MasukMassimo's POV
Markus left with that stupid victorious smile still stuck on his face, and the silence that followed him was loud enough to choke me. I stood there alone, one hand around my whiskey glass, swirling the amber liquid in slow circles. The ice clinked softly, mocking me. I stared at the smooth swirl like it held answers, like it could explain why the hell I—Massimo De Luca—had let a foolish, reckless girl stay in my home. It shouldn’t matter. It should not concern me if Pablo wanted her. It should not be my problem if he paid three million to own her, hurt her, ruin her. That was none of my business. I should have just let Markus take her out. Let Pablo claim her. Let whatever happened…happen. But the moment Markus talked about her and Pablo in the same sentence, something in me twisted—tight, sharp, ugly. And the word “Wait” left my mouth before I even knew I’d said it. I brought the glass to my lips, but I didn’t drink. I just stood there, staring at the floor like it might swallow me whole. Why did I agree to let her stay? The question kept rolling through my mind like thunder. I hated it. Hated how my thoughts kept circling back to her—tied to my bed upstairs, eyes bold, body trembling, legs open like she wanted me to ruin her. Stupid. Reckless. Suicidal girl. My shoulders tensed. I needed silence. I needed space. But the universe clearly hated me today, because right as I placed the glass on the bar and exhaled, a high-pitched, painfully familiar voice pierced the air like a knife. “Massimo! I missed you!” I closed my eyes. Great. Just what I needed. Bianca. I rolled my eyes before I even turned around. My entire body tensed in irritation. I hated her presence before she even stepped into the room—hated the sound of her voice, hated the perfume that traveled ten seconds before she did, hated the clinginess she carried like a weapon. I opened my eyes just in time to see her barreling toward me with a bright, desperate smile. Before I could step back, she threw her arms around me. Her touch made my skin crawl instantly. The repulsion crawled up my spine so fast I almost shoved her off me with more force than necessary. Instead, I grabbed her wrists, peeled her off, and pushed her away. She stumbled back, eyes wide, genuinely shocked like she didn’t know exactly who she was dealing with. “How many times have I told you,” I said, my voice low and cold, “not to touch me?” She blinked at me, disbelief twisting her face. “Massimo, I’m your fiancée. We’re going to get married. What kind of stupid rule is that?” I sighed, long and tired, running a hand down my face. I didn’t have the patience for her today. Or any day. Without another word, I downed the whiskey in one go, the alcohol burning down my throat before dropping the glass. I walked past her, heading for the stairs. Of course she followed me. She always did. Her heels clicked annoyingly fast behind me as she rushed to keep up, her voice rising and falling with fake frustration. “I’m your fiancée, Massimo! Even if you don’t like being touched—which is insane by the way—you should make an exemption for me. I mean, come on! I’m your future wife!” I pinched the bridge of my nose so hard it almost hurt. I stopped halfway up the stairs and turned to face her. Her eyes lit like she thought I was about to say something romantic. She was delusional. “You know why I agreed to marry you, Bianca,” I said, tone flat. “Don’t test me. I can pick someone else.” Her face twisted—shock, hurt, insult, all at once. She looked like I’d slapped her with a bag of bricks. For one second, she seemed ready to argue. But then something clicked behind her eyes. She straightened her back, closed her mouth, and nodded quickly—like a good little fiancée desperate to keep the title. “But we need to learn, Massimo,” she said, voice softening. “We can’t continue like this, baby…” Baby. I hated that word coming from her. I opened my bedroom door and stepped inside, fully intending to slam it in her face so hard the walls shook. But she slid inside the room before I could stop her. I stared at her, deadpan. “Remind me why I’m engaged to you again?” Then the answer slapped me in the face. Yeah. Because as the Don, I needed a wife. An heir. A Don without a woman brought questions. Suspicion. Whispers. My men had started assuming the only reason I didn’t let women touch me…was because I preferred men. Which was ridiculous. Infuriating. Annoyingly persistent. Bianca helped silence those rumors. A temporary fix. A band-aid over a gaping wound. I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed my temples. Bianca’s eyes shifted—subtle, dark. Something flashed in them, something hungry, something calculating. She walked toward me slowly, her hips swaying like she thought she was irresistible. Like she was seducing me. I didn’t move. Didn’t react. She lowered herself to her knees in front of me, hands resting on my thighs, her breath shallow like she was about to accomplish the greatest task of her life. My eyes turned icy. “What are you doing?” She smiled—slow, sultry, fake. “Come on, Massimo…I know you don’t like being touched. But you know…we can learn.” Her hand slid toward my belt. My reaction was instant. I caught her wrist so fast she gasped. “Don’t,” I warned, voice deep and sharp enough to cut. She pouted like a child denied a toy. “Massimo, you’re being dramatic—” The door to my room suddenly burst open. Both our heads snapped toward the sound. And there she was. The girl I brought home. The girl tied to the bed hours ago.The girl I should’ve sent away. She stood in the doorway, eyes blazing with white-hot fury, her chest rising and falling like she’d run across the entire house. Rage poured off her like fire. Her expression carved murder into her pretty face. Bianca froze in front of me, still kneeling. She looked confused, offended, startled. But the girl didn’t care. Before either of us could move…before Bianca could stand…before I could even process what the hell was happening— she charged. Fast. Wild. Screaming like a woman possessed. “GET AWAY FROM MY MAN!”Isabella’s POVDarkness swallowed the Red Club the second the power died.My heart slammed against my ribs hard enough to hurt, but I forced the fear down where it belonged. Fear got people killed. Fear left girls behind. I had come for every single one of them, and I was not leaving until they were free.Tessa’s voice slid into my earpiece, calm and precise, the only steady thing in the black. “Second door on your right. That’s where they’re keeping them. Two guards outside the room, one pacing.”“Understood,” I whispered, and moved.The main floor was chaos. Phones glowed like weak fireflies. Patrons shouted over one another, demanding to know what the hell was happening. A few already pushed toward the exits, creating the perfect current of bodies for me to slip through. I kept my breathing slow and even, counting steps the way we had drilled a hundred times.I reached the door. My palm found the cool metal. I pushed.The rescue exploded.My girls poured from every shadowed corner
Massimo's POV“Don’t tell me you saw her entering that car.”My voice came out low and dangerous. Raf opened his mouth like he wanted to speak, but no words left him. Something inside me snapped. I punched him hard across the face. His head snapped to the side.“Are you fucking crazy? Why didn’t you stop her?!”Raf shoved my hand off his collar, breathing hard. “You think I didn’t try? Isabella is just fucking stubborn. I told her about the information I found and she immediately decided to follow them.”“What information?” I demanded.He straightened his collar, still glaring at me. “She asked me to get close to one of her father’s men. Make him slip up. So I played the part. I kept him drinking and talking. I told him I wanted one woman for myself…someone obedient. The bastard laughed and said they had several girls for that. All I needed was the money. I told him I’d pay any amount.”Raf’s jaw tightened. “By the end of the conversation he had given me three different locations wher
Massimo's POVThe second the name “Pat” left his mouth, guns came out all over the ballroom.Dozens of weapons pointed straight at the young man in the blue suit. He didn’t flinch. He only smirked wider, black eyes still locked on me like we were the only two people in the room.“Easy,” he said, voice almost playful. “Isn’t this supposed to be a friendly gathering?”“Friendly?” someone spat from the crowd. “You cost me so much fucking money and you’ve been hiding like a coward!”So Pat hadn’t only targeted me. He had hit others too.I kept my voice calm and cold as I slid one hand into my pocket. “You know you’ll be dead meat, yet you still chose to come here.”I drew my gun and aimed it directly at his chest. “You’ve got a lot of guts.”Pat threw his head back and laughed. The sound echoed through the tense silence.Then his eyes turned ice-cold.“You didn’t think I came alone, did you?”A sinister smile spread across his face.In the next second, red laser dots appeared from every d
Massimo’s POV I didn’t even realize I had left the dance floor until I was already moving. My body reacted before my mind could catch up. My feet carried me through the crowd of dancers without thought. The ginger hair. That exact silhouette. It pulled me forward like a rope around my chest. Every step tightened the invisible noose. The music, the laughter, the swirl of expensive dresses…all of it faded into a dull roar behind the pounding in my ears.“Massimo?” Isabella’s voice called behind me, confused and sharp. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Not when that familiar outline was already slipping farther away.I pushed between couples, eyes locked on the figure standing there. The closer I got, the more certain I became. The way she stood. The slight tilt of her shoulders. I would know that back anywhere. Even after all this time, even after the betrayal, my body still recognized her before my brain fully accepted what it was seeing.Then I reached the spot. Empty. No one
Massimo's POVDamiano’s face looked like he was seconds away from exploding.He cut through the crowd with pure anger in his eyes, heading straight for us. Before he could reach our table, someone stepped into his path. Santiago. The Mexican Don. The same man whose shipments I had cut off completely. He had never openly challenged me, but the grudge sat heavy between us. Now he was speaking to Damiano in low, urgent tones. Both of them kept glancing in our direction. Whatever they were planning, it wasn’t good.“What do you think they’re talking about?” Isabella asked beside me.I swirled the drink in my glass and took a slow sip. “Probably planning my downfall.”“If he won’t come to me, maybe I should go to him.”I turned to stop her, but she was already moving. She walked straight toward Damiano with calm, deliberate steps.“Dad!” she called, loud enough for half the room to hear.Conversations died. Heads turned. Murmurs started immediately.I stayed where I was, lifted my glass, a
Isabella's POVFor two whole days the question sat on the tip of my tongue.Who is Lydia?I wanted to ask Massimo so many times, but I knew the moment I did he would realize I had been snooping in his office. So I kept the question locked inside me while we spent every waking hour in the meeting room going over plans.The gala was the first real move. I would wear a collar around my neck right where Damiano could see it and do nothing. Things were almost guaranteed to go south. Massimo had given me a small gun and told me to stay close to him even though we both knew I could take care of myself.Now the night was finally here.I stood in front of the mirror adjusting the black dress. It had a deep cut in the chest area and a high slit that ran all the way up my thigh. Scandalous. Dangerous. Perfect. The thrill of what was about to happen made every risk feel worth it.The door opened. Massimo walked in holding a black box. He came straight to me without a word, set the box on the tabl
Massimo's POV Before I could even blink, before Bianca could spit out a single word, the girl launched herself across the room like a damn wildfire. She slammed into Bianca with so much force that she screamed, “What the fuck!” as she crashed backward onto the floor. “Stay away from him!”
Massimo's Pov I never should have brought her here. The moment I carried her unconscious body into my house last night, I knew I’d made a mistake. A very big one. I’d never seen a girl stupid enough to enter the forbidden room, sit beside me like she owned the world, then touch me like
Isabella's Pov I groaned, my head pounding like a drum as I blinked awake. The ceiling above me was strange...high and dark, with fancy wooden beams I didn't recognize. No pink canopy from my bedroom at home. No soft pillows. Just cold, hard reality hitting me. My arms ached, and when
Isabella's PovI've always been drawn to the edge of danger, the kind that makes your pulse race and your skin flush with heat. The forbidden. The taboo. The thought of being claimed, used, treated like a filthy little slut—it’s what keeps me awake at night, my fingers slipping between my thighs as







