บททั้งหมดของ The Mafia King's Collateral : บทที่ 51 - บทที่ 60

Liora's POVThe name haunted our nights like a curse we couldn’t exorcise.The Ghost.Even saying it felt dangerous, like summoning something ancient and hungry that had been waiting in the shadows for decades.I sat across from Nikolai in the dimly lit study at 2:14 AM, both of us surrounded by scattered files, old photographs, and encrypted messages we’d managed to intercept. My eyes burned from lack of sleep, but I refused to rest. Not when our family’s future was hanging by a thread.“He’s not just a mercenary,” I said, pushing a faded document toward him. “Look at this. He was your father’s mentor. The one who taught him how to build the empire. And then… something happened between them.”Nikolai’s face was stone, but his fingers trembled slightly as he picked up the paper. The scar on his shoulder seemed to stand out more under the low light.“Elias Volkov,” he read quietly. “My uncle. My father’s older brother. Everyone thought he died in a car bombing twenty-five years ago.”

Liora's POVI was done being the one who needed saving.The attack on the mansion, the kidnapping attempt, the constant shadow of The Ghost — they all forged something new inside me. No more waiting. No more hiding behind Nikolai’s power. If I was going to stand beside him in this war, I needed to become dangerous too.So I asked him to train me.And Nikolai, after hours of arguing, finally agreed.The training room in the basement was cold, sterile, and smelled of sweat and gun oil. Mats covered the floor. Targets lined one wall. Weapons gleamed on racks. Nikolai stood in the center wearing a black compression shirt that clung to every muscle, his injured shoulder still wrapped but clearly not stopping him.“Again,” he commanded, voice low and rough.I was already breathing hard, sweat dripping down my back. My arms burned from the hour of hand-to-hand combat we’d just finished. But I charged him anyway.He moved like liquid shadow — sidestepping my punch, grabbing my wrist, and sp

Liora's POVThe video call came at the worst possible moment.I was in the garden with Alora, trying to give her some sense of normalcy under the watchful eyes of six guards. She was picking flowers, humming the lullaby Nikolai sang to her, when my phone buzzed with a secure notification.It was routed through Nikolai’s private line.I almost didn’t answer.But something, a cold instinct — told me I needed to see it.I stepped away from Alora, motioning for the guards to stay close, and tapped accept.Sofia’s face filled the screen.Beautiful. Cruel. Victorious.“Hello, darling,” she purred, her voice dripping with honeyed venom. “Miss me?”Nikolai was beside her.No — he was on the other end of the call too, in his study. The split screen showed him sitting at his desk, jaw clenched, eyes burning with barely controlled rage.“Sofia,” he growled. “Hang up. Now.”She laughed softly, leaning closer to the camera. “Oh, but I have so much to say. Remember that night in Prague? When you fu

Liora's POVThe words hung in the air like a death sentence.“He’s your older brother, Elias.”Nikolai stood frozen in the interrogation room, gun still pointed at the captured man’s head. His face had gone deathly pale. The powerful, ruthless king I had come to know looked… shattered.For the first time since I’d known him, Nikolai Volkov looked truly broken.“Get him out of here,” he rasped, voice barely recognizable.The guards dragged the bleeding man away. The door slammed shut. And then it was just us — the heavy silence pressing down like a tomb.Nikolai slowly lowered the gun. It slipped from his fingers and clattered onto the concrete floor. He staggered back until his back hit the wall, then slid down until he was sitting on the cold ground, head in his hands.I had never seen him like this.Not even when he was bleeding out from a bullet. Not even when he confessed about his mother.This was different.This was the little boy who had lost everything — resurfacing in the bo

Liora's POVNikolai returned at 4:12 AM, covered in dust and blood that wasn’t his.I was waiting in the foyer, arms wrapped tightly around myself, every nerve in my body stretched to breaking point. The moment he stepped through the doors, I knew something had shattered inside him.His eyes were hollow. His shoulders carried the weight of ghosts. The powerful king who had left hours ago looked like a man who had stared into the abyss and seen his own reflection staring back.He didn’t speak at first. He just walked straight to me and pulled me into his arms, holding me so tightly I could barely breathe. His body trembled against mine. I felt the rapid thud of his heart, the slight shake in his hands as they gripped my back.I pulled away just enough to look at him. “Tell me everything.”He closed his eyes, jaw clenched so hard a muscle ticked. When he opened them again, they were filled with pain so deep it hurt to witness.“He’s my brother,” he rasped, voice raw. “Elias. He offered