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To rule this empire.
To take control of the Bratva.
To maintain its power.
It’s all we’ve ever known.
It’s all we’ve ever wanted.
Until her.
Chiara.
The girl who’s throwneverythingwe’ve ever known into chaos.
Neither one of us expected it. Neither one of us saw her coming.
How could we?
She wasn't part of our world.
But the moment I saw her, I knew. I knew that something inside me had broken, had become irreparably shattered.
I’ve never been one to feel much, or to show emotion.
I saw how the sudden death of my mother affected my father, and how it made him falter, even though they weren’t the perfect couple. He sunk into the chaos, and it tookyearsbefore he was able to rule with an iron fist once more, remaining detached as he stayed above it all.
But with her…it’s different.
With her, I feel something I’ve never felt before.
It terrifies me.
And I know that Mikhail feels it too.
I notice the way his eyes follow her, the way he watches her when she’s not looking, the way his breathing changes when she looks at us. He doesn’t say anything, but I can see it in him, the way he’s always on edge whenever she’s around.
My brother and I have been with numerous women together, but Chiara isnothinglike those women. They were all distractions, used for moments of pleasure that meantnothingwhen the morning sun rose, but Chiara…she’s different.
So innocent. So untouchable.
She’s someone that calls to us both.
Someone we shouldn’t want.
Someone we can’t stop ourselves from craving.
She’s someone who’ll be forced to stay.
Mikhail and I have been careful, calculated with each of our actions.
We’ve waited. We’ve watched. We’ve studied.
We’ve seen her laugh. We’ve seen her frown. We’ve seen her move.
We never meant to take action so soon, never wanted to show ourselves to her like this, but we had no choice.
When we followed her that night, finding her in that damn club, grinding up on men, offering them a piece of her that belonged tous,we knew it had to be done.