LOGINAva's POV The leather seat of the sedan felt cold beneath me as I slid into the back, the door clicking shut with a heavy, pressurized thud that sealed out the rest of the world. Niko didn’t get in with me; he simply nodded to the driver and vanished back into the Roman night. The car melted into the traffic, moving with a terrifying, smooth speed toward the outskirts of the city. I pressed my forehead against the tinted glass, watching the ancient stone walls of Rome blur into streaks of shadow. My mind was a chaotic wreck. The ghost of the dead guard, the memory of Raquel’s screams, and the weight of Detective Valerio’s card in my pocket all swirled together, but they were rapidly being overshadowed by the sheer, paralyzing dread of what was waiting for me at the end of this drive.When the car finally slowed, turning past the heavy iron gates of the estate, my stomach violently dropped. The gardens that had seemed so empty and unguarded hours ago were now crawling with men in da
Ava's POV The metallic click of the handcuffs unlocking from the hospital bed had offered no relief, only a transition from one cage to another. I had been marched through the corridors of the medical facility, flanked by armed guards, and shoved into the back of a police cruiser. Now, I sat inside the suffocating perimeter of a police interrogation room. The space was tiny, the air smelling of stale coffee and damp concrete. A single metal table separated me from the chair opposite, and the two-way mirror on the wall seemed to track my every shuddering breath. The heavy iron door creaked open, and Detective Valerio stepped inside, carrying a thick manila folder. He didn't sit down immediately; instead, he hovered over the table, letting his shadow fall over my trembling hands. "Let's start with the basics," he said, his Italian accent sharp in the quiet room. "What is your name?" "Ava," I whispered, my voice cracking. I cleared my dry throat. "My name is Ava." Valerio flipp
Ava's POV The blinding scent of bleach and rubbing alcohol was the first thing that bled through the heavy, suffocating darkness. My eyelids felt like lead, scratching against my eyeballs as I forced them open, a sharp throb detonating behind my temples the moment the harsh fluorescent light hit my face. For a fractured second, the world was just a blur of white ceiling tiles. Then, the dam broke. The memory of the surveillance room, the deafening roar of the gunshot, the wet thud of the guard's body hitting the floor, and the sight of the steel door splintering open under the weight of the men in black crashed into my mind.I gasped, my chest heaving as a violent wave of panic seized my lungs. I tried to bolt upright, my heart hammering against my ribs as my eyes darted around the space in absolute terror. I braced myself to see the cold, dead eyes of the interstate outfit, or worse, the chilling, triumphant smirk of the men who had hunted me down like an animal. But the dark,
Ava's POV The fiberglass insulation bit into the raw skin of my palms as I dragged my body forward, inch by agonizing inch, through the claustrophobic darkness of the crawlspace. The air up there was thick with decades of stagnant dust and the chemical tang of wiring, making my lungs burn with every shallow, panicked breath I drew. Below me, the muffled sounds of the club’s music vibrated through the drywall, a sickening reminder of how close the wolves still were. I didn't know where I was going; I only knew I had to keep moving, driven by the echoes of Raquel’s screams still ringing in my ears.Then, without warning, the world gave way beneath me.A sharp, terrifying crack split the air as the fragile grid and drywall ceiling structurally failed under my weight. I didn't even have time to gasp before I was falling through the dark, plummeting straight down through a cloud of white plaster dust and debris. My back collided violently with the edge of a heavy metal console before
Ava's POVMy heart was hammering against my ribs, a frantic, trapped thing after Raquel’s revelation. The label ‘Capo di capi’ echoed in the chambers of my mind, heavy and suffocating. If Lorenzo was the apex predator of this entire underworld, then the hatred he harbored for my family wasn't just a personal grudge, it was a death sentence. What could my family have possibly done to entangle themselves with a man of that magnitude? Did my stepbrother know? Was he a piece on this chessboard, or just another casualty waiting to happen?The questions spiraled, but the sudden, chilling shift in the club's atmosphere cut them short. The thumping bass paused for a fractured second, a glitch in the sound system that allowed an unnatural quiet to sweep through the VIP lounge. Following the sudden drop in volume, my gaze drifted toward the entrance.A group of men stepped into the dim, neon-lit space. They were tall, imposing, and dressed in sharp, midnight-black suits that seemed to absorb
Ava's POV The neon lights of Rome blurred into a colour of gold and violet as Raquel led me through the city. She didn't take me to the tourist traps I had seen in postcards. Instead, we wound through the narrow, hidden corridors of the Trastevere district, past ivy-covered clock towers and underground galleries where the air smelled of ancient stone and expensive oil paint. We stood on a bridge overlooking the Tiber, watching the water churn like liquid obsidian, and for the first time, I felt the vastness of the world outside Lorenzo’s shadow. Eventually, we arrived at a club in the heart of the city. It was discreet, marked only by a heavy iron door and a single dim red light. My chest tightened as we stepped inside. I looked for the familiar suits, the cold stares of the Blackwood security, or the glint of a hidden weapon. "Lorenzo," I whispered, pulling Raquel back. "Does he own this?" Raquel shook her head, her expression calm. "No. This is neutral ground, Ava. He
Lorenzo s POV I knew the moment the vibration hummed against my thigh that something was wrong. One missed call from the chauffeur while I was in a meeting was an anomaly; two was a red flag. It took another hour to clear my schedule, every minute fueling the cold fire in my gut. When I finally
Ava's POV The air in the hospital lobby was thick with the scent of antiseptic and the rising heat of my own panic. Every second that ticked by on the clinical wall clock felt like a hammer blow to my chest."Where did you say you left her again?" The security guard’s voice was sharp, cutting thro
Ava's POV The muffled hum of the engine was the only sound in the suffocating silence of the car. My arms were still tingling from where the man had pressed the gun into my head. He was in the driver's seat, his back a rigid, imposing line. I’d been whisked away from my home, from Elena’s chilling
Ava's POV “I’ll miss you,” I whispered, the words barely a breath, as the last shovelful of soil cascaded onto their caskets. My parents, gone. Just like that.The cool earth against my knees was a brutal comfort and a physical anchor in the swirling tempest of my grief. The world blurred through







