LOGINSiennaThe man stared at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners before he let out a low, gravelly curse. Then, he laughed.An actual, deep chest laugh that echoed off the high walls of the room.I couldn't believe him. I froze against the pillows, my heart hammering so hard against my ribs I was certain it would crack them. My breath came in ragged, shallow stabs. I was suffocating, drowning in a thick, paralyzing wave of fear, and this bastard was sitting there treating it like a comedy show."You're really a piece of work, aren't you?" he said, shaking his head as the chuckles tapered off into a smirk.I found that offensive. Beyond offensive. I was a human being who had just been hunted, shot at, and dragged unconscious into a strange bed, not some entertainment lined up for his amusement. The nerve of him to mock my terror pricked at the edges of my panic, sparking a tiny flash of anger.I swallowed hard, trying to steady the tremble in my jaw. "Who are you?"He leaned back in th
Sienna The sudden jolt of the vehicle forced my weight forward, the seatbelt cutting sharply into my collarbone as the tires crunched against gravel. I looked out the tinted window, trying to figure out where I was, but there was nothing recognizable in the dimming light.The car had pulled into a completely lonely, narrow back street, a desolate stretch of cracked asphalt hemmed in by decaying concrete walls and overgrown weeds. It felt like the edge of the world.The two men in the front seat turned around simultaneously, their massive shoulders blocking out the remaining light from the windshield. Their expressions were entirely blank, wiped clean of any human empathy. "Get down from the car." the driver commanded, his voice flat and heavy.For a fraction of a second, a desperate spark of defiance flared in my chest. Every instinct I had yelled at me to fight, to lock the doors, to dig my fingernails into the leather upholstery and refuse to move. I thought about resisting them
MarcelloThe heavy glass door clicked shut behind Dante, immediately sealing the stale, copper-scented air of the reception office. He stood tall in the center of the cramped space, his massive frame completely blocking the only exit out of the facility, his large hand clamped like an iron vise around the collar of the bruised captive he had just dragged inside. The silence in the room became absolute, save for the rhythmic, wet gasping of the clerk bleeding out on the floorboards. Dante didn't drop his gaze, his expression completely unreadable as he maintained his grip on the intruder.Dante spoke first, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that broke the heavy quiet. "I caught this bastard slipping through the secondary corridor of the eastern block, boss," he said, giving the man’s collar a rough, downward jerk that forced him to stumble forward onto his knees.“He was holed up in one of the vacant utility rooms, completely focused on the courtyard. He had a rifle braced against the
MarcelloThe clerk hissed in pain, a sharp, ragged sound that echoed off the sterile walls of the front office as the reality of his situation fully set in. I released my iron grip on his wrist, stepping back slightly just to watch him collapse, his body hitting the floor in an uncoordinated heap, gasping like his life depended on it. He clutched his forearm desperately, but his ruined, dislocated knuckles couldn't form the grip necessary to stem the flow. Crimson blood pumped from the open artery in a steady pulse, pooling around his knees and staining the cheap floor tiles. He looked small down there, stripped of his explosive speed and reduced to a desperate animal trying to hold onto his leaking vitality.Yet, as he lay there panting, his chest heaving violently as his strength rapidly drained into the floor, the bastard managed to pull his lips back into a small, defiant smile. It was a weak, trembling smirk, but it was there.I leaned against the edge of the wooden counter, c
MarcelloI looked down at my side, my vision narrowing as the cold air of the reception office rushed into the tear in my clothes. For a single fraction of a second, the sensation of a deep abdominal puncture had threatened to lock my lungs. But as the layout of the strike registered in my mind, the truth became clear.The blade hadn't sunk into my gut. My split-second torso twist had altered the trajectory of his thrust. Instead of piercing my flesh, the heavy hunting knife had sliced cleanly and deeply across the palm of my left hand, which I had thrown up as a desperate shield to catch the weapon before it could reach my center.A small, ragged breath of relief left my lips, the tension draining out of my shoulders in a quiet hiss. It was just a flesh wound on my palm. I could handle a sliced hand; I had fought through far worse with bone exposed to the air. As I stared at the dark blood beginning to well up in the creases of my skin, a strange, uncharacteristic thought flashed
MarcelloMy eyes locked onto the perimeter the second the SUV pulled out of the gravel driveway, the heavy, reinforced tires kicking up a spray of dirt as it accelerated into the fading, late afternoon light. I didn't look directly at Sienna through the heavily tinted, armored glass, but my chest tightened with a rare, unwanted spike of raw adrenaline until the tail lights cleared the main iron gate. She was out of the immediate line of fire, moving toward safety, or at least the closest thing to a sanctuary that existed within the borders of my world.A sudden flicker of movement caught my attention, breaking my focus.Through a narrow, jagged gap in the crumbling concrete wall bordering the eastern edge of the property, I caught a bastard crouching near the edge of the alleyway. His frame was tense and rigid as he raised a high-caliber rifle, tracking the path of the vehicle. Before my hand could even clear my holster, the bastard pulled his trigger.Thud.His suppressed weapon c
Sienna The air in the small sitting room was dead, frozen solid by the terrifying presence of the men who had suddenly occupied our space.BANG! BANG!A couple more gunshots blasted through the thin exterior walls of the apartment building, the sounds incredibly loud, sharp, and violent. Right aft
Sienna The bedroom was dead quiet after the door closed, leaving the air heavy, still, and suffocating.I sat cross-legged on the edge of the mattress, already dressed in a pair of faded sweatpants and an oversized hoodie that felt too large for my frame. In my right hand, I held up a small plasti
SiennaThe doorknob rattled again, a sharp, metallic warning that sliced through the heavy, intoxicated air of the bedroom. Outside, the old wood of the frame creaked as Roxy leaned her weight against it, her patience officially wearing thin.Inside, I was drowning.Panic flooded my veins, complete
SiennaMy back pressed hard against the bedroom wall, trapped completely beneath his massive frame as his hands locked me into place. There was no room to move, no space to slip away from the intense, suffocating heat coming off his skin. The cold laminate flooring beneath my bare feet felt miles







