LOGINYet, despite all of that—There was something else on my mind.Something I could not ignore.“So, what happened to Carlo?” I asked suddenly, my voice softer now but steady enough to break the silence between us.Dominic’s gaze shifted to me immediately and for a brief moment—He did not answer.Instead, his brow lifted slightly, his expression changing in a way that caught me off guard.“You sound worried,” he said.The words were calm but there was something beneath them. Something sharper and possessive.I blinked, taken aback for a second before realizing what he meant, and despite everything, despite the situation we were in, I had to press my lips together to stop the small smile threatening to form.“I am not worried,” I replied, though my tone carried a hint of amusement I could not fully hide. “I was just asking.”He did not look convinced.“The coward ran,” Dominic said coldly, his voice dropping slightly as his gaze hardened. “He disappeared the moment we defeated him.”Someth
I did not remember falling asleep, only that at some point after everything that had happened, after the pain, the exhaustion, and the overwhelming weight of emotions I had been trying to hold together, my body had simply given in.When I opened my eyes again, the room was dim, the soft glow of early morning light filtering through the curtains and casting faint shadows across the walls, and for a moment, I lay still, disoriented, trying to gather my thoughts.Then—I felt it: warmth, steady and close.My gaze shifted slowly, and my breath caught slightly when I realized that I was not alone.Dominic was still there.He sat beside the bed, leaning slightly back in the chair as if sleep had taken him without permission, his head tilted just enough to suggest he had been fighting it for a long time before finally giving in.One of his hands still rested near mine, close enough that I could feel the lingering warmth of it, as though he had been holding onto me not long ago and had only ju
The house had fallen quiet not long after we arrived, yet even within that silence, I could still hear the faint murmur of voices drifting from the other room, where Dominic and Gregori were speaking in low, serious tones, their conversation blurred into something indistinct that I could not fully make out.I stepped into the room that had been prepared for me, closing the door gently behind me as I leaned back against it for a brief moment, allowing myself to finally breathe.Everything felt distant: the chase, the gunfire and the fear. It all lingered inside me like an echo that refused to fade.Then the sound of a car engine starting outside broke through my thoughts, followed shortly by the fading noise of tires against gravel, and I realized that Gregori had left.L
The moment Gregori’s car sped away from the chaos behind us, the sound of gunfire gradually faded into the distance, but the tension inside my chest refused to follow, remaining tight and suffocating as if it had rooted itself deep within me.I kept looking back.Even when there was nothing left to see but an empty stretch of road disappearing behind us, my eyes remained fixed on it, searching, hoping, waiting for something—anything—that would tell me he was still there, still standing, still alive.“Sit back, Sierra,” Gregori said calmly from the driver’s seat, his voice steady despite everything that had just happened.I did not move.I could not.“But, Dominic is still there,”
The sound of engines behind us grew louder with every passing second, no longer distant but dangerously close, pressing against my senses and tightening the fear in my chest as I held onto Dominic.The wind rushed violently around us, whipping through my hair and stinging against my skin, but none of it mattered compared to the pounding of my heart, which echoed louder than everything else.“They are getting closer,” I said, my voice strained despite trying to remain calm.Dominic did not answer, but I could feel it in the way his body moved, in the steady control of his hands as he maneuvered the motorcycle with precision, weaving through the road with sharp turns that made my breath catch more than once.The road ahead stretched long and unforgiving, surrounded by empty land and scattered structures, offering little protection and even fewer places to hide, and I realized that this was no longer just a matter of escaping.This was a chase.A dangerous one.Behind us, the engines roa
The atmosphere changed the moment Carlo stepped out of the car.What had been a quiet, almost peaceful moment between Dominic and me shifted instantly into something tense and suffocating, as if the air itself had grown heavier, pressing down on my chest and making it harder to breathe.Carlo’s lips curved into a mocking smile as his gaze locked onto Dominic, clearly amused by what he saw.“I see they haven’t caught you yet, bastardo russo,” Carlo said with a mocking smile, his tone filled with provocation as he referred to the police who were searching for Dominic because of the kidnapping accusation, completely unaware that the woman standing right beside him was the same one he believed had been taken.







