Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

The Sicilian night was thick with the scent of blooming jasmine and the salt of the Ionian Sea, but inside the master suite, the air tasted of Devi's expensive sandalwood and the cold, metallic tang of a trap snapping shut.Cali stood pinned against the balcony glass, the platinum tracker on her ankle a cold weight against her skin. Devi's chest was a wall of solid muscle pressing into her, his hands encircling her wrists with a possessive strength that didn't pinch, but didn't budge either."Kill me then, Cali baby," Devi whispered, his breath ghosting over her lips."Put the hole in my chest. End the stalker. But who's going to keep the wolves away from Marco when I'm gone? Who's going to pay the guards to keep their guns pointed out instead of in?"Cali's fingers spasmed against the pearl derringer in her hoodie pocket, but she didn't pull it.Her grumpy defiance was being swallowed by the horrific realization that she was a bird whose cage was built out of her own father's bones."

The metallic click of the first cuff was a final, cold period at the end of the night's sentence.Cali didn’t scream. She didn’t even pull away. She just stared at the silver band around her wrist, the black velvet lining feeling like a mockery of comfort. Her grumpy face was pale, her hair a tangled, salt-crusted mess against the black silk pillows."You’re really doing this?" she whispered, her voice a low, mean rasp."The great Devi Santoro, King of the Underworld, needs chains to keep a girl in a hoodie from running away?" Devi didn’t answer immediately.He moved with a ruthless, methodical grace, threading the heavy silver chain through the carved mahogany post of the bed before clicking the second cuff onto her other wrist. He stood back, his obsessive gaze raking over her....wet, shivering, and finally, undeniably his."I don't need chains to keep you, Cali baby," he murmured, his voice a dark, understanding vibration. "I need chains to keep the world from taking you back. E

The Sicilian sun didn't dare enter the master suite the next morning, the heavy velvet curtains acted as a blackout shroud, keeping the room in a state of eternal, expensive twilight. Cali woke up with the weight of Devi’s arm across her waist, a living shackle that was warmer and more terrifying than the silver handcuffs.She didn't move. She stared at the high, coffered ceiling, her grumpy face a mask of cold calculation. The black sapphire on her finger felt like a lead weight. She wasn't just Cali anymore. She was the widow of a traitor and the wife of a monster."You're awake," Devi’s voice rumbled against her shoulder, thick with sleep and a possessive satisfaction. He didn't let go, he pulled her closer, his chest a solid wall against her back. "I can hear your brain cursing, Cali baby. You’re already planning how to spend the blood money."Cali wrenched herself out of his grip, sitting up and swinging her bare feet onto the cold marble floor. She was still wearing his whit

The black helicopter banked hard over the Tyrrhenian Sea, the villa appearing on the cliffside like a jagged tooth of honey-colored stone. Cali sat in the leather seat, her midnight-black suit still perfect, though her grumpy face was etched with a new, sharper kind of exhaustion. Beside her, Devi was a silent, possessive shadow, his hand resting on her thigh as if he expected her to vanish into the clouds."We’re home, Cali baby," he murmured, his voice a low, obsessive rumble.Cali didn't look at him. She looked at the platinum tracker on her ankle, its blue light pulsing in time with the helicopter’s blades. "Home is a strong word for a place with biometric locks on the bathroom doors, Devi." When they landed, the villa was eerily quiet. The guards stood like statues, their eyes averted as Devi led her inside, his grip on her waist never wavering. He felt like a man who had finally gathered all his scattered pieces into one room. "I have a meeting with the Enforcers," Devi sa

The medical team moved like shadows through the wreckage of the dining room, their footsteps silent on the glass-strewn marble. Devi was unconscious, his face a mask of waxen, ruthless beauty, his hand still curled into a fist as if trying to catch the air Cali had stolen from him.Cali didn't follow the gurney I mean a stretcher like a hospital bed in wheels I know you already know that right? I think I need the vocabulary book again.She stood in the center of the dark ballroom, the pearl derringer back in her pocket and her midnight-black suit stained with his expensive scotch and a spray of Marco’s blood. She felt a cold, grumpy clarity she hadn't possessed since the day she was kidnapped."Donna Cali? The Boss is in the infirmary room. We need your authorization for the blood transfusion," the lead enforcer, a man named Rocco, whispered. He was looking at her with a new kind of fear a possessive respect that used to be reserved only for Devi."Let him bleed for a while, Rocco,