All Chapters of BOUND TO THE BEAST : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

POV: AriaThe photographs lay scattered across Luca's lap like accusations. Each one a moment of my supposed betrayal, frozen in time. Me and Dante. Talking. Touching. Smiling.I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. My mind raced, trying to figure out what to say, how to explain, but the look on Luca's face stopped every word before it could form."I asked you a question." His voice was quiet. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that came before violence. "Where have you been?""I went for a drive," I said, my voice barely above a whisper."A drive." He stood slowly, the photographs spilling to the floor. "Is that what we're calling it now? A drive that somehow ended with you in a café with Dante Caruso? With his hands on yours? With you looking at him like he's your salvation?""It wasn't like that.""No?" He moved closer, and I instinctively backed up until I hit the wall. "Then tell me, Aria. What was it like? What exactly were you doing with my enemy in a secret location while your husband

POV: LucaI stood at the window of my office, staring out at nothing, my reflection ghosting in the glass. Behind me, I could hear Isabella pouring herself another drink, the clink of crystal against crystal filling the silence."You did the right thing," she said.I didn't respond. Couldn't. Because I wasn't sure anymore what the right thing was.The room below. I'd sent Aria to the room below. That place where traitors were taken. Where enemies were broken. Where I'd personally interrogated men who'd betrayed my family, who'd stolen from us, who'd tried to kill us. Few of them had walked out. And now Aria was down there. Waiting. Terrified.My wife.The girl in the yellow dress.The woman I'd obsessed over for fifteen years."You're having second thoughts," Isabella observed. "I can see it on your face.""I'm thinking.""About what? About whether the evidence is real? We both saw the footage, Luca. We both know what she did."I closed my eyes, replayed the security footage in my min

POV: LucaThe world narrowed to a single point: Aria's pale face, her lips turning blue, her chest barely moving."Get Dr. Russo on the phone. Now!" I barked at Marco, already lifting Aria into my arms. She weighed nothing, a fragile thing I had caged and broken. "And get the car ready.""Boss, a hospital would be faster," Marco said, his hand already on his phone."No hospitals." I started moving toward the stairs, my arms tight around her limp body. "Too many questions. Too many enemies. Dr. Russo meets us at the mansion."Elena appeared at the top of the stairs, her hand flying to her mouth when she saw Aria. "Dio mio, what happened?""Isabella poisoned her." The words tasted like acid. "Clear the medical room. Everything sterile. Move!"I had built an empire on control, on calculated moves and cold decisions. But control meant nothing when the woman in my arms was dying because of my choices. Because I had brought Isabella into our lives. Because I had been too blind to see the da

POV: AriaPain was the first thing I felt. A dull, persistent ache that radiated through my entire body, like I had been hit by a truck and left on the side of the road to die. The second thing was thirst. My mouth felt like sand, my throat raw.I tried to open my eyes, but even my eyelids felt heavy. When I finally managed it, the harsh light made me wince. I blinked several times, waiting for the world to come into focus. White ceiling. Sterile smell. The steady beep of machines.I turned my head slowly, every movement an effort, and froze.Luca sat slumped in a chair beside my bed, his head tilted at an uncomfortable angle, fast asleep. He looked terrible. His shirt was wrinkled and stained, his usually perfect hair was a mess, and dark circles shadowed his eyes. Stubble covered his jaw, at least two days' worth.He looked human. Vulnerable. Broken. I had never seen him like this. My movement must have made a sound because his eyes snapped open immediately, alert despite his exhaus

POV: LucaI ran through the mansion corridors with my gun drawn, guards falling in behind me. The alarms continued their deafening wail, but my mind was crystal clear. Isabella was loose. Aria was vulnerable. Everything else was secondary."Status report," I barked into my phone as I descended the stairs to the basement level where we'd been holding Isabella."Two guards down, sir," Marco's voice crackled through. "Both alive but unconscious. She's been gone for at least three hours."Three hours. She could be anywhere by now. Fury and something colder, something like dread, twisted in my gut.I reached the holding room and pushed past the guards securing the scene. The heavy steel door hung open, the electronic lock sparking uselessly. Inside, the room was empty except for the chair we'd restrained her to. The zip ties lay cut on the floor."How?" I demanded, grabbing the nearest guard by his collar. "How did she get out of industrial restraints in a locked room?"The guard, young an