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The place ahead looms dark and imposing, stone walls veined with ivy, arched windows sealed shut with heavy shutters. Not a single light flickers from beyond the estate. No barking dogs. No passing cars. Just the wind slithering through the trees and the gravel crunching beneath our feet.

We are well and truly in the middle of nowhere.

No neighbours in sight. No way out. No witnesses.

Well, Jordyn, take a good look around… because this is where you’re going to be killed.

The thought settles heavy in my chest, cold and sharp.

They drag us through the front doors, iron and wood, thick enough to keep screams locked in.

The inside is worse. Colder. Sickeningly sterile.

The kind of quiet that hums in your bones.

The entryway stretches high above us with vaulted ceilings and a grand chandelier that doesn’t match the decay peeling from the walls.

Stone floors echo with every step we take, the air around us thick with dust and dampness.

It smells like old secrets and rot. My stomach lurches unpleasantly.

“You’re hurting my arm!” Bianca shouts suddenly, twisting in the grip of the man hauling her by the arm. “Let go of me, arsehole!”

“Bianca!” I thrash forward, but the arms around me tighten, jerking me back.

The men exchange a few words in Italian, quick and cold, and then everything fractures.

One of them veers left, dragging Bianca with him.

“No, no, no, no!” she cries. Her voice cracks as she tries to fight, heels scraping against the floor. “Where are you taking me?! No, please, please! Let me stay with my sister!”

I lunge for her. “Stop!” I yell as loud as my lungs allow. “Hey, where are you taking my sister. No. Bianca!”

She reaches for me, her fingers stretching through the space between us, but it’s too late. The grip on my arms is unyielding. She’s ripped away, and her scream tears through the hall as she disappears around a corner.

My own voice rips free. “Per favore, non fatele del male!”

“Silenzio,” one of them snaps.

But I’m beyond silenzio . I twist, spit, claw, anything to get back to her. My chest burns with rage and helplessness.

“BIANCA!”

I can hear her scream echo once more down the corridor, and then nothing.

Just the thud of boots against stone as I’m dragged down a different hallway. One lined with dark doors and low, eerie lighting. I don’t need to be told where I’m going because I already know.

They’re taking me to him.

To Nicolai Moretti.

I fight them every step of the way. My heels scrape against the polished marble, hands clawing at the air as I try to twist free. “Lasciami andare!” Let me go. My voice reverberates through the stone hall, sharp and shaking.

But it’s useless.

The man gripping my arm like a vice says nothing, just keeps walking, dragging me through the corridor as though I weigh nothing.

My heart pounds in my ears, panic and fury mixing in my veins like poison.

Every door we pass is shut tight, tall windows veiled with thick curtains that swallow any hope of light.

A chill travels through my body and settles deep in my chest.

We turn a corner and stop in front of an enormous oak door.

My captor knocks once. A low, calculated knock. Then he opens it and shoves me inside with no ceremony at all.

I stumble into the room, catching myself before I fall.

It’s warm in here, warmer than the corridors. A fire burns low in the hearth, casting flickering shadows against the ornate walls. Thick velvet drapes hang from the tall windows. A grand piano sits silent in the corner, too polished, too perfect. Everything in here reeks of money and madness.

And that’s when I see him.

Nicolai.

He’s standing at the far end of the room, his back to me, staring into the flames like he’s contemplating poetry instead of orchestrating hell.

Once the door clicks shut behind me, slowly, he turns.

That smile.

The same cold, calculated smile I saw once at Eden. The one that crawled under my skin and made something inside me recoil. His eyes roam over me now, not like a man seeing a woman, but like a collector sizing up a new prize.

“Jordyn,” he says, as though we’re old friends meeting under civil terms. “Finally. Welcome home, Tesoro .”

I straighten, rage overriding the tremor in my limbs for one fleeting second. “Home?” I spit, my eyes narrowing into blades. “This isn’t my fucking home, you delusional psycho. You abducted me. My home is with Ares.”

Nicolai’s smile doesn’t falter, if anything, it widens. That smug, slow curl of his mouth makes my skin crawl.

“With Ares?” he echoes, stepping closer. “That butcher doesn’t know how to love. He only knows how to destroy. But me? I’m offering you something far more valuable than whatever scraps he fed you.”

I take a step back, heart thudding like thunder against my ribs. “You’re out of your mind if you think I’d ever want anything from you.”

His eyes flash, sharp and cold. “You will,” he says softly. “In time. They always do.”

Then he reaches for me, and I jerk away, repulsion twisting through me. “Don’t touch me.”

Nicolai pauses, head tilting, lip curling into a smirk. “Still fighting. Bene . I like them better when they’ve got a little fire left to burn out.” He says, licking his lips as he leans in closer. “And I’m going to take great pleasure in burning yours out, amore.”

I stand my ground, even though every instinct inside me is screaming to run or die trying.

My hands are balled into fists at my side, fingernails biting into my palms. “What do you want from me?” I shout, voice echoing off the cold marble walls.

“Why am I here? If your plan is to kill me and send a message to Ares, you could have a million times over by now. Why bring me and my sister here? What the hell do you want, Nicolai?”

He stops just a few feet away, the flicker of something dark and twisted glinting in his eyes.

His smile softens, but it only makes him more unnerving, like a snake trying to charm before the strike.

“Kill you?” He intones with a shake of his head, as though the concept is ludicrous to him.

“You’re right, if I wanted to hurt you, I ‘ve had plenty of opportunity to do so, but I’m not going to kill you, Tesoro. ”

I should be relieved, but somehow him keeping me alive feels a lot worse. “What do you want then?”

“The only thing I’ve ever wanted,” he says, his voice low and steely. “You.”

My blood goes ice cold at his admission.

“From the first moment I saw you that night at Eden,” he continues, gaze raking over me like he’s committing every inch to memory, “you unsettled something in me. Something I didn’t know I was capable of feeling.

I watched you walk into a room and steal the air from it.

Watched you smile at that monster and give him everything I’ve spent my life trying to earn. ”

He takes another slow step forward, and I match it with one back.

“You’ve been mine since the beginning, Tesoro. You just didn’t know it yet. I’ve waited, patiently for this moment.”

I let out a breathless, disbelieving laugh, my head shaking. “You’re insane,” I bite. “Obsession isn’t love, you psycho. You think you can kidnap me, imprison me in this fortress and force me into loving you?” I shake my head. “That will never happen. I love Ares , I belong to him .”

His jaw twitches, just slightly, before that cold calm settles over his features again. “You can hate me all you want,” he murmurs. “But you’ll learn, amore. I always get what I want.”

“You’re delusional.” I bite back. “You will never have me.”

Before I can blink, Nicolai moves.

In a flash, he’s in front of me, his hand slamming against the wall beside my head, his body crowding mine.

I jerk back instinctively, spine pressing hard into the cold stone behind me, but there’s nowhere to go.

He’s too close. His other hand clamps around my jaw, fingers digging in just enough to hurt as he forces me to look at him.

“You don’t get it,” he snarls, all charm wiped from his face, replaced with something primal and possessive. “You think this is about love. About Ares. But this is bigger than him. Bigger than your misplaced loyalty.”

I twist my head, trying to break his grip, but he only tightens it, dragging my gaze back to his.

“You’re wasting your time. I will never love you, Nicolai,” I growl through gritted teeth. “You can hurt me, threaten me, cage me in this gilded tomb, but it won’t change a thing. I will never be yours. Either kill me or let me go. Because when Ares finds me and he will, he’ll,”

He laughs. A dark, mocking sound that scrapes across my skin like barbed wire.

“Ares won’t find you,” he says, voice soft, almost pitying. “And even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. I’m not afraid of him.”

“You should be,” I snap.

His eyes flash. “He’s old power. Rusted and ruled by sentiment. I am the future. I’ve already taken his girl. Next, I will take his throne, and when I do…” His lips hover near my ear, his breath hot and sickening. I can feel the bile rising up my throat. “You will sit beside me as my Queen.”

I slam my hands against his chest, shoving him back with everything I have. He stumbles half a step, more from surprise than force.

“I’d rather die,” I retort.

His expression doesn’t change. “You say that now. But soon, you’ll understand. I always get what I want, Tesoro. And what I want is you and it would do you good to accept your fate because you will be mine.”

My fists clench at my sides. My skin burns with the urge to strike him again. But I force myself still, trembling with rage as I lift my chin and glare up at him.

“Vai all’inferno,” Go to hell. I hiss, my voice sharp and shaking, “I will never be yours. I don’t care how many guards you post outside my door or how many threats you spit through those snake teeth of yours, you are nothing to me. And Ares...”

His name on my tongue makes Nicolai’s eyes flash with something dangerous.

“...will find me. You think this is your victory? All you’ve done is sign your own death sentence.”

For a moment, he just stares at me, his chest rising and falling beneath the expensive fabric of his blue shirt. Then, that same cold, arrogant smirk tugs at the corner of his mouth.

“Perhaps,” he says softly. “But I’ve survived worse. And I’ll survive him too. One day, Tesoro, you’ll see I’m the only man willing to burn the world just to touch you.”

“No, you’re not, but you’ll see that for yourself soon enough,” I snap, my voice cracking. “If it’s the throne you’re after, you didn’t have to abduct me. Ares doesn’t want it. He has no interest in becoming Cappo dei Cappi.”

“Which is why Luciano handed you over thinking it would force Ares to fall back in line, marry Giana and take the crown. But he doesn’t understand. I don’t want to build an empire for Ares; I’m taking it for myself. The throne. The legacy. And you, Stellina. You’re the only crown I’ve ever wanted.”

Luciano.

I can’t believe that son of bitch betrayed his own son. There really isn’t a line that man won’t cross to get his own way.

I refuse to let him see the flicker of unease his words stir within me, though my heart pounds like a drum against my ribs.

Instead, I keep my gaze locked on his, unyielding.

“Of course, because that’s all I fucking am to you, right?

You want me like I’m some trophy, something to hold up and say you’ve won.

But Ares? He never had to take. He was enough on his own.

” I say, sharply. “And that’s why I chose him. Why I will continue to choose him.”

Nicolai smirks, a flicker of something dark and dangerous clouding his dark eyes, but I don’t stop. I lean into the fury bubbling in my chest and sharpen every word like a blade.

I scoff. “You’re delusional if you think I will ever show any emotion other than repulsion toward you. Get it in your thick skull. I belong to Ares Russo, with every breath in my body until the day I die, I will be his.”

The bastard exhales, slow and deliberate, but I don’t flinch. I tilt my chin higher instead.

“That’s what kills you, isn’t it?” I whisper. “That no matter how much power you claw for, how many pawns you move across your little chessboard, none of it will ever make me love you.”

His nostrils flare, and his composure frays at the edges, but his voice stays eerily smooth. “You say that now, Tesoro. But loyalty fades. Fear has a way of shaping the heart. You’ll learn to love me.”

I laugh, bitter and quiet. “You don’t know the first thing about my heart. And you sure as shit don’t get to shape it.”

“Keep baring your teeth, amore,” he murmurs, his fingers grazing my jaw and I recoil from his touch. “You only make yourself more irresistible.”

“I want my sister.”

His head tilts.

I press forward, my breath catching in my throat. “Where is she? Where’s Bianca?” My voice sharpens, brittle and frantic. “What are you going to do with her?”

Nicolai’s expression darkens, the playfulness bleeding from his features like ink in water.

“Bianca…” he repeats slowly, as though tasting the name. “That depends.”

“Depends on what?” I ask. “She has nothing to do with this. She’s innocent. Let her go.”

He sighs, almost bored now, as he turns from me and walks toward the tall, shuttered window. His hands clasp behind his back.

“Innocence has nothing to do with it,” he murmurs.

“If I let her go now, she’ll go squealing to Ares about where you are and we can’t have that.

..not yet anyway.” Oh God, I really hope he’s not planning to kill her.

“Though I am thankful to her. If it wasn’t for her helping you run, you wouldn’t be standing here right now. ”

I move to follow, stopping just short of his back. “If you hurt her?—”

He turns sharply, his gaze cutting through me like a blade.

“I didn’t bring you here to negotiate,” he says, all softness gone. “Bianca’s fate rests entirely in your hands now. Comply, and she lives in comfort. I might even consider letting her go. Resist… and I’ll make sure her screams echo through these halls every night.”

I freeze.

“You’re evil. A goddamn parasite in a suit.” I utter in disdain.

“I’m a man in love,” he replies with a smile that sends a cascade of needles down my spine. “And I’m willing to do anything to keep what I love.”

He’s talking about love like he knows a damn thing about me. This isn’t love. It’s a sick obsession.

I can feel you, Ares, like a storm building on the edge of the world. This place, this prison… it won’t hold. Not when you’re coming for me.