Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

CHAPTER 21: The One I Was Fucking

Cade's POVThe late afternoon sun filtered through the gauzy curtains, painting Scarlett's skin in shades of honey and gold. She was draped across my chest, one leg thrown over mine, her breathing finally settling into something close to normal after the past hour.Or two hours. I'd lost track of time somewhere between apology and redemption, between the moment she'd let me touch her again and the moment she'd shattered in my arms, forgiving me with her body even if her words hadn't quite caught up yet."I'm still mad at you," she murmured against my collarbone, lips brushing my skin with each word."I know." My hand traced lazy patterns down her spine, following the curve of her back, feeling the slight tremble that meant she was sensitive there, overwhelmed, wrung out from pleasure."The way you handled the bait thing was manipulative and cruel.""I know.""You should have trusted me enough to tell me the truth.""You're right." I tilted her face up, needing to see her eyes. Green a

CHAPTER 22: When the Past Walks In

Cade’s POV"Show me to my room," Lee said to Russo, defusing the tension with practised ease. "I need to shower and review the target files before the briefing."They continued up the stairs, and I stood there, fists clenched, trying to figure out how to stop this without revealing exactly why Lee's presence was a problem.Because explaining that would require admitting that Lee wasn't just some casual fling.She'd been everything eighteen months ago. The woman I'd thought I might build a life with. The partner who understood the darkness in me because she had her own.The woman I thought I loved before I found Scarlett again and realised what love actually meant.I heard a door open behind me. Turned to find Scarlett standing in the hallway, wrapped in one of my shirts, hair still tousled from sex, eyes wide with confusion."What's going on? I heard a helicopter.""Nothing. Just an unexpected arrival for the operation." I moved toward her, needing to get her back in our room, needin

CHAPTER 23: Weaponized Seduction

Cade's POVThe black sedan's taillights disappeared into the darkness, swallowed by the Tuscan night like Scarlett had never been there at all.My hands were shaking. Actually shaking, trembling with a rage so pure it bordered on violence."Cade, we need to track that car," Russo said behind me, already on his phone. "I'll get Luca to…"I didn't wait to hear the rest. I was already moving, taking the stairs three at a time, my vision tunnelling to a single point of focus.“Lee!!” I screamed. This was her fault. Her calculated cruelty. Her perfectly timed bomb was designed to destroy everything I'd built with Scarlett.I knew which room Russo had given her. West wing, second door on the left. The suite with the balcony overlooking the vineyards, the one with the deep soaking tub and the bed big enough to get lost in.The one we'd shared eighteen months ago when things between us had been good. Before I'd realised good wasn't enough. Before I'd understood that settling for compatible w

CHAPTER 24: What Blackwood Men Do

Cade’s POV"Look." I forced myself to focus on her face, not her body. "Put on your clothes. We can fight later. I need to find Scarlett. She's out there in the middle of nowhere.”"Oh, quit the act, Cade." Lee pulled on jeans and a black tank top. "Don't act as if you care too much about her.""If I don't, then why would I leave my business to be here in Italy?" Anger made my voice rise. "Why would I risk everything to take revenge on the man who raped her?""Because you have a personal interest in Silvio Romano." She turned to face me fully, and something in her expression shifted. Became sharper. More dangerous. "Does Scarlett even know what you really are?"The question made ice crawl down my spine. "What are you talking about?""Does she know you're a mafia syndicate?" Lee's smile was a blade. "Does she know the real reason you agreed to destroy Silvio isn't just about avenging her precious rape trauma?"My hands clenched into fists. "Lee…""Does she know," Lee continued, relentl

CHAPTER 25: Escape!

Scarlett's POVThe hotel lobby was cheap and loud, the kind of place that asked no questions and accepted cash without blinking. Neon lights buzzed overhead, casting everything in sickly pink. The man behind the desk had barely looked up when I'd paid for a room, just slid a key card across the scratched counter and returned to whatever he was watching on his phone.I'd made it to the third floor before I saw them.Two men in dark clothing, moving through the lobby below with the practised casualness of people pretending not to search. I recognised the taller one. Russo's driver from earlier. LucaMy stomach dropped.They'd tracked me here. Of course, they had. I'd climbed into a black sedan with tinted windows like an absolute fool, not even thinking about who'd sent it or why it had been conveniently waiting at the end of the villa driveway at exactly the right moment.I pressed myself against the third-floor corridor wall, heart hammering, mind racing.Think, Scarlett. Think.The e

CHAPTER 26: Rain, Regret, and Giovanni

Scarlett's POV"My grandmother", Tomasso continued at full volume, somehow navigating impossibly narrow streets while maintaining eye contact with me in the rearview mirror, "she used to say that Florence streets are like the veins in your body, all connected, all alive, all going somewhere important! Ha! She was a wise woman, God rest her soul, though she did burn the polenta every Sunday without fail for sixty years! Sixty years! How do you burn polenta for sixty years?"Despite everything, despite the shattered heart and the lies and the rage burning through my chest, I felt the corners of my mouth twitch."I have no idea," I said."Neither do I! My grandfather never complained. God bless that man! Now, American lady, you are very beautiful, but you look very sad. Did someone hurt you?"The question was so direct, so unexpectedly kind, that tears pricked my eyes again."Something like that.""Ah." Tomasso nodded sagely, narrowly avoiding a delivery truck with inches to spare. "Men.

CHAPTER 27: When the Monster Came Hunting

Scarlett’s POVThe tears came first. Embarrassing and unstoppable, streaming down cheeks that were still damp from the rain. I pressed my lips together, trying to hold back the words that were clawing up my throat.But they came anyway. The way things do when you've been carrying them too long."Silvio." My voice broke on the name. "He raped me, Gio.”The silence that followed was absolute.Giovanni went so still that he looked carved from the same stone as his beloved sculptures. The colour drained from his face so completely that I was afraid he was going to collapse.Then sound came out of him. French, rapid and broken, something between a prayer and a curse that I didn't fully understand but felt in my bones."When?" His voice, when it came back to English, was barely above a whisper. "When did this happen?""That same night. After you left for your doctor's appointment." I stared at my hands. "He took me to a room. There were substances. I don't remember all of it, Gio. I don't

CHAPTER 28: Almost Caught

Scarlett's POVThe wardrobe smelled like Giovanni. Old books and linseed oil and the particular cedar he used to protect his clothes from moths. I pressed myself into the farthest corner, behind winter coats that still carried the scent of his cologne, making myself as small as possible.My phone screen glowed in the darkness. Cade's name. Again.I couldn't answer. Couldn't risk even the smallest sound.Through the wardrobe's wooden slats, I could see slivers of the bedroom. Empty for now. But the footsteps were getting closer, heavy boots on hardwood, men who didn't care about being quiet because they knew their prey was trapped.Then I heard Bianca.Her voice carried from the sitting room, high and terrified, the way voices get when fear strips away language and leaves only animal sounds."Please, please, I don't know anything, I'm just the housekeeper, please…"The sound of a slap. Sharp and brutal.Bianca's cry cut off into a sob."Is there any other exit aside from the kitchen?"

Chapter 29: Eight Feet from Freedom

Scarlett’s POV. I was already moving.Threw myself backward through the secret panel, hands finding the door and slamming it shut with a sound like thunder. The lock mechanism engaged automatically, ancient gears grinding into place.On the other side, fists immediately started pounding. Shouting. The sound of someone throwing their entire body weight against the door.But it held. Three-hundred-year-old Florentine engineering, designed to hide priceless art from invading armies. It would hold against Silvio's thugs.For now.The basement staircase stretched below me, steep and narrow, disappearing into absolute darkness. I didn't have time to feel for the light switch. Just grabbed the railing and started down, taking the stone steps as fast as I dared, my phone clutched in my other hand.Behind me, the pounding intensified. They were using something heavy now. An axe, maybe. Or a battering ram. The sound echoed down the stairwell like thunder.My phone lit up in my hand.Cade. Agai

CHAPTER 30: Back To The Magic Room!

Scarlett’s POVThe world was a fractured mosaic of shadows and blinding white. Through the heavy, rhythmic throb in my skull, I saw him.Silvio Romano stood at the centre of the garden, bathed in the harsh, artificial glow of flashlight beams. His men directed the light with military precision, pinning him in the spotlight like a demonic lead on a stage. He looked exactly as he did in my nightmares: the tailored suit crisp despite the midnight humidity, every strand of dark hair slicked into place, and a smile that never quite reached his cold, calculating eyes.He looked at me with a sickening sense of ownership, the way a man looks at a prized possession he’d briefly misplaced and finally recovered."Scarlett." He breathed my name like a caress, the syllables dripping with a false tenderness that turned my stomach. To an outsider, we looked like lovers reunited; in reality, we were merely predator and prey. "You've led me on quite the chase tonight."I fought to find my voice. I wan

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