LOGINShare
Chapter five
publish date:
2026-02-18 19:03:58Chapter Five
The headline hit before sunrise. Damon saw it on his tablet while his coffee cooled untouched beside him.
TECH TYCOON IN SECRET AFFAIR WITH BODYGUARD. SECURITY BREACH OR PERSONAL CHOICE?
His chest tightened. He scrolled. Blurry photos, cropped angles. One clear image showed Luca stepping too close on the balcony. Another showed Damon’s hand brushing Luca’s wrist in the hallway. The kiss wasn’t visible, but the implication was evident. Damon swore under his breath.
Within minutes, his phone exploded. Board members, legal counsel, PR, Matteo. He ignored them all. He stood and walked straight to Luca’s room.
Luca opened the door already dressed, eyes dark, jaw tight. “You saw it,” Luca said. “Yes.” Silence stretched. Damon held up the tablet. “Explain.” Luca didn’t touch it. “I didn’t leak anything.” “I know.” That was the problem. Someone else had, someone close. Damon exhaled slowly. “This puts my company at risk. It compromises security protocols. It makes you look like an asset instead of protection.”
Luca flinched. “Damon” “You’re my bodyguard.” The words tasted bitter. “Not my lover.” Luca absorbed that quietly. “I never asked to be either.” Damon looked away. He hated himself for what came next. “You’re reassigned.” Luca stared at him. “To where?” “Off my detail.” Luca’s shoulders stiffened. “That’s not safe.” Damon’s voice hardened. “You don’t get to decide what’s safe for me.” The lie burned. They stood too close. Everything unsaid hung between them. Finally, Luca nodded once. “If that’s what you want.” It wasn’t, but Damon didn’t stop him.
Matteo arrived within the hour, all concern and calm authority. He clasped Damon’s shoulder gently. “Bad timing,” Matteo said. “But we’ll spin it. These things happen.” Damon studied him. “Someone fed this to the press.” Matteo sighed. “Probably an internal leak. I’ll have my people investigate.” Your people. Damon felt it again, that quiet tightening in his chest.
Matteo continued, “Given the optics, I recommend consolidating security operations. I’ve already prepared merger paperwork. It gives us tighter control.” Damon flipped through the documents. Emergency clauses, temporary executive authority, asset routing. Matteo had moved fast. Too fast. “I’ll review these,” Damon said.
Matteo smiled. “Of course.” But his eyes were calculating. Luca packed in silence. He moved through Damon’s penthouse one last time, memorizing exits, blind spots, reflections in glass. He intercepted another syndicate transmission while disabling his access. Short. Clear. Deadline tonight. Adrian wasn’t bluffing.
Luca closed his eyes. He had two choices: disappear or burn the system down. He chose Damon.
Damon was in his office when Luca returned. “You shouldn’t be here,” Damon said without looking up. “There’s surveillance on your south corridor,” Luca replied. “Not yours.” Damon froze. “What?” “Your security perimeter has been rerouted. Contracts reassigned. Matteo controls half your defenses.” Damon stood slowly. “You’re sure?” “Yes.” Damon stared at him. Then the lights went out. Emergency power kicked in seconds later. At the same moment, gunfire erupted in the lobby.
Luca moved instantly, grabbing Damon and dragging him behind reinforced glass. “Stay down.” “Luca” “Now.” Explosions echoed below. Security feeds flooded Luca’s wrist display. Armed contractors, not syndicate, corporate Matteo’s people.
Damon’s phone rang. Matteo. Damon answered. Matteo’s voice was calm. “I’m afraid this is hostile restructuring.” “You set this up.” “You were becoming unpredictable.” “You killed my mother.” A pause. Then Matteo spoke softly. “She was inconvenient.” Damon closed his eyes. “Damon,” Matteo continued, “I don’t want you dead. I want you cooperative.”
Luca heard everything. His jaw clenched. They were trapped. Power was failing floor by floor. Luca turned to Damon. “They’re taking the building.” Damon looked at him. The truth was raw between them now. “You didn’t leave,” Damon said. Luca shook his head. “Never.” Damon swallowed, then reached for Luca’s hand. “Whatever happens next, don’t lie to me again.” Luca nodded. “I killed your mother.” The words landed hard. Damon stared at him, devastation flooding his face.
Before Damon could respond, gunfire shattered the glass wall behind them. Luca shoved Damon to the ground and drew his weapon. And in that moment, Damon understood: the man who destroyed his life was now the only one standing between him and death.
As smoke filled the corridor and footsteps closed in, Luca pulled Damon toward the emergency stairwell. Damon followed blindly, trusting the assassin who had taken everything from him, realizing he might lose what was left.
Latest chapter
Love wasn't in the contract Chapter 31
Chapter 31“What did you inject him with?”The question hit Damon like a physical blow.Rain still fell, but it no longer felt real.Nothing did.Only Luca pale, too still on the stretcher, his chest rising too fast, too shallow.Damon swallowed hard.“I don’t know exactly,” he admitted, voice rough. “It was in Matteo’s kit. There was a protocol something about hemorrhagic shock. It said stimulant”Seraphine’s expression went from alarmed to razor-sharp in an instant.“Show me.”Damon’s hands shook as he fumbled for the crushed black case, pulling out the vial and syringe packaging with fingers that no longer felt like his own.She snatched them, scanning the label in seconds.Then she went very, very still.“That’s not a standard stimulant,” she said quietly.Damon’s stomach dropped.“What is it?”Seraphine didn’t answer immediately.She turned to the medics.“Get him on oxygen. Now. And start a line wide bore. He’s crashing.”The word hit like a gunshot.Crashing.“No,” Damon said u
Love wasn't in the contract Chapter 30
Chapter 30“LUCA!”Damon didn’t remember getting to his feet.One second he was in the mud, Viktor’s blood soaking into the ground beside him.The next he was moving.Running.Slipping downhill and then up again, heart beating so hard it felt like it might tear itself apart inside his chest.Luca staggered backward from the impact.For one horrifying, endless second Damon thoughtThat’s it.That’s the end.Then Luca remained standing.Barely.His body pitched sideways, one hand flying to his upper shoulder.Not center mass.Not the heart.Not dead.Not dead.Relief hit so hard it almost made Damon black out.Then Luca’s knees buckled.Damon caught him just before he hit the ground.The force of it drove them both down into the mud anyway.Rain poured over them in cold sheets.Luca’s breath came out ragged and sharp through clenched teeth.Damon’s hands were already there, frantic and shaking, trying to find the wound through blood and wet fabric and panic.“Oh God”“Not dead,” Luca ra
Love wasn't in the contract Chapter 29
Chapter 29Matteo’s second gun gleamed black in the rain.Damon’s heart dropped so fast it felt physical.“Luca!”The warning tore out of him too late.Matteo raised the weapon with unnerving calm, one hand steady despite the blood soaking through his shoulder. No panic. No desperation. Just that same old, terrifying composure as if shooting the man Damon loved was no more emotionally significant than signing a contract.Luca saw the movement a split second later.He pivotedAnd the world exploded again.Two shots cracked almost at once.Viktor fired from one knee.Matteo fired from the tree line.Luca twisted mid-step, his body moving with that impossible, brutal precision Damon had seen before the kind forged by training and trauma and too many years of surviving by fractions of seconds.One bullet tore through Luca’s jacket sleeve.The otherMissed.Barely.So close Damon heard it split bark behind him.Then Luca fired back.Once.Twice.Three times.The clearing erupted into movem
Love wasn't in the contract Chapter 28
Chapter 28Rain ran into Damon’s eyes, but he didn’t blink.He couldn’t.Because Matteo Laurent was standing twenty feet away, blood on his shirt, smoke in his hair, and somehow still looking composed enough to ruin lives with a signature and a smile.It should have been impossible.The man had taken a bullet.A knife.An explosion.And yet there he was.Alive.Still smiling.Still acting like he owned the ending.Beside Damon, Luca shifted despite the blood loss.Instinct.Pure, dangerous instinct.His body angled forward a fraction, like even now half-conscious, bleeding, barely upright he would still throw himself in front of whatever came next.Damon tightened his grip on Luca’s wrist.“No.”Luca didn’t take his eyes off Matteo.“Damon.”“No.”The word came out flat and absolute.For once, Luca seemed too exhausted to argue.Matteo took another step through the rain.No gun visible.No immediate aggression.Which somehow made him more terrifying.Viktor remained near the SUV, one
Love wasn't in the contract Chapter 27
Chapter 27The explosion didn’t come all at once.It came in layers.First, a violent metallic crack somewhere deep in the wall behind the generator housing.Then a burst of sparks bright enough to blind.Then the floor itself seemed to jump.The blast wave hit Damon in the chest like a giant fist.He was thrown backward hard enough to lose all sense of direction.Concrete.Heat.Sound tearing apart into white static.His shoulder slammed into something unforgiving.His head clipped the floor.For one awful second, everything disappeared.Then pain came back.And so did fire.The chamber roared.Smoke swallowed the air almost instantly, thick and black and choking.Emergency lights shattered overhead in showers of glass.Damon pushed himself upright on instinct, coughing so hard his ribs screamed.“Luca!”No answer.Only alarms.Only the crackling scream of overloaded electrical systems.Only the ugly, hungry rush of flames catching somewhere they absolutely should not have.Damon’s v
Love wasn't in the contract Chapter 26
Chapter 26For one terrifying second, Damon couldn’t hear anything except his own heartbeat.Not Matteo’s voice.Not the hum of the old generators.Not even Luca breathing somewhere to his right.Just the pounding inside his chest, brutal and uneven, like his body had finally realized this was the moment everything broke.The folder lay open across the concrete floor between them.Paper everywhere.Transfer authorizations.Emergency board resolutions.Control clauses.Corporate bloodshed disguised as legal language.And at the center of it allA signature line waiting for Damon Moretti.Matteo’s voice was soft enough to be mistaken for kind.“If you sign, he lives.”Luca laughed once.A rough, broken sound from the floor.“God, you’re pathetic.”Matteo’s expression didn’t change, but Damon saw the flicker.The tiny fracture.Good.Let him feel something.Even if it was rage.Damon forced himself to breathe.Forced himself not to look only at Luca.Because Matteo wanted panic.Wanted d
You may also like
His Straight Pet
Lydia24.4K viewsChasing my Bestfriend × Lover
YomWrites17.7K viewsBreak Me Apart (MxM)
Dark Ocean26.8K viewsWhen Loving You Became My Sweetest Destruction
Oling8.0K viewsPLAYING PRETEND
Cyra McKenzie271 viewsThe College Bad Boy's Target
Cane2.7K viewsKISS OR KILL, CHERRY? (M×M)
GUT1.4K viewsWay Out: Owned by the Mafia Boss
RAJI5.3K views
