All Chapters of Bound By Blood: The Step-Brothers' Temptation: Chapter 231 - Chapter 240

_Nico’s POV_The world around me had turned into static.For days, it felt like I was living inside a television with no signal—white noise in my head, everything jagged, unsteady. The silence of the house screamed. Her absence bled into every corner, into every hour.She was everything to us, and having her missing seemed to do a lot to us. Every time I looked at my brothers, I saw the same thing reflected in their eyes: hunger, fury, helplessness.We had searched. God, we had searched.Over and over and over again. Every contact, every informant, every dirty cop, every gutter rat who might have seen something—we had pulled them in, pressed knives to their throats, demanded answers. Nothing. Nobody saw her with anyone, nobody knew where she had gone. No ransom, no note, no clue.It was like Amelie had been swallowed whole.And that was the part that made me want to burn the world down—the nothingness. If she had been taken for leverage, for revenge, for some political game, someon

Amelie’s POVI had stared so hard at the bars that their were lines etched into my vision, grooves I could trace even with my eyes closed. The cage had branded itself into me — the width of the bars, the distance between the bolts, the way the floor pressed damp against my skin.I had learned its every contour because that was the only thing left to do.My bleeding palm curled tight around the shard of metal I’d pulled loose from its rusted edge. It cut sharper than any blade I had ever held, though it was nothing more than a jagged splinter, no longer than my finger. I should have discarded it the moment it sliced me, but instead I hid it, cradled it, like it was my last prayer.Maybe it was.I waited. That was survival — waiting, listening. It felt like the walls breathed with me, every drip of water down stone becoming a timer for my thoughts. The guards came and went at irregular hours, sometimes days, sometimes within the same hour. They wanted me disoriented. I didn’t know when

Amelie’s POV The first thing I felt when I came around was softness. A pillow under my head. Sheets against my skin. It felt too clean, too smooth to be real. For a long moment, I lay perfectly still, afraid that moving would break it. Afraid that if I opened my eyes, I would find bars above me again, rust biting into my fingertips, and stone scraping my back. But the smell was wrong. Not mildew. Not rust. Not the damp, rotting air of the cage. This was… antiseptic. It was sharp and sterile, biting my nose. And then finally I opened my eyes. White ceiling. A single humming light fixture. The faint beeping of a monitor somewhere close. My throat closed. A hospital. I was in a hospital. For one wild, dizzy moment I thought—I did it. I really escaped. Someone must have found me on the road, limp and broken in the sun, and carried me here. Somewhere safe. Somewhere away from Raphael’s men. So that meant I did it, right? The relief was so sharp it hurt. My eyes stung and I pres

_Nico’s POV_I watched Amelie stir awake, and our eyes locked for a brief second before her head was shoved into the car.And I heard it, I swear I heard it before the car door was slammed shut. The loud cry of my name, her begging me to come save her.“Nico! Help me, please!”That seemed to jolt me out of whatever shock I had been in and I cursed myself as I resumed my chase.Why the fuck had I stopped? I could have kept running instead of freezing like a moron. Please no.Let me get there on time. Please!Raphael instantly entered the driver’s side.The car engine roared, coughing smoke from its exhaust, the sound rattling through my bones. No... No, please. I ran harder, legs pumping, lungs burning, and the ground itself felt like it tilted under me. My palm slammed against the window just as the tires screeched and the car swung forward, throwing gravel and dust straight into my face.“Fuck!” I shouted, choking on the grit. My hand dragged down the glass as it lurched away, lea

_Luca’s POV_The world didn’t just crash—it folded in on itself.Metal screamed, the kind of sound that splits straight through bone, as the truck slammed into us from the left. One second, Raphael’s car was in sight. The next, the entire universe became shattering glass, the whip of a seatbelt against my chest, my skull slamming hard enough into the headrest that stars burst behind my eyes.We spun over and over. Tires screeched, grinding rubber against asphalt. The car tipped, swayed, threatened to roll. Matteo cursed, Nico’s guttural shout ripped the air, and I—I couldn’t breathe.The scent of gasoline hit first, sharp, acrid, burning. The way it always had. And right now I wasn’t there anymore. My vision wasn't of the car but of flames licking through wooden beams, smoke choking the air and skin blistering from heat. The smell of burning hair. The sting of fire so close it kissed the inside of your lungs.Suddenly I wasn’t thirty-two years old behind the wheel of a wrecked c