Eleni
Two days after my night in Dante’s office, I sit on the king bed Mama and I have been sharing with my knees curled up to my chest. I haven’t seen more than a glimpse of him since then. He helped me dress, made me promise to go to the bathroom, gave me one last searing kiss, and then…nothing.
“I feel ridiculous.” Mama turns from the closet that was slowly stocked with clothes in her size and preferred style over the last week with a sweater in her hands. “I should just take everything, yes? Even if I’ll never wear it back home?”
“You should take whatever you want, Mama.” I smooth a pair of pants in her open suitcase. “You never know if you might travel someday.”
“It is free.” She looks at the bright blue sweater. “What are you packing, zouzouni?”
I have gotten good at not flinching when she asks me questions like this. I really did mean to tell her that night. But when I walked away from Dante with my knees still weak and told he
DanteI shoulder open my front door long after everyone in the house other than Gianna will be asleep. My own silent halls greet me. I kick the door shut, nudge off my shoes, and head upstairs to shower before I get blood on anything important.It’s been two long goddamn days, but Thano’s people are finally starting to close in on a potential location for Luca. Tony pulled them in more after I told him to make his own call. Yet another good decision that night. I stride into the master bathroom attached to my bedroom, strip, and put my suit directly in the second laundry basket I keep in there for anything that needs serious stain removal. Then, I switch on the massive rain shower I splurged on a few years ago.Everything’s been moving too fast for me to check in with Eleni, but after how vocal she was in my office, I get the sense she’d let me know if I’d done anything wrong or pissed her off. Once we have a location
EleniI blink awake, not remembering falling asleep or the slick leather under my cheek. Music still pounds into my hazy skull, but much softer now. The last thing I’m certain of is dancing at Piacere, and then…Dante?“I know you’re awake,” he says from somewhere in the room.I sit up, and the room blurs like I’m in a cartoon until I’m upright. Mostly upright. My eyes catch on a wall clock that says it’s one in the morning. Then, I see Dante behind a crisp, modernist, black-glass desk. I blink a few times. Nope, he doesn’t look happy.“So?” I lever myself to my feet. Gianna convinced me to wear one of her dresses and a pair of her heels, so standing is even more of a challenge than it otherwise might be. She also convinced me not all alcohol tastes like the crap Dante drinks, and boy was she right about that.“So,” he repeats. “So, Luca Lombardi is still out there. You’re in danger, Eleni. Do you get that?”“Yes,” I say with total confidence. I recognize enough of those words to be co
EleniWhen Dante turns back to me, the heat in his gaze is dead. “I have to handle this.”“Yeah.” I pull my bralette back over my bare chest, and the dress over that. “Of course.”He watches me like he wants to help but doesn’t know how. “I’ll have Seb take you home.”I climb off his lap and try not to feel like the stupidest woman alive. After a few moments, Seb opens a door I didn’t notice and leans in.“I’m sorry—”Dante just nods at me. Seb shoots me an apologetic smile, and I walk out with him.“So, have I pretty much ruined my chances of you ever liking me?” he asks as we walk up the stairs to the main club.“Between this and Mama?” I smile wryly. “We’ll see.”Pretending to be normal with Seb is the only thing keeping my emotions from overflowing. I don’t even know where they’re going to go anymore. I can just feel them, corked and bubbling in my chest.He chuckles and holds open the door to ou
EleniWarm desire coils between my legs as Dante stares at me, his eyes burning and proof of my disobedience behind me. Part of me wants to run to his bed, to do whatever he asks. The rest of me wants to know how far I can push him.I cross my arms under my boobs, pushing them higher. “Make me.”His gaze turns impossibly darker. “Green if you’re good. Yellow if you need a moment. Red if you need me to stop.”I blink. “What?”He prowls closer. “I’m going to take you apart, El, and I want to hear you scream. We need these words so I know when you’re serious. Repeat them.”“Green if I’m good, yellow if I need a moment, red if I want to stop,” I say, not really understanding but liking the hunger in his voice.“Good.” He smiles.He snatches me and throws me over his shoulder. I don’t even have time to yelp before he&r
DanteThe next morning, I wake in my rumpled sheets to a warm presence beside me. Eleni. For a small woman, she really does stretch out. Her hair, shining red-brown in the morning light, covers a whole pillow, so she’s stolen a corner of mine for her head. She’s on her stomach, so I can’t see her truly spectacular breasts, but my memories of them make me consider getting into sculpture because breasts like that deserve immortalization in marble. What I can see is the curve of her ass, just disappearing under the blankets and still a little pink from her first punishment, and the possessive hand she has on my chest.Possessive might be too strong of a word. She’s taking up more than half the bed. I could just be in her way. But I like to think it’s possessive. She was incredible last night, a natural submissive who danced between bratting and obedience in a way that made me never want to go to sleep, but when I slid into her f
EleniI scroll down a page on my online textbook and glance at the clock on the dining room wall. Nearly one. When I woke up in bed alone, I was a little frustrated. Last night was nothing short of magical for me, but I’ve seen movies, so I know what sneaking out before the other person wakes up means. When I searched the whole house for Dante and didn’t find him—or any note—I was worried. I know he’s a boss, and that means he’s always going to work weird hours, but this much of a rush in the middle of a weekday seems strange.But now, as I sit at his massive, luxurious dining room table trying and failing to do homework for night classes I haven’t been to in what feels like years, I’m downright scared. There’s no sign of Dante except an espresso cup with a thin film remaining at the bottom. I talked to a couple of the staff, and one of them said Tony rushed Dante out as soon as he woke up, so he
EleniI glance at Dante out of the corner of my eye. After he dropped the bomb about the situation changing, I expected him to explain or something, but he only took my half-packed bag and loaded it into his car. He drove me away from his house in Staten Island a few minutes later, and we haven’t exchanged a word since then.“Fuck, Philadelphia?” Dante says. “I was really hoping…no, no we can handle it.”That’s not to say Dante hasn’t been talking. He’s spent the whole drive with his phone cradled between his shoulder and his ear, taking increasingly intense phone calls. This is the first mention of Philadelphia, and I have no idea what to make of that. The Lombardis only operate in New York, or so I thought. It’s hard to think of anything beyond how absolutely furious I still am.He spins the wheel and pulls into a long, horseshoe-shaped drive. A house emerges out of the trees. Li
DanteA few days after dropping Eleni off upstate, I sit in the cheap, plastic chair of the Sing Sing Correctional private visitation room and eye the guard standing in the corner. He’s not our usual guy, but Hank promised this guy would be just as good.“I’m Dante,” I say to fill the silence before my prisoner arrives.He grunts. “You bring the shit?”Certainly not the conversationalist Hank is. I pull the plastic-wrapped Cubans out of my inside jacket pocket and slide them across the table. The new guy picks them up, sniffs them, and they disappear in a crease in his uniform, in the way every prison guard I’ve ever met seems to have mastered. I’ve never been inside myself, and I’m not looking forward to that day, if it ever comes. I knock surreptitiously on the engineered-wood table and hope that’s enough to scare away the bad luck.The door buzzes, then opens to admit Uncl
AngeloThe files and blueprints that Lev had left for Tatiana turned out to be far more invaluable than any of us could have anticipated. Thanks to his meticulous planning, we managed to track several of Oleg's and the Romina family's businesses, as well as uncover key bank accounts that Guskov had mentioned during our last conversation. If it weren’t for Lev’s foresight, we would have been blind, groping in the dark, still searching for threads to pull. But now, we have the tools we need to make our move.Speaking of Guskov, after Tatiana and I had returned to the safehouse, I made the call. Tony needed to come in for a meeting. I wasn’t going to make any major decisions without his input, and I knew he’d appreciate having a hand in plotting the next steps. He showed up about an hour later, and the three of us gathered around the table, all of us tense, but ready.Even Tatiana joined the meeting, which—while expected—wasn’t something I had been eager for. I knew she was going to want
Tatiana “You’re killing me, Angelo,” I whisper, my voice breathless as I squirm beneath him, trying to find the perfect angle, the perfect moment. The heat radiating from his body pressed against mine, but it’s not enough. I want more. I need more.Angelo’s lips curl into a grin, a wicked expression that makes my pulse quicken. He’s fully aware of the effect he has on me—always has been. His hands slip under me to grab my legs, shifting me until I’m lying back against the couch, my head sinking into the cushion.“This couch seems a bit small for both of us, don’t you think?” I ask, the playful tone in my voice belying the tension simmering underneath. I struggle with his shirt, trying to peel it off, but my hands are trembling too much.He glances around, his gaze flicking over to the bedroom door behind us. “Come here,” he commands, his voice low, dark.Before I can even process it, he’s standing, lifting me in his arms with an effortless strength that leaves me breathless. I wrap m
Tatiana I stare at the screen, my brow furrowing as I try to make sense of the name. Guskov. It feels familiar, but I can't quite place it. I’m sure I’ve heard it before, maybe from Lev. But there’s something unsettling about the whole situation.“Do you know him?” Angelo’s voice cuts through the quiet, his tone curious but not without a hint of concern.I shake my head slightly, feeling the weight of the unknown pressing down on me. “His name rings a bell. I think Lev mentioned him once or twice, but I don’t really know him. Not personally, at least.”I begin scrolling through the messages, each one more concerned than the last. The words seem to echo with a sense of urgency, a beckoning for contact. ‘Lev, did you arrive?’‘Man, where are you?’‘Fuck… Oleg knows about Tatiana.’‘Tatiana?’‘Are you okay? Please call me when you get this message.’‘Where are you?’Angelo leans forward, eyes scanning the screen over my shoulder. “Looks like he’s been trying to get in touch with you fo
Tatiana I wake before the sun rises, my body still tense from a night of restless sleep. I’d tossed and turned for hours, unable to shake the vivid flashes of the ambush from my mind. Twice, I jolted awake, breathless, and each time Angelo pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly until I drifted off again.It’s frustrating—infuriating, really—to realize how fragile I still am when it comes to facing my trauma. Last night, all I wanted was to toughen up, to stop being so affected by memories I can’t change. But how can I do that when the slightest trigger robs me of sleep and floods me with nightmares?Angelo tells me I’m being too hard on myself, but I can’t pretend it doesn’t eat at me. I was not raised to be weak. When I finally drag myself out of bed and into the shower, he’s still asleep, probably exhausted from being woken up repeatedly. I let the warm water run over me, careful not to soak my bandage. For a few quiet minutes, I let myself relax—though it feels selfish to do
Tatiana Feeling Angelo inside me is everything I need after the night I’ve had—after the fear, the blood, the chaos.It's not just sex. It’s an anchor, a reassurance, a reclamation of power over my own body. The moment he touches me, all the trauma begins to unravel, thread by painful thread. He doesn’t just make me feel alive—he makes me feel wanted, needed, like I’m something precious he refuses to lose.The way he looks at me right now… like I’m the only thing that exists in his world. It makes me ache in places far deeper than the physical. I rock against him, my rhythm desperate, as if the faster I move, the further I can run from the horror of earlier tonight.“You’re driving me insane,” Angelo groans, his fingers digging into my thighs, holding me firmly in place. He’s trying not to lose control, and I can see it in the tension of his jaw, the restraint in his eyes.I smirk, breathless. “Glad to know it’s mutual.”My pace quickens, fueled by the growing fire low in my belly. E
Angelo The ride back to Staten Island is cloaked in silence, thick and suffocating. After scolding Tatiana for what she did, I can’t trust myself to speak again without unloading everything I’m feeling—rage, fear, confusion. My hands grip the steering wheel like a lifeline, my knuckles bone-white under the overhead glow of passing streetlights.Tatiana’s forehead is still streaked with dried blood. Just glancing at it sends a sickening twist through my gut. I don’t know what I would do if I lost Tatiana. I stare hard at the dark stretch of highway ahead, trying to piece it together. Trying to understand how the hell we got ambushed. The Rominas—how did they find her? We hadn’t been followed, I was sure of that. No one knew where she went. She’d been driving alone, off the grid. So why did they show up in the exact spot she chose?Coincidence? No. Too perfect.Were they watching her all along? Waiting for an opening? That’s the only thing that makes any sense. The idea makes my jaw c
TatianaI regret leaving the house the moment I reach the city. The buildings are monstrous, and I’m not used to a place as overwhelmingly chaotic as New York. At first, I was determined to head straight to the apartment Lev had rented—curious, optimistic, convinced that whatever he’d left there might hold answers about Oleg. I had hoped to find something, anything, that could help the Saints in their mission to dismantle the Romina Empire.I type the address Lev sent via email into the GPS, but I start recognizing the street names—familiar turns, shops and signs. Then I see it— the corner deli where Angelo kidnapped me that day. My stomach turns over and the blood in my veins turns to ice. I’m too close to the place where the wedding ceremony took place. Where I ran from. Where it all began.Emotionally, I begin to unravel and as if that’s not enough, I realize the car behind me has been changing lanes immediately after I merge for long enough that I’m being followed. Panic claws
AngeloA sharp beep echoes from the garage downstairs and jerks me out of sleep.For a second, I think it’s part of a dream. I lie still, blinking at the ceiling. But something feels off—too quiet, too empty.I don’t need to look to my side to know she’s gone.I feel it.The air is colder. The silence heavier.I sit up, scanning the room. The door is open. Lights off. Nothing.Then I notice it—my gun, keys, and wallet are missing.“Fuck,” I growl, bolting out of bed. I yank on my pants and shove my arms through my shirt like I’m racing death itself. My chest tightens, adrenaline slamming through my veins like a freight train.She took my car, my weapon, and my goddamn trust.“You can’t do this to me, Tatiana,” I mutter, storming into the hallway. My voice is hoarse, laced with anger and something far worse—fear.“She’s gone!” I shout down the corridor, pounding on Dice’s door without waiting. “Get the fuck up—we’ve got a problem.”Dice swings the door open already halfway dressed, eye
*Tatiana*Angelo and I ended up in bed after our talk on the porch. Not because we reached an understanding—we didn’t. We’re still standing on opposite sides of a line neither of us is willing to cross. But I knew pushing him harder would only cause more damage.So, I hold my tongue.For now, keeping the peace meant swallowing my pride, locking my thoughts away, and playing the role of someone willing to wait.It’s after midnight. Rain pounds against the windows like a warning—fierce, unrelenting. Angelo lies asleep beside me, peaceful, unaware of the storm brewing right here in this bed.I watch him for a long moment, memorizing the shape of him, the warmth of him, just in case this is the last time.Sleep won’t come, so I reach for the tablet on my nightstand. I browse for a while—news, maps, dead ends. Then, on impulse, I check my old email. I haven’t opened it since I left Russia. I expect spam, junk, maybe nothing at all.What I don’t expect is a message from Lev.Dated the night