Chapter: CameraCARLOS POV. SIX YEARS AGOShe was seventeen. Living with her grandmother in a house that smelled like grief and old wood, a girl who had lost everything and was still somehow upright.I kept her alive the way you keep an interesting thing — at a distance, for the entertainment of watching it move. A teenager plotting my murder. I gave her maybe three weeks before I got bored and had her handled.Then the school footage arrived.My men sent it without context and I watched a girl standing in a cafeteria while her friends peeled away from her one by one, faces doing that particular human thing of protecting themselves from proximity to suffering. She stood in the middle of it. Watched them go.Then she picked up a lunch tray and hurled it into the wall.“I’M THE ONE WHO LOST EVERYTHING. DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME I DON’T UNDERSTAND FAMILY.”Her voice raw. Her hands shaking. Everyone around her frozen.She didn’t cry. Not once in that footage.I cancelled the order.Three weeks later she was
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Chapter: ProposedI look past him to Marcus. He’s studying the feed of the figure at my door, face neutral. Still. The way he goes still when he’s doing actual thinking.That person moved my knife. Moved my gun. Came into my apartment and rearranged things to let me know they could. If Vaughn hadn’t flagged it I’d have missed it entirely. I’ve been ignoring Vaughn’s texts because he’s worried and I can’t afford to pull him into this any further than I already have.“Be careful.” Marcus speaks to the screen, not to me. “Carlos is more vile than you think.”“He can bare his teeth. We’re both ending in blood anyway.” I say it easily because I mean it and because I need to mean it right now, with whatever happened in that ring and that car trying to rewrite the story I’ve been telling myself for six years.Marcus’s jaw works. He looks at me then — really looks — and something crosses his face before he can stop it.“You just cost me a hundred million dollars.”The room temperature drops.“What do you mean?
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Chapter: Marcus workroomTHALIA POV. 5pm. Day 2“He’s fucking taunting me.”My voice cuts through the workroom, Marcus remains unmoving while ten heads lift from their laptops simultaneously. Nobody speaks. They know better.This room is a masterpiece of deception. It's decorated like a high-end technical workshop with sleek laptops and rows of focused specialists sitted in front of it. The windows and doors are glasses. Everything looks well and good but the large screen dominating the far wall tells the real story.It shows the silhouette of a man draped in a black trench coat, every inch of skin meticulously hidden. A face cap and mask obscure his features. The figure isn’t attacking; he’s doing something worse. He’s waving at the camera—waving at me.Like, what can I do? I can do worse! I helped built this room! And my ex boyfriend works in FBI. Six years ago this room didn’t exist.Rumor has it Marcus’s wife died from an overdose—some even whisper Marcus pushed her toward the edge, but I refuse to beli
Last Updated: 2026-03-12
Chapter: ProofHe reaches into his jacket, pulls out a folded paper, sets it on the bed."When did you prepare this?"He looks at me with raised lashes"You asked Shadows to be attacked,I knew you'll need more""Go ahead"“Marcus needs to consolidate,” Damien starts and I sit back up“His clan took losses last year- people, resources, political standing. The Irish networks that were backing him have started pulling support. Quietly, but it’s moving.”I look at the paper without picking it up. “Why.”“In the mafia, you lead a home or you lead nothing. Since his wife's death, they think he’s weakened. Grief makes men reckless or makes them small, and Marcus has been both on alternating weeks.” He pauses.“He needs to either pay down significant debt to the Irish, or demonstrate stability by other means.”“Marriage.”“Marriage,” Damien nods in confirmation.I reach over and press too hard on the music box by the window. It shrieks once before settling into its usual tone.I head back out into the livin
Last Updated: 2026-03-11
Chapter: Visit ThaliaCARLOS. DAY TWO. 12:23AM Thalia. The name has been running on a loop since I left the tech room, threading through every other thought like it owns the frequency. I walk out of the warehouse into the cold night air and it’s still there. Still her.She is rude to me. Refuses to come to work. Has been living rent-free in my head and considerably lower for days now. She nearly cost me a client, distracted my guards, knocked one unconscious, stole his uniform and infiltrated Viper Lane’s warehouse on what was not, by any measure, a busy night.She is beyond what I imagined since I've been stalking her.I give her that.Stalking. I didn't see her leaveI pick up my phone and text Damien only to find out he has texted.Damien: She infiltrated the warehouse without hesitation. Marcus is aiding her, has to be. She’s done enough damage. Kill her now or neutralize her before she costs you something you can’t replace. I’m not joking, Carlos.A second text before I could replyI mean it. I l
Last Updated: 2026-03-11
Chapter: DecisionAll I can think about is how fucking brilliant she is and how livid I am.This is a lane crossed.This is months of people's hard labour.ThaliaShe played me. Smiled in my face, let me stitch her up, sent her home like a good little soldier, then turned around and burned my operation to the ground.I should be furious. I'm furiousI'll hunt her down to put a bullet between those pretty eyes.But again. A part of me that likes when she challenges me is arouse to this.Because she’s exactly what I thought she was. What I hoped she was.Dangerous. Fearless. Willing to risk everything for meJust like me.I pull out my phone and dial.Marcus answers on the second ring. “Carlos.”“We need to talk.”“About?”“Your operative just cost me twenty million dollars.”Silence. Then, carefully:“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”“Don’t insult me, Marcus. Thalia sabotaged tonight’s shipment. Question is—did you order it, or did she go rogue?”More silence. I can practically hear him calculat
Last Updated: 2026-03-10
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