Page 74 of Their Reckless Thief (The Below #1)

CELESTE

The air in the training room the next morning was oppressive, nearly suffocating me. I took in Luca’s impassive face. His shoulders were rigid, and he avoided looking at me as he set up the weights. It was as if last night hadn’t happened.

The mask of indifference was securely back in place, his gaze steely and cold. I knew better than to take that facade at face value now. Last night, I had caught a glimpse of something deeper and unsettled beneath his controlled exterior.

We worked in silence, me lifting weights while he kept his distance, hands in his pockets, watching my form with an intensity that was almost clinical.

I focused on the repetition, counting each press and lift, but my mind wouldn’t stop churning.

I couldn’t shake the memory of him watching me the night before.

Had he liked it? Had some twisted part of him enjoyed watching me submit to Vincenzo and Dorian at once? And that thought… oh, that thought clawed at me, burrowing deeper with every passing second. I wanted to know what else he liked.

I caught his eye before he looked away. I wasn’t sure if a smirk had played on his lips for a fraction of a second, or if I’d imagined it.

“Are we going to be silent all day, or are we actually training?” I asked, hoping to break the tension. My voice came out more brittle than I’d intended, but I didn’t care. I wanted a reaction. Any fucking reaction.

He met my gaze, unfazed. “Silence helps you focus. You don’t need distractions.”

“Silence also means I don’t learn anything,” I shot back.

I adjusted the weights, focusing on my movements and my form.

Every word I threw at him was a way to keep the thoughts at bay, to avoid what my mind kept dragging me back to: the look in his eyes as he got off on Dorian and Vincenzo fucking me.

After what felt like an eternity of his stoic detachment, he moved toward me. Shadows gathered around him like a cloak, darkening the space around him. The familiar buzz of his magic tingled over my skin, and I swallowed, setting down the weights as he approached.

“Defend yourself,” he commanded, his shadows slipping from his hands, unfurling like dark smoke with a life of their own.

I tensed, gaze fixed on the shadows twisting toward me, ghostly fingers reaching out to ensnare.

I dodged to the left, then the right, every movement a frantic dance to stay one step ahead.

The shadows kept coming, relentless and unsettling, slipping around me to brush against my skin, each touch sending a shiver through my body.

He tracked my every move, his gaze sharp and scrutinizing. I caught his look of disapproval when I stumbled, a split-second hesitation that burned me from within, driving me to move faster, harder. Weakness wasn’t an option, not with Luca as my trainer.

His shadows pressed closer, persistent and punishing, demanding more of me than I thought I could give.

I swung, countered, and adjusted my footing, struggling to match his brutal precision.

Beneath the challenge, I sensed an intensity, a hint of encouragement woven into his unyielding approach, daring me to rise to his level.

The events of last night crept into my thoughts again. I’d promised myself I would never love them, that I would keep a firm grip on my own boundaries. And yet here I was, driven by an irrational urge to prove myself to him, to earn even a hint of approval from him.

I tried to shut it down, tried to remind myself of all the reasons why I should keep my heart guarded.

It was mine, damn it. They could have my loyalty, my body, but never that.

They were probably sleeping around anyway.

Men like them didn’t settle, didn’t stay.

They took what they wanted and moved on.

I was nothing more than a temporary indulgence.

Sure, Dorian had said he loved me, but who the hell knew if he meant it?

Men tossed the word love around without a care to the hurt they caused when they left a woman high and dry.

But then, why did the thought hurt? Why, after last night, was there a nagging ache, a sliver of confusion I couldn’t shake?

I dodged another wave of shadows, and Luca’s expression shifted slightly, a barely there moment of approval before his mask snapped back into place.

He stepped closer, and I could feel the heat of him, the energy of his shadows buzzing like static around us.

My breaths left me in sharp, fast gusts, and I struggled to keep my mind from spiraling.

“You’re hesitating,” he said, his voice low, carrying a weight that caused my goosebumps to spread down my body. “In a real fight against my type of magic, that would be your end.”

I forced a smirk, pushing down the swirl of emotions clawing beneath my breast. “You’d miss me if I didn’t make it out alive from a fight,” I retorted, aiming for casualness, but it came out breathier than I’d intended.

He worked his jaw from side to side, a shadow darkening his gaze. “Don’t make assumptions.”

The words cut sharper than any blade, and I stumbled back a step, caught off guard by the intensity reflected on his face, the ice in his voice.

He was good at hiding, at slipping into that mask of indifference, but I was starting to see through it, starting to recognize the flashes of emotion beneath the surface.

Shadows snared my wrist as he stepped in close, his face inches from mine. “If you want to survive, then stop letting your emotions cloud your judgment.”

The irony wasn’t lost on me. I was here, fighting to keep my heart my own, to stay untangled, yet he was the one standing so close, the one whose touch lingered, whose words bit deep.

I yanked my wrist free, frustration burning deep inside me. “I know what I’m doing, Luca.”

A glint of something—anger, pain, I couldn’t tell—crossed his face, and then he stepped back, letting his shadows fade, his face as unreadable as ever.

But I’d recognized the look in his eyes, sensed the tension building between us.

He could pretend all he wanted, keep up that cold, detached front, but I knew better now.

Whatever he had buried beneath his wall was breaking through, no matter how hard he fought to contain it.

And damn it, I hated how much that realization affected me.

The faint drone of screens and the constant tick of electronics filled the silence in the security office as Vivian, Alessandro, Camilla, and I pored over the blueprints of our target.

The stray’s vault housing the Mirror of Truths was deep within a fortress of an estate. It was embedded with layers of defense meant to keep its secrets from outsiders. This kind of defense was rare in the human world. We only had one chance to do this right.

“Here,” Vivian said, tapping a glowing red dot on the hologram before us.

Vicenzo had asked Vivian to provide him with a list of tech that would make this heist more seamless, and the hologram generator had been right on the top.

“This entry point is technically possible, but it’s highly risky.

They’ve got multi-layered barriers around the vault, and some of the magic signatures here are ancient.

We’ll need precise timing to work through it all, or we’ll be locked out. Or worse.”

I traced the faint grid of magical wards that encased the perimeter, each shimmering faintly on the screen. A single misstep, and the entire plan could implode.

“Looks like we’ll need bypass tokens for those barrier wards,” Alessandro said, scrolling to a section of text with wards listed in spidery script.

Vivian nodded slightly. “It’ll be easier than breaking into a Veil Guard vault, but that doesn’t mean it’s a walk in the park.

From what I’ve researched, this stray family loves their illusions and their booby traps.

I’d be more worried about the hidden enchantments.

They don’t just want to keep intruders out, they want to keep them lost, disoriented, maybe even dead.

They have gone to a lot of trouble to protect whatever they have in the vault. ”

Camilla grimaced and looked at Alessandro. “Remember the Valencia heist? That whole setup with the shifting walls? Took you three hours to get out of that mess. I thought you’d spend the rest of your life in that cursed labyrinth.”

Alessandro laughed, shaking his head at their memories. “How could I forget?”

Their lighthearted banter was a welcome distraction for me. It took my mind off the three men and the power they held over me, off the somersault my stomach made whenever I thought of them.

Despite this only being our second mission together, Camilla and Alessandro had already started falling into a rhythm with Vivian, adjusting the plan as they noted down key points of vulnerability and potential pitfalls.

I’d never thought she would take so naturally to anyone outside of our little trio, but they were proving themselves reliable and sharp.

They would be in the security chamber with Vivian the night of the heist. There were too many moving parts for her to keep tabs on all the security footage, review maps, and watch for danger at the same time.

Camilla’s lips quirked into a small grin as she examined a particularly tricky trap. “Last time I saw a setup like this, it took Alessandro and me a lifetime to realize the exit route was through a wall panel we’d thought was solid.” She glanced at Alessandro, who snorted at the memory.

“Right, and that was after you insisted we’d taken the ‘fast way out.’” He shook his head, his voice holding a mix of exasperation and amusement.

Vivian shot them a warning look. “Glad to know you both have a history of making light of shitty situations, but here, we’re sticking to the plan, no improvised fast ways out , got it?”

There she was. The bossy and no-nonsense Vivian I loved.

Alessandro raised his hands, all mock innocence. “Understood, boss.”