Semua Bab Monster Can Love Too: Bab 11 - Bab 20

Noa didn’t breathe.Couldn’t.The man at the altar stood perfectly still, hands folded in front of him, expression unreadable. His suit was crisp, pale grey like morning mist. Everything about him was neat. Sharp. Clean-cut. Except his eyes.His eyes were chaotic.“Noa,” Alessio’s voice was soft, almost a whisper. “I told you I’d show you the monster beneath.”Noa couldn’t move. His knees locked. His breath was shallow. The space between them between him and the man by the altar felt like a void. Thick. Drowning.The man took a step forward.“You’ve grown,” he said, like it was normal. Like this was a reunion between long-lost brothers over coffee.Noa’s fingers curled into fists at his sides. “What the fuck is this?”The man smiled faintly. “It’s been a long time.”Alessio didn’t move. He stood like a statue behind Noa, close enough that Noa could feel his body heat at his back. But for once, Alessio didn’t reach out. Didn’t try to touch him. Maybe he knew. Maybe even he understood t

Noa’s hand went slack, the photo fluttering to the floor like a dead leaf. He didn’t bend to pick it up. Couldn’t. His entire body had gone still frozen, tense, heart in his throat. The man in the picture. The shadowed face behind him. He had seen that face before. Not just in dreams. Not just in flashes. He had known that face.His brother watched him carefully. “You recognize him.”Noa couldn’t answer.He turned away, fists clenched, jaw locked. His breath came fast and sharp, like the air had claws now too. Behind him, Alessio stirred half-asleep, groggy, wincing at every movement but Noa didn’t move to comfort him. His eyes were still on the ghost from the photograph burned into his mind like an old scar ripped back open.“I know who it is,” Noa whispered.His brother crossed the room in silence. “Say it.”Noa swallowed. His voice cracked. “He was my friend.”A beat. The words hung in the air like ash.Then his brother’s voice went cold. “That man is no friend.”Noa finally turned

The footsteps echoed through the building like slow, deliberate thunder. Noa’s spine locked, breath stuttering as he whipped toward the elevator doors still groaning closed. It wasn’t Dominik this time. No, this was something colder. He could feel it in his teeth, taste it like steel on his tongue. Alessio cursed under his breath, dragging his gun up, though his hands were trembling now, blood still seeping through the bandages on his side. His brother, the only one who hadn’t tried to shoot him yet, shoved another clip into his weapon with sharp, mechanical precision. “This isn’t his crew,” he muttered, tone tight, eyes cutting toward Alessio like maybe, just maybe, there was a level of fear he wasn’t ready to name. “You know who it is, don’t you?”Alessio’s jaw ticked, the edges of his lips twisting into something that wasn’t a smile but pretended like it could be. “Yeah. I know exactly who it is.” He turned to Noa, fast, grabbing his wrist. “We have to move. Now. Out the back, no m

Noa’s scream didn’t stop when the van swerved. His lungs burned, his fists slammed into the steel walls, his mind spun so fast it nearly ripped him apart. Luca dragged the wheel back under control, but his voice cracked when he snapped, “Pull yourself together!”“They have him!” Noa roared, grabbing Luca by the collar, shoving him back into his seat as the van screeched around a corner. “They fucking have him, Luca! They took him, they”“I know!” Luca shoved him back, his face twisted in grief and fury, his breathing a staccato mess. “But you losing it right now isn’t going to bring him back!”Noa’s chest heaved, his nails digging into his palms, blood slicking his skin. He wanted to rip something apart. He wanted to break his way back into that tunnel, carve his way through until he could tear Alessio free. His whole body vibrates like he was about to combust, and the only thing keeping him from jumping out of the moving van was Luca’s grip anchoring him to reality.“They took him,”

Noa’s hands wouldn’t stop shaking. His whole body trembled, his chest heaving like he’d just run a marathon with his ribs caved in. The alley spun around him, the echo of Alessio’s heartbeat or maybe the absence of it roaring in his skull. Luca’s grip on his shoulders grounded him, but just barely.The text messages burned into his vision, impossible to unsee.One down. One to go.Your brother’s next.Tick tock, angel.It was a trap. It had always been a trap. Dominik didn’t just want Alessio. He wanted to tear Noa apart from the inside out, wanted to rip through every piece of family, every tie, every weakness. And now, the blade had turned toward his brother.“I have to go,” Noa rasped, trying to yank himself free.“No,” Luca barked, tightening his grip. “Not like this. You’re not thinking straight.”“He’s going after my brother, Luca.”“And Alessio’s barely alive!” Luca’s voice cracked. “You think he’d want you to walk into Dominik’s next game without a plan? You think he fought