All Chapters of The Mafia billionaire's Revenge Bride : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Chapter 22 — The Inch That Almost BrokeThe elevator doors closed with a soft hydraulic sigh that felt louder than it should have. Kabir stood near the panel, eyes on his tablet, pretending the silence between Aryan and me was just another neutral space he had learned to ignore. I kept my back against the mirrored wall. Aryan stood opposite, one shoulder leaning into the corner, phone still in his hand but screen dark. The same careful distance as last night. An inch of air that had somehow become heavier than the bandage around my throat.I could still feel the phantom weight of the knife under my jaw. Every time the elevator slowed for another floor my shoulders tried to climb into my ears. I forced them down. Forced my breathing to stay even. Forced myself not to look at the way Aryan’s fingers flexed once against his thigh, like he was measuring the same tension I was trying to swallow.When the doors opened into the private garage the air hit colder. A black SUV waited with the en

Chapter 24 — The Place the Blade RememberedThe elevator chimed again. Soft. Polite. Completely wrong for the way my pulse was trying to claw its way out of my throat.Aryan shoved me behind him so fast my back hit the wall. One arm stayed locked across my body like a bar. The other already held the gun he must have taken from the side table without me noticing. Kabir’s voice crackled once through the open line on Aryan’s phone—short, clipped confirmation that he had eyes on the west stairwell and the service entrance.The private elevator doors slid open.Empty.No one stepped out. No shadow. No blade. Just the soft hydraulic sigh and the mirrored walls reflecting the two of us—me half-hidden behind Aryan’s shoulder, him coiled so tight I could feel the violence waiting under his skin like a second heartbeat.A single white envelope lay on the floor of the car.Aryan didn’t move for three full seconds. Then he stepped forward, gun still raised, and kicked the envelope out with the sid

Chapter 26 — The Cousin Who Knew Too MuchThe suite door clicked shut behind us and the quiet hit harder than the gunfire had.Aryan still had my hand. His fingers stayed locked through mine like he had decided the only acceptable distance left was none. I kept his arm pressed against my chest on purpose, the hard muscle warm through the fabric, the slow drag of each breath making the contact feel heavier than it should have. Heat sat low in my stomach, stubborn and unwanted, and I did not step away.Kabir was already at the secondary console, tablet glowing, voice low as he relayed coordinates. “Cousin is in the lower garage level. Two of ours on him. He’s not running. Looks like he’s waiting.”Aryan’s jaw worked once. “Of course the spineless little rat is waiting. He always did like an audience when the shit started flying.”He released my hand only long enough to check the magazine on his weapon, then took it again. The warmth of his palm soaked back into mine. I shifted closer, tr

Chapter 28 — The Red Lock**Riya**Thirty seconds.The number sat in my skull like a live wire.The lock on the suite door flickered once, the soft green light dying into a hard, accusing red. The electronic tone that followed was almost polite. Almost. Like the system itself was embarrassed to announce how thoroughly it had been violated.I did not scream. Screaming was for people who still believed the universe owed them fairness. I moved.The whiskey glass hit the marble counter hard enough to crack. I left it there, amber liquid trembling, and crossed the living room in five long strides. Aryan’s secondary console still glowed. Kabir had left it live. I slammed my palm against the panic strip under the edge of the desk the way he had shown me two nights ago when the laser sight first appeared. A soft click answered. The hidden drawer slid open.Inside: a compact 9mm, already loaded. I took it. The gun was heavier than it looked in the range videos Aryan had made me watch. My hands

Chapter 30 — Tick-Tock**Riya**The screen went black and the only sound left in the suite was the low, controlled rage in Aryan’s breathing.I stayed exactly where I was—curled against him on the couch, one hand still fisted in the front of his shirt, the other resting over the hard, steady thump of his heart. The fear from the alcove had not left. It had simply changed shape. Now it sat in my chest like a second pulse, reminding me that the quiet could turn lethal in the space of a single electronic tone. The only thing that kept it from swallowing me whole was the solid heat of him under my hands.He did not let go. If anything his arms tightened, one hand spanning the back of my head, careful of the gauze, the other locked around my waist like he was daring the universe to try and take me again.“Sixteen,” he said finally, voice flat and lethal. “She was sixteen.”I nodded against his collarbone. The cousin’s words were still replaying in my head—warehouse fire, seven people, a sis