LOGIN[CARLTON’S POV]"Fuck!" Tristan shouts, wrapping both arms around me like a straitjacket. "Have you lost your fucking mind?!""Tell me!" I bite down on his shoulder. Hard. Taste copper and salt.He screams, actually screams, and his arms fall away.I lunge for the driver again.Everything happens at once.The driver jerks the wheel. Hard left.A truck horn blares; loud, deafening, right fucking there. Headlights flood the car interior, bright as the sun. Time slows down.The truck misses us by inches. So close I feel the displaced air rock our car. The driver's curses are swallowed by the truck's horn, still blaring as it disappears into the night.Tristan slams me down into the seat, pins me there with his full weight, one forearm across my throat.His fist comes up. Pulls back. Shaking with rage.I stare up at him. Don't flinch. Don't blink."Do it." My voice is sawdust. Raw. "What are you waiting for? Punch me, you bastard."His breathing is ragged. Harsh. Like he just ran a marath
[CARLTON’S POV]Tristan exhales against my neck, thick arms locked around me like iron. His heartbeat slams against my chest: loud, erratic, completely fucking human.Tristan doesn't fear anything. Not bullets, not blood, not death itself. But those two men—Rusev and Seo—did something to him I've never seen before.Suddenly I'm the hunter and he's the prey. Me, Carlton Dickson, standing between the most wanted man on Earth and the world trying to tear him apart.Saying he ruined my life doesn't mean shit anymore. What's the point of hating someone when you'd take a bullet for them? When you'd kill for them? When you're hard just from holding them?His grip tightens, one massive hand splayed across my lower back, the other tangled in my hair. He mutters something in Russian; low, guttural, sounds like a prayer or a curse. I don't know which. Don't care.My fingers are still numb from squeezing that Glock. I can't believe I actually did that. Pulled a gun on two professional killers. F
[TRISTAN’S POV]“Do you know what It means?” Rusev growls, inching closer. “No.”"Your people."“No.""Your fucking men, Tristan!" His voice cracks like a whip. “You betrayed me!” Something inside my chest splinters."That's not possible." My voice sounds hollow even to me."Then explain it." Rusev's tone is ice and rage. “I should’ve known you were a reptile. Two faced. A cold, bloody bastard. She loved you like a son, you SCUMBAG!” Seo pulls back Rusev, his hand digging into his husband’s shoulder. “Easy.” Seo’s tone is calm. “Breathe, Rus.” Rusev clutches Seo’s palm, breathing in slow, heavy exhales. “Do you know?” I rub my forehead. My hand comes away bloody from the split in my brow. "I was in Moscow. I was captured—""By the gerontophiliac, Dakor." Rusev's eyes drop to my groin. "He did you dirty, didn't he?" His gaze flicks up again. "Your daughter too. Even your pet.” Every muscle in my body goes rigid."And your men were there with you," he continues. "Am I lying, Tris
[TRISTAN'S POV]Detectives.I fucking hate detectives.But these three? They scare the shit out of me.They're already leaning against the hood when I step out: long black coats soaked through, fedoras pulled low, shoes too polished for this muddy shithole. They look relaxed, casual, like they're waiting for a bus, not ambushing a man in the middle of nowhere.But their eyes? Their eyes are hunting.I shut the car door. Slow. Deliberate.The Bugatti's engine ticks as it cools, steam curling from under the hood. Burnt rubber hangs thick in the air from the tire I couldn't fix. Rain stopped ten minutes ago but everything's still wet: the ground, the trees, my bare fucking chest.Cold bites into my skin.Behind me, Carlton shifts in his seat. I feel his stare burning holes through the window."Stay in the car," I say without turning."I thought it was 'we' now." His voice cuts through the door, sharp with attitude.My jaw clenches. "Not this, Baby. Bratva business."He moves like he's a
[CARLTON'S POV]"They're heading toward us." I squeeze Tristan's thigh, feeling the muscle tense under my palm. "No, they're coming for us."He moves like a snake, Glock yanked from his waistband, barrel clicked, and loaded.Tristan shifts in his seat until his massive frame blocks me completely, then rests one hand on the door handle. Ready."No." I jerk him back hard.His weight slams into me, two hundred pounds of scarred muscle crushing my chest. Hot skin. Rain-slick. The ridge of his spine digging into my sternum.My treacherous cock hardens immediately.Fuck my life.He's shirtless. Every scar, every tattoo, every thick vein running under prison-pale skin is pressed against me. I can feel his heartbeat. Fast. Ragged. Or maybe that's mine."Baby..." His voice rolls over me like whiskey and smoke.Something drums against my arms, hard and frantic. His pulse? My pulse? I can't tell anymore because I'm hugging my father's killer from behind and my body doesn't care about that fact.
[TRISTAN'S POV]The rain doesn't just fall. It attacks. It hammers the Bugatti's roof, drowns the gravel road in seconds, turns the lake beside the church into something violent and churning. The wind tears through the trees hard enough that branches crack and scatter across the ground. Everything smells like wet earth and gasoline and something metallic I can't place. Blood, maybe. Or just the storm eating through rust on the car's undercarriage.The front left tire is completely gone, deflated, fucked. I'm crouched in the mud, one knee sinking into cold sludge, breaker bar locked onto a lug nut that refuses to move. Rainwater runs into my mouth, my one good eye, blurs my vision until I can barely see the fucking bolt I'm trying to turn. My hands are numb. My shirt is soaked through, clinging to my chest and back like a second skin.I pull.Nothing."Tristan, what the fuck are you doing?!" Carlton's voice cuts through the storm like a blade.I don't look up."You forgot the pliers
(CARLTON'S POV)Jesus! When did I become like this?‘He made you like this,’ a voice says in my head. I change the channel with a press of the remote. The device clatters to the ground. I want them to know it’s me. To damage me. That way, I’ll be too busy snapping my bones in place than thinking
(DECLAN’S POV)Demons don’t die. I never believed it, but here he It is—A dagger buried in his chest, neck stabbed, his blood soaking my pants—Yet his pulse flickers. Faint, but alive. “He’s not dead!” Dakor barks, pain lacing his voice. “Wanted in fifty-four countries and greatest felon alive. Y
(TRISTAN’S POV)48 hours later. Moscow, Russia. I’m going to die. I don’t know where. Don’t know how. But I feel it in my bones: Hands cold and pale, lips cracked, eyes losing their edge. In my dreams, Camilla smiles at me like I’m still the boy she used to know. Aurora touches me like we’re lo
(DECLAN'S POV)Selene always called me a walking red flag. Doctors said I absorbed my twin in the womb, consumed him before we were born. Maybe that’s why I’ve always had this hunger. The therapist who diagnosed my psychopathy will have a field day with this. I’m a snake who’s learned to slither







