LOGINAstridās POV The chime of the electronic lock didn't sound like a threat this morning. It sounded like a symphony. I was already standing by the door, dressed in a pair of soft black leggings and a cropped tank top, my heart hammering against my ribs. When the door swung open, I didn't see the shadow of the Reaper. I saw Ava, leaning against the doorframe with a look that was remarkably less lethal than usual. "Xavier says you can go out now," she said, her voice dry. My breath hitched. "You mean... out? Out of the gate? To the street?" I asked, my voice rising in a frantic, hopeful pitch. I could almost taste smog, and God, even the smog sounded better than this filtered, expensive air. Ava gave me a flat look, the kind you give a puppy that thinks itās going for a walk but is actually going to the vet. "No, princess. Just inside the penthouse. The lockdown on your bedroom is lifted, but the front gates are still a 'no-g
Rated š Xavierās POV The steering wheel of the Cullinan groaned under the white-knuckled pressure of my grip. My chest felt like it had been hollowed out, filled with a volatile mix of residual adrenaline and a dark, suffocating need for quiet. I reached for my phone, the screen illuminating my face with a cold, ghostly pallor. I hit the speed dial for the one person I trusted to hold the line while I was wading through the wreckage of my own making. Ava picked up on the first ring. She didn't say a word; she knew better than to offer platitudes when the air around me was still thick with the scent of a fresh kill. "Let her out of her room tomorrow," I commanded, my voice sounding like gravel grinding against steel. "Let her roam the penthouse. But Avaāif she so much as breathes on the latch of that front gate, if she goes missing for even a second... youāre dead. Do you understand me?" I didn't wait for her to confirm. I didn't want to hear her voice. I ended the call and to
āXavierās POVāThe basement of the industrial warehouse in East London didn't smell like the penthouse. There was no scent of expensive scotch or cedarwood here. It smelled of stagnant water, rusted iron, and the sharp, acidic tang of terror.āI stood in the shadows, my coat draped over my shoulders like a shroud. I hadn't slept in four days. My eyes were gritty, my jaw tight enough to snap bone, and my soul felt like it had been scraped raw.āIn the center of the concrete floor, Robertāthe man I had trusted to run my Australian interests for five yearsāwas stripped of his dignity and his clothes. He was trembling so violently that his knees knocked together, the sound echoing in the high-ceilinged room. Surrounding him were twelve of my most elite Bratva enforcers, their faces carved from stone, their silenced submachine guns held with casual, lethal familiarity.āI stepped forward, the light from the single overhead bulb catching the sharp edge of my silhouette.ā"Please... Don Xavi
āAstridās POV āSeven days. āOne hundred and sixty-eight hours of staring at the same four walls, the same high-end furniture, and the same flickering red eye of the CCTV camera that Iād grown to loathe more than my own reflection. āXavier was gone. āHe hadn't come back after the "spicy pasta" incident. Iād expected him to burst through the door that night to deliver the "consequences" heād promised in that terrifyingly sweet voice of his. Iād braced myself for the training, the pinning, the intense gaze that always made my blood turn into liquid fire. But instead? Nothing. āJust the mechanical click of the lock three times a day when Ava brought my meals. ā"Where is he, Ava?" I asked on day four, stabbing a piece of grilled salmon with more or less murderous intent. ā"Business trip," Ava replied, her face a mask of professional indifference. She didn't even look at me as she checked the perimeter sensor
Astridās POVI tossed the burner phone onto the duvet and collapsed back against the pillows, my heart performing a frantic tap-dance against my ribs. I couldn't believe Iād actually done it. I had called the Reaper of Londonāthe man who currently had me under house arrestāand called him a neanderthal in front of his precious board members."Take that, you bossy monster," I whispered to the empty room, though my hands were shaking.The silence that followed wasn't peaceful; it was charged. I knew Xavier. He was probably vibrating with a mix of lethal embarrassment and possessive fury right now. But the way his voice had softened at the endāthat low, sugary growl that promised 'consequences'āmade a heat bloom in my stomach that had nothing to do with hunger.I reached for the bar of vintage dark chocolate Iād liberated from his secret stash behind The History of the Byzantine Empire. It was rich, bitter, and tasted like victory.If Iām going to be a captive, Iām going to be a well-fed,
āXavierās POV āThe atmosphere in the boardroom was stifling, thick with the scent of expensive cologne and the static of high-stakes anxiety. Twenty of the most powerful executives in the hemisphere sat around the mahogany table, their eyes fixed on the digital projections shimmering against the wall. These were men who moved markets with a whisper, yet they sat in my presence as if they were waiting for a death sentence. āI adjusted my cufflinks, my expression a mask of bored lethality. ā"The shipping lanes in the Adriatic are non-negotiable," I stated, my voice cutting through the room like a piano wire. "If the syndicate wants a piece of the Mediterranean, they pay the tax. Or they find their vessels at the bottom of the trench." āA nervous cough rippled through the left side of the table. I didn't care. My mind was partially elsewhereāspecifically, thirty floors up in the penthouse. Before coming do
Astrid pov The silence of the house was heavier than the stone it was built from. I woke with a start, my heart hammering against my ribs, the ghost of Xavierās voice still echoing in the corners of the room. The morning light was a cruel, pale gold, spilling over the thousands of books I hadnāt
āXavierās POVāThe digital clock on my desk bled red numbers into the dark: 4:14 AM.āI havenāt slept in seventy-two hours. My eyes felt like they had been rubbed with glass, and my skin was humming with a low-grade electrical current that only comes from sustained, high-level sleep depri
āAstridās POVāThe silence of the penthouse was louder than the gunfire had been.āIt was a heavy, artificial silence that hummed with the cost of the air filtration and the steady, rhythmic beat of my own heartāa heart that felt like it didn't belong in my chest anymore. I lay in the center of the
Xavier's pov( continue)I watched her. I didnāt move, didnāt even breathe too loud, afraid Iād shatter the first moment of peace weād had since the mountain road. She looked so small against the height of those shelves, her fingers trembling as they traced the spines.āWhen she reached the middle







