LOGINVito POVThe gunpowder scent still clung to the air, sharp and metallic. In the immediate aftermath of a gunshot, there is a very specific kind of silence—a split second where everyone forgets how to breathe—before the screaming and the chaos erupt.I sat perfectly still in my wheelchair. To anyone watching, I was the same broken man they always saw: the blind, paralyzed head of the Romano family, a lion with pulled teeth. But beneath the blanket draped over my useless legs, my hand was steady on the cold grip of the weapon I had just fired.Clark had been too slow. I had seen his hand twitching toward his waistband, a desperate move from a man who knew he was cornered. I didn't wait for him to draw. I had tracked his heat, his frantic heartbeat, and the slight rustle of his jacket. One shot. Precise. Final.Now, the warehouse was a cacophony of shouting men and scuffling boots."Secure the perimeter!" I commanded, my voice cutting through the noise like a blade. "Nobody leaves this f
Sophia POVThe first thing I felt was the bite of the rope. It wasn’t just tight; it was abrasive, the coarse fibers sawing into the delicate skin of my wrists with every heartbeat. Then came the cold—the kind of damp, bone-chilling cold that only lives in places where the sun never reaches.My head throbbed. The lingering fog of the sedative clung to my brain, making the world tilt and spin as I tried to blink my eyes open. My vision was a blur of gray concrete and flickering shadows. I was lying on a floor that smelled of mold and stale gasoline.The baby.The thought hit me like a physical blow. My breath hitched in my throat as I instinctively curled my body into a tight ball, my bound hands moving to shield the slight, precious curve of my stomach. I didn’t care about the pain in my shoulders or the throbbing in my skull. My only focus was the life growing inside me, the only piece of Vito I had left."Don't move too fast, Sophia. Sophia, am I right? You are not your sister Isabe
Sophia POVThe night air was biting, a sharp contrast to the suffocating warmth of Lucy’s guest room. I pulled my thin jacket tighter around my shoulders, my heart thumping a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Every shadow on the sidewalk looked like a lurking guard; every distant engine roar sounded like a Romano chase vehicle.I was doing something insane. I knew it. My medical brain was screaming at me, listing all the reasons why a pregnant woman who had just narrowly escaped a criminal empire should not, under any circumstances, walk right back into the center of the blast zone. But my feet kept moving."Just to the hospital," I whispered to myself, my breath hitching in the cold. "Just to see if he's okay. Then I'll figure out the rest."I reached the corner where Lucy said I could find a taxi or a late-night bus. The street was desolate, the yellow glow of the streetlamps reflecting off the oily puddles from an earlier rain. I checked my phone—no new messages. The silence was almo
Sophia POVThe screen of my phone stayed dark, but the words Lucy had sent were burned into the back of my eyelids. Enzo Romano’s son was shot. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the flash of a muzzle, the spray of blood, and Vito’s face—that cold, arrogant, beautiful face—turning pale as life drained away from him.I stood up from the creaky bed and started pacing the small guest room. Five steps to the window, five steps back to the door. The floorboards groaned under my feet, a rhythmic protest that matched the throbbing in my head."I shouldn't care," I whispered to the empty, peeling walls. My voice sounded hollow, like it belonged to someone else. "I should be relieved. If he’s gone, the contract is gone. The fear is gone. I’m free."I stopped at the window and stared out at the dark silhouette of the trees. Free. That was what I wanted, wasn't it? I had jumped out of a motel window, scraped my knees raw, and risked my life and the life of my unborn baby just to get away from th
Sophia POVThe silence in the small guest room was deafening. I sat on the edge of the bed, my hands clasped so tightly in my lap that my knuckles had turned a ghostly white. Outside the window, the distant sound of a siren wailed through the New York night—a sound I used to ignore, but one that now made my heart hammer against my ribs like a trapped bird.I looked down at my phone. The screen remained dark, a cold slab of glass and metal that held the power to shatter my world. I was safe here, or as safe as I could be while running from the most powerful family in the city, but my mind was miles away, pacing the marble hallways of the Romano estate.Lucy had been my only tether to the world I’d fled. She was out there, moving through the shadows, gathering the whispers that the powerful tried to bury. I had asked her to find out what happened after I jumped. I had to know if the fallout had destroyed everything I left behind.Buzz.The phone vibrated against my thigh, the sensation
Lucy POVThe road stretched out like a long, grey ribbon under the harsh glare of the midday sun. I kept my hands steady on the wheel of the Peterbilt, the familiar vibration of the engine humming through my boots. Usually, I liked the solitude of the long haul. Out here, between the state lines, nobody cared who you were or where you were going. But today, the silence in the cab was heavy, broken only by the ragged breathing of the woman in the passenger seat.I didn't want to get involved. That was my first rule: Mind your own business, and you’ll live to see the next sunset. In this line of work, especially the "off-the-books" cargo I sometimes moved, curiosity was a death sentence. But when I’d seen her standing in the middle of the highway, eyes wide with a terror so pure it looked like glass, something in me snapped.She was a mess. Her knees were shredded, blood matting the fabric of her leggings, and her face was smeared with dirt and dried tears. But it was the way she held h
sophia's POV"Cancel the engagement."The words should have felt like freedom. They should have lifted the crushing weight that had been pressing down on my chest since this nightmare began. I should have felt relief, gratitude, the sweet taste of liberation from a fate I'd never wanted.Instead, a
Sophia's POVEach hour marked by the anxious glance at my phone screen. Nothing. No call, no text, no word from Vito about whether our arrangement still stood, whether David was safe, whether anything that had happened in his office yesterday meant anything at all.What if he's changed his mind abo
Vito POVTony came in without knocking, which meant the news wasn't good.He set a folder on the desk and stood back. That was his way — put the information down, give me a second before I had to respond to it."Dr. Rosenberg," he said. "He was in Maine. A fishing village called Crayne's Point, abo
Sophia’s POVIf last night taught me anything, it’s that relying on a man is like trying to build a skyscraper on a foundation of shifting sand. Vito’s explosive temper and his inexplicable devotion to Maria’s every whim had left me feeling more than just exhausted—I felt enlightened.I couldn't co







