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Home / MM Romance / THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION / Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

All Chapters of THE MAFIA'S BLOODY POSSESSION: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

77 Chapters

The Shift

Ace's Pov Something changed after the grocery run and I could not name what it was. Nikolai had always been watchful but it was a different kind of watching now. Less like he was measuring me and more like he was waiting for something. He answered when I spoke to him and he was not cold exactly but there was a distance in it that had not been there the week before. Ivan was harder to read. He still sat on the rooftop with me in the afternoons and he still remembered things I said without making a production of it but the ease from before was not quite there. The smile was there but it stopped earlier than it used to. I noticed all of this and told myself it did not matter. Breakfast on Thursday was quiet. Nikolai read his newspaper standing up again, which he had not done in about two weeks, and Ivan scrolled through his phone and did not

Seeds

Sergei's Pov The fifth contact happened on a Tuesday. Ace was on a supervised walk with one guard when I fell into step near him going the same direction. The guard was a few feet ahead, dealing with a call on his earpiece, which gave me about forty seconds. "You look tired," I said, keeping my voice easy. Ace glanced at me. "Long night." "I know the feeling." I slowed my pace to match his. "Marcus asked about you again. He is worried." "Tell him not to be." "He would feel better hearing it from you." I paused. "Are you doing okay. Genuinely." Ace looked at me for a second. "I am fine." "Okay." I let that sit for a moment. "I heard something recently. Probably nothing but I felt like I should say it because Marcus cares about you." He looked at me more carefully

Evidence

Ace's Pov I did not sleep well that night. Daniel's words kept coming back in pieces. A guy about two years ago. Different situation, different context. Brought someone in close, made it comfortable, and then when they were done they cut it fast and clean. I kept telling myself it was street talk. Secondhand. Daniel had said so himself and I knew better than to take that kind of thing at face value. But the problem was that the story fit. Not perfectly, not with specific details I could point to, but in the shape of it. The Volkov twins were organised crime. Taking something and using it and letting it go was not a difficult thing to believe about organised crime. I thought about Ivan saying eventually and Nikolai saying the same word. At the time I had taken both as something real but maybe that was just what you said when you wanted some

Withdrawal

Nikolai's Pov I noticed it on the second day. Ace had started angling his body slightly when he came into a room, not toward whoever was closest the way he used to, but toward the exit first. The kind of thing most people would not catch. At breakfast he answered questions with fewer words. Not rude, not hostile, just compressed. Where he used to expand slightly when he was engaged in a conversation, now he gave the minimum and stopped. On the rooftop he sat with his mug and he looked at the city but his eyes were different. Not thoughtful the way they usually were. Somewhere else. I did not ask him directly. Asking directly would tell him I had noticed and right now I did not want him to know how closely I was watching. If something had shifted in him I needed to understand what it was before I responded to it. At din

Midnight

Ivan's Pov I waited until after midnight. I had been lying in bed for two hours telling myself Nikolai was right and patience was the correct move and I needed to let Ace come back on his own. Then I got up and went downstairs. The kitchen light was already on. Ace was at the counter with a glass of water, not drinking it, just holding it. He looked up when I came in and something in his face shifted quickly to neutral. "You are up late," I said. "Could not sleep." I went to the counter and poured my own water and stood across from him. "Me neither." We were quiet for a moment. "Ace." I set my glass down. "What is going on." He looked at his water. "Nothing is going on." "You have been different for four days. You answer in fewer words

Timeline

Sergei's Pov Darnell called at seven in the morning. "Progress," he said. It was not a question. "The doubt is planted. He is pulling back from them. The next contact will escalate it." "When is the next contact." "Today or tomorrow. It depends on the outing schedule." "Make it today." His voice was flat. "I am out of patience, Sergei. My man on the inside says Volkov is close to a name. If he gets yours before you have Rivera in position to help you it is over." "I know that." "Then move." The line went dead. I sat with the phone in my hand and thought about what moving faster meant. The Reyes name was the escalation I had been building toward. Specific, unverifiable, just credible enough to land. I had been planning to let it sit for one more day before I used

The Door

Ace's Pov I counted back on the way home. I had been in the penthouse for seven weeks and three days. That left roughly three weeks and four days if Daniel's information was accurate. About twenty five days. I sat in the back seat and looked out the window and told myself this was exactly what I had expected. Temporary had always been the plan. Getting out had been the goal from day one. Getting out had been the goal from day one and if the timeline was three months then the only thing that had changed was that now I had a number. Nothing about this was a surprise. Back at the building Ivan was in the main corridor when I came through. He looked at me once, the way he always did when he was reading something in my face. "How was it," he said. "Fine. They had everything on the list."

Sweep

Nikolai's PovIt was a dinner, wednesday evening. The three of us at the table.Ivan had said something about the book Ace was reading and Ace had looked up and opened his mouth to respond and then there was a half second pause before he answered. Small. The kind of gap most people would never notice.I noticed.It was not a thinking pause. It was a deciding pause. He had landed on his response before that half second and used the half second to decide whether to give it. He gave a shorter version of what he had been about to say and looked back at his plate.That was not Ace being quiet. That was Ace managing.Something had gotten to him, not the general doubt from last week, something more specific. Something with a shape, i knew the difference because the general doubt had made him quieter but still present. This was different. He was still at the table, still answering, still saying good night when he went upstairs. But something behind it had moved to a different position.Aft

Crack

Sergei’s Pov The sweep results would come back within twenty four hours. I knew it without Rem telling me. Nikolai Volkov was methodical and when he went deeper on a cover identity the seams eventually showed. The proxy trace had gotten close once already. A full payroll and cell tower sweep would get the rest of the way. I had one day. Maybe less. I called my contact and moved up the pharmacy outing. It took two hours to arrange and cost a favour I had been saving but it happened. Thursday morning, eleven o'clock, Ace out with one guard for a fifteen minute window. I was in position on the street by ten forty. He came out of the building at eleven past and I fell into step going the same direction, unhurried, like I had been walking that way already. "You look better than last week," I said.

The Wall

Ace’s PovI had been holding it for two days and then I stopped holding it.It was not a plan. It was not even a decision exactly. Ivan came into the library at seven in the evening and said dinner was ready and something in the ordinary ease of it, the way he said it like everything was normal, just broke whatever had been keeping me steady."I know," I said.He stopped in the doorway. "Know what.""I do not want to talk about it." I put the book down and stood up. "I am not hungry.""Ace.""I said I am not hungry."He came into the room and stopped a few feet away. "What is going on.""Nothing." I looked at the shelf. "Can you leave me alone.""No." He crossed his arms. "Talk to me.""I have nothing to say.""That is not true. You have been quiet for a week and now you are telling me to leave and you will not look at me." He kept his voice level but there was something tighter in it. "Tell me what is happening."I looked at him then. "How long."He went still. "How long what.""How

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