๋ก๊ทธ์ธElena’s POV
“Both,” I snap back, lifting my chin. “You gonna stand there interrogating me or are you finally going to teach me something useful?”His smirk deepens. He jerks his head toward the basement stairs. “Range. Now. Thought you might wanna learn how to shoot something besides my patience.”I follow him down, the cool concrete and gun-oil smell hitting me hard. He hands me a Glock 19, checks the magazine, racElena’s POV The safehouse is a nondescript brownstone in the Village, heavily fortified and quiet on the outside. Dante’s men carry Marco upstairs to a prepared room where a real medic team is already waiting. The kid is stable enough for now. He’ll live.We’re left standing in the foyer.Adrenaline crashes hard. My hands start to shake. My knees feel liquid. I look down at myself — dress ruined and soaked with Marco’s blood from chest to hem, hands streaked red, skin sticky. None of it is mine.Dante is staring at me like I’m the only thing left in the world worth seeing. His eyes are black. Breath rough. Chest rising fast.He steps forward. Slow. Deliberate.“You didn’t run,” he says, voice wrecked. “You stayed. In the middle of a fucking firefight. You saved him.”I swallow, trying to steady my breathing. “I’m a doctor.&
Elena’s POVThe first shot shatters everything.Glass explodes inward from the massive ballroom windows, raining down like deadly confetti. Screams rip through the air, sharp and panicked. Tables flip. Chairs topple. People dive under anything they can find.Dante’s men are already moving, guns drawn, forming a loose perimeter around us. Return fire cracks from the balcony doors, from the mezzanine, from somewhere high across the street. Bullets chew marble, splinter wood, punch through velvet drapes.Dante shoves me behind a fallen pillar, his body a solid wall between me and the room. “Stay down!”I don’t.I see him first — the young guard, barely twenty, the one who always brought me coffee in the mornings at the estate. He’s sprawled on his back near the orchestra pit, blood blooming dark across his white shirt, chest heaving too fast, too shallow.He’s st
Elenaโs POV The words sink in like claws. I feel the doubt bloom colder and sharper than before. โYouโre lying,โ I say, but my voice isnโt as steady as I want it to be. โAm I?โ Viktor studies my face, eyes dark and knowing. โYou set the timer because you wanted to believe he could make you love him. He accepted because it gave him time to hook you deep enough that youโd stay willingly until the papers are done. Ask yourself why a man like Dante would ever agree to let you walk awayโฆ unless he planned to throw you away the moment youโre no longer useful.โ I stare at the vodka glass, fingers tightening around the stem. โHe said Iโm his. He marks me. He protects me.โ Viktor chuckles softly. โOf course he does. Right now you are useful. You give him legitimacy. You warm his bed. You make him look human. But when the papers clear? Men like us donโt keep what we donโt need. And Dante is very much like me.โ The seed of doubt digs deepe
Elena’s POVThe ballroom at the Plaza is drowning in gold and crystal. Chandeliers throw fractured light across marble floors like broken diamonds. Everyone here wears money the way normal people wear clothes.My backless black gown slides against my skin with every step, cool silk kissing my spine from neck to tailbone. The slit up the thigh flashes leg with each movement. Dante picked it. Insisted on it. Said it would make every man in the room remember exactly who I belong to.He wasn’t wrong.Heads turn as we walk in, his hand low on my back, thumb brushing bare skin just above the dip of my spine. I feel exposed. Powerful. And furious at how much I like the way people stare.The charity is for some children’s hospital. Ironic. The richest people in New York pretending they care while they sip two-hundred-dollar champagne and whisper about who’s fucking who.Dante leans down, lips brushing
(Dante’s POV) I still haven’t pulled out. I stay buried deep, grinding slow, letting her feel every twitch of my cock inside her.“Fuck, you feel perfect,” I rasp against her neck. “So tight. So wet. Still milking me even after you came.”Elena whimpers, pushing back against me. “Don’t stop. I need more.”I chuckle darkly, rolling my hips in slow, deep circles. “Greedy girl. You just came all over my cock and you still want more?”“Yes,” she gasps. “I want you to fuck the memory of him out of me. I want to feel you for days.”I pull out almost all the way, then slam back in hard. “Like this?”She moans loud, forehead pressed to the glass again. “Yes — just like that. Harder. Make it hurt so good.”I give her what she wants. I fuck her fast and brutal, one hand gripping her hip,
Danteโs POV Days later and I still canโt shake the image of Viktorโs hand on her jaw, his mouth forming the word โMineโ like she already belonged to him. Every time I close my eyes I see it, and every time the rage comes back hotter than before. Iโm taking her with me today. Not because she needs to be at the meeting, but because I need her close. Need to feel her breathing beside me, warm and alive, so I remember exactly what the fuck Iโm fighting for. The black Escalade cuts through Midtown traffic. Elena sits beside me in the back, legs crossed, black dress riding up just enough to show the smooth line of her thigh. She stares out the tinted window at the skyscrapers sliding past, but I can feel the tension rolling off her. She knows Iโm wired. She knows why. I reach over and slide my hand onto her knee, squeezing once. Hard. Possessive. โYou good, baby?โ She turns her head, meets my eyes. โYouโre the one who looks like heโs about to snap someoneโs neck.โ I smirk. โThatโs be
Danteโs POVThe burner buzzes on my desk like itโs got a personal grudge. I snatch it up, thumb the answer without looking.โTalk.โNicoโs voice comes through tight. โViktorโs moving, boss. Moscow contacts say heโs liquidating assets, pulling strings with the old guard. Private charter booked to JF
Elenaโs POV The invitation wasnโt optional, and Martaโs face when she handed me the dress said it louder than any words could. Dark green silk, neckline plunging low enough to feel like a dare, sheer sleeves that let every freckle show through. It wasnโt a gift. It was armor Svetlana wanted me to
Danteโs POV She spins away from the window, muttering something I canโt hear, hands flexing open and closed like sheโs imagining wrapping them around my throat. Goddamn, the fire in her. Makes me wanna march up there right now, pin her to the mattress, and see how long it takes before that glare t
Dante's POV "You're not." She points to the stool beside the table without looking up. "Shirt off. Now."Rossi glances between us, eyes wide. "Uhโฆ I can wait outside if you two need the room.""Stay," Elena says sharp. "You're not walking around with half-done stitches. And he's not bleeding out o







