Dante's POVThe days blurred together.I didn’t leave the room. Didn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.Lucia knocked in the morning, at night, and sometimes in between. I never answered. I just let the weight of everything crush me until it felt like there was nothing left inside my chest.Sometimes, I heard her crying. Soft, quiet sobs from the other side of the door like she didn’t want me to hear. Once, she screamed my name. It sounded broken, like it hurt to say. Lucas pulled her away. I heard his voice calm and low, trying to comfort her.I hated him for that.Other times, it sounded like she was talking to the walls. Whispering things and pleading with a ghost that wouldn’t answer.Maybe I was the ghost now.She would call my name like she hadn’t just shattered my entire world. Like I wasn’t drowning in the blood of her family—blood I’d spilled.But she didn’t know.Did she?That night five years ago… it played on repeat in my head like a fucked-up film reel. A job, Gabriel had said. Not
Dante’s POV The documents felt like fire in my pocket. Like they’d scorch a hole through my coat, my skin, my soul. We didn’t speak the entire drive back. I stared out the window, jaw clenched so hard it ached, as Gabriel drove us through the winding city streets like nothing had changed—like my entire fucking life hadn’t just cracked open. When we pulled into the estate, I didn’t get out. Not yet. Gabriel sat back in his seat, fingers tapping the steering wheel like a slow countdown. “You’re holding back,” I muttered. His gaze cut to me. “You sure you want the rest?” I turned to him, fury barely held back. “Don’t start now.” Gabriel sighed. “All right. You want the whole picture? Here it is.” He reached into the center console and pulled out a manila folder—thin, worn, creased like it had passed through too many hands. He slid it into my lap. “Silvano had two daughters,” he said quietly. “The younger one’s name was Mariah.” What was he driving at now? I stare
Dante’s POV The courtyard was silent except for the soft bubbling of the fountain. But the moment Gabriel uttered those words, it felt like the whole night changed shape.My hand flexed around the grip of my gun, though I didn’t draw it. Not yet.“Talk,” I said. “Fast.”Gabriel didn’t flinch. He never did. The man had taught me everything I knew about control, about patience, about when to pull the trigger and when to wait. And that smug, unbothered smile on his face reminded me why I used to trust him with my life.“You’re tense, Dante. Maybe a drive would help.”“A drive?” I scoffed. “You show up uninvited at this hour, drop a bomb on me, and now you want to take me for a fucking drive?”He shrugged. “Just like old times.”I should’ve told him to fuck off. Should’ve gone back to Lucia. But something in his eyes stopped me. That shadow I’d only seen once before, back when we buried a man alive together. Gabriel never wasted time. If he was here at this hour, it mattered.“Give me fi
Dante’s POV“What’s wrong?”Her face had gone pale, her hand frozen around her phone. Lucia didn’t speak for a heartbeat. Then another. I moved toward her slowly, my pulse already shifting into that dangerous rhythm I’d come to know too well—the one that meant someone had dared to threaten what was mine.She looked up at me. “I got a text.”I took the phone from her hand gently and read the message.I didn’t speak right away.I stared at the screen, memorizing the words, tasting the venom behind them. My hands curled into fists. Someone had reached past the walls I’d built, past the guards I’d posted, and touched her. Not physically—but it was close enough.Lucia was watching me closely. Brave, despite the fear in her eyes. “I didn’t reply,” she said quietly.“Good,” I said. My voice was low but I felt the violence rising inside me. “I’ll find out who sent this. And when I do…” I paused, leaned in, and kissed her forehead. “…they’ll wish they’d never learned your name.”She didn’t fli
Lucia’s POVHis voice snaked through the phone like a knife. Familiar, but wrong in every way. I froze. Not from fear, but disgust.“I didn’t just think it,” I said, my voice low. “I did leave you, Daniel.”Silence. Then a cold laugh, bitter and sharp.“You were never meant to belong to him. You belong to me. You always have.”“Daniel,” I hissed, heart racing, “you’re insane.”“You gave yourself to him, didn’t you?” His voice dipped darker, uglier. “Did you think I wouldn’t know? You let him touch you. Take you. Like you’re his. But you’re not. You’re mine, Lucia.”My hand trembled so hard I nearly dropped the phone. The urge to tell Dante, to scream for him, gripped me like a vice. But I didn’t. Not yet.“Don’t call me again,” I said through gritted teeth.“Or what?” His voice dipped with menace. “You’ll send him after me? That killer you sleep beside now? You think he can protect you from what’s coming?”I ended the call not wanting to hear more.I stood frozen, breath hitching. Wha
Lucia’s POVHis hand tightened in my hair—not harshly, just enough to guide me. Then he started moving my head for me slowly, setting the pace. I relaxed, letting him lead, and finally I felt it. The tension in his body. The soft sound that escaped his throat. I was doing it right.And this time, I didn’t stop.I glanced up through my lashes. His jaw was tight, hand clenched at his side, and his eyes had gone darker, more focused. Still calm, still in control but barely.I sucked in my cheeks, taking him deeper, my hands pressing against his thighs for balance. His fingers tightened, hips giving a slow, involuntary thrust into my mouth. A quiet groan rumbled from his chest, like it had slipped out against his will.“Just like that,” he muttered, voice tight. “Don’t stop.”I didn’t.His breathing turned heavier, shoulders rigid now. I felt the way his body coiled, straining like he was holding back something primal.“You want to take it?” he asked, voice rough, breathless. “Or do I pul
Lucia’s POVThe second I heard the door click open, I straightened from where I’d been curled up by the window. Dante stepped in, his eyes scanning the room before settling on me. Something shifted in his face when he saw me waiting.Like I was his reward.Without a word, he locked the door and began to unbutton his shirt, his eyes never leaving mine. I swallowed thickly, my breath caught somewhere between anticipation and awe.“You’re quiet,” he said, voice low.“I was waiting.”“For what?”“For you.”A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Say that again.”“I was waiting for you, Dante.”He crossed the room in two strides, yanking me into his arms before I could take another breath. His mouth crashed onto mine, demanding, unrelenting, like the night before hadn’t been enough.It hadn’t been. Not for either of us.This time, he was rougher. His hands greedy, his grip tighter. He pulled me to the bed, turned me around, and bent me over the edge, my gasp swallowed by the mattress as his palm pres
Lucia’s POVSomething warm and delicious filled the air, nudging me awake. I blinked slowly, sunlight pooling through the sheer curtains like warm silk across my bare skin.I shifted slightly and winced, a soft soreness pulsing between my thighs. My muscles were stiff, hips sore from how he’d held me, pinned me, claimed me. Even the skin at my neck throbbed faintly where his mouth had been.I reached for the edge of the sheet and wrapped it tightly around my chest before sitting up, my body slow to obey. The cotton scraped over sensitized skin, and I flinched—then stilled as I turned, expecting to find cold sheets and an empty bed, but instead—There he was.Dante.In nothing but black slacks, barefoot, holding a silver tray in his hands like he wasn’t one of the most dangerous man in Chicago.“You brought me breakfast?” I asked, my voice still thick with sleep and disbelief.“I wasn’t sure what you liked,” he said, setting the tray on the nightstand with surprising care. “I’ve never
Dante’s POVI stood there, frozen, my hand still cupping her delicate face. Her words replayed in my head like a song I never wanted to end.“I want this. With you, Dante.”Her voice was soft, but there was no mistaking the determination in it. She wasn’t asking. She wasn’t second-guessing herself. She was choosing me. And it scared the hell out of me because I knew once I touched her, once I took her… there would be no going back.I searched her eyes for hesitation, for a crack, for even the faintest tremor of uncertainty. I found none. Just that steady, aching need—mirroring my own.“Lucia…” I breathed out, almost brokenly.She didn’t wait for me to finish. Her fingers, trembling but insistent, returned to my belt. I caught her hands briefly, giving her one last chance to change her mind. She shook her head once, a small but powerful gesture, before she worked my belt open and tugged at my trousers, letting them fall to the floor with a soft thud.She stepped back toward the bed, he