The Wolves Are Watching.

Lucy’s heart squeezed, but she pushed the guilt down. “I’m not a child. I don’t need to be locked away just because you’re scared.”

Vince’s jaw tightened, his composure like a blade honed to the point of breaking. “You think this is about us being scared? This city is drowning in enemies waiting to cut at us through any weakness. You vanish, and you become a target.” He leaned in closer, voice dropping into a growl. “And you are our weakness, Lucy.”

The words cut deeper than he probably intended, and Lucy’s chest burned with the unfairness of it. Her voice cracked, rising above the music. “No, I’m not your weakness. I’m your prisoner.”

The air snapped taut. A ripple went through the watching crowd, whispers carrying the weight of her rebellion. The bartender froze mid-motion, his knuckles whitening around the glass.

Matteo swore under his breath, running a hand through his hair. “You don’t get it. You can’t get it. The people we deal with don’t care that you’re our sister. To them, you’re leverage. A tool. And last night” His eyes narrowed sharply. “Who were you with, Lucy?”

Her stomach dropped, heat flooding her cheeks. She didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.

The silence was all the answer they needed.

Damian let out a low whistle. “So that’s why you came crawling back here. Looking for him.” His grin twisted dark. “Tell me, was he worth risking your neck for? Or are you just that desperate for attention?”

“Damian!” Adrian snapped, but Lucy’s head whipped toward him, fury blazing in her chest.

“Don’t you dare,” she spat. “Don’t you dare act like I’m the problem. For once, I did something for myself. For once, I felt alive and none of you can stand it.”

Vince’s hand slammed down on the bar with such force that glasses rattled. The bartender stiffened but didn’t intervene. Vince’s voice was quiet but dangerous, laced with a threat the crowd could almost taste. “Who Was He?”

Lucy swallowed hard, her eyes shining with tears she refused to let fall. She straightened her shoulders, chin tilting high in defiance. “I’m not telling you.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

The four brothers stood there, fury, fear, and disbelief etched across their faces, while the crowd watched with wide eyes witnesses to a family tearing itself apart.

Lucy’s heart pounded so loudly it drowned out the music. For the first time in her life, she had stood against them, in front of the world.

And she didn’t realize yet just how dangerous her silence truly was.

The silence between Lucy and her brothers felt like the eye of a hurricane, still, suffocating, but thrumming with the promise of destruction.

Vince’s hand still rested on the bar, his knuckles pale against the polished wood. Adrian’s chest rose and fell as if he’d just run a mile. Matteo’s smirk had thinned into something sharper, colder, while Damian’s cigarette burned low between his fingers, forgotten.

Lucy refused to drop her gaze. Even as her throat ached, even as her insides twisted, she clung to her defiance. If she gave in now, she’d never forgive herself.

But the club hadn’t stopped watching.

In the dim corner, half-veiled by smoke and strobe lights, a pair of men leaned casually against the wall, their drinks untouched. Their eyes weren’t on the dancers or the stage, they were locked on Lucy, on Vince, on the firestorm unraveling between them.

One of them, a lean man with a scar running down the side of his face, tilted his head toward his companion. His voice was low, but Lucy’s sharp ears caught it through the haze of music.

“Did you hear that?” he murmured. “She’s hiding something. About a man.”

The second man smirked, lifting his glass without drinking. “Valerio’s little sister. And she’s keeping secrets.” His eyes glittered with cruel delight. “That’s leverage if I have ever seen it.”

Lucy stiffened, her heart thudding painfully in her chest. She hadn’t meant to hear them, but once the words landed, she couldn’t unhear them. Her eyes darted sideways, meeting their gaze for the briefest of moments ; cold and amused.

Fear slipped into her veins like ice water.

But before she could react, Vince’s voice dragged her back. “Enough games, Lucy.” His tone was final, his patience frayed. “You’re leaving now!”

“I’m not” she began, but her voice faltered when the scarred man’s lips curled into a knowing grin.

Damian followed her line of sight, his eyes narrowing as he caught the strangers watching too intently. The lazy amusement in his expression vanished, replaced with something sharper, more lethal. His cigarette hissed as he crushed it against the bar.