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CHAPTER FIFTY ONE (ELI'S POV)
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2025-04-12 08:00:24The room was too quiet. Too luxurious. Too suffocating.
I sat on the edge of the silk-covered bed, my fingers curling into a fist on the sheets, trying to ground myself. The chandelier above me cast golden light over the space, but it all felt artificial, like I was in a dollhouse—one where Don Ricci controlled every little piece. The door opened with a soft click. I didn’t look up. I didn’t have to. His presence was unmistakable, a slow-moving deadly force that filled the room, even when he hadn’t said a word. He looks too refined to be a monster. But I knew better. “You haven’t touched your dinner,” Ricci’s voice was soft but it sounded like he was still amused. “What a shame. My chef is world-class.” “I’m not hungry.” “Mm.” He walked closer, and I stiffened when he stopped just in front of me. “That’s a problem. I need you strong, Eli.” The way he said my name—low and seductive—sent an involuntary shi
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The air inside Don Ricci’s estate was suffocating, thick smoke, perfume, wealth and power. The party was a twisted version of the last one I attended, darker, more unhinged.I stood at the edge of the grand hall, watching as people moved around like predators in silk and velvet. Shadows stretched across the room, candlelight flickering over faces filled with secrets. It was a masquerade of pleasure, a place where power wasn’t just spoken of but tasted, felt,l and owned.Masked men and women were involved in a lot of activities around the ballroom that I was both intrigued and disgusted by.The scent of expensive cigars and aged whiskey curled in the air, mingling with something more sinister—lust and seduction.And I was standing in the lion’s den, right beside the devil himself.Ricci stood beside me, always close but never touching. Not yet. He let me feel his presence, let it sink under my skin like a slow poison. Every once in a whil
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The amber liquid in my glass swirled as I tilted it absentmindedly, my gaze fixed on the monitor before me. Eli sat on the edge of his bed, his body tense, his fingers digging into the plush fabric of the sheets. He hadn't moved much since returned there hours ago, after I left him on the balcony. I could see the big storm in his eyes.He was thinking—scheming, perhaps—but there was no escape from me. Not anymore.I took a slow sip of my whiskey, letting the burn settle in my chest as I leaned back in my chair. The dim glow of his bedside lamp in his room could be seen through the monitor as it highlighted the sharp angles of his face, the stubborn tightness of his jaw. Even in captivity, even after everything, he still held onto that defiant fire in his eyes.And fuck, I wanted to break him.Not in the way I broke my enemies. Not with pain or cruelty. No, the need I had for Eli ran far deeper than that, and I hated it almost as much as I swam in
Last Updated : 2025-04-13Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE (ELI'S POV)
The feeling of kiss lingered.His soft, warm lips on mine, the taste of whiskey on his tongue, his hot breath on my cheek and his intoxicating cologne.I had come to terms with my sexuality and I knew that Ricci was a dangerously attractive man who seemed to be attracted to me.No matter how hard I tried to shake it off, it kept replaying in my mind like a broken record. Ricci’s lips on mine—firm, slow, unyielding—and the worst part? I kissed him back.My body betrayed me at that moment. The same body that flinched at the sound of Luca’s voice. The same hands that trembled when Matteo tried to touch me. The same heart that once used beat way too loud at the sound of Luca’s footsteps and the sound of Matteo's voice.Now? Now it was quiet. Confused. Still.I leaned against the window, eyes fixed on the large estate grounds outside. It was beautiful, in that eerie, silent way. Perfectly manicured gardens. Endless marble paths. Statues that looked like they had s
Last Updated : 2025-04-14Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FIFTY SIX (ELI'S POV)
I wore jeans and a shirt. Nothing fancy. Faded denim and a loose white tee I found folded neatly at the end in a corner of my closet.The idea was simple: disappoint him. Underdress. Ruin whatever plans he had in his polished, twisted mind. Maybe he wanted to parade me around like a trophy or dress me up like a doll.Well, not tonight.I stood in front of the mirror, arms crossed, daring myself to argue. I still looked good, sure. But not Ricci’s type of good. No jewelry. No suit. Just plain, unremarkable Eli.Good.The door creaked open, and I didn’t need to turn to know it was him.I caught his reflection in the mirror instead—Ricci in all black again, slacks that fit too perfectly, a charcoal shirt rolled at the sleeves, and that glint in his eyes like he always knew something I didn’t.He looked me over.A slow, deliberate sweep from head to toe.And then… he smiled.“Perfect,” he murmured, the word thicker than usual. “Come on.”I bli
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It had been a long, tense week. The kind that settles like a shadow in the halls of the estate and refuses to lift. Everyone felt it. The guards moved quieter, the servants looked down more, and even Luca—usually too quiet, too reserved—had gone stiller.I was in my study, watching the second hand of the grandfather clock tick painfully slow when there was a knock.The knock on the door was sharp, insistent. My body tensed instinctively, the way it always did when things were about to go south. "Enter," I said coldly, not looking away from the clock.I wasn't in the mood to deal with anything, but when the door creaked open. One of the outer perimeter guards stepped in, clutching something rectangular, wrapped in brown paper with no visible address. I spared him a quick glance and he looked uneasy.From the look on his face I knew it was something that couldn’t wait."Sir... we found this outside the gate.” He stammered.I raised an eyebrow, annoyed but
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I reached into the box and pulled out more photos. A dozen. Maybe more, each one more damning than the last. They were all from the same night—Ricci and Eli together at the carnival. Laughing. Holding hands. The way they looked at each other… It was sickening. It was as if Ricci was claiming him in front of the world.Ricci and Eli eating cotton candy. Ricci winning Eli a stupid teddy bear.Each image is more damning than the last.My chest felt tight, a storm building inside me.Then my fingers brushed against something hard, and I grabbed it. It was a small, folded piece of paper with a QR code on it. No hesitation now—I grabbed my phone from the table and scanned it. A video popped up, playing instantlyIt was them.Eli laughing, head thrown back. Ricci beside him, smiling like a schoolboy. They were holding hands, spinning on a ride, sharing a soda, Ricci leaning in to kiss Eli’s cheek like he was something to be cherished. T
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I never thought I'd be sitting in a living room with Ricci, watching a movie, and actually enjoying it. The atmosphere between us had shifted somehow since the carnival. Gone was the tension, the need for a mask. For once, there was no power play, no constant games. It was just Ricci and me, in the quiet of his grand living room, the glow of the TV lighting up his sharp features.I tried not to think too much about the circumstances that had led me here. If I allowed myself to focus on that, I might find the guilt creeping in, but at this point, I didn’t care. Ricci had been nothing but… well, decent to me in his own strange way. And for a moment, I let myself believe that maybe he wasn’t the monster I had thought he was.“Okay, I have to admit,” I said, my voice light, “this movie is kind of... fun.”Ricci chuckled, his gaze flickering toward me with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I told you. I have excellent taste.”I rolled my eyes, but the
Last Updated : 2025-04-15
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Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE (ELI'S POV)
I didn’t say anything right away. Instead, I reached out and grabbed his hand, threading our fingers together.“I don’t want you to have to fight for me,” I said. “I want to fight with you.”He looked at me then, really looked. Like he was seeing me for the first time not as a tool, not as a prize, but as a partner.“You sure?” he asked. “It’s not going to be easy.”“I’m not asking for easy,” I replied. “I’m asking for us. Whatever that looks like.”The sound of a bird outside the window broke the silence. The light filtering into the room casting a beautiful golden halo on him.Enzo rolled onto his side and pulled me flush against him. “Then stay a little longer.”I smiled against his chest.“Just a little,” I whispered.But deep down, I knew.I wasn’t going anywhere.His lips found mine again, softer this time, more searching than claiming. My hand slid up his bare chest, fingers bru
Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR (ELI'S POV)
Sunlight streamed in through the parted curtains, warm and golden, casting soft streaks of light across the bedroom floor. It was the kind of soft light that made everything feel slower, more delicate—like the world had hit pause just for us.I stirred before he did.Ricci—Enzo—was still asleep, his breath steady, chest rising and falling in a rhythm that seemed almost too peaceful for someone who had slaughtered thirty men the night before. His arm was draped loosely around my waist, the other bent behind his head. His face, usually so hard and unreadable, was relaxed now. The lines of violence, command, and danger erased by sleep.I studied him in silence.The faint stubble on his jaw, the little injury on his lip that had started to scab, the faint bruises already forming on his ribs. Every inch of him told a story—and yet, here in this quiet morning I could almost forget what he was capable of. Almost.A part of me wanted to move. To slip out of bed, sta
Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER SIXTY THREE (ELI'S POV)
The room was quiet save for the slow drip of water from the bathroom tap and the soft, shallow sound of Ricci’s breathing. He sat on the edge of the bed, shirtless, back muscles tense beneath bruised and battered skin, the marks of war written across him in angry reds and purple streaks.I took the bowl and walked over to the bed.I sat at the edge of Ricci’s bed, with the warm water and a cloth. The silence in the room wasn’t uncomfortable—it was nice, intimate. The kind of silence that made the air feel thick with unsaid things, like the walls were holding their breath.I knelt in front of him with a med kit, cleaning the cuts on his knuckles first. His fists had broken more than bones tonight—tables, walls, men. I worked carefully, dabbing antiseptic onto a deep gash and watching him wince just slightly.The open gash on his shoulder was angry and swollen, a slash that should’ve been stitched but wasn’t quite deep enough to require it. I dipped
Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER SIXTY TWO (RICCI'S POV)
The mansion was quiet—too quiet.The kind of quiet that made your skin itch and your gut twist. I had walked through my own halls a thousand times, but tonight it felt... different. The blood on my coat was drying, cracking like paint with every step. My boots left a crimson trail of blood on the marble floors with each step but I didn’t care. I was too focused on something else to care.Too tense.Too afraid.Of him.Don Ricci is a man without emotions but tonight, I was filled with themI paused at the door to the main living room,my hand on the frame. My knuckles were scraped and sore. The high from the fight hadn’t worn off, but something heavier had started to settle in my chest, and I hated how unfamiliar it felt.It was fear.Not of death.Not of revenge.But of Eli.Of what I’d see in his eyes.I stepped in and stopped cold.He was there.Standing in the center of the living room like he’d been waiting.His gaze was
Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER SIXTY ONE (RICCI'S POV)
The night air was thick with smoke and the metallic scent of blood.My boots crunched as I stepped on broken glass and bone as I walked through the last shattered doorway, my coat sweeping behind me like a way that reminded me of villains in movies who are out for vengeance and death.There were thirty men. All armed, alert and trained. But now, dead.All of them.I didn’t bring backup. I didn’t need it.They took five of mine. Five good men. And they did it to make a point, to show me that Eli was theirs and they wanted him back. But what they didn’t realize was that I don’t play games. I finished them.This warehouse had been one of Rossi's lesser known outposts. Remote. Hidden. Guarded only by a somewhat low level unit—good, but not great. Still, enough to send a message. I had chosen it because it would be easy. A warm-up. A warning. The real bloodbath would come later.For now, this would do.I gripped my k
Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER SIXTY (ELI'S POV)
The silence was never ending.It wasn’t the comfortable, nice quiet from before. No. This was the kind of silence that screamed in your ears. The type that was deafening and made you want to run mad. The type that echoed death because I knew that a lot of that was going to happen tonight.I stood in the middle of Ricci’s luxurious and once comforting living room, surrounded by soft leather couches, a massive TV, a half-eaten bowl of popcorn… and the dreadful knowledge that five people had just been slaughtered.Because of me.I sank onto the couch as my knees could no longer carry the weight of my body or maybe it was the weight of my guilt.They were Ricci’s men. His people. They died because he harbored me, protected me, kissed me on a damn Ferris wheel like we didn’t live in a world where suck actions like that could get you killed.I pressed the heel of my palm against my eyes, trying to stop the tears that threatened to spil
Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FIFTY NINE (ELI'S POV)
I never thought I'd be sitting in a living room with Ricci, watching a movie, and actually enjoying it. The atmosphere between us had shifted somehow since the carnival. Gone was the tension, the need for a mask. For once, there was no power play, no constant games. It was just Ricci and me, in the quiet of his grand living room, the glow of the TV lighting up his sharp features.I tried not to think too much about the circumstances that had led me here. If I allowed myself to focus on that, I might find the guilt creeping in, but at this point, I didn’t care. Ricci had been nothing but… well, decent to me in his own strange way. And for a moment, I let myself believe that maybe he wasn’t the monster I had thought he was.“Okay, I have to admit,” I said, my voice light, “this movie is kind of... fun.”Ricci chuckled, his gaze flickering toward me with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I told you. I have excellent taste.”I rolled my eyes, but the
Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT (MATTEO'S POV)
I reached into the box and pulled out more photos. A dozen. Maybe more, each one more damning than the last. They were all from the same night—Ricci and Eli together at the carnival. Laughing. Holding hands. The way they looked at each other… It was sickening. It was as if Ricci was claiming him in front of the world.Ricci and Eli eating cotton candy. Ricci winning Eli a stupid teddy bear.Each image is more damning than the last.My chest felt tight, a storm building inside me.Then my fingers brushed against something hard, and I grabbed it. It was a small, folded piece of paper with a QR code on it. No hesitation now—I grabbed my phone from the table and scanned it. A video popped up, playing instantlyIt was them.Eli laughing, head thrown back. Ricci beside him, smiling like a schoolboy. They were holding hands, spinning on a ride, sharing a soda, Ricci leaning in to kiss Eli’s cheek like he was something to be cherished. T
Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN (MATTEO'S POV)
It had been a long, tense week. The kind that settles like a shadow in the halls of the estate and refuses to lift. Everyone felt it. The guards moved quieter, the servants looked down more, and even Luca—usually too quiet, too reserved—had gone stiller.I was in my study, watching the second hand of the grandfather clock tick painfully slow when there was a knock.The knock on the door was sharp, insistent. My body tensed instinctively, the way it always did when things were about to go south. "Enter," I said coldly, not looking away from the clock.I wasn't in the mood to deal with anything, but when the door creaked open. One of the outer perimeter guards stepped in, clutching something rectangular, wrapped in brown paper with no visible address. I spared him a quick glance and he looked uneasy.From the look on his face I knew it was something that couldn’t wait."Sir... we found this outside the gate.” He stammered.I raised an eyebrow, annoyed but
