All Chapters of The Mafia's Kidnapped Bride: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

ARYNI told myself it was just sleeplessness.That was the lie I clung to as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, my fingers twisting the hem of Lorenzo’s shirt—the one I was still wearing like some kind of idiot. My heart wouldn’t slow down. My thoughts wouldn’t either. They kept circling back to him. His voice. His eyes. The way he hadn’t touched me again, even when he easily could have.That bothered me more than if he had.Because monsters didn’t stop.They didn’t apologize. They didn’t make toast and sit three careful feet away like proximity alone could shatter the world.And yet here I was, replaying the sound of his voice in my head.Good night, amore.I squeezed my eyes shut. “Fuck,” I muttered.I shouldn’t like the sound of that word from his mouth. I shouldn’t like the way my stomach fluttered when he said my name like it belonged to him. None of this made sense. My memories were fractured, my past a foggy void full of warnings and fear—but my body?My body reacted like it

ARYNThe first thing I registered was the pulsing pain in my head. It felt like someone had driven a chisel right behind my eyes and left it to vibrate. The second thing was the pervasive, dizzying smell of stale ether. The third was the black, suffocating darkness.I was awake, but I couldn't see.I realized my hands were tied, painfully tight, behind my back. My ankles were also bound, restricting my movement to a desperate, useless thrashing. There was coarse material digging into the bridge of my nose, and I realized I had a heavy cloth bag over my head.Oh, God. Oh, God, oh, God.I tried to scream, but the bag smothered the sound into a pathetic, choked whimper. I had been kidnapped.“Arya!” I managed to gasp, the name barely audible even to my own ears. Where was she? Did they get her too? I prayed she had gotten away, that she had gone straight back to Liam or, Lorenzo.I wrestled against the ropes, but they were thick and cut painfully into my wrists. Stop fighting, Aryn. Yo

ARYNI didn’t know how long I stayed hidden.Time stopped meaning anything when fear settled into my bones. I was pressed into the narrow space behind a false wall panel—knees drawn to my chest, breath shallow, hand clamped over my mouth. The room smelled like dust and old concrete, and every sound echoed too loudly in my ears.Footsteps and voices and men.I breathed in through my nose and tasted metal.The cut on my arm had bled more than I expected, soaking into the sleeve I’d torn to use as a bandage. I’d tied it tight—instinct, not memory—and somehow the bleeding had slowed. That alone scared me. I didn’t remember learning how to do that.A sound shifted behind me and hand brushed my shoulder.I almost screamed.The sound clawed up my throat, sharp and panicked, and I spun violently, elbow flying instinctively toward whoever had touched me—And stopped. It was Arya. She clapped a hand over my mouth before any sound could escape and pulled me into a silent, bone-crushing hug.“I’

LORENZO Gunfire erupted from multiple angles simultaneously. Rounds ripped through the manicured hedges hammered the front façade of my ancestral house like it was made of fucking paper. Above us, shattered glass rained down from the second-floor windows.“Cover the left flank! Stefano, watch the driveway approach!” I roared. My voice was amplified by pure adrenaline.Marcus was beside me providing surprisingly effective cover. He fired back relentlessly, his movements sharp but worryingly reckless, his massive frame vibrating with barely contained fury. “I’ll fucking kill him! I swear to God I will!”The rage was understandable. But rage made you slow, made you stupid.“Stay alive first, you idiot!” I bellowed. I grabbed his shoulder and shoved him roughly behind a thick, cylindrical pillar supporting the portico just as a concentrated burst of automatic fire chewed viciously into the stone where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier. Dust and stone fragments flew, stin

ARYNMarcus rubbed his eyes with the back of a hand, swearing softly. “She’s real, right? I’m not hallucinating again? Because earlier I thought the sphinx statue was talking to me about ammo reserves.”I snorted, the sound dry and tired. “You hallucinated earlier, Marcus?”“Long story involving a head wound and four cups of coffee.”Before Marcus could elaborate, the front door burst open. Lily, her hair disheveled, her face smudged, but her eyes bright with sudden, fierce hope, gasped when she saw me.“Oh my God—Aryn!”She ran forward and hugged me too, as much as her belly could allow.“You are okay,” she whispered shakily into my shoulder, her tears immediately soaking my shirt.“Lily,” I said, hugging her tightly.“You remember?""As if I could ever forget you for a long time."She laughed through her tears, the sound utterly joyful. "Next time, if you must leave, promise not to disappear during a fucking all-out mafia war, okay?""It was while Lily and I were still locked in our