CHAPTER 67“So you did it.”My voice was quiet. The room went still. Dead still.The guard—Sergio, I think—didn’t answer right away. His eyes bounced from me to Matteo, then back to the floor. His hands were sweating. I could smell fear off him like cheap cologne.“You sold us out,” I said.He shook his head fast. “No—I didn’t—I swear, boss, I—”“We nearly got bombed today.” I cut him off, calm as ever. “Someone knew about the warehouse drop. Only six people knew that location. Six.”I stepped closer.“You were one of them.”“I didn’t tell no one!” he cried. “Please, I got a family, I—”“You told someone,” I snapped, grabbing his collar. “And that someone passed it to the Laurents. And now two of my men are in the fucking hospital with third-degree burns because of you.”He shook like a leaf.Matteo stood behind me, silent. Watching. He already told me everything—the payment trail, the call logs, the GPS ping. It all pointed to this dumb, greedy bastard.“They offered me money, that’
CHAPTER 66ADRIENI stared at the phone in my hand.Lucien’s number was on the screen.Again.I hadn’t called. Not once. Not even a text. He’d said it like it was some kind of comfort.It wasn’t.Because if he knew…If he knew and still stayed quiet all those years, still let me rot in that house with that man, then what the hell did that make him?A savior?Or a coward?My thumb hovered over the call button.A guard passed outside my room. Their steps were loud. Regular. Annoying.The door was locked—from the outside, of course.I sighed.“Why now?” I whispered to no one. “Why the hell now, Lucien?”I tossed the phone onto the bed, but it bounced, landed on the floor.I stared at it down there, screen still glowing with his name.Lucien Laurent.My half-brother.My family.My… nothing.I got off the bed slowly, walked over, and picked it up. My fingers shook a little. Stupid. It was just a phone. Just a number. Just him.I sat back down and stared at the screen again.“Call him,” I
CHAPTER 65 LUCA "Three seconds. That’s how fast he disarmed Vico today.” Matteo said it casually, like we were discussing the weather. I didn’t look up from the documents I was reviewing—intel dumps from the Belarus contact, shipment charts, and a blueprint of the Laurent port stash we planned to breach. “Three seconds,” Matteo repeated, like I hadn’t heard the first time. “Vico’s one of our top hand-to-hand guys.” “Mm,” I hummed. Paper rustled as I flipped a page. “Was Vico drunk?” “Nope.” I finally looked up. Matteo leaned against the doorframe of my office, arms folded, sweat still drying on his neck. Adrien had just finished training with him, no doubt. “He’s fast,” Matteo added. “Focused. Doesn’t complain. Doesn’t flinch.” My jaw clenched. He was proud. Matteo was fucking proud. A part of me—an ugly, dangerous part—was proud too. But I smothered it. That’s the thing about poison. It slips in through cracks you didn’t know existed. And Adrien was poison. I stood,
CHAPTER 64ADRIENI sat up and pushed the blanket off my chest. The room felt cold, but I couldn’t tell if it was the air or just me. Either way, I didn’t care.The door unlocked.I didn’t turn. I didn’t ask why it was still locked in the first place.Matteo walked in like he always did—black shirt, tactical pants, that damn ticking watch on his wrist. Nothing about him ever changed.“Training,” he said.I looked at him. “I want a gun.”He stopped, one foot still mid-step. “What?”“I want a gun,” I said again, standing up. “I want to learn how to shoot. I want my own.”He stared at me like I’d grown another head. He didn’t speak right away. He was probably trying to figure out if I was serious.“You’re not ready.”“I’m not asking,” I said. “I’m tired of being locked in here. I’m tired of waiting for someone to save me or break me. I want to fight. And I want a gun.”He turned toward me fully, his face unreadable. “Adrien—”“I want a gun.”His jaw tightened. The silence dragged for a f
CHAPTER 63LUCA I leaned back in the leather chair, swirling the whiskey in my glass. Half-empty. Bitter.One of the screens in front of me still glowed faintly—the hallway feed near Adrien’s door.I knew I shouldn’t.I knew what it made me.But I tapped the keyboard anyway and brought up the camera in his room.He was there.Curled on the far side of the bed, still as stone. Face turned away. The sheets were soaked from the shower stunt Matteo told me about. He hadn’t even changed them.He looked small.I gritted my teeth.This was necessary.It had to be.I had to push him away. Had to keep him distant. I couldn’t afford softness anymore. Not when Damian was this close. Not with blood on every doorstep.But still—I watched him breathe.Each rise and fall of his back.He wasn’t asleep. I could tell. He just… wasn’t moving.I should’ve looked away.But I didn’t.Until the door creaked open behind me.“Luca?” a voice called sweetly.Shit.I slammed the keyboard down, cutting the feed
CHAPTER 62ADRIENThe blood didn’t bother me.Not really.What bothered me was the silence.The stillness of the room when I returned. The way the lock clicked shut behind me. The echo it left in my chest.My ears were still ringing.I sat on the edge of the bed, numb. My hands hung useless in my lap. There was something sticky under my nails. I didn’t even want to know what.A few hours passed. Maybe more. I don’t know.The lights outside shifted. I didn’t move.My body felt too heavy, like every bone had tripled in weight.I got up eventually. Walked to the bathroom.The mirror still held my reflection, though I barely recognized the face staring back.My eyes were dull. Shadowed. My lips dry. My curls hung limp around my face.I looked like a ghost. And maybe I was.I stepped into the shower fully clothed.Turned the water on.Freezing.It hit like needles.I didn’t care.I sat down in the corner and pulled my knees to my chest, letting the spray soak through my clothes.My teeth c