"Vote on what?" But I can see in her eyes that she already knows.
"On whether to hand you over to the Costellos or go to war."
The color drains from her face. "A vote. They're putting my life up for a vote."
"Sofia—"
"You know how that's going to go." Her voice is barely a whisper. "You know exactly what they're going to choose."
I want to lie to her. Want to tell her that maybe the vote will go differently, that maybe the families will choose war oversacrificing an innocent girl. But I can't. Not after what she just did for me.
"Yeah. I know."
She's quiet for a long moment, and I can see her processing the reality of what's coming. When she looks at me again, there are tears in her eyes.
"Dante, please." Her voice breaks on my name. "Please don't bring me back there so they can do that to me. Please."
The words sink deep into my soul. I've heard Sofia angry, defiant, sarcastic, scared. But I've never heard her beg. Never seen her look so utterly defeated.
"Sofia..."
"I know what they'll do to me. I know what Kieran Costello is like, what his family does to their enemies. They say he wants a wife, but what they really want is revenge. And I know that once they vote, once they decide I'm expendable, there won't be any coming back from that."
"I won't let them hurt you."
"How?" She laughs, but there's no humor in it. "How are you going to stop an entire room full of men who've already decided I'm worth sacrificing? How are you going to protect me from a family that specializes in making people disappear?"
I don't have an answer. Because she's right—once that vote happens, once the decision is made, there won't be anything I can do to save her.
"I can't go back there, Dante. I can't sit in a room while strangers decide whether I live or die. I can't marry a man who'll hurt me just to prove a point." Tears are streaming down her face now. "I won't survive it. Even if they don't kill me outright, I won't survive becoming whatever they want to turn me into."
"Then don't." The words are out before I can stop them.
She stares at me. "What?"
"Don't go back. We disappear. Both of us. Tonight."
"You don't mean that."
"Don't I?" I sit up despite the pain in my head, despite her attempts to push me back down. "You just saved my life, Sofia. You chose to save me instead of saving yourself. That means something."
"It means I have a functioning conscience. It doesn't mean you should throw away everything you've worked for."
"Everything I've worked for?" I laugh bitterly. "You mean my loyalty to a man who's willing to hand over an innocent girl to save his own skin? My devotion to a family that treats people like chess pieces?"
"Vito took you in. He gave you everything."
"And now he's asking me to deliver you to your death. Does that sound like the man who taught me about loyalty? About protecting people who can't protect themselves?"
Sofia is quiet, watching me with an expression I can't read.
"Fifteen years," I continue. "Fifteen years I've followed orders without question. Fifteen years I've told myself that loyalty to the family was the most important thing. But you know what I realized tonight?"
"What?"
"The family was never about Vito or the Commission or the businesses. It was about the people. About protecting the people we care about. And right now, the person I care about most is sitting right here, asking me not to hand her over to be tortured."
"Dante—"
