LOGIN~~LENA~~The journey to Willow Creek turned out to be surprisingly uneventful. Honestly, I wasn't sure whether that disappointed me or relieved me. For the entire ride, I kept expecting something to happen. I expected something to happen during the journey. A message, phone call, a black car appearing behind us, just anything. Instead, nothing happened.I sat in the back seat of the Uber, staring out the window while the driver quietly listened to an old radio station. The city slowly changed around us as we moved farther away from the mansion.At least three times, I casually checked behind us.There were no suspicious vehicles, no motorcycles, no men dressed in black suits, and no signs that anyone was following. Which was strange.The people behind the device had claimed they were always with me. If that was true, then they had to know exactly where I was going.Part of me had expected them to reveal themselves.
~~LENA~~ The moment I stepped into Niccolò's operation room, I deliberately arranged my face into the most harmless expression I could manage. Wide eyes, relaxed shoulders and an innocent smile. I had practiced this look before. It rarely worked on him. But still, there was no harm in trying. The room itself immediately caught my attention. Large monitors covered one entire wall, displaying security feeds, maps, and information I couldn't fully make out from where I stood. The atmosphere inside was tense and focused, and my sudden entrance had clearly interrupted something important. He had stopped what he was doing. Including the guard I had spoken to earlier. Poor man. Enzo looked caught somewhere between annoyance, panic, and complete helplessness. I almost felt bad for him. The guards outside had followed me in, both looking deeply uncomfortable. And I knew exactly why. Rumors traveled quickly inside this house, especially among security personnel. Despite the fact that
Seeing the expression on my face, Matteo leaned, paused by the door. "What?" he asked. "You don't like the word normal?"I narrowed my eyes on him. "I don't trust it."He let out a short breath that sounded suspiciously close to amusement. "By normal, I mean she's relatively okay.""Define relatively.""She hasn't isolated herself. She hasn't lashed out at anyone beyond the usual. She hasn't tried to climb over the walls or manipulate half the staff into helping her escape."I folded my arms. "So, business as usual.""Exactly."I remained silent.Matteo continued, "More importantly, she hasn't shown any signs that she's particularly stressed about what happened."That caught my attention."What do you mean?""I mean exactly that," he replied. "Considering she was kidnapped three days ago, she seems surprisingly composed."I frowned."Lena doesn't stay down for long.""No, she doesn't."That part made sense.From the moment I had brought her into this house, Lena had shown an irritatin
~~NICCOLÒ~~ There were only a few people who knew about what had happened back then. My mind immediately went to my father. If he was involved in this somehow, things could become ugly for the entire Santoro operation very quickly. I closed the file in front of me and leaned back in my chair, studying Matteo carefully. "Do we have any leads at all?" I asked. Matteo exhaled quietly and shook his head. "None that I trust." "None?" I repeated. "You're telling me an organization is moving illegal cargo through our ports, renting warehouses across the city, transporting industrial refrigeration units, and nobody has seen anything useful?" Matteo folded his arms across his chest. "I'm telling you exactly that." I frowned. "That doesn't happen." "I know." "No," I said, sitting forward. "You don't understand. It doesn't happen. Somebody always talks. Somebody always makes a mistake." Matteo shrugged. "These people haven't." I tapped my fingers against the desk. "What about the po
~~LENA~~Three days had passed. And to my surprise, absolutely nothing had happened.I had spent the first day expecting a disaster to occur. By the second day, I had convinced myself that someone would eventually corner me in a hallway, demand the device back, or reveal that they somehow knew I had kept it. And the third day, I no longer knew what to think.There were no messages, threats, mysterious instructions and no signs that anyone even remembered I existed.The people behind the device had simply vanished.At times, I found myself wondering if I had imagined the entire thing. The silence bothered me more than I wanted to admit. Silence meant waiting. And waiting usually meant something unpleasant was coming.Niccolò had been equally absent.Not physically. He was still in the house every night, but he had barely been around otherwise. Whatever business occupied him seemed important. Over the past few days, the
~~NICCOLÒ~~ I woke up in the middle of the night. Lena was sprawled against my chest calmly, one of her arms was tucked beneath my ribs while the other rested over my stomach. Her breathing was even now, and she felt soft on my skin. Every few minutes she shifted slightly closer without even realizing it, chasing my body warmth in her sleep. And every single time she did, my mind got worse. The room was dark except for the faint city lights slipping through the curtains. I stared at the ceiling, with one arm behind my head while the other stayed wrapped around her waist. This was a mistake. A massive one. I had spent years building control so carefully that most people believed I was born without emotions entirely. Discipline kept people alive in my world, feelings got exploited and attachments got you buried six feet underground. Yet somehow this woman had managed to crawl under my skin in a matter of weeks. I looked down at her quietly. Her hair was spread across my ches
~~LENA~~ Niccolò had told me to stay inside, but I couldn’t. This room was suffocating. I needed to leave and breathe fresh air. I stood there for a moment, staring at the walls hoping it'd help change my mind. Maybe I could go look at the flowers. I wish I could. Bu
The door to Lena's room clicked shut behind me. I stood in the corridor for a moment, letting the silence of the upper level settle around me. Then I turned and walked. Matteo was already there when I reached the top of the main staircase, moving up from the lower level. “Full report,” I said.
~~NICCOLÒ~~ I was meant to be at Carlo's office by ten. Instead I was here, pushing everything aside. The private shooting range sat far outside the city limits, hidden behind old concrete walls and empty land where nobody complained about gunfire. It
~~NICCOLO~~ I waited until Lena’s footsteps faded down the hallway before looking back at Bianca. She hadn't moved from the doorway. She stood there with one hand resting on her suitcase. “That looked… emotional.” I said nothing. She smiled faintly and stepped further into the room. “Interestin







