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Fire lines

Author: Holland Ross
last update Last Updated: 2025-08-04 05:33:27

Serena:

The war started in the quiet.

It wasn’t bullets or blood at first. It was breath. A look. The way the silence shifted around a room full of men trained to kill and the girl they couldn't bear to lose.

Me.

I hadn’t always known what I was. I’d spent years pretending I was just angry. That the rage in my bones was mine, not planted there like a seed waiting for ignition.

But the folder Evelyn dropped told a different story.

And I was done pretending.

"Three days," I said again, running my finger over the red-inked date beside my name. “That’s all we’ve got.”

Luca crossed his arms. “Three days is enough.”

"Not to run," Matteo added, voice dry, eyes locked on Evelyn. "But maybe to end it before they do."

Nico didn't speak. But he stepped closer, the way he always did when things got dark inside my head. Not to pull me out—he knew better. Just to be there, in the black with me.

"Tell us everything," he said to Evelyn.

She smiled faintly. Not soft. Sharp.

"The program had three phas
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  • My Mafia Stepbrothers Want Me?   Somewhere over the rainbow

    The quiet didn’t last.It never did.I heard Luca before I saw him—metal on tile, a slow, methodical rhythm as he disassembled his Glock on the kitchen counter. He didn’t need to say a word; the silence between us had already told its story. The weight of Berlin, the file, the name… and what had happened between Matteo and me. It was all there, unsaid, thick in the humid air of the safehouse.I moved carefully, my body still aching in places I wasn’t used to acknowledging. There was something raw in my skin, something unguarded that hadn’t been there before. Matteo was still in the bedroom, maybe asleep, maybe just quiet—he did that sometimes, vanished into himself when he didn’t want to show the world what he was feeling.I opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, the hiss of the plastic seal breaking louder than it should’ve been. I didn’t meet Luca’s eyes.“You know we can’t stay here,” he said, voice steady.“I know.”“We’ve got maybe 48 hours. Less if Umbra has eyes on Dr

  • My Mafia Stepbrothers Want Me?   Back in the city

    39:58:42 — Safehouse | Inner City Grid, Unknown LocationWe didn’t say it aloud, but we were grateful to hear traffic again.City noise. Sirens in the distance. Neon bleeding through rusted blinds. A neighbor’s bad music pulsing through walls that hadn't been patched in years.It wasn’t home, not really. But it was far enough from Umbra, and that made it close enough.Matteo was the first through the door, shoulder pressed to the frame like he expected it to explode. Luca checked the corners before he even blinked. I just stood still, breathing it in — that musty, metallic city air. Oil. Rain. Warm dust.This place had been prepped months ago. Just in case. Different IDs. Clean clothes. Weapons. A freezer full of things none of us trusted enough to touch.But the water worked. The locks held. And for the first time in three days, no one was chasing us.No orders.No guns.Just... this.We’d made it out of Berlin with half a file, a name that shouldn’t exist, and each other.I should’v

  • My Mafia Stepbrothers Want Me?   The real Lazarus file

    43:01:12Berlin Compound – Lower Hangar BayThe plan wasn’t airtight. But none of ours ever were.It didn’t have to be clean—just fast.Matteo was the first to move. No orders, no questions. Just a duffel slung over his shoulder and that look he got when he’d already decided the outcome. Luca followed, slower, like he was trying to convince himself this wasn’t surrender.I was already waiting by the cargo elevator.We didn’t speak on the descent.What was there to say? Goodbyes only mattered if we didn’t make it back.The hangar was dark. Empty, except for the low hum of the private jet we’d hidden in the manifests weeks ago, back when we were still paranoid enough to plan for treason.The kind of paranoia that saves you when loyalty doesn’t.Matteo climbed the ramp first, then turned, hand out like it wasn’t a question.I took it.Luca hesitated just long enough to make us wonder if he’d bail. Then he exhaled through his nose, muttered something about regretting this already, and came

  • My Mafia Stepbrothers Want Me?   Why wait

    Matteo-43:37:50Berlin Compound – North WingI didn’t follow them at first.I watched the door close behind her—the girl who wasn’t supposed to come back—and for a full thirty seconds, I didn’t move.Then I did.The hall was too quiet now. No barking orders, no thudding boots. Just the hum of cold fluorescent light and the sound of a fuse burning in my chest.They were in the debriefing room.Luca. Matteo. And you.Not a word spoken when I walked in. Just the shift of weight, the electric pulse of tension.Ilya was in the center of the room, flanked by two guards and lit like she was standing in a confession booth with the wrong god listening.She didn’t look at me.Good.I wasn’t ready to look at her either.Because it wasn’t about her.It never was.You were at the edge of the table, fingers curled against the wood like you were holding something back. Luca leaned in the corner, arms crossed, but his jaw said everything. And Matteo?Matteo was watching you.Not her.I shut the door

  • My Mafia Stepbrothers Want Me?   Villa Umbra

    43:59:12The clock kept ticking.But so was something else.A connection.A fracture healing sideways.A war becoming personal.43:58:31The snow was still falling.Fat, white flakes, soft as dust, burying the pine spines outside the compound walls. It should’ve felt peaceful. Clean. Like winter was trying to smother the fire we’d lit underneath it.But I knew better.Stillness was just waiting with its mouth closed.I leaned against the mezzanine rail, staring out over the lower decks. Below, security personnel moved like ghosts between checkpoints. Gear checks. Line drills. Nothing was out of place.Except me.I hadn’t slept. I hadn’t eaten.I’d just kept seeing her face.Ilya.The girl they’d built from the same wreckage they’d pulled me out of. Cold. Fast. Flawless.Until she wasn't.Until she looked at Ana and didn’t pull the trigger.That shouldn't have meant anything.But it did.It meant everything.“She’ll come back,” Luca said behind me. His voice was tight. Tired. “You know

  • My Mafia Stepbrothers Want Me?   Room 204

    45:04:37The fire alarm didn’t trip until the third body hit the floor.By then, the guards posted at Evelyn’s Berlin satellite had already failed.One throat slit on the stairwell.One spine snapped in the hallway.One heart punctured at the base of the control room ladder, still clutching a security badge that would never beep again.No gunfire.No alarms.Just silence.Then: screaming.By the time the rest of the team mobilized, it was already too late.Ilya moved through the carnage like a shadow stitched in human skin.She wore a black parka and no mask.She didn’t need one.The cameras had all been looped—perfectly, precisely, for thirteen minutes.Long enough.Too long.She reached the upper mezzanine, where a cracked-glass pane overlooked the main floor of the safehouse. Below, technicians scrambled. Evelyn’s people. Civilians.Non-combatants.Ilya could’ve taken the shot.One round. Center mass. Instant chaos.But she didn’t.She turned left—toward the east wing.Toward the r

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