LOGINThe response was immediate: "Okay. Wait for me. I'll pick you up after work."By 4:30 PM, Eve had showered in the executive bathroom and changed into the kind of outfit Sinners required, a black dress that was elegant but edgy, a dress that showed skin but didn't apologize for it, heels that were expensive and dangerous.She looked like she belonged in both worlds now. The corporate executive and the mafia lord's woman. The balance was still precarious, but she was learning to walk it.Her last meeting of the day was with a potential new client...a woman in her late twenties who'd been offered a reality television deal and wanted advice. Eve walked her through the pros and cons, the way these shows could either launch a career or destroy it depending on how they were managed."The key is controlling the narrative," Eve explained. "You decide what story they tell about you. You don't let the producers or the network decide. Every scene, every confession, every moment of drama...you're
POV: EVEThe Phoenix Talent Agency building looked exactly the same as it had the day she'd been taken from it.That was the strangest part. Eve had half-expected something to have changed....some visible mark of the violence that had happened in her office, some physical reminder of the moment her world had shifted. But the glass doors were clean. The lobby was pristine. The security desk had a new guard who didn't recognize her, which somehow made it worse.She was a ghost walking through a place that had moved on without her."Eve." Her assistant, Mia, rushed toward her the moment Eve stepped out of the elevator on the executive floor. Her eyes were red-rimmed, like she'd been crying. "Oh my God, you're back. Are you...how are you...I've been so worried...""I'm fine, Mia," Eve said gently, though she could see the genuine concern written all over her assistant's face. "I'm back. We have a lot to catch up o, so feed me on everything."Mia pulled her into a quick hug before releasin
"I love you," she whispered, and meant it with a completeness that terrified and thrilled her in equal measure."I know," Dimitri replied, and kissed her like that was the most important thing he'd ever heard.The pace gradually increased. What had started slow and intimate was becoming more intense, more urgent. Eve could feel herself building toward another climax, could feel the tension coiling through her body, could feel Dimitri getting close to his own edge.He shifted position, angling deeper, his movements becoming almost desperate now. Eve was right there with him, her nails digging into his back, her body arching to take him as deep as possible."Come for me," Dimitri commanded, his voice rough. "I want to feel you....""DIMITRI!"The voice came from the hallway, loud and insistent and completely unavoidable."DIMITRI! Leave the poor girl alone! She needs breakfast, not more of you! Come down now, both of you! I made your favorite! Eve needs to eat properly, she is still too
"I know exactly what they want," Dante said, flexing his toes experimentally, watching them move for the first time in weeks with something close to wonder. "They want what I want. That makes them useful, regardless of who they really are underneath it.""And if the price turns out to be more than just Dimitri's death?" Luca pressed. "These people burn down entire research facilities and lose forty-seven people without blinking. That's not the kind of organization that stops asking for things once you owe them."Dante looked up at his second-in-command, at the genuine worry etched into his face."I've spent my entire life owing someone something," Dante said quietly. "My father. The families before us. The business itself. This isn't different, Luca. It's just a debt I actually want to pay."Luca didn't look convinced, but he didn't argue further either. He simply helped Dante back into the wheelchair, more careful than usual, as if some part of him already understood that the man he
POV: DANTEThe physician arrived at midnight, exactly as the voice on the phone had promised.Dante had told Luca to clear the household staff from the east wing for the evening, a precaution that felt excessive until he saw the man Luca escorted into his study. Tall, silver-haired, carrying a case that looked more like something out of a military field kit than a doctor's bag."Mr. Romano," the man said, his accent unplaceable, a mix of something Eastern European filtered through years elsewhere. "My name isn't important. Call me Doctor, if you need to call me anything at all.""That's not reassuring," Dante said."I'm not here to reassure you," the doctor replied, setting his case on the desk. "I'm here to fix your legs. Reassurance is Dr. Fabrizio's job. I understand he's already told you the honest, disappointing truth about your recovery timeline."Luca stood near the door, arms crossed, watching the exchange with open suspicion."How does this work?" Dante asked."The compound i
POV: CAMILLACamilla waited until morning.She'd learned long ago that Lorenzo's anger burned hottest at night and cooled by breakfast, that the man who raged in his study after midnight was rarely the same man who sat with his espresso at seven, already thinking about the day's business instead of the previous night's grievances.She found him exactly where she expected, at the small table on the east terrace, papers spread in front of him, untouched coffee going cold at his elbow."You didn't sleep," she said, settling into the chair across from him."I had calls to make," Lorenzo said, not looking up. "Antonio wanted an update on the situation. I told him things were being handled.""Were they?" Camilla asked carefully. "Handled?"Lorenzo finally looked up at her, his expression guarded in the way it always was when he suspected she was steering toward something."What do you want, Camilla?"She'd learned, over thirty years, exactly how to answer that question."I want to talk abou







