Page 101
The bedroom door clicks shut behind me as I finish doing up my trousers, hair still damp with sweat, Jordyn’s taste lingering on my lips. “You just pulled me out of bed, out of her , after three days apart. So, unless God himself is knocking, you better make this fucking worth it.”
Dante doesn’t blink. Just holds up his phone, thumb hovering over the screen.
“You’ll want to see this.” He hands me the phone.
No words.
Just the footage.
I hit play.
The screen lights up with grainy video, shaky at first, like someone didn’t have the balls to hold the camera steady. And then it comes into focus.
Luca Moretti.
Well, what’s left of him.
Dumped outside Vizio , Nicolai’s sleek little monument to excess and power.
He’s barely conscious. Slumped against the curb, one eye gone, the other swollen shut.
The glow of club lights flickering over blood and bone.
The camera shakes as people scream in the background. The audio crackles with chaos.
I fast-forward until A black SUV screeches up.
Nicolai steps out, flanked by two of his men. He sees Luca’s body and stops.
Stares like he’s not sure it’s real.
Then slowly, mechanically, he drops to his knees.
His face doesn’t twist in rage. Doesn’t break with grief. It darkens. Something behind his eyes snaps into place. And then he turns, and his eyes find the camera. Someone gasps behind it, just before Nicolai lifts a gun and fires.
The screen goes black.
I lower the phone slowly, blood pounding in my ears.
Dante doesn’t speak right away. He’s watching me like a man checking the wind before lighting a match. Then, flatly, he adds. “There’s noise on the wire.”
I turn toward him, slowly. “What kind of noise?”
“Something’s moving. Heavy. This isn’t just fallout from Luca. It’s coordinated.” His jaw strains. “Feels like a fucking operation.”
My knuckles flex. “Nicolai?”
“And someone else. The way it’s being handled… it’s too smooth. Too surgical. This isn’t just retaliation, it’s looking like a setup.”
A muscle feathers in my cheek. “Where’s the leak?”
He shifts his stance, glances at the phone still in my hand. “We traced the source. Didn’t come from our lines. Whoever dropped that footage wanted it seen, and they wanted it tied back to you.”
I stare at him.
“Go on.”
Dante’s expression flattens. “It came out of a Mancini node. Offshore. Obscured, and cleverly so, but not enough to fool us.”
My pulse spikes, slow and steady, like a drumbeat before war.
“Giana’s brother?”
“Looks like it,” Dante confirms. “Either he’s kissing Nicolai’s ring, or he’s trying to smoke you out.”
I glance down the hallway, toward the bedroom I just left. The bed that still smells like her. The girl I just buried myself inside, and the girl they already tried to take once.
Enough. I’m done with these fucking games.
“No more delays,” I say, voice low and final. “We pull her. Tomorrow. She goes to the safe house until I bury every last name tied to this.”
“You want me to tell her?”
I shake my head. “No. This one’s mine.”
Dante’s quiet. Just a slight shift of his weight, eyes tracking mine.
“You didn’t just stir the hornet’s nest, fratello, you tore it to pieces. You know this doesn’t end with you killing Nicolai.”
I nod, fists clenched as I start walking.
“No. It ends with his head, and every bastard still loyal to him, lined up on spikes.”
“I’m going to gut the Moretti’s from the inside out, and anyone loyal enough to kneel beside them will die the same way.”
When I step back into the bedroom Jordyn is still curled in bed, the sheet tangled around her legs, hair fanned across my pillow.
For a moment, I just watch her. Allow my eyes to take her in. My girl. Mine . And the reason every bone in my body is wired to kill.
Those cerulean eyes open slowly and when she sees the look on my face, she sits up. “What happened?” I don’t answer right away. Instead, I move to the side of the bed and crouch down in front of her.
“I need you to pack a bag,” I say quietly. “Only essentials. No phone. No electronics. Just what you need.”
Her brow furrows. “Why? Where are we going?”
“I’m moving you to a safehouse.”
A beat of silence. Then her voice rises with confusion. “A safehouse?” she intones. “Why are we going to a safehouse? What happened?”
“Not we bambina. You are.”
Jordyn stares at me, a look of unease and confusion settling on her pretty face. “What?” her eyes search mine. “You’re not coming with me?”
I shake my head once. “No. I’m not.” Her lips part, but no words come out. She looks at me like she’s waiting for the punchline. “This is for your protection, mio cara. No one will know where you are. Not the guards here. Not Enzo or Bianca. Just me and Dante. That’s it.”
She throws the covers off and rises so fast the sheet slips to the floor, forgotten. She doesn’t flinch, doesn’t care that she’s bare.
When she speaks, her voice cuts like a blade. “No, Ares. Are you serious right now? You think you can just pack me up and send me off to some secret location without even telling me what the hell is going on?”
“This is necessary for your protection. You’re not safe here.”
“I’m not safe anywhere but your side, Ares,” she huffs with a shake of her head. “If they can get into your home and take me from under your roof, what makes you think I’m safe in some safehouse?”
“Jordyn—”
She steps back, shaking her head. “I’m not going.”
“Yes,” I answer, voice flat. “You are.”
Her eyes flash. “You don’t get to make that decision for me, Ares.”
“I do, when your life is the one they’re playing with.”
Her eyes narrow. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
I step forward again, anchoring her in place with my stare. “I’m not asking, Jordyn. It’s already done. The car will be ready and waiting to take you tomorrow.”
She shakes her head, backing toward the dresser like putting distance between us will change something.
“No, Ares. I’m not moving from one prison to another.
You can’t just pack me up like some possession you can move around and lock away at your fucking will.
You said we were fighting this together.
If we burn, we burn together, right?” she states evenly. “You promised me.”
“I know what I said. But I also said I’d protect you.” My voice hardens. “And right now, that means getting you out of the line of fire before everything I’m about to do comes back with blood.”
Her bottom lip trembles, but she doesn’t let herself cry. “What does that mean? What are you going to do?”
I don’t answer. I don’t have to, because she already knows. My silence tells her everything she needs to know.
I reach for her hand, lacing my fingers through hers with a gentleness that betrays everything boiling beneath my skin as I draw her closer. “You’ll be safe. That’s all that matters.”
She stares up at me, angry and afraid and breaking all at once. “What about you?” she whispers. “Will you be safe? What if something happens to you while I’m locked away, safe but helpless?” I lean in, pressing my forehead to hers, our breaths mingling.
“Then at least I’ll know you’re breathing.”
She stands there, and I take her face in my hand. One tear tracks silently down her cheek when she closes her eyes, and when she speaks, her voice is barely audible. “Ares, I’m scared. What if you don’t come back?”
The question slices deeper than anything she’s ever said to me.
I draw in a slow breath, forcing my voice to stay steady.
“If I don’t make it back…” Jordyn jerks her head like she’s about to argue, but I don’t give her the chance.
I bring her gaze back to mine. “If I don’t,” I repeat, firmer this time, “there’s a plan in place.
One no one knows about nor can override. Not Enzo, not even Luciano.”
Her breath catches.
“You’ll be protected. Off the grid. New name. New life. Enough money to disappear and start over anywhere. And if anyone comes looking, they’ll find nothing but shadows.”
Her lower lip trembles. “That’s...that’s not what I want, Ares.”
“I know, bambina.” My thumb sweeps the edge of her jaw, memorising the shape of her. “But it’s what I need you to do. Because if I don’t walk out of this war breathing, then at least I’ll die knowing you’ll never fall into their hands again. You can’t trust anyone, do you understand me?”
She starts to shake her head, tears falling freely now. “Ares, no. I can’t. I can’t do this, not without you.” she whispers.
“You can,” I say, my voice rough. “And if it comes to that, you will, Jordyn . ”
I lean in, kissing her once. Then I pull back just enough to look her in the eyes and say what I’ve never had the guts to say out loud. “You’re my only peace, the only thing in my world that matters, bambina. And peace like that? I’d burn for it.”
But she’s not hearing me. It doesn’t matter what I tell her right now, it won’t take. She takes my face in her hands, trembling, like she’s trying to hold the shattered pieces of me together.
“You don’t have to do this. Let’s just go.” she pleads, her voice breaking. “Please. We can disappear together. Just you and me. No more war, no more blood, just us. We’ll vanish somewhere no one can find us. We can start over, Ares. We can be happy.”
I close my eyes for half a second, long enough to let myself pretend it’s possible. The picture she paints is so fucking beautiful it almost hurts.
But when I open my eyes again, I crush it with a whisper.
“We don’t get that ending, bambina.” She visibly flinches at my response.
“Not when my name is soaked in blood. Not when every man like Nicolai sees me as the throne they couldn’t take. Being in my world means you don’t get to walk away. Not really. You run, and they chase harder. You hide, and they burn down the world to find you.”
Her hands drop slowly, and I feel the moment the hope drains from her.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101 (Reading here)
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117