MasukThe tailor came and went, leaving behind a wardrobe that probably cost more than my brother's funeral.Everything was dark—blacks, charcoals, deep navy. Colors that matched Damian's aesthetic. Colors that screamed his.I hated how good I looked in them.By evening, Damian led me down to the building's sublevels, past security checkpoints that required retinal scans and fingerprints, into what he called his "private facility."The gym was state-of-the-art. Weapons lined one wall behind reinforced glass—everything from knives to firearms to things I didn't have names for. Mats covered the floor. Punching bags hung like bodies from the ceiling."Strip to your waist," Damian ordered, already pulling off his shirt.I froze. "What?""You heard me." He stood there, torso bare, all carved muscle and ink and that jagged scar across his collarbone. "If you're going to survive in my world, you need to learn how to fight. Properly.""I know how to fight."His laugh was dark. "You know how to thro
The first thing I felt was pain.Not the sharp, immediate kind that makes you scream. This was deeper. A slow, throbbing ache that radiated from my hips, my thighs, the base of my spine. Evidence of what Damian Moretti had done to me the night before.Evidence of what I'd let him do.I opened my eyes to find myself alone in his bed—a California king draped in silk sheets that probably cost more than six months' rent at my old apartment. The room was bathed in cold morning light, all steel-gray and unforgiving. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the city like a god surveying his domain.Damian's domain.I sat up slowly, every muscle protesting. My wrists were bruised where the cuffs had held me. Fingerprints marked my hips in deep purple. And lower, between my legs, I could still feel him. The stretch. The burn. The complete and utter possession.I should have been disgusted with myself.Instead, I was... what? Confused? Angry?Aroused?No. Fuck that.I shoved the thought away and swu
Luca's POVWe're halfway to the garage when every screen in the mansion lights up simultaneously. The television in the hallway. The security monitors. Even the digital displays on the thermostats. All showing the same image.Matteo's face."Wait," I tell Damian, stopping in my tracks. "He's not done."Damian curses under his breath but stops. We stand in the hallway, staring at the nearest screen. My brother looks directly at the camera, like he can see us standing here."Luca," he says, and my name in his voice makes my chest tight. "I know you're watching. I know you're planning to rush to that warehouse with Damian. Don't. I'm not there anymore. But I am here.""Here?" I repeat. "What does that mean?""I mean I'm closer than you think, little brother. I've been close this whole time. Watching. Waiting. Making sure you're okay."My hands are shaking. I press them against my thighs to steady them. "If you've been close, why didn't you just talk to me? Why all the games?""Because Da
Damian's POV"No."That's all I can say. Just that one word, repeated over and over as Luca shows me the enhanced footage."No. No. This isn't real. This can't be real."But the image on the screen doesn't change. Matteo's face. Clear as day. Alive. Smiling that dark, knowing smile."Damian, look at it," Luca insists, his voice desperate. "It's him. The facial recognition confirms it. It's Matteo.""It's not possible." My voice sounds strange to my own ears. Hollow. "I was there, Luca. I held him as he died. I felt his last breath. I watched the light leave his eyes.""Then explain this." Luca taps the screen. "Explain how my brother is walking around your mansion five years after you say he died."I can't. My mind is fracturing, trying to reconcile what I know with what I'm seeing. The memories are so vivid. Matteo's blood on my hands. His weight in my arms. The way he whispered my name one last time before the silence claimed him. That was real. It had to be real."It's a trick," I
Luca's POVI can't sleep. Can't eat. Can't think about anything except that figure in the shadows.It's been six hours since Jin saw the message on the window. Six hours of my mind spinning in circles, trying to make sense of the impossible. Matteo is dead. I saw his body. I went to the autopsy. I watched them close the casket.Didn't I?The memory feels distant now, fuzzy around the edges. I remember being in a cold room. I remember crying. I remember someone pulling a sheet back to show me a face. But was it really Matteo's face? Or was I so destroyed by grief that I saw what I expected to see?"You need to rest," Damian says from the doorway of the security room. He's been checking on me every hour, worried I'm losing my grip on reality.Maybe I am."I can't rest," I tell him, eyes fixed on the screen. "Not until I know the truth."I've been watching the conference room footage on loop. Frame by frame. Second by second. The shadow appears at 8:46:47 PM. It moves through the backgro
Narrator's POVThe conference room has transformed into a battlefield. Broken glass litters the floor. Bullet holes puncture the walls. The smell of gunpowder and blood hangs heavy in the air. And in the center of it all, six men stand in a circle, guns drawn, each pointed at another.Jin's weapon aims at Greg. Greg's aims at Carlos. Carlos targets Lucas. Lucas points at Jin. And Damian stands in the middle, his gun sweeping between all of them, while Luca covers his back. No one moves. No one blinks. One wrong twitch and this room becomes a massacre."Everybody needs to calm down," Damian says, his voice steady despite the chaos. "Lower your weapons. Slowly.""Why should we?" Greg demands, his Russian accent thicker with stress. "One of us is killer. One of us murdered Marco in cold blood.""And it could be you," Jin snaps back. "You've been acting strange for weeks. Nervous. Jumpy.""I am jumpy because people keep dying!""Enough!" Damian's voice cracks like a whip. "This is exactly







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