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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY
publish date:
2026-07-05 23:46:11
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HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) HIS SWEET ADDICTION--13
"The most exhausting lies are the ones you have to maintain in rooms full of people who trust you."VIVIANNico does not question me further.That is the thing that catches me off guard.I prepared for questions. Had the answers arranged and ready in the particular way I arrange answers when I know what is coming — layered, each one able to support the next, nothing that contradicts itself under pressure. I was ready for Dante's scrutiny through the phone, for Luca's instinctive suspicion of anything new, for the general wariness of people who have been operating in dangerous spaces long enough to know that good information from unexpected sources is also the shape that traps take.I was ready for all of it.What I was not ready for was Nico looking at me across the kitchen table and saying simply:"We are going to brief Dante."And then picking up his phone.Like that was settled.Like the decision had already been made before the sentence finished.I watched him dial and felt someth
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) HIS SWEET ADDICTION-- 12
"The hardest thing about almost telling the truth is carrying the almost."VIVIANThis wasn't supposed to happen..He wasn't supposed to look at me like that.He is looking at me like that right now. Those eyes steady and certain and entirely without the performance of uncertainty that most people wear when they say things this large. Nico does not perform uncertainty. When he knows something he knows it and he says it and he looks at you like the knowing is simply a fact he is reporting.I wasn't supposed to want him to.I reach up, I take his hand from my face.Not quickly. Not coldly. Carefully, the way you move something that matters, both of my hands around his one and lowering it slowly until it is not on my face anymore.I feel him go still.I look up at him."Don't make promises," I say quietly, "that you don't know if you can keep Nico"He looks at me for a long moment."Try me," he says.Two words.The particular certainty of them lands somewhere I cannot immediately close o
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) HIS SWEET ADDICTION--11
"The most inconvenient thing about feelings is that they arrive without asking permission."VIVIANThe apartment is dark when I got upstairs after Xander dropped me off.Or it should be.The lights are on.I stop in the doorway for exactly one second — the particular stillness of someone whose body recognises a situation before their brain has fully processed it — and then I step inside and close the door behind me because standing in the doorway is not safer than being inside and at least inside I can control the space.Nico is in the armchair.Again.I have changed the locks four times since he first appeared in my apartment like furniture I did not order. Four different locksmiths, four different mechanisms, one of them a brand that the security firm I used to work for rated as near impenetrable.Because we have had that conversation and it goes nowhere and I have accepted that Nico Barbieri exists in a world where locks are more of a suggestion than a rule and fighting that partic
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) HIS SWEET ADDICTION--10
"Freedom is not a destination. It is something you fight for every single day, usually in the dark, usually alone."VIVIANThe heavy bag swings back toward me and I pivot and drive my elbow into it hard enough that the chain holding it creaks in protest.Again.And again.The warehouse is empty except for the sound of impact — fists and leather and the particular rhythm that takes over when you stop thinking and just move. This is the best thing about training. The best and only thing that has worked consistently since I was seventeen years old and discovered that when your body is fully occupied your mind gets a few minutes of quiet.I need quiet right now.Behind me Xander works his own bag with the methodical consistency of someone who treats training the way he treats everything — as a problem to be solved through repetition and discipline. Neither of us speaks. We never have to. Words were something we both learned early were a liability and the habit of silence stuck even in pla
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) HIS SWEET ADDICTION--9
"The most exhausting thing about living two lives is remembering which one is real."VIVIANA message comes in on my burner phone at eleven forty at night.My phone screen lights up.It was not the Alchemist's channel, like i expectedDifferent.Xander.I look at the message for a few seconds.The stage is ready.Four words.I read them again.Then I lock the phone and set it face down on the bed beside me and I sit in the dark of the guest room in Sofia's home and I breathe.The stage is ready.I know what that means.I have known it was coming for weeks — have been moving pieces toward it, have been making the right appearances and building the right trust and positioning myself exactly where I need to be when the moment arrives.This is what I do.This is what I was sent here to do.I lie down on top of the covers and I stare at the ceiling in the dark and I think about a lot of things that I should not be thinking about.Sofia's happy face at her wedding and how surprised she saw
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) HIS SWEET ADDICTION--8
"The most dangerous power is the kind that never shows its face."NICO"Who the hell is that," I say.He does not answer immediately.This is a thing Salvatore does — he holds information for just long enough to make you aware that he is the one choosing when to release it. A power move so habitual that he probably does not notice he is doing it anymore.I wait.I am good at waiting."You think Dante sits at the top of the food chain," he says finally.I look at him."He is Pakhan," I say."Yes." Salvatore tilts his head slightly. "Pakhan. Supreme authority over the families. The highest position in a network that spans four countries and touches every major criminal organisation in the western hemisphere." He pauses. "And you believe that makes him the most powerful man in his world.""I believe it makes him one of them," I say carefully."That is smarter than most," Salvatore says. Not a compliment. Just an observation. "Most people who work at Dante's level think Pakhan is the ceil
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT~~
“LET MY TONGUE EXPLAIN HOW BADLY I CRAVE YOU.”SOFIA.The kiss breaks and we’re both breathing hard. His hands are still on my waist, mine are still tangled in his hair. We should stop. I know we should stop. But when he says “Bend over the table, baby,” in that rough, commanding voice, I find myse
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
“EVEN IF YOU ARE FIRE, I'M READY TO DROWN IN YOUR FLAMES.”SOFIA.I'm walking toward the back rooms. The area where the fighters go after their matches. I shouldn't be back here. Shouldn't be seeking him out.But I need to see him. Need to know he's okay.The hallway is dimmer, quieter. I can hear
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER SIX
“I HATE THAT I AM STILL HOPING.”SOFIA.The car ride was suffocating.I sit in the passenger seat of Marco's Mercedes, my hands folded in my lap, staring out the window at the city lights blurring past. He's driving in silence, both hands on the wheel, his jaw tight. The only sound is the low hum o
HIS BUTTERFLY (BETWEEN TWO DONS) CHAPTER FIVE
“IF I CAN’T BEND HEAVEN, I WILL RAISE HELL.”DANTE."The Arena?" Rico sounded intrigued. "That place is legendary. Heard stories about it even down here.""Yeah, well, it's where the old guard goes to pretend they're still relevant. Perfect place for politics." I finish my whiskey and pour another.
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