◆ MILES ◆ Cousins? Did he mean my father and Mykaela's real dad? Related by blood? What the fuck's he talking about? "Are you kidding?" "No. Ask Nicco." Magnus regarded me with a dead-eyed stare as he tilted his glass closer to his mouth. "His friend did some real digging when I paid them to find out what really went down, before Ilya and Stefano scrapped that port deal in Idstrom." "Where's that again?" Ricchar asked. "In the Black Sea." Niccolo's friend? Another hacker? "What're you talking about? Cousins?" I scoffed as Ricchar sat still beside me. He was almost glaring at the other guy, his wine glass about to go empty. "Go on." "Ilya and Sofija— Pardon. I meant Mykaela..." Magnus muttered with a tight grin. For someone who grew up in another cou

◆ MILES ◆1 new messageFrom: Ricchar"Ignazio called to ask if I'll be there at his party tomorrow. Zio still ghosting you? My calls still can't get through"Today 01:29AM Shit. He's asking again if I'd heard from Pappa. Meaning: my father's been MIA for about two days now. What the shit's he up to now? With a sigh, I curbed the painful urge to smash my useless phone onto the nightstand while the naked brunette on top of me kept stroking my hair like I was a baby she had to put to sleep. The girl wasn't totally naked under the covers, though. Her bra still covered her heaving chest—even after she'd screwed me twice. Maybe she was a tad insecure about her rack. Or maybe she just liked to keep them on during sex. I didn't really care—I just needed some distraction. A willing and very attractive distraction. Even though I doubted her at fir

Valle Astra, Italy ◆ MILES ◆ She didn't block me. Yet. An hour and a half later and the sickening feeling in my gut still threatened my self-restraint. My fist had been itching to hit something since she hung up on me. All my fault. Fuck. I didn't mean to hurt her. I'd prepared that stupid speech in my head last night. I'd chosen my words carefully. And I'd apologized over and over. Still, it wasn't enough. It felt like someone stabbed me in the chest the second I heard her sniveling, just trying her best to restrain the tears while staying on the phone with me. But it's for her own good. I only did it for her. And her family. I had to push her away. Or Kel would end up dangerously tangled into my family's mess. Again. It always made me feel like shit to think that meeting me only complicated her life. But if we didn't put a stop to it now, I'd only keep hurting her, lying to her, cheating on her, disappointing her... And then I'd hate myself even more for pretending

◇ KEL ◇ After another busy day at the hospital, I went straight home after my shift.  I didn't want to hang around especially after pissing off our new consultant—on his very first day of training us. Sheesh. I blamed the mind-numbing daze after that awful phone call with Miles.  I went through my day feeling like a zombie on weed.  Not that I liked to smoke weed.  I tried it once with him and Paul, his best friend.  Trippy night with lots of nausea and forgotten banters.  Never tried it again.  I checked my phone.  Ugh. No new notifications.  I told my best friend about my last conversation with Miles.  I tried calling her but Gaia wouldn't answer.  Probably too busy with another case.  She sent a short text an hour ago, though: 1 messagefrom: Gaia"Good riddance! It's his loss. You're better off without his toxic bullshit."Today 18:24

◆ MILES ◆   "Permanently?" "I don't know yet. We'll see," Enzo sighed while I stared at him. Not the best liar.  I was way better.  And I had a few ideas why he would suddenly leave Italy for a new life in New York.  Way more important reasons aside from Mykaela. Maybe he's convinced that keeping his freedom would require him to seek refuge in another country. Until the authorities gathered enough evidence to prosecute Leandro and Ignazio, including Pappa.  Enough to make sure they served time in maximum security prisons only. "What does your new company do mostly?" "Pharma research for now." Enzo grinned at me briefly while checking his phone. "We have 12 scientists right now working on a universal flu vaccine. Very promising team. The chief scientist worked for Vyzerg. His partner worked for J&J." Two of the biggest pharmaceutical conglomerates in the world.  H