MasukDante POV The room smelled like old money, cold ash, and that suffocating kind of control that always made me want to burn the whole damn building down. Nothing ever changed in here. Same heavy table that had signed a hundred death warrants over the decades. Same high-backed leather chairs that creaked under the weight of egos. Same old men sitting like they were gods, even though most of them couldn’t pull a trigger anymore without their hands shaking like leaves. I stood at the head of the table. I didn’t sit. In this room, sitting meant you were waiting for orders. Standing meant you were the one giving them — or ready to take what was yours by force if necessary. Ricci sat directly across from me, a thin, ugly smile stretching across his face. He looked at me like I was a punchline he’d been saving for a special occasion. Beside him, Cavallo stayed silent, eyes flat and unreadable. And then there was Vincenzo — the man who had spent the last three years staring at my chai
Elena POV I couldn’t sleep. I was tired as hell, but every time I closed my eyes the same images kept playing — the cold wood under my knees, the gun against my head, Dante bleeding on that dock. I lay there staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours, my mind spinning too fast to settle. Eventually I gave up. I pulled on one of Dante’s shirts, the hem hitting mid-thigh, and it still smelled like him — cedar and something sharp. It was the only thing that made me feel a little less alone. The house was too quiet. I wandered through the dark halls until I saw a thin strip of light under the basement door. The training room. I pushed it open without thinking. Dante was there, sitting on a bench cleaning a black handgun. He was shirtless, the fresh white bandage around his ribs standing out against his skin. He looked exhausted, shadows under his eyes, but his hands were steady and focused. He didn’t look up. “You should be asleep.” “You too,” I said, leaning against the doorfra
Elena POV The mansion felt different when we finally pulled through the gates. Not in a good way. The lights were on like always, the grounds looked the same, but everything carried this heavy, leftover tension from the night. Like the place itself knew what had almost happened to us. I sat in the back of the car with Dante’s hand still loosely holding mine, his grip warm but weak. He didn’t say much the whole ride, and neither did I. By the time we got inside, Luca had already handled everything. A doctor was waiting. He stitched Dante up fast and wrapped him tight. When I saw him again later, he was standing in one of the smaller sitting rooms like nothing had happened. Like he hadn’t just bled all over a dirty dock for me. “You should be sitting,” I said quietly. “I’ve been sitting,” he replied with a faint smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Then sit again.” He didn’t move. Typical Dante. I didn’t push it. I just walked past him and dropped my jacket on the table. My hands s
Elena POV The next sound was a loud crash, like someone had ripped a metal door right off its hinges. My whole body jumped. James turned fast. “Get ready!” he yelled. His men moved instantly. I heard their boots scraping across the floor and the sharp clicks of guns being readied. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to come out of my throat. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even think straight. Then the first shot went off. Everything turned into chaos. Gunfire filled the room, loud and nonstop. Smoke started pouring in, burning my eyes and smelling like hot metal and fear. “Move left!” a voice shouted through the noise. It was Luca. He sounded calm, which somehow made it even scarier. More shots followed. These weren’t wild — they were aimed and precise. “They’re inside!” one of the guards screamed, and then he went down hard. My heart hammered against my ribs. I felt a shift in the room before I even saw him. Like the air suddenly got thicker. Then the door di
Elena POV The engine roared in my ears, loud and rough, like it was shaking me from the inside out. The boat tore through the water, sending cold spray across my face that stung where it mixed with the tears I refused to let fall. My hands were still tied behind me, the rope biting into my wrists every time the boat bounced. My chest felt so tight I could barely pull in a full breath. All I could see, over and over, was Dante standing on that pier, blood spreading too fast across his side. The image wouldn’t leave me. It kept playing like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. I twisted again, trying to get free, my body straining against the seat. “Stop moving,” James snapped. He was standing over me like this was nothing, like he hadn’t just shot the man he called brother. “He’s bleeding,” I choked out, my voice barely loud enough to carry over the wind. “You’re just going to let him die out there?” James didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at me. He just stared out into the d
Elena POV The wood beneath my knees was cold. Not just cold, but wet in that way that seeps through your clothes and into your skin until you can’t tell if you’re shaking from fear or from the night air biting right through you. I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My hands were tied behind me so tight that my fingers had gone numb a long time ago. Every time I tried to shift even a little the rope dug deeper into my wrists, so I stopped trying. My shoulders burned. My head felt heavy like it was full of water, but I made myself stay awake, eyes open, staring at the way the moonlight broke up on the black surface of the water like it was trying to tell me something I couldn’t understand. I had to stay this way because she was behind me. I couldn’t see Isabella but I felt her there. The heavy feeling of her just existing in the space like she already owned everything about this moment. “Breathe, Elena.” Her voice was soft, too soft for someone standing at the edge of all this. I didn’t ans
The mansion felt suffocating. Even in the daylight, the shadows clung to the corners of the hallways like silent watchers. My mind wouldn’t stop racing. The file. The photograph. The woman who looked so much like me. And Dante… standing there, his eyes dark and unreadable, as if he could see throu
I didn’t sleep.Not a single minute. Every time I closed my eyes, the memory of the auction—the screaming, the chaos, the shadows of men moving around me—raced back like a relentless storm. My chest ached. My hands trembled. And yet, through the haze of exhaustion and fear, one thought refused to l
The echo of the gunshot still rang in my ears. For a moment I stood frozen in the hallway, my fingers gripping the edge of the door. "What… was that?" I whispered. Luca didn't answer immediately. His jaw tightened slightly as his eyes flicked down the corridor. "Probably nothing you need
The knock came again soft and controlled.But in the silence of the hallway outside my room, it sounded thunderous. I sat upright on the edge of the bed, my heart pounding wildly against my ribs.For a moment I didn't move.The mansion was rarely quiet, but tonight something felt… different. The ai







