Chapter One – The Oath

The call comes at 02:17.Elena Vale is awake already.She’s sitting on the edge of her bed, boots still on, jacket slung over the chair like she might leave again any second. Her gun rests on the nightstand where she cleaned it earlier, disassembled and reassembled out of habit, not necessity. Outside her window, the city hums low and restless, sirens threading the dark like warnings no one listens to anymore.When the phone vibrates, she doesn’t jump.She already knows.“Vale,” she says.There’s breathing on the other end. Someone choosing words carefully.“Elena,” a woman says softly. “It’s Mia.”The name hits her like a blow to the ribs.She’s on her feet before the sentence finishes. “Where is she?”A pause. Long enough to tell her everything.“We’re at St. Andrew’s. You need to come now.”Elena doesn’t remember the drive.She remembers red lights she doesn’t stop

Last Updated : 2026-01-24

Chapter 2 - The Club

By her second week at The Black Halo, Elena knows where the cameras are.Not the obvious ones, the blinking domes meant to discourage amateurs and reassure drunk patrons. The other ones. The discreet lenses tucked into corners, angled just enough to catch movement without drawing attention. She maps their arcs while pretending to wipe tables, memorising blind spots created by lighting rigs and structural columns.Old instincts don’t disappear. They adapt.Friday nights are worse. The bass is heavier, bodies packed tighter, the air thick with perfume, sweat, and expensive cologne. Disorder exists here, but it’s curated - allowed to breathe only within parameters.Elena moves through it with steady precision, tray balanced, posture relaxed. She doesn’t flirt. Doesn’t linger. Doesn’t rush. She lets people underestimate her, because underestimation makes men careless.“Elena.”Carlo’s voice catches her near the bar. His jaw is tight.

Last Updated : 2026-01-26

Chapter 3 - Tested

POV: Matteo I watch her leave the alley.I don’t follow. I don’t stop her. I let the distance open exactly as it should. Elena Riva walks fast but not panicked, shoulders squared, steps clean. She doesn’t look back.Good.People who look back want reassurance or permission. She wants neither.I wait until her footsteps disappear before I speak.“Clean,” I say.My men nod. Efficient. Silent. This will be gone before morning, like everything that doesn’t serve a purpose.I step back inside through the service door, the bass of the club swelling around me. Nothing has changed. Drinks are poured. Music pulses. Laughter cuts through the dark.Order restored.Except it isn’t.Elena Riva is now a variable.Not because she saw what she saw. Plenty of people have seen worse and learned to live with it. Not because she stayed. Fear makes people compliant.Because she spoke.

Last Updated : 2026-01-26

Chapter 4 - Marked

Elena’s POV The first sign comes the next morning. It’s small. Almost nothing. A black rose left on the hood of my car. No note. No message. Just the flower, dark and deliberate against the dull paint, its stem trimmed cleanly like it was prepared with care. I stand there longer than I should, keys clenched in my fist, scanning the street out of instinct even though I already know better. Whoever left it didn’t want to be seen. They wanted it found. I don’t touch the rose. I leave it where it is and drive to work with my heart beating too loudly in my chest. By the time I reach The Black Halo that night, the city feels wrong. Not louder. Quieter. Like it’s listening. Security is doubled again. New faces at the doors. Men I haven’t seen before positioned near the bar, near the stairwell, near the staff hallway. They don’t look at me openly, but I feel the weight of their awareness like pressure against my back. Carlo doesn’t smile when he hands me my apron. “Straight to VIP,

Last Updated : 2026-01-26

Chapter 5 - Taken

Elena’s POV I feel it before it happens. That’s the part that stays with me later — not the fear, not the chaos, but the certainty. The quiet click inside my chest that says this is wrong. The street outside the club is almost empty. Too empty for a Thursday night. The music still pulses faintly through the walls behind me, but out here the city feels muted, like someone turned the volume down without warning. I shouldn’t be alone. I know that. I also know I didn’t wait. I told myself it would be fine. That I’d walked this route a hundred times. That paranoia isn’t the same as instinct. I’m halfway down the block when the van slows beside me. Black. Unmarked. Windows tinted so dark they swallow the streetlight instead of reflecting it. My hand curls instinctively, nails biting into my palm. Don’t run yet.

Last Updated : 2026-01-26

All Chapters of The Man I Swore to Kill: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Chapter One – The Oath

Chapter 2 - The Club

Chapter 3 - Tested

Chapter 4 - Marked

Chapter 5 - Taken