The cuff clung to my ankle, a cold reminder of the guard’s smirk as he snapped it shut. My skin was already raw from twisting against the steel, but the ache was nothing compared to the mess inside my head.Darian knelt on the floor in front of me, his shoulders tense under the black fabric of his shirt. His hands moved with measured precision, the small pick turning inside the cuff’s lock.The silence between us was heavy for a room this small. Naomi was gone. The guards’ footsteps had faded down the hall. All that was left was the sound of metal scratching metal and my pulse pounding in my ears.I could still taste him. The kiss we’d just shared clung to me like heat in my lungs. My heart beat fast, but not just from fear.His hands stopped. The pick stilled. Darian didn’t look at me right away—he stared at the cuff instead, his jaw flexing once, twice.When his eyes finally lifted, they were different. Softer at the edges, but harder in the center, like he’d made some kind of decis
Maria ReyesI sat on the bed, my hands trembling as I clutched the edge of the thin mattress. The room felt suffocating, the barred windows letting in only faint grey light from the rainy city outside.The Reyes' mansion had always been a cold cage, but now it was a prison. He’d locked me and Naomi here for betraying him. My mind spun with panic and confusion.Naomi sat against the wall, her face pale but steady, sick with a fever earlier. The guards had thrown her in with me, thinking it would keep us compliant. I whispered to her, “We’ll get out,” but doubt gnawed at me.A soft scrape broke the silence. The vent grate shifted, and a man dressed in a dark suit hanging like a bat in the vent. My stomach dropped, and I wanted to scream, but immediately I recognized him. It was Darian dressed to disguise himself. He held his finger on his lips, signaling me to be quiet. His dark shirt hugged his lean muscles, knife in hand, he wore contact lenses to cover his ice-grey eyes. Rage explod
I crouched in the narrow closet, my back pressed against stacks of folded linens that smelled of stale lavender detergent. The door was cracked just enough for me to see into the dim hallway of the Reyes mansion. My breath came slow and controlled, but my mind raced. Now, two guards patrolled the corridor outside, their boots thudding softly on the thick carpet. One was bulky, with a shaved head and a pistol holstered at his hip. The other was a leaner, fidgeting with his earpiece. I gripped my knife tighter, the cool metal handle grounding me. If they found me, I'd have to kill them quietly. No alarms. No noise. My life depended on it. My thoughts churned with rage. Hector might have suspected them of the evidence I'd gathered on Project Phoenix. But I wouldn't break. Not yet. I needed to get to Maria first, pull her out of this hellhole before he twisted her against me. She was mine—body, soul, everything. The memory of her skin under my hands, warm and yielding, flashed in my h
I slammed the car door shut, the sound ricocheting off the concrete walls of the underground parking garage. Mark, my lawyer, leaned against his black sedan, his face drawn under the flickering fluorescent lights.For days, we’d been hunting for Viper, my tech expert who vanished after that warehouse mess. Viper was more than muscle—he held the keys to cracking Hector Reyes’s accounts, the final blow to shatter that bastard’s empire. Every lead we chased crumbled to nothing."Nothing at the docks," Mark said, his voice tight as he tugged at his tie, sweat glistening despite the cold. "No one’s seen him. Streets are silent."My gloved fists clenched, leather creaking against my knuckles. Viper was deep into Project Phoenix, Hector’s cartel-backed money-laundering scheme. If someone snatched him, it was either Hector or a rival moving faster than me."Up the bribes," I snapped. "Find him."Mark nodded, but his eyes betrayed doubt. We’d torn through bars, warehouses, and Viper’s old spot
"Viper? Like Darian’s Viper? His sidekick?" I leaned forward, my voice sharp but eager, she’d just handed me a piece of forbidden gossip I couldn’t wait to unwrap. "Yeah, Viper," she sighed, the word dragging out of her like she’d been holding it in for days. She kept going, voice low and almost embarrassed. "It happened in that warehouse apartment. He’d drugged me at the bar when I tried to seduce him. I smirked. "Sounds about right for a guy called Viper." "You don’t get it, Maria," she snapped, but there was no heat behind it — just frustration that I couldn’t see it the way she felt it. "He’s funny. But not ‘tell a joke’ funny. Dark funny. The kind of fun that makes you laugh when you’re scared. He says the filthiest crap. Stuff that should make you want to slap him, but then you want to fuck him instead." I tilted my head, biting my lip. "So what happened in the apartment?" She didn’t answer at first. Then she exhaled and said it like it cost her something. "I seduced him a
The door slammed behind me with a sound that felt like it went straight through my bones. A deep, final thunk that didn’t just close a door—it locked away my freedom. I spun around so fast my heels slipped on the carpet, my palms smacking hard against the wood. I twisted the knob, yanking with all the strength I had left, but it didn’t budge. Locked. From the outside. "Hey!" My voice cracked. I pounded my fists on the door until they ached. "Open the goddamn door!" Nothing. Just my own voice bouncing back, hollow, useless, like shouting down an empty well. I pressed my ear against the wood, hoping for footsteps, a shadow, something. All I got was silence. The room was cold, the air was stale, like no one had been here for months—years maybe. Curtains hung half-drawn, letting a sliver of moonlight slash across the carpet. The beam was thin and sharp, making the dust in the air look like it was suspended in water. An old dresser stood in the corner, its mirror had spiderwe