CHAPTER 5: Marked

"They're coming for you."

The words echoed in my head long after Matteo said them.

Before I could ask another question, a loud alarm rang through the mansion. The sharp, piercing sound bounced off the walls, making me flinch.

The office door flew open.

"Boss!" one of the guards called, breathing heavily. "The east gate cameras have gone offline."

Matteo didn't panic.

If anything, he became even calmer.

"Lock every entrance," he ordered. "No one gets in or out without my permission."

"Yes, Boss."

The guard disappeared as quickly as he'd arrived.

I stared at Matteo, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it was trying to break free from my chest.

"What is happening?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. "Who are they?"

He didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he picked up the brown envelope from his desk and looked down at the photographs again.

The pictures of me.

Walking across campus.

Leaving a café.

Standing outside my own bedroom window.

Someone had been following me without me ever noticing.

The thought made my skin crawl.

"Matteo," I said again, more firmly this time. "Talk to me."

He looked up.

"I don't know who's behind this."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"I know someone is watching you," he replied. "I know they went through a great deal of effort to keep track of your movements. But I don't know why."

I crossed my arms.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't have to."

"I've never done anything to anyone."

"In my world," he said quietly, "people aren't always targeted because of what they've done."

His words sent a chill through me.

"Then why?"

He held my gaze.

"Sometimes they're targeted because of who they know."

The room fell silent.

I thought about my parents.

My father had spent years making business deals with powerful people. I never cared enough to ask who they were.

Had one of those deals finally caught up with us?

Or was this because of Matteo?

I didn't know which answer frightened me more.

He slid the photographs back into the envelope before locking them inside one of the desk drawers.

"You'll be staying here until we know who's responsible."

I let out a short, disbelieving laugh.

"So I'm a prisoner now?"

His expression remained unreadable.

"If I wanted you to be a prisoner, I wouldn't be explaining myself."

"You expect me to be grateful?"

"No."

"Then what do you expect?"

He sighed quietly.

"I expect you to stay alive."

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

There was something strange about him.

He wasn't warm.

He wasn't comforting.

But he also wasn't trying to control me the way my father always had.

It was as if protecting people came naturally to him, even if he didn't know how to show it.

Before I could sort through my thoughts, another knock echoed through the office.

This time it was louder.

More urgent.

A different guard rushed inside.

His usually neat suit was covered in dust.

"Boss..."

"What is it?"

"We've identified the man we captured."

Matteo straightened.

"Who is he?"

The guard hesitated for a second.

"He works for the Moretti family."

The atmosphere in the room changed instantly.

Matteo's face hardened, and the warmth—if there had ever been any—vanished completely.

He walked around the desk and reached for the black jacket hanging over the back of his chair.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

The guard nodded.

"We confirmed his identity."

A heavy silence settled over the room.

I looked between them, completely lost.

"Who's the Moretti family?"

Neither man answered.

Instead, Matteo slipped his jacket on and fastened the buttons with practiced ease.

"Prepare the cars," he said.

"Yes, Boss."

The guard hurried out of the office.

I took a step toward Matteo.

"You're leaving?"

"I'm handling this."

"I deserve answers."

"You deserve the truth."

"Then tell me."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"I will."

"When?"

"When I know exactly how much danger you're in."

Before I could argue, another explosion echoed somewhere outside the mansion.

The windows rattled.

Shouts erupted in the courtyard below.

A third guard's voice echoed from the hallway.

"Boss! Someone breached the outer gate!"

Every instinct told me to run.

Instead, I stood frozen.

Matteo reached for my hand without thinking, pulling me behind him as he moved toward the office door.

"Stay close," he said.

For the first time since I'd met him...

I did.

Matteo reached for my hand without thinking, pulling me behind him as he moved toward the office door.

"Stay close," he said.

For the first time since I'd met him...

I did.

The hallway outside was in complete chaos.

Guards raced in every direction, shouting orders into their radios. The once peaceful mansion had turned into a battlefield in a matter of seconds.

"What happened?" Matteo demanded.

One of the guards ran toward us, breathing heavily.

"They're inside."

My blood ran cold.

"What do you mean, they're inside?" Matteo asked, his voice dangerously calm.

"We stopped most of them at the gate..." the guard said between breaths. "But one got through."

The hallway fell silent.

"He disappeared after entering the east wing."

Matteo's eyes darkened.

"The east wing..."

I frowned.

"What's in the east wing?"

Before anyone could answer...

A deafening scream echoed through the mansion.

It was a woman's scream.

It was followed by a gunshot.

Everything around me seemed to stop.

The guards reached for their weapons.

Matteo's hand tightened around mine.

Then another guard sprinted toward us, panic written all over his face.

"Boss!" he shouted.

"We've found him."

Matteo didn't blink.

"Where?"

The guard swallowed hard.

"In your bedroom."

My heart stopped.

Because before anyone could move...

Another gunshot rang through the mansion.