FAZER LOGINRegarding the mass release I promised, I'm so sorry for the delay (ᵕ—ᴗ—) I came down with a fever recently. If you noticed the latest chapters were a bit shorter, it was because I was pushing through to make sure you at least got regular updates instead of being left hanging. Also, just a quick clarification: this platform doesn't allow authors to delete comments. Anyone who wants a comment removed has to message support directly (and don't take down constructive criticism), so no, I don’t delete any comments, lol. I’m feeling much better now, and the mass release should be ready for you tomorrow. Please be patient with me (,,¬﹏¬,,)
“No.” I cupped his face with one hand and kept the other pressed uselessly against him. “No, no, no,” I whimpered as I shook him, both hands on his shoulders now, hard enough that his head lolled to the side. “Noah!” I got nothing in response. So I pressed my ear flat against his chest, waiting for that thump I’d felt many times before, but this time it was… silent. Just the fabric of his shirt against my cheek and the last bit of warmth still clinging to his skin, already starting to feel off. “Heart—” My voice cracked clean in half. “Your heart, I can’t… I can’t hear your—” The sound that tore out of me didn’t feel like it came from my throat. It came from somewhere lower, somewhere I didn’t know I had, and once it started I couldn’t stop it. “No—” One syllable, ragged, and then it wasn’t words anymore. It was just noise. Endless and ugly, the kind of sound that scrapes your throat and keeps going anyway. I heard footsteps approaching me, but the tears blurred everything
He let out a weak chuckle, sweat gathering in beads along his forehead, catching the low light. His hand, when it found mine, was cold.“You heard me the first time..”I stayed silent anyway, searching his face, dazed, terrified that if I blinked the words would dissolve and I’d discover I had imagined them out of desperation. His eyes held mine, steady even as everything else about him seemed to be slipping. After a moment he exhaled, a thin wet breath rattling faintly in his chest, and a small, tired smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.“I said. I love you.”That was all it took. The tears that had paused broke loose all at once, spilling faster than before, because hearing it a second time made it real in a way the first one hadn’t let me accept.His hand rose again, trembling faintly with the effort, and his thumb dragged across my cheek in a clumsy attempt to wipe away the tears. It didn’t work and he only smeared them further, salt and heat spreading beneath his rough tou
Behind us, Delgado let out a low, dark whistle. “Well,” he mused, tone dripping with cynical disappointment. “That’s anticlimactic.” I heard the dry scritch of his leather gloves as he wiped his palms clean, or maybe just brushed them together but I didn’t look up to find out. “Let’s go,” he told his men. “We’re done here.” Boots moved through the dirt, retreating toward the perimeter. Someone let out a brief, cruel laugh—a quiet puff of air under their breath—as the heavy silence of the woods pressed back in to fill the space they left behind, and still I couldn’t make myself care about any of it except the man in front of me. I dropped to my knees beside Noah so hard the impact rattled up my bones. “Noah.” I reached for him, but my hands didn't know where to land. They hovered, trembled, and finally pressed frantically against his blood-soaked shirt. “Noah, please.” He dragged a ragged breath into his lungs as his gaze slowly tracked up, locking onto my face. A faint, wre
SARAPHINA°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:・My hand wasn't just shaking; it was giving out. My fingers were so numb with shock I couldn't even feel the handle of the knife anymore. The only reason it didn't fall was Delgado's palm crushing mine, locking my fingers into place around the grip and steering my arm where he wanted it. I had foolishly convinced myself that the last two hours were the worst thing I would ever endure. But this…This was a specialized kind of hell. Standing here with tears already burning down my face while the man I had defended in a suite full of balloons was being lined up to die by my hand.‘This can’t be happening’ I thought to myself as I waited for Noah to plead. I begged him with my eyes to do something.But instead, he just stood there, frozen as he stared at me for a silent, agonizing moment. Then his eyes drifted to the shadow of Delgado standing over my shoulder. He took a single, quiet breath.“Okay,” he said softly.“What?” The screech tore through my throat, hyste
I should have known.I had lived this life for a decade. Watching every single deal twist and bend until, and I still managed to play the naïve little bitch. I actually let myself believe—like a total fucking amateur—that if I handed over everything he wanted, the son of a bitch would just open his greasy hand and let her walk away.Why the hell did I think he’d just hand her back? Why would a parasite like him ever play fair?Because I’m a fucking idiot, that’s why. Because I was desperate enough to swallow my own bullshit. I needed there to be one universe, one fucked-up scenario tonight, where I took the hit and she walked out of this freezing, God-forsaken clearing on her own two feet. I wanted to play the savior. The big, brave knight in shiny fucking armor coming to rescue the girl.Jesus fucking Christ. What is wrong with me? What the actual fuck was I thinking?I'm such a pathetic excuse for a man, and she’s paying for my goddamn ego.“Hmm.” Delgado’s voice slid in, almost cu
The clearing held its breath.I looked at her instead of him. The dirt on her palms and the red burning across her face. That stubborn glare still burning like she hadn’t just been slapped down in front of me for sport. She was shaking and she was furious and she was alive, and that last part was the only thing I had left to protect.James’s voice tried to crawl up my throat. Thousands of lives. Wrong hands. Don’t do this.Then Delgado’s grip tightened a fraction on her wrist, and James could go to hell.“Fine,” I hissed.The word tasted like rust.Delgado’s eyes sharpened. “Say it.”“Four.”“Six.”“One.”“Nine.”“Three.”“Seven.”“Zero.”“Eight.”“Two.”“Five.”“Four.”“One.”“Six.”“Nine.”“Zero.”“Seven.”“Three.”“Five.”“Eight.”“Two.”“One.”Twenty-one digits, torn out of me one by one, each number its own small, filthy betrayal, and I hated myself more with every syllable, especially with the way Delgado’s smile widened, hated the way his men eased their grip like the fight had







