LOGINCillianMarco is still alive. That is the only thing keeping me in this room. Barely alive, but alive. His head hangs forward, chin slick with blood, shoulders trembling with every breath his body fights to take. The chair beneath him creaks every time he twitches. His hands are tied behind his back, wrists raw, expensive shirt torn and soaked dark in places.He doesn’t look like a Bellini prince now. He looks like a man. Breakable. Bleeding. Useful. I stand in front of him, sleeves rolled up, my own hands stained red. Some of it is his. Some of it belongs to the men from the Brooklyn meeting spot. I don’t know anymore. I don’t care.All I know is Elena is still out there. Still in a room. Still being touched by men who should already be dead. My jaw locks so hard pain shoots up the side of my face. Good. Let it hurt.Pain keeps me focused.Declan stands near the monitors we dragged
Elena POVI wake up choking on pain. Not from sleep. I don’t think I was sleeping. I don’t think my body knows how to sleep in here. It just shuts down in small pieces, then drags me back up when the pain gets too loud.My arms are still chained above me. That’s the first thing I understand. Then the rest comes back. Cold wall against my back. Concrete under my knees. Metal biting into my wrists. Shoulders are burning like someone has poured fire into the joints and left it there. My head hangs forward, hair sticking to my damp face, my own breath scraping out of me too shallow, too fast.Every part of me hurts. My ribs pulse with each inhale, deep and sharp. My cheek feels swollen. My lip is split. My throat is dry from breathing through panic, and I keep refusing to call it panic. I try to shift my weight, just a little, and pain shoots down both arms so suddenly that a broken sound slips out of me before I can swallow it.The sound ec
CillianMarco is still breathing. Barely. That’s the only reason I haven’t walked out of this room yet.The air smells like iron and sweat, thick enough to taste. His head hangs forward, chin slick with blood, shoulders shaking with every shallow breath he manages to pull in. One eye swollen shut. The other is barely open. Not enough. Not even close.I stand in front of him, hands flexing slowly at my sides, feeling the restraint coil tighter and tighter inside my chest. Every second he stays quiet, she’s still there. Wherever the hell they took her. My jaw tightens. “Again.”One word. That’s all it takes. Liam moves immediately, stepping in behind the chair. No hesitation. No emotion. Just efficiency. Marco’s body tenses before Liam even touches him. Good.Fear is finally doing its job. “Wait…” Marco chokes, his voice breaking.Liam
ElenaThe van doesn’t stop for a long time. Or maybe it does. Maybe it slows. Turns. Pauses. Starts again. I can’t tell anymore. Time slips in the dark. There are no windows. No light. Just the constant vibration under my knees and the chains digging into my wrists every time the van shifts. My shoulders ache from the position. My neck feels stiff, my head still throbbing where he hit me.I count at first. Seconds. Minutes. I lose track somewhere along the way. So I switch. Breaths. In. Out. In. Out. Stay here. Stay present. Don’t drift. Don’t let the dark pull you under. The van jerks again, sharper this time, and then slows and stops.My body tenses immediately. This is it. The engine cuts. Silence drops heavy. Voices outside. Doors opening. Boots on gravel this time, not concrete. New place. New environment. My pulse spikes, but I force it down. In. Out.The back doors swing open
CillianHe’s already bleeding when they bring him in. Not enough. Not nearly enough. They drag him across the concrete floor like he weighs nothing, his boots leaving a streak behind him. His face is bruised, one eye is swelling, lip is split open. Hands tied behind his back. Head hanging forward like he’s already halfway gone.He’s not. I can tell. Men like him don’t break that fast. “Found him at the Brooklyn spot,” Ronan says, wiping blood from his knuckles like it’s nothing. “Tried to run. Didn’t get far.”Of course he didn’t. No one runs from us. Not tonight. I don’t answer. I just watch as they shoved him down onto the chair in the center of the room. The metal legs scrape loudly against the floor, echoing through the space.The interrogation room isn’t dressed up. No need. Concrete walls. One light overhead. A drain in the
ElenaThey don’t give me time to think. Hands grip my arms again, tighter this time, less patient. Whatever conversation just happened in that room, it changed something. I feel it in the way they move. Sharper. Faster. Like they don’t want to linger here anymore.Good. That means pressure. That means cracks.“Up,” one of them snaps, yanking me to my feet.My legs almost fold under me. This time it’s not entirely an act. The drug still lingers, my body slow to respond, muscles heavy and uncooperative. Pain shoots up from my wrists where the rope digs deeper as they pull me forward.I let myself stumble. Not fully. Just enough.“Christ,” the man mutters, tightening his hold when I sway. “She’s useless like this.”“She’ll walk,” another one replies. “Or we drag her. I don’t care.”I lowe
CillianI should stop. That thought is there. Clear. Sharp. Unavoidable. And I ignore it completely.My hand is still wrapped around her neck when she tries to pull away, her breath uneven, her lips still parted from the last kiss, her eyes flashing like she’s trying to gather herself back together
ElenaMy hands are shaking. I try to steady them before I pick up the phone, but it’s useless. The weight of it sits heavy in my palm, heavier than it should be, like it knows exactly what it means. This isn’t freedom. It’s not even close. It’s just another way he controls me, another thread tied a
CillianBy the time Declan walks into my office, I’m already in a foul mood.That kiss should never have happened. Not because I regret crossing the line. I don’t waste time on regret. But because it told me something I didn’t want confirmed. She got under my skin faster than anyone has in a long f
ElenaI don’t sleep. Not really.I close my eyes at some point, my body eventually giving in to exhaustion, but my mind never fully shuts off. Every sound feels too loud, every shift of light through the windows pulling me back to awareness like something is about to happen. I wake before I even kn







