ArynThat smug little smirk tugging at her lips made my blood boil. Fucking hell, I wanted to rip it right off her face. But I forced myself to stay calm. My ribs still ached when I so much as laughed, so throwing myself at her wasn’t exactly an option.I leaned back on the pillow, glaring at her. “Disappointed?”Her smile widened, sharp as glass. “A little.”“Then I guess I’ll just have to keep breathing out of spite,” I snapped. My voice cracked, but the anger behind it didn’t.She walked further into the room, her heels clicking softly against the tile. Every step she took made my chest tighten. Lorenzo’s words echoed in my head—Over my dead body. Fuck, maybe I should’ve listened.“I don’t know how you keep surviving,” Isabella murmured, tilting her head like she was studying some strange insect. “It’s almost… impressive.”“Guess I’m harder to kill than you thought.”Her eyes glittered. “For now.”I clenched my fists under the blanket. Damn it, every nerve in my body screamed dange
ArynHospitals blur time. Days don’t feel like days—they feel like the same endless stretch of fluorescent lights, beeping machines, and the faint smell of bleach clinging to everything.At some point, I stopped counting.The only reason I knew how long I’d been there was because Marcus wouldn’t shut up about it.“Three weeks,” he said one afternoon, leaning back in the plastic chair at the corner of my room. “Three. I’ve counted every damn day, Aryn. You’re racking up a bill that could feed a whole army.”I rolled my eyes. “Glad to know I’m worth so much.”“You’re worth more,” he muttered, too low for me to respond, before reaching for the snack bag Lorenzo had left behind.That was another thing—Lorenzo.If someone had told me a month ago that a tattooed, scarred, mean-looking bastard would end up practically living in my hospital room, I’d have laughed in their face. But here we were. He slept on that lumpy visitor chair more than in his own bed, brought me food I wasn’t supposed t
ArynThe first thing I heard was the beeping.Sharp, steady, mechanical.It cut through the fog in my head like tiny knives, each sound dragging me further out of the dark. My eyes fluttered open, and the world blurred into white walls, harsh lights, and the smell—antiseptic, sharp and sterile.A hospital.My chest seized. The air caught in my throat, choking me before I could even breathe properly. I hated this place, hated everything about it. The lights too bright, the machines too loud, the smell too clean, too fake. It reminded me of pain, of weakness, of cages that looked different but felt the same.I shifted, and that’s when I noticed the tubes.A drip taped to my arm. Ropes—or maybe restraints—around my wrist. Something else over my chest, wires leading to the machines that kept up their steady, merciless rhythm.My pulse spiked, the monitor beside me screaming faster with each panicked beat. My breath came out ragged, shallow, like I was drowning in air. I pulled at the line
LorenzoThe night air was sharp and cold, when I finally stepped outside with Aryn in my arms. Her head lolled against my shoulder, her breath shallow, her face pale under the bruises. My chest tightened at the sight of her. She was too light in my arms, like she’d been carrying the weight of hell itself and it hollowed her out.Every step I took out of that fucking building felt like dragging a mountain, but I wasn’t stopping. Not while she was breathing, not while her heartbeat still fluttered weakly against my chest.The gravel crunched under my boots. Somewhere ahead I heard voices—rough, tense. My instincts screamed at me to stay sharp.And then I saw them.Liam. He was half-stumbling, half-dragging Marcus, who looked like death itself had already claimed him once and was just waiting to finish the job. Marcus’s skin was ashen, his shirt soaked through with blood. His eyes barely stayed open, his jaw slack as if he was clinging to life by a thread.Beside them stood a man I would
Lorenzo The first thing I tasted was blood. Metallic, thick, coating the back of my throat like rust water. The second thing was pain. Not sharp, not clean—just a fucking weight pressing down on every bone in my body. My ribs screamed, my head throbbed like someone was using my skull as a damn drum. I wanted to sink back into the dark, let it take me, but something yanked me back.Aryn's voice It cut through the haze, ragged and furious, laced with desperation. “You’ll never own me. Not now. Not ever.” My eyes peeled open, heavy as hell, vision swimming. Shapes blurred together, but the sound of Brandon’s laugh was sharp, cruel, cutting right through. I blinked hard. The room snapped into focus, and my stomach turned. Brandon was on her, hands tearing at her gown, his grin fucking feral. And Aryn—Aryn was still fighting him even half-drugged, bloodied, shaking. “Fuck,” I rasped, voice like gravel. My throat burned, dry as ash. My body wanted to collapse again, but my chest flar
ArynThe girl’s whimpers echoed against the walls as I dragged her broken body down the corridor. Her blood smeared across the tiles like a trail, marking where we’d been. Her nails scraped uselessly at my wrist, leaving red lines on my skin, but I didn’t loosen my grip. Not even a little.“Liam!” I shouted, my voice carrying through the hollow hall.His boots hit the ground a moment later, fast and heavy. He appeared at the end of the corridor, breath ragged, eyes wide. He froze when he saw me—saw the mess of blood, the girl’s ruined face, my fury carved into every line of my expression.“What the fuck happened—”“No time.” My words cut like a blade. “Get Marcus. Get that old man. Get them the fuck out of here.”His jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. He knew me well enough by now. When my voice dropped that low, it wasn’t a request. It was an order.“And you?” he asked, eyes narrowing.“I’m going after Brandon. Don't trust Enzo, I have a feeling there is something about this that he