Way Out: Owned by the Mafia Boss
Ethan Cross, an FBI agent, has been pursuing Dante Valensi, one of the nation's most influential and untouchable crime lords, for years. Dante has created an empire that law enforcement has never been able to destroy. He is cunning, ruthless, and feared by all. Ethan, however, is unique. He has been assigned the task of entering Dante's world as Luca Romano, moving up the ranks, and destroying him from within.
It is almost impossible to get close to Dante. He doesn’t trust anyone and doesn’t allow anyone to be close to him, especially not romantically. However, in the role of Luca, Ethan excels at the game, gains Dante’s confidence, and becomes his right-hand man. He gets closer to his objective with each step. It becomes more difficult to keep in mind that this is only a mission every moment spent with Dante.
Then everything changes one night.
An overly persistent touch. The look says too much. A weakness that neither of them can undo. What little and dishonesty develops into something harmful that is unavoidable.
It’s just part of the job, Ethan tells himself. Dante is an evil creature. that the worst thing he could ever do is fall in love with him. What occurs, though, when the lie begins to seem more plausible than reality?
Ethan has to decide whether to finish his mission and bring down the man he was sent to destroy or to give in to the one person he was never supposed to love as secrets come to light, treachery looms, and blood is shed.
Because there is only one way in with Dante Valenci. And no escape route.
Read
Chapter: Echoes in the CodeLuca’s POVHe should’ve stopped thinking about Dante by now.He’d done everything right—worked, fucked, smiled, pretended. Mira stayed over more nights than she didn’t, and her laughter wrapped around him like a song on repeat. But there was still that silence.Dante’s silence.And it was louder than anything else.Luca’s days were full. His nights were fuller. But it didn’t matter how many orgasms Mira pulled from him—there was something wrong with his skin. Like it didn’t belong to him anymore. Like he was being watched.It started with that.A flicker on his phone screen when no one was touching it.The security light outside his apartment flashing when no one was near it.The echo of steps behind him that stopped when he turned around.“I’m being paranoid,” he whispered to the mirror one night.“Get over it. He’s gone.”But the words didn’t stick.Because deep down, Luca knew: Dante didn’t leave. He withdrew.And Dante withdrawing was always a prelude to something worse.Luca sto
Last Updated: 2025-06-07
Chapter: The Quiet Before the CollapseDante’s POVThe feed froze for a moment—just one flicker—but Dante saw it.Luca had exited the building. No phone. No Mira. No warning.That was new.Dante leaned back in his chair, a faint smile tugging at the edge of his mouth. Not happiness. Amusement.You’re starting to see me, aren’t you?For weeks, Dante had been meticulous—like a surgeon. He didn’t just disappear from Luca’s life. He disappeared into it. Quiet as dust, present in ways Luca would only feel, not see.A shadow in the static.A shift in the air.A ghost haunting the edges of every room.And Luca? He’d started responding. Not directly. But his nervous habits were telling—checking over his shoulder, watching his phone too long, sleeping with the windows locked.Dante could feel it.The paranoia.The creeping doubt.The pull.The loft was silent except for the soft hum of the surveillance wall. Six monitors glowed in pale blues and greens, tracking patterns, signals, voices. Every angle of Luca’s life mapped, measure
Last Updated: 2025-06-07
Chapter: Patterns in the FogLuca’s POVLuca didn’t sleep that night.He lay in bed with Mira’s arm draped over his chest, staring at the crack in the ceiling plaster like it was a map. At 4:06 a.m., when her breathing settled into that low, steady rhythm, he slipped out from under her.No phone.No shoes.Just boxers and bare feet on cold tile.He stepped into the living room, where the city glow bled through the curtains like a dull warning.The new tenant. The barista. The unmarked messages.He needed answers.But he wasn’t sure he was ready for them.The first thing he did was check his own phone. Not just the messages, but the metadata.It wasn’t much—he wasn’t a hacker—but he knew how to scroll deep into the settings, trace app usage, recent connections. And there it was: an unknown Bluetooth ping around 3:12 a.m. the night he got the ghost notification.A device had been close enough to his phone to attempt a handshake. Close enough to register—and then disappear.Luca’s hands shook.This wasn’t just paran
Last Updated: 2025-06-07
Chapter: The Unseen ThreadLuca’s POVIt started with the coffee.Not the taste, not the warmth—but the timing.The barista at his usual place greeted him with a too-familiar smile and handed over his order without asking. He hadn’t been there in weeks.Then the doorman at Mira’s building nodded at him like he’d been seen entering alone that morning.He hadn’t.And Mira—Mira had been… strange.She asked him three times if he slept well.Twice if he’d remembered to eat.She kept checking his phone screen when she thought he wasn’t looking, laughing too loud, talking too much. Like she was trying to fill the silence with sound.But Luca wasn’t listening to sound anymore.He was listening to the silence underneath it.At first, he told himself it was nothing. A bad night’s sleep. Nerves. The guilt still curdling in his gut from what happened a few nights ago—what he’d let happen with Mira.He didn’t love her. He knew that now. He didn’t even like her most days.She was a distraction. A shield. Maybe even a punishm
Last Updated: 2025-06-07
Chapter: The First MoveDante’s POVThere was a time when I’d never move without Luca.Now, every step I take feels like a shadow of who I used to be—with one key difference:I’m not moving for love anymore. I’m moving for control.Anais didn’t disappoint.Within twelve hours, she returned with intel that confirmed what I already suspected. Luca was no longer under active surveillance. His ties to the Bureau had been “voluntarily severed” after his last handler reported a conflict of interest.Conflict of interest. That meant me.His career was torched quietly. The kind of silence the Bureau saves for agents who stray emotionally—because it’s too messy to fix and too dangerous to leave unchecked.They buried him.But I hadn’t.Now I had to decide what to do with the pieces of the man they discarded.The apartment had always been our neutral zone. The place where the rules bent. Where we didn’t have to be Dante the crime boss and Luca the agent—we were just bodies and breath and heat.But now?Now it felt lik
Last Updated: 2025-06-07
Chapter: BeginningDante’s POVThe city had always obeyed me.Its rhythm, its chaos, its cruelty—I thrived in all of it. I’d learned to control people the same way I controlled territories: slowly, precisely, until they didn’t know where their choices ended and mine began.But Luca wasn’t supposed to be one of them.He was the risk I allowed. The wildfire I thought I could keep contained. And now?Now he was the one thing burning through everything I had built—with Mira at his side, a blade twisted deeper each night I stayed away.I had no intention of returning to him.But still… I watched.It started with a drive I didn’t mean to take. A shadowed route through streets I hadn’t cruised since we met. The apartment I once entered without knocking now loomed like a wound I couldn’t stop touching.I wasn’t planning on getting out of the car.But I did.I wasn’t planning on going to the window.But I did.And then I saw it—them.Not just sex.Not just betrayal.Something more. A connection, frantic and desp
Last Updated: 2025-06-07
Behind the Spotlight
Ethan Blake and Julian Cross are Hollywood’s favorite rivals—two A-list actors whose off-screen feud is as legendary as their on-screen performances. For years, the media has played up their animosity, feeding into the narrative of two stars who can’t stand each other. And Ethan is fine with that. Julian is arrogant, reckless, and far too good at getting under his skin.
But when they are cast as romantic leads in a high-profile LGBTQ+ blockbuster, everything changes. Forced into close proximity, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. Heated arguments behind the scenes turn into charged moments neither of them can ignore. A single off-script kiss during filming shatters their carefully constructed walls, sending both their careers—and emotions—into uncharted territory.
The media explodes with speculation. Rumors spread like wildfire, and their public feud only adds fuel to the fire. A PR crisis forces them into damage control, but every interview, every staged moment, only makes it harder to deny the truth simmering beneath the surface.
As industry backlash looms and personal stakes grow higher, Ethan finds himself at a crossroads. He has spent years playing it safe, hiding behind his carefully curated image. But Julian refuses to be another script he follows. He wants something real.
In an industry built on illusion, can two men who were never meant to fall for each other survive the spotlight’s harsh glare? Or will fear and fame tear them apart before they even have a chance?
Enemies on screen. Lovers behind the scenes. But can they survive the ultimate Hollywood scandal?
Read
Chapter: A Role I Never Auditioned ForEthan’s POVHe used to dream of this.The flashing cameras. The spotlight. The world knowing his name and—maybe more importantly—respecting his work.But now, as Ethan stood backstage at the Dolby Theater, collar tight against his throat, nerves pulsing behind his ribs, all he could think was: What if it costs me everything else?Julian was still in the green room, talking to their agent. Calm. Collected. So effortlessly composed it sometimes ached to watch him. And Ethan loved him for that composure—but tonight, it felt like a wall between them.They were being honored as a creative duo. Glass Mercy was up for multiple awards. Their recent joint interview had gone viral for being “candid,” “brave,” “romantic.” And now, their agents were quietly fighting over their future: Who gets to direct what next. Who headlines. Who gets first billing.Not “Ethan and Julian.”Just Ethan. Or Julian.Alone.The applause thundered like static in his ears when their names were called.Julian took his
Last Updated: 2025-06-06
Chapter: What It Means to StayJulian’s POVThe apartment felt different now.Not emptier. Not heavier.Just… quieter. Like something had shifted between the floorboards and breath, and even the walls were holding still, afraid to disrupt the fragile balance Julian and Ethan were trying to find again.Julian sat on the floor, his back against the cold kitchen cabinet. A cup of tea—lukewarm and untouched—rested beside him. He was still in last night’s shirt, sleeves rolled, collar open, like time had slowed but never stopped.He wasn’t avoiding Ethan.But he wasn’t rushing back, either.Because this—this kind of love—didn’t move on declarations or drama. It moved on the cracks. The spaces in between. The willingness to stay when every instinct said to run.Two days had passed since the confrontation.Since Ethan had looked at him like he wasn’t just a man falling apart—but one worth catching anyway.Julian had replayed every word. Every hesitation. Every quiet truth they hadn’t said until they had no choice.He’d sp
Last Updated: 2025-06-06
Chapter: The Silence Between UsJulian’s POVIt started with the coffee.Ethan always made the coffee. Two mugs. One splash of oat milk, one black. Quiet domesticity, the kind Julian had never known before him.But that morning, Julian woke to an empty kitchen. No Ethan. No coffee.Just a silence that rang louder than any argument ever could.At first, he told himself it was nothing. Maybe Ethan had gone for a walk. Maybe he was on a call. But the doubt was already there, coiling.Had something shifted?Julian told himself it was just residual tension from the visit. Caleb showing up had dredged up everything Ethan had buried. But it wasn’t just about Caleb.It was about the way Ethan had looked at him afterward. Like he was grateful. Like Julian had saved him again.And that was the problem.Julian didn’t want to be the savior anymore.He wanted to be… chosen.They didn’t talk about it that night. Or the next.Ethan was soft with him. Attentive. But careful, too.Julian started noticing the hesitations—Ethan glanci
Last Updated: 2025-06-06
Chapter: Ghost in the DoorwayJulian’s POVJulian was learning to let Ethan carry parts of him.To lean, to speak first, to say I need you out loud.It wasn’t easy. Not for someone who’d always been the calm one. The shield.But after Ethan shared his story—the quiet horror of being shaped by someone who called it love—Julian had held that pain like something sacred.They’d crossed into a new kind of closeness.Not just lovers. Not just co-creators.Something messier. Braver.So when the doorbell rang that Sunday afternoon, Julian opened it without thinking.And the ghost was standing there.A man. Early thirties. Expensive jacket. That kind of smile that knew it could cut.“Ethan home?” he asked, like he had every right to be.Julian blinked. “I’m sorry. Who—?”The man tilted his head. “Tell him it’s Caleb.”Julian froze.Caleb.The name Ethan never said—but the one Julian had tucked away in the back of his mind. The man who taught Ethan to mistrust softness. The one who made pain look like passion.Julian’s voic
Last Updated: 2025-06-06
Chapter: A Room I Never Let You IntoEthan’s POVThere were memories I’d sealed in a box a long time ago.Not because I’d forgotten.But because I thought I had to—if I wanted to be loved.If I wanted to keep moving.Julian once told me that healing wasn’t about forgetting.It was about learning to live alongside the ache.Tonight, I was ready to try.We were curled up on the rug in the living room, the lights low, a vinyl humming in the background. It was one of those rare nights when nothing urgent pressed in—no interviews, no questions, no headlines.Just us.Julian had made tea—green for me, chamomile for him. He loved rituals like that. Quiet little ways of saying “I see you” without the weight of language.He was sketching idly in a notebook with his bare feet stretched across my lap. I watched the way his fingers moved, confident and clean, as if drawing helped him organize the chaos he didn’t speak aloud.And I realized: this was the safest I’d ever felt.Which made the confession all the more terrifying.“I want
Last Updated: 2025-06-06
Chapter: Something Soft to Fall IntoEthan’s POVThere were nights when the silence between us said more than any argument could.Tonight, it wasn’t sharp or hostile. It was soft. Cautious. Like both of us were afraid to speak first in case the words cracked something we’d only just started rebuilding.Julian had fallen asleep on the far edge of the couch. Not distant—just exhausted. His body curled in on itself, one arm tucked beneath the throw pillow like it could hold him together.And I sat there, watching him. Feeling both heavy with love and light with fear.Because he was finally letting me in.And I didn’t know how to carry that without breaking myself.A year ago, Julian had been the one holding me through every tremor, every night terror, every panic attack masked as a migraine. He didn’t flinch when I flinched. He didn’t leave when I needed space. He didn’t stop showing up even when I asked him to.And now that he was unraveling—even just a little—it terrified me how instinctively I wanted to fix it.As if I c
Last Updated: 2025-06-06
LOGIN
