and he slept with the peaceful abandon of a creature who had done his job.