BLAKE MORENO POV.The stakeout was a total bust. Not a single soul had been in sight, and it had been so eerily quiet, that I knew we were chasing ghost immediately we got there. I had believed we would get her, but there had also been that underlying river of doubt about how easy the whole thing was moving. April and the others had decided to let me off the case since we all knew that If no one had shown up for the transaction, It could only mean one thing, Gabrielle knew I had found out about them, but how? The trackers had also led to a dead-end, as if they'd been found and just to mess with us, were shipped to a different location to throw us off her trail. If she knew about those trackers, then It was not safe to stay within her sight. I didn't know how she pulled it off but something told me she knew I was unto her... She might not think that I am a cop, but she definitely suspected something. I wondered what had happened between her and Noah last night. The tracker on her
GABRIELLE POV Thud! The impact of his knee smacking against the tiles resonated deep within my razor-thin heartbeats. I felt no remorse, he'd been pissing me off since the very start. He deserved this, and more. My hands refused to lower the gun, the demons inside me urging me to make him bleed more than he already was.I wanted to put a bullet in his head, watch it splash, and stain the walls of my office, a souvenir to serve as a reminder of the time he existed, but my fingers refused to squeeze the trigger. I couldn't fucking kill him. His sharp gasp shot through my skin like dagger slashes, nicking away at my skin until I felt raw, edgy, and on the verge of collapse.He could never leave me. Not now, not ever. He was mine damn it. I haven't even played with him yet, but he'd managed to toy with me, messed with my head, and my business, he ruined everything.He twisted to look at me, his face contorted in pain, shock making his blue eyes glassy. He looked perfect and I was tempt
BLAKE MORENO POVBeing shot hurt like a bitch, but her eerie words were more chilling. She'd caught up to me but I wasn't that surprised. I'd always had a niggling doubt at the back of my mind that she knew exactly who I was, and that every feat of progress I managed to achieve was all on her terms. Gabrielle had been messing with me all along, playing me like her own personal puppet on a string. She hadn't even looked surprised when I pulled the trigger on her... it was like she'd anticipated that I would.I wondered if she also knew that It had been the most difficult decision I'd ever had to make, but my duty came first. I knew it was all hopeless, a cop and a Mafia could never be together. It just didn't work that way, and I couldn't throw away my years of toilings, working to the top, until I became the best agent, bringing criminals to justice no matter the cost just because of a one-sided crush.Yet I'd hesitated. Her grey eyes- flashing with hatred, passion, and vulnerability
GABRIELLE POV.Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.It drained me to make them, but I had to. It was the only thing I had any control over. I didn't want to torture Blake, but it was necessary if we were ever going to move forward. He needed to be broken, that was the only way he could be reformed. It would have been easy if he just stopped being stubborn. My frown deepened, and I clutched at my hair, desperate to dispel the headache I felt coming on. The room spun and all of a sudden I was not in my office. I looked around wildly, my heartbeat accelerating. This wasn't real. It wasn't. I blinked, then blinked again, willing my brain to forget all of those memories. I thought I'd finally overcome my dark past because I hadn't experienced any flashbacks In a while but I guess I hadn't.And the horrible memories always came at the worst of times, disrupting all the peace I managed to build around myself. It was harrowing. Images of the filthy acrid-smelling dungeon plagued my senses, to
GABRIELLE POVGrandfather found out about the deal not pushing through and our cargo getting seized by the authorities. It was all over the news. Illegal weapon trading. Shipment ceased by the cops. They'd lost two of their men- who were decorated as heroes for their service to the country- but they got to stop the illegal distribution of firearms that could have caused more problems to society. They assured the public that they had everything under control and were working towards apprehending the owner of the said cargo and were still carrying out their investigations on the case... they also assured the public that even though those that had been caught refused to talk, they'd make some progress soon. They were going to wait for a very long time because I was sure that those men would never rat us out. They'd rather die than go against me. But that wasn't the real reason I was watching the news. Blake hadn't been reported missing which meant no one suspected that he was missing,
BLAKE MORENO POV.Cold numbing silence. It was the most horrible feeling. Knowing all about the psychological effect of the white room torture didn't help me at all and as the time dragged on with no way to figure out just how much had gone by, I started to feel frantic.Has it been a day, two days... I kept counting seconds on my hand but at a point, I lost track of it all. There was no window... no nothing, just a squared-shaped white room with the necessities- all in the same sickening color. I couldn't even see my shadow on the wall. My head ached, my body felt like it had been mauled, and the screeching noise refused to fade from my head even though it had been turned off. It had hurt so much, that I'd thought I would bleed out of my ears.I squinted my eyes against the glare of the light, my iris bleary. I couldn't sleep, no matter how hard I tried to. I'd been trained to endure this sort of situation at the academy, but this was the real deal, and it was hard to find the right
GABRIELLE POV The cup filled up steadily, almost spilling over the edges before Grandfather decided to stop the server. His eyebrows flared, as he fixed me a pointed look. I nodded my thanks, carefully picking up the drink to avoid spilling its contents. I threw it back against my throat, and it burned, scalding my throat as it glided down. I swallowed grimacing as my eyes watered. The server started to refill the cup once I placed it down. It was deliberate. He was acting according to my grandfather's instructions.I repeated the whole process, feeling out of depth as to why he was making me drink. My cup was filled two more times and drank dutifully even when it felt as if my throat was in shreds. Grandfather grinned, a satisfied look on his face as he waved the server away. Did he think I'd had enough? I held his gaze, filled up my glass to the brim, and drank it down all in a go, the burn, was a familiar feeling. His sudden hissed laughter was a surprise, but his eyes did not
MASSIMO POVI drew my sword, focusing my gaze on those of Genovese's. He was old, but his sword skill was unrivaled, and no one had been known to defeat him in any form of combat. His grip on the sword was an art in its own right, so I had to be very careful. I took a deep breath, concentrating on winning the fight without getting nicked by his sword once. Genovese sometimes subjected his men to training... and you'd think it was just for practice until you found your head rolling on the floor. I'd already watched many of such executions. I refused to fail any test he tried me with.He came at me stealthily, moving so smoothly, I almost forgot to block the attack- I did at the last second but it was a close call. Genovese wasn't playing around and I knew that from the power of his strike... even tho he was old, the man's strength was still intact.He didn't let up, and he growled, the sound raising the hair at the back of my neck as he struck at me. He was fast and his sword was l