ANMELDENBLOOD OATH Xavier's POVMen like Don Romano never ask for loyalty.They stage it.They dress it in ritual, put witnesses around it, and make sure everyone in the room understands that obedience is not enough. Obedience can be faked. Fear cannot.And blood—blood is the oldest proof.By the time I was summoned to the lower hall, I already knew what the night was going to become.The estate was too quiet.Not peaceful. Never peaceful.Just controlled in that particular Romano way, where silence meant something ugly had already been decided. The guards in the corridor wouldn’t look me in the eye. The maid outside the study crossed herself as I passed.That told me enough.Someone was about to die.I adjusted my cuffs and kept walking.The lower hall sat beneath the west wing of the villa, past the wine cellar and beneath the private chapel Don Romano’s late wife had once insisted be built. The irony had never been lost on me. Above ground, saints and stained glass. Below it, concrete dra
THE SILENT TREATMENT He avoided her from that moment on.Like a plague Not carelessly. Not by accident.Deliberately.The next morning, she saw him outside the breakfast room speaking to two guards in low tones. The second he noticed her, he ended the conversation and stepped away before she could reach him.At lunch, he stood at the opposite end of the terrace, sunglasses on, speaking into an earpiece she wasn’t even sure was active.When she crossed the hall after dinner and called his name, he acknowledged her with a short glance and kept walking, his expression blank, as if she were just another member of household traffic.By the third day, it had become unbearable.He was everywhere, and somehow impossible to reach.If she entered a room, he left it.If she turned a corner, he was already several steps ahead.If she tried to speak, he reduced everything to clipped, practical sentences.“The car is ready.”“You’re late for class.”“Stay inside the perimeter.”Nothing more.Not
The Architect of Deceit The sharp click of the Don’s safety filled the library.For one suspended second, no one moved.Katerina’s breath snagged in her throat. Her fingers groped for the edge of the bookshelf beside her, needing something solid beneath her hand. Across from them, her father stood in the doorway with the gun lifted, his face unreadable in the spill of the hallway light.Xavier stepped in front of her.It was so immediate, so instinctive, that Katerina barely registered it before his body blocked hers completely. One second he had been inches away from her; the next, he was a wall of black fabric and controlled danger, shielding her from the line of fire.He didn’t reach for his own weapon. Didn’t flinch.“Lower the gun, Don Romano,” he said evenly.The Don’s brows lifted a fraction. “That’s a bold tone for a man I just found with his hands on my daughter.”Xavier didn’t so much as blink.“I stopped her at the servants’ entrance,” he said. “She was trying to leave.”K
Katerina opened her mouth, her voice a faint, terrified whisper. "Jackson, I..."Before she could finish, the grand double doors of the ballroom were open. A Romano soldier, face pale and bloodied, stumbled. Everyone gasped in utter horror at the sight of him."Don Romano!" the soldier collapsed to the floor. "The estate is breached!....they are not here to talk, but to burn the house down “In the chaos, Jackson looked unbothered. He stood up, but his eyes weren't on Katerina anymore. He looked directly at XavierXavier didn't wait. He vaulted over a table, his gun drawn in alarm, his lethal focus locked on Jackson. "Run to the library Katerina!....now!!” Xavier snapped in alert. *****************The party roared downstairs—with sheer terror as the guest paced around agitated searching for an exit.Inside the mahogany-rowed library, Katerina stood by the window.She turned when the door clicked open and shut. She knew the rhythm of those footsteps anywher
THE BIG HOOK Once she reached the hallway, she leaned her body against the cold marble wall and slapped herself—a sharp, stinging wake-up call."Get it together, Kat!—cut it out! "she hissed to herself, her breath coming in ragged gasps. "You have a boyfriend. You have Jackson. He’s normal. He’s safe. Xavier is... Xavier is a death wish." She reminded herself.She flipped her phone open, her hands trembling. "Hello?" she heaved breathlessly"You sound like you just ran a marathon, darling," Emily’s voice purred through the speaker. "Or like you’ve been doing something much more steamy and interesting than cardio."she teased "Emily please, not now," Katerina whispered, glancing back at the gym door where Xavier was likely still watching her like a hawk."Oh, but it is now," Emily replied, her tone shifting playfully."The Romano-Wilson Gala is tonight, Kat. The theme is 'Masks of the Empire.' Your father is already fitting his crown, and Jackson is currently picking out a tu
THE GHOST IN THE ALLEY The neon lights of the city blurred as Katerina ducked into the service entrance of the library. Once her father sent for Xavier urgently she sneaked out like she always did before his arrival, bribing and intimidating the security men discreetly until they had no other choice but to reluctantly let her elope. She had timed it perfectly—Xavier was occupied with the Don’s security briefing. Or so she thought.She refused to take orders from Xavier who was as lowly as a body guard employed by her father, she wouldn't stoop so low on his account.The least thing she needed was another stuck up person like her father, controlling her life and telling her what to do.She was tried of feeling so small before the two infuriating men forced into her life.She would make her decisions herself from now hence forth."Jackson, I’m two blocks away, from you" she whispered into her phone, "Just wait for me at the old clock tower. I’ve finally ditched Xavier.”“ Good, i’







