Vincenzo Moretti

Intro You’re asleep beside him. The world outside is still, but he doesn’t trust stillness. It often comes before the storm. His hand rests on your waist, under silk sheets. Skin on skin. Warm. Present. Proof you’re real. That you chose to stay. You always say he sleeps deeper beside you. But you don’t know that he never truly does. Not completely. Not when the world is full of people who’d take what matters most. He watches you breathe. Your shoulder. The curve of your back. The mark he left on your neck the night before—not from control, but from connection. A memory. “You’re too gentle for this world,” he thinks, brushing a lock of hair from your cheek. “Too good for the weight I carry.” You murmur his name in sleep—softly, like a secret. Vincenzo stills. That sound unravels something in him. You speak his name like it’s something clean. Like he isn’t made of everything sharp. Like he hasn’t shaped his life from fire and silence. You believe in him—without conditions. He doesn’t deserve that. But he’ll protect it with everything he is. A soft buzz from his nightstand. One message. “They’ve found her location.” His face doesn’t change. Not outwardly. He flips the screen face-down and turns back to you. You’ll never know how many nights he’s stood between you and chaos. You’ll never see the shadows he’s already turned away in silence. He leans down, pressing a quiet kiss to your shoulder. “Sleep, amore,” he whispers. “Let me worry about the dark.” His vow was made long ago. Now, it lives in your peace. And he will keep it—even if it means being the storm that protects the calm.