All Chapters of Velvet and vengeance: stripped by the enemy : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

CHAPTER TWO: Ghosts in the SmokeJace's POVThe air in Barcelona hung heavy with humidity… and secrets.From the fire escape above Club Nirvana’s back alley, I rested on the rusted railing, a cigarette burning between my fingers. Below, Lucian was entering a black car. I didn’t move nor did i say a word, Just let the smoke slide past my lips, curling like ghosts toward the sky.My heart was beating too damn loud for someone who claimed to feel nothing at all.Lucian Moreau should’ve been just another face. Another name pinned to a board. A shadow in the rearview.But I could still feel the brush of his hand on my wrist, still taste the tension between us from the lounge—like it had branded itself into my skin.And I hated that. I hated him so much for what he'd done to my parents.My fingers found the lighter in my pocket, flicking it once… twice.“Not yet,” I muttered under my breath, eyes locked on the back as they disappeared into the city. “Not tonight.”But memory doesn’t care a

Chapter Four Jace's PovLucian never came back.One minute he was standing too close, saying too little, and looking at me like I was something he wanted to ruin with his hands.The next minute, he was gone after receiving the phone call.I went back to the dressing room, ignoring the curious stares from the others. The other dancers whispered to themselves, like I cared. Someone said they had heard gunshots from outside. Someone else said they had seen blood on the wall.I didn’t ask, cause didn’t need to. It was none of my business.By the time I got out, the night was dark and cold. I turned and saw him—Lucian—through the back alley gate. Just for a second.His shirt was torn, stained dark across the shoulder. He stood over two bodies—Vinco and Mateo, they were regulars at the club, I thought. His face was unreadable. Cold, tired and Empty.I turned away before he saw me watching.I didn’t want to know what version of himself he’d become tonight. I’d already seen too much.I sho

Jace’s POVI had barely tied the last string of the apron around my waist when the man himself appeared. Lucian Romano.He stood by the doorway, behind him were two big men that had sunglasses on. His sharp eyes cutting across the kitchen straight to me. I froze with the wooden spoon in my hand, caught red-handed in the middle of pretending I knew what the hell I was doing.“What,” he drawled, voice low and dangerous, “are you doing in my house?” He looked very much surprised to see me. His reaction was just how i had pictured it.For a moment, I considered giving him a sarcastic reply but that would ruin everything I already had planned out. I dropped the spoon and wiped my hands clean on the apron.“I’m the new cook,” I said, as casually as I could manage, showing him the pot on fire.Lucian’s brows arched. A faint smirk tugged at his lips like I’d just told the funniest joke in the world. “Out of all the houses in this city,” he said slowly, “you decided to get a job in mine?”Feig

Jace’s POVI slammed the door behind me harder than I meant to. My cheek still burned from Rosaline’s slap, and my pride burned even hotter. I exhaled deeply. Patience. I wasn’t here to fight with her. Not yet cause she had made it to my blacklist.What is that sound? Either someone was moaning or I was hearing things. I turned, expecting to find the room empty but it wasn't.My new “roommate” sat on the edge of his bed, pants around his thighs, hand moving furiously. His eyes widened when he noticed me. He jerked upright so fast he almost fell over, scrambling to pull his pants up.Shit! He cursed under his breath as he buckled his pants.It took me a second to recognize him—the same bodyguard who had pressed a gun to my head when I first entered the mansion. The one with sharp eyes, cold like steel.“You?” he spat, as if I’d just intruded into his sanctuary. “What the fuck are you doing here?”I leaned against the doorframe, folding my arms even though my face was heating. “This is

Jace’s POVThe kitchen was not my battlefield. I was very bad at it. The fire hissed like it was waiting to burn me alive, and the frying pan clung stubbornly to the eggs as if mocking me. I wiped sweat from my forehead and cursed under my breath.Of all disguises to pick, I had to come as a cook? That was the only job opening, plus going as a bodyguard wouldn't work in my favor.I’d been trained to dance on poles for money not to whisk, chop, and sauté. But here I was, trying to prepare breakfast for the Queen of Poison herself, Rosaline and for Lucian, the man I couldn’t stop watching no matter how much I told myself I hated him.The coffee machine hissed again, telling me the coffee was ready. I turned it off and poured the steaming liquid into Rosaline’s porcelain cup with shaky hands. It smelled burnt. Of course it did.“Perfect,” I muttered sarcastically. Who knows, getting slapped may be much better than what she'd do to me.Balancing the tray like it was an explosive, I carri