تسجيل الدخولThe sound that escaped Tamsin's lips was a small, broken gasp, the kind a person makes when the floor disappears beneath them. Shock froze her against the pillows, her eyes wide, her fingers curling into the blanket. For one suspended heartbeat she only stared at the girl in the doorway, a gift bag clutched in her hands, as though her mind refused to believe what her eyes were showing her.Then the shock cracked, and what poured out from underneath was fury."What the fuck are you doing here, bitch?" Her voice shook, raw from days of weakness, yet it rang through the room like a slap. "Have you come to complete what you started?"Teodora flinched as though the words had struck her. Instinct carried her a step forward, the gifts still held out in front of her like a shield, and her whole body had already begun to tremble. "No, Tamsin, no. I only came to give you these." Her voice wavered. "I heard what happened to you, and I just wanted to see how you were doing."Tamsin jerked uprig
Tamsin woke with a start, her breath catching in her throat. A sharp, pounding pain split through her head, and she lifted a trembling hand to hold it. A low, painful moan slipped past her lips.Beside the bed, Teal had finally fallen asleep in the chair she had refused to leave since last night. The moment that faint sound reached her, her eyes flew open. She jerked upright, her heart hammering."Tamsin?"Slowly, so slowly, her daughter's eyelids fluttered open and her gaze turned toward her. Teal's hands shot out and gathered her close, and the tears came before she could stop them."Baby, you're awake. Oh, thank God. Thank God!”Her cry carried through the door and down the corridor, and the whole house seemed to wake with it."She's awake! Tamsin is awake!"Dacio was out with the police, giving his statement for the boy's trial, so the room did not have him. But everyone else came running. Maria rushed in with the maids behind her, followed by the bodyguards and even the men
Hugo had already turned away by the time the question left his father's mouth. His face hardened into the cold, unreadable mask he wore around Dacio now, the one that had replaced every softer expression years ago. Resentment sat behind his eyes, quiet and old.He turned back slowly, lips parting to answer.Footsteps pounded down the upstairs hallway."Mr. Bruno! Master Bruno!" The family doctor appeared at the top of the stairs, gripping the railing, his glasses crooked. "She's moving! I think she's regaining consciousness!"Hugo didn't pause. He had been heading to the kitchen for water, but he changed direction so fast that the glass he'd been reaching for was forgotten. He took the stairs two at a time. Dacio stood frozen for a few seconds, then collected himself and followed.They burst into the room together.Tamsin lay on the bed, pale against the white sheets. Her fingers twitched. Her toes curled and uncurled beneath the blanket. But her eyes stayed closed, and her fa
When the kiss stretched past a minute, Hugo felt Tamsin's body go slack against him. He gripped her shoulders and eased her back. Her eyes were closed, her lips parted, and before he could steady her, her head dropped forward onto his chest. She had fainted."Tamsin." He caught her at once, swept one arm beneath her knees, and lifted her off the floor, cradling her against him.Footsteps thundered down the corridor. Hugo turned just as Dacio burst through the door with a squad of police behind him. They stopped dead. Four boys lay sprawled across the floor, bloody and unconscious, and in the middle of it stood one unmarked boy holding a girl in his arms. The officers stared at Hugo with open horror. How could one boy do this to four and walk away without nothing more than injured knuckles.Dacio pushed past them. "What happened to her? Did they hurt her?"Hugo's face hardened the way it always did around his father. "She's fine. She fainted from exhaustion.""Are you sure?" Da
Hotel Moderno sat on a narrow side street in old Madrid, wedged between a shuttered pharmacy and a bar that never closed. The cream facade was streaked gray with decades of rain, the iron balconies were rusted at the edges, and the sign above the door flickered so badly.It was cheap enough that no one important would be seen inside. That was exactly why men like Leo chose it. No cameras worth checking, no manager who asked questions. Its only real security was the woman at the front desk. A chandelier missing half its crystals hung over a threadbare couch no guest had ever sat on, and a clock above the key hooks ran four minutes slow.The receptionist sat beneath it, a woman in her mid-thirties with her dark hair pinned up carelessly and a tea-colored cardigan over her shoulders. Nine years on the night shift had taught her one lesson: the less you saw, the more you earned. She was reading a gossip magazine when the door chimed and four young men walked in.Leo came first, tal
Hugo didn't know when he started rushing out of the female tower. One moment he was standing there, and the next he was sprinting across the courtyard, his heart pounding in his ears. He threw himself into his car and started the engine. Behind him, the girls rushed outside, calling his name, begging him to come back, but the gates were already behind him.**********************The speed limit in Madrid's city streets was fifty kilometers per hour, and on the M-30 it was ninety at most. Hugo blew past both. The needle climbed past a hundred, then a hundred and twenty, as he weaved between cars on the way to Sector 4. Horns blared from every direction. Drivers shouted through their windows. At one junction a traffic warden stepped into the road, waving both arms and blowing his whistle, flagging him down. Hugo didn't even look at him. He was not slowing down for anyone.The ride normally took twenty minutes. He made it in ten.He didn't bother parking properly. He jumped ou







