LOGININ THE DARKALESSIO POVThe darkness dropped over the room like a blade, total and absolute, and every instinct I'd spent years sharpening snapped into place before my mind even finished processing what had happened."Everyone stay still," I said, voice low and sharp, cutting through the panicked shuffle of movement around me. "Nobody move until I know what we're dealing with.""The power doesn't just fail like this." Nikolai's voice came from somewhere near the filing cabinet, tight with the same cold understanding settling into my own chest. "Not all at once, not this clean. Someone cut it."I reached blindly for Sofia, finding her arm in the dark and pulling her behind me, positioning my body between her and the door on instinct alone. "Stay close," I murmured. "Don't make a sound unless I tell you to.""Alessio." Her voice shook slightly despite the effort I could hear her making to keep it steady."I've got you." I kept my tone l
THE LEDGERSOFIA POVKatya stood in the small office at the back of the safehouse, her laptop open on the desk, hands trembling slightly as she gripped a small data drive between her fingers like it might burn her."What is this," I asked, pulling my jacket tighter around myself, the cold of the room nothing compared to the dread already building in my chest."I took it from my father's office weeks ago." Her voice shook, exhaustion and fear tangled together. "Before I left to warn you about the message. I've been too scared to look at it properly until now."Alessio moved to stand beside me, Nikolai close behind, both of them alert despite the late hour."Show us," Alessio said quietly.Katya plugged the drive into her laptop, her fingers hesitating over the keyboard for a long moment before she finally opened the files. Rows of encrypted data filled the screen, dates and numbers and names stretching back decades, financial records more detailed than anything we'd managed to piece to
THE BROTHER WHO WAITSSOFIA POVThe knock came soft and measured, nothing like the urgent pounding we'd grown used to over the past weeks, and something about that careful restraint put me on edge before I'd even seen who stood on the other side of the door.Nikolai checked the window first, gun already drawn, and whatever he saw made him frown in confusion rather than alarm."Unfamiliar face," he said quietly. "Alone. No visible weapons. Says he's family.""Family," I repeated, exchanging a glance with Katya, who had gone very still beside me."Open it," Alessio said, positioning himself near the door, tense and ready despite the stranger's apparent lack of threat.The man who stepped through wore his charm like a well tailored suit, every bit as polished and deliberate. He was older than Dimitri by a few years, silver threading through dark hair in a way that suggested distinguished age rather than weariness, and his smile arrived a
BLOOD ABOVE BLOODSOFIA POVI found Katya in the kitchen of the safehouse, staring into a cup of coffee she clearly wasn't drinking, and something about the way her shoulders curled inward told me she already knew why I'd come looking for her."Katya." I kept my voice level even though my hands were shaking. "I need you to tell me what Pakhan means. Right now. No more half answers."Her eyes flicked up to mine, and for the first time since I'd met her, the sharp confidence she always wore like armor cracked wide open, fear bleeding through in a way that frightened me more than anything Stefan or Dimitri had said so far."Sit down," she said quietly."I don't want to sit down. I want an answer.""Sofia, please." Her voice shook slightly. "Just sit down."Something in her tone made me obey, sliding into the chair across from her, my heart already hammering with dread before she'd said a single word."It's our grandfather," she finally said, the words coming out flat and heavy, like she'
PAKHANALESSIO POVGianna's monitor was still screaming in my head long after we left the hospital, the word she'd forced out through her pain following me into the car like something alive, crawling under my skin and refusing to settle.Pakhan.I had heard the word before, years ago, passed quietly between older men in rooms I wasn't technically supposed to be in, always spoken carefully, like saying it too loud might summon something nobody wanted summoned. I never asked what it meant back then. I was young, focused on my own war, blind to anything that didn't involve Luca Vecchio's name.I was paying attention now."Start making calls," I told Nikolai the moment we got back to the safehouse, already pulling out my own phone, scrolling through contacts I hadn't touched in years. "Every old contact who might know something. I don't care what it costs us.""On it." Nikolai's face was grim, already dialing before he finished speaking.
THE NAME SHE SAIDGIANNA POVThe ceiling tiles blurred and sharpened and blurred again, and I kept trying to count them just to have something steady to hold onto while my mind drifted in and out of the fog the medication wrapped around me.Pain lived somewhere in my shoulder, dull now instead of the white hot agony I remembered from the warehouse floor, but my thoughts felt loose and slippery, fragments sliding past before I could grab hold of them properly. I remembered rope cutting into my wrists. I remembered the smell of rust and cold concrete. I remembered Luca's voice, low and urgent, pacing somewhere near the back of that room while he thought nobody was paying attention.I had been paying attention.I always paid attention, even scared out of my mind, even with my hands tied behind a chair and my heart slamming so hard I thought it might give out before anyone ever got the chance to hurt me.Luca had been on the phone.The me
THE HARBORSOFIA POVI couldn’t sleep.Every time I close my eyes, I see Luca’s face when he touches my neck. The way he looked at the mark Alessio left.He knows something. I’m sure of it.The tracker is in my purse. Small. Black. Innocent-looking.Tomorrow night I will betray my family.My phone
BLOOD AND SALTSOFIA POVAlessio’s burning up.His skin is on fire. The wound on his shoulder oozes yellow. Infection spreads fast.“How much longer?” I press a wet cloth to his forehead.Nikolai checks the GPS. “Twenty minutes to shore. Colombia. I know a doctor there.”“Will he last twenty minute
THE TRADEALESSIO POV“You want to trade yourself for Gianna?” Nikolai stares at me. “That’s suicide, and honestly silly”“No. I want Luca to “think” I’m trading myself.” I pull up a map on my phone. “Pier 19 is exposed. Open. No cover. He’ll have snipers. Men everywhere.”“So how do we”“We don’t
SANCTUARYSOFIA POVThe truck runs out of gas twenty miles from the compound.We're stranded in the middle of nowhere. Jungle on all sides.Great.Just great.“FUCK!!!.” I fucking hate my life.“Now what?” I ask.Alessio looks pale.Literally sweating. His shoulder was bleeding through the bandage a







