Mag-log inDario Vitiello was famous for his obsessive love for his daughter. The Italian Don paraded her around like a jewel, threatening wars if anyone even looked at her wrong. But the girl Killian had lived with for months didn't act like a beloved mafia princess.She flinched when the door closed too fast. She lowered her eyes when a man raised his voice. She measured her safety by how still she could sit in a room. And her silence—the trauma that had violently stolen her voice.If she had grown up in a fiercely protective, loving home, why was she so heavily conditioned by fear?Something is missing, he thought, the inconsistency gnawing at him. The narrative Dario sold to the world simply did not match the broken, terrified girl he had married.Figuring her out had started as an obsession, but standing in this quiet cabin, stripped of the syndicate politics and the bloodshed, Killian finally faced the quiet truth that had hit him when he saw her bleeding on the bathroom floor.It wasn't j
The private jet sat idle on a dark, rain-slicked runway at a secure airstrip midway between Russia and Italy.The massive engines hummed with a low, vibrating idle, keeping the cabin pressurized, but the plane hadn't moved in over an hour.Killian stood near the window, staring out into the pitch-black night. A glass of bourbon rested untouched in his hand.He hadn't crossed into Italian airspace. Halfway through the flight, a heavy, primal warning had settled deep into his chest. It was the same instinct that had kept him alive for twenty years—a quiet, undeniable certainty that walking straight into a known Vitiello stronghold with a small tactical team felt too much like an open door.So he had grounded the jet. He stayed behind and sent a secondary Bratva strike team ahead to raid the Palermo compound first.Now, there was nothing to do but wait. And the waiting was quietly tearing him apart.His mind violently dragged him back to the image of Luna sitting on the bedroom mattress.
The hours dragged by with agonizing slowness. I forced myself to eat a few bites of the dry toast, just to settle the nausea churning in my stomach. The afternoon sun crossed the floorboards, stretching long shadows across the rug.But as the day wore on, a deep, unsettling feeling began to take root in my chest.It wasn't just the heartbreak anymore. It was an instinct. A heavy, primal sense of wrongness.The estate was too quiet. Even from behind the closed doors, I usually heard the distant hum of the syndicate—the heavy boots of guards in the halls, the faint sound of vehicles on the gravel driveway, the low murmur of voices. But today, the silence felt suffocating. It felt like holding your breath right before a bomb went off.Where was he?By the time the evening shadows plunged the bedroom into darkness, the unsettling feeling had turned into full-blown anxiety. My heart hammered an uneven rhythm against my ribs.The door opened again. Marco returned, carrying a dinner tray. He
LUNA POVWaking up felt like dragging myself out of deep, heavy water.My eyelids were impossibly heavy, glued together by exhaustion and whatever strong sedative Dr. Ivanov had injected into my arm. I blinked slowly, the harsh morning light filtering through the heavy drapes and stinging my eyes.I stared at the ceiling for a long time, my mind completely blank before the memories of yesterday came violently rushing back. The shattered mirror. The blood on the white tiles. The look of pure, unhinged panic in Killian’s eyes when he kicked the door off its hinges.A dull, throbbing ache pulsed in my hands and feet, grounded by the thick white bandages wrapping them. The physical pain was there, but the medication dulled the sharp edges of it, leaving me in a hazy, numb state.I didn't move. I just lay there, staring at the empty space beside me on the massive bed.Before the darkness had pulled me under last night, I swore I had felt him. The mattress dipping under his weight. A large,
The heavy, metallic click of a 9mm magazine sliding into place echoed sharply in the quiet study.Killian stood behind his massive oak desk, his face an unreadable, hardened mask. The dark blood from the bathroom was gone, replaced by a fresh black tactical shirt and dark trousers. He ejected a round, checked the chamber, and slapped the magazine back into the grip, setting the weapon down on the polished wood. Next to it lay two extra magazines and a heavy tactical blade.The door to the study opened. Marco stepped inside, quietly shutting the heavy oak door behind him. He looked at the weapons laid out on the desk, his expression tightening into a grim line."The jet is prepped on the private airstrip, Pakhan," Marco said smoothly. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, shifting his weight. "Are you sure you want to go yourself? I can take a team."Killian didn't look up. He picked up the spare magazines, sliding them into his tactical vest. "I am going."Marco stepped further int
Killian dropped my foot and gently took my bleeding hand, peeling the soaked towel away. The cut on my palm was deep, running horizontally just below my fingers. He cleaned it with the alcohol, his jaw locking so tight the bone looked like it was going to snap right under his skin. He was treating me like I was made of fragile porcelain. Like I actually mattered. The hypocrisy of it made my throat burn with fresh acid. "Don't do that," I whispered. My voice sounded wrecked, hoarse and scraped raw from screaming. Killian paused. The silver tweezers hovered just over my open palm. He didn't look up. "Don't do what," he replied, his tone low and guarded. "Don't pretend you care." Killian froze. His body went completely rigid. For a long, agonizing second, the room was silent. The air grew heavy, thick with a sudden, suffocating tension that pressed down on my lungs. Slowly, Killian lifted his head. His pale gray eyes met mine. The sheer intensity in his gaze made the hair on my a
My lips were burning.I stood in front of the bathroom mirror with both hands gripping the edge of the porcelain sink, knuckles white from the pressure. The washcloth I'd been using lay crumpled in the basin, stained a sickly pink where my lipstick had mixed with the blood from where I'd scrubbed my
The knock wasn't Volkov's.His knock was heavy. Controlled. A single firm rap that made the door vibrate.This was different. Sharp. Hollow. The knock of someone afraid to deliver bad news.I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the empty armchair in the corner.It was past midnight.Volkov had lef
[Third-Person POV]Don Dario Vitiello sat behind his mahogany desk, looking every inch the weary king burdened by duty.The study was dim. Just the green banker's lamp and dying embers in the fireplace providing light.Dante stood by the door, hand resting on the brass handle."Go to her room," Dari
The dress Father chose was pink.Not soft pink. Not blush or rose or anything innocent.This was sharp, aggressive bubblegum. Cut low across my chest. Tight across my hips.The kind of dress a man picks for a trophy he wants displayed on a shelf.I stood in the foyer, gripping a small bejeweled purs







