Semua Bab His Halo is a Lie: Bab 31 - Bab 40

Morning light spilled across the room, soft and golden, but it did nothing to chase away the shadows inside me. I lay awake in Saint’s bed, staring at the ceiling while his breathing evened beside me. He had come back at dawn, his body heavy with exhaustion, the smell of smoke and danger still clinging to his clothes. He had pulled me close, his arm banded tight around my waist as if to prove he was real, and within minutes he had fallen into sleep.But I could not follow him there.My eyes kept drifting to the faint bruise along his jaw, to the scrape near his knuckles where skin had split. Evidence. Proof that he had been out fighting battles I could not see, wars I did not want to be part of.I turned onto my side, watching him. The man lying next to me was beautiful in a way that hurt, his features carved sharp even in sleep, his chest rising and falling with a rhythm that should have soothed me. But all I felt was the weight pressing down on me.Vincent’s voice had not left my he

I woke to the sound of glass shattering.For one heart-stopping moment, I thought it was Saint. That he had broken something in one of his storms, his rage spilling into the walls of the penthouse. But then the voices came. Sharp. Low. Not his.I froze.The guards were supposed to be outside. No one should be inside.My chest tightened, panic clawing up my throat. I slid out of bed, my bare feet silent on the hardwood, and crept toward the bedroom door. I pressed my ear to the wood.Men. At least two. Their footsteps heavy, their whispers cruel.My blood ran cold. Vincent.The phone sat on the nightstand. My hand shook as I grabbed it, but my body wouldn’t move fast enough to dial. My thumb hovered uselessly over the screen. Who could I even call? Saint was out. Lucio maybe. The guards, if they were even alive.The sound of a drawer being yanked open snapped me out of it. They were inside. They were here.I shoved the phone into the pocket of my robe and moved toward the closet, my br

The penthouse had never felt like home, but now it felt like a cage. Every window seemed like an open eye, every sound outside the door a threat waiting to force its way in.I sat curled on the couch, watching the skyline through the glass. The city was waking, people rushing to work, cars weaving through streets, lives moving forward like nothing had happened. Like two men hadn’t died in my bedroom. Like Vincent hadn’t reached inside these walls and left his shadow on my skin.Saint thought he could erase it by burning everything Vincent touched. He came home this morning smelling of fire, his hands still shaking from the violence he poured out. He held me and whispered I was safe, but I didn’t feel safe. Not when I knew every war he fought only sharpened Vincent’s blade.The guards rotated again. A new one stood near the door, tall and silent, his eyes never leaving the hallway. I hated it. Hated being watched, even if it was for my protection. I wanted to scream at him to leave, to

Her words keep echoing in my skull.I don’t know if I can survive you.I’ve been shot. Stabbed. Beaten to the edge of death. Nothing has ever cut me deeper than that single sentence. Because it is the one wound I cannot fight my way out of.Maya is the only light I’ve let near me in years, and now she looks at me as if I am the darkness swallowing her whole. She is wrong. I keep telling myself that. She has to be wrong. Because everything I have done, every fire, every body, was for her.And yet, when I saw the tears on her face, when I heard the tremble in her voice, doubt carved itself into me like a blade.Lucio finds me in the study, where the city lights pour through the glass and turn the whiskey in my hand to liquid fire. He doesn’t bother knocking. He knows me too well for that.“She’s breaking,” he says.I look at him, my jaw tight. “She’s not the only one.”He doesn’t flinch. He pours his own drink and leans against the wall. “Vincent’s winning without lifting a gun. That ph

I have killed many men, but tonight will be different. Tonight there will be no business, no strategy, no message to send. Tonight I end him because I want to.Vincent crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed. He put his hands inside my world, reached for Maya, and whispered poison into her ear. She may still be breathing, but in my eyes he has already killed something inside her. And for that, I will take everything from him.The warehouse hums with activity as Lucio and my men prepare. Ammunition laid out. Weapons checked. Engines running hot. It smells of oil, sweat, and war. My world.Lucio approaches, his expression grim. “Our scouts confirmed his location. He’s holed up in a De Luca compound near the river. Heavy guard, reinforced walls, but nothing we can’t break.”My mouth curves in a sharp line. “Then we break it.”Lucio studies me for a beat. “You’re not thinking like a strategist anymore. You’re thinking like a man with blood in his eyes.”“I am a man with blood in his eyes.