LOGIN3 days after, the second long range specialist had been photographed at a transit hotel on the edge of the neutral commercial zone. He was not alone. Two people moved with him with equipment cases. The kind of footprint that said he intended to stay in the area long enough to finish the job. The peaceful atmosphere only lasted two more days before it cracked. I was in the suite with the doctor for my late afternoon check when the channel on Killian’s belt lit up with the tone for priority external updates. He stepped into the corridor to take it. When he came back his expression had changed. “They got the support pair,” he said. “Both of them. They took it down at a secondary safe site east of the commercial zone. No shots were fired on our side. Interrogation is already underway.” The doctor finished the blood pressure reading and quietly packed her bag. The numbers were still higher than she wanted. She left without comment as the door sealed behind her. Killian locked it and t
The next day after felt unreal. Killian and I were married, no more missing keys, no more internal threats. The house remained under wartime footing, but the position of it is different. Teams still patrolled the corridors, and cameras still covered every corner. I woke to sunlight passing through the narrow reinforced window and the solid warmth of Killian beside me. For a few seconds I only listened to him breathe. No boots moving at emergency pace in the hallway. He opened his eyes when I shifted. The readiness was still there, but it was less tense than before. “Any word?” I asked. “Not yet. Dante’s holding a morning briefing in an hour. We’re expected.” We dressed without hurry. The slight curve of my stomach was more noticeable in the daylight. I caught Killian looking at it once with an expression that was equal parts wonder and fierce protectiveness. Neither of us commented. Some things did not need words yet. Everyone was already at the main study when we arrived. Fath
The channel carried the sound of the first exchange a short time later. Controlled shots, a short shout, then Dante’s voice confirming one man was down at the upper stairwell. The second figure had not been stopped. He had used the lateral route and was still moving. Enzo stepped closer to me. “Stay where you are. If that door opens without the right call sign, you drop behind the table and you do not get up until Killian or I say so.” I nodded. My hand rested over my stomach without conscious thought. The child had survived everything up to this moment. It only needed the next few minutes. Another update came through. The second man had reached a junction closer to the residential core than anyone wanted. Killian’s voice came over the channel once, directing the flanking team. Then the sound of another exchange. This one lasted longer. Then silence followed. I counted my breaths. The room stayed locked and no one moved toward the door. Then the channel came alive again. It was K
The days went by quickly and filled with a lot of tension. Four days became three, three days became two and two days became one day left. I woke before nausea hit, already listening. The suite was quiet. Killian stood at the narrow reinforced window slit that looked onto an inner courtyard, not the outer grounds. “Tomorrow is the day we've been waiting for,” he said without turning. “Yes it is.” I sat up. The word felt heavy. One day until our child becomes a legal Vance heir. One day until Lorenzo’s people lost the easiest legal path to erase what we had made. I spent the middle of the day doing the only useful thing left. Walking the short length of the suite over and over while Killian watched the door. The pregnancy made my balance feel off. My lower back ached a little. When I stopped, Killian made me sit and drink water. His hand settled on the curve of my stomach without comment. We had both stopped treating the child as a claim that might still disappear. In the late aft
Nine days became eight. Every corridor that still contained an outdated lock was treated as hostile territory. Patrols doubled in those sections. No one moved through them without a full escort and a live radio link. “Eight days.” I pressed a hand to my stomach. “They’re still out there. The keys. The people who took them. Dante’s sweeps haven’t produced a new body or a new trail since the second set disappeared.” “Then they’re waiting for the hour when attention splits,” he said. “The ceremony is still the brightest target. Everything else is just keeping the door open until that hour arrives.” Then the first sign that the door was already being tested came. A camera on an unfinished corridor near the old staff stairs registered movement where no patrol was scheduled. The figure wore dark work like clothes and moved with the confidence of someone who belonged there. He approached a barred door at the end of the corridor, reached into a pocket, and produced a key. The external bar
Twelve days became eleven while the house tore itself apart looking for one man and a set of keys. The re-coring of locks began at first light. Teams worked corridor by corridor, changing cores, testing new keys, sealing any door that could not be updated before nightfall. The utility tunnels under the laundry wing were searched again, this time with dogs and portable sensors. They came up empty. No fresh scent trail. Killian stayed with me in the interior suite. The monitors recorded it. Dante did not order him back to his own rooms. He cleaned his sidearm twice during the morning. I watched the steady, familiar motions and tried to ignore the way the nausea came and went in short, vicious waves. Enzo brought the midday update himself. His face was tired. “Father won’t move the date. Dante agrees. The ceremony stays on the eleventh day from now. They’re treating the missing keys as a contained risk as long as the conference room and the residential core are fully re-cored before t
The booth felt too small, too hot. Killian’s body pressed against mine, hard and unyielding. His hand was still tangled in my hair, his grey eyes burning down at me like he was one second from breaking. The tequila from earlier gave me the courage I needed. I pushed him back until his legs hit the
Killian’s groans vibrated against my neck as I kept grinding on his lap. The thick bulge of his cock pressed right against my soaked pussy through our clothes. Every roll of my hips made the leather of my dress ride higher and sent sparks shooting through my clit. I was dripping wet, my black lace
“Damn, Alessia,” Sofia said, stepping back with a wicked grin. “You look like pure sex. That tight little body in leather? Killian won’t be able to look away. I bet the big, scary enforcer gets rock hard just seeing you walk by.” My face heated up, but I didn’t deny it. I turned side to side in th
I woke up on my 21st birthday with my heart already racing. Sunlight poured into my bedroom in the Vance mansion, lighting up the furniture and the silk sheets. This was the day everything changed. Or at least I hoped it would. A firm knock hit my door. “Alessia, downstairs. Now.” Dante’s voice, d







