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CHAPTER FORTY FOUR (LUCA'S POV)
Last Updated:
2025-04-08 08:20:23
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Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FORTY FIVE (MATTEO'S POV)
That evening, we took Eli to a quiet, upscale seafood restaurant. He didn’t protest. He never did. He moved like a puppet, letting us lead him through the doors, letting us pull out his chair, letting us control everything because he didn’t seem to care. I could tell that Luca didn't like the fact that he was outside. The restaurant was warm, filled with the scent of butter, garlic, and freshly grilled seafood. The low hum of conversation surrounded us, but it felt distant, like white noise, overshadowed by the tension that had been lingering between us for days. Eli sat across from me, staring at his plate with that same blank expression he’d worn since he woke up. It was driving me insane—this silence, this emptiness in his eyes. It was like looking at a ghost. A version of him existed, but Eli—the real Eli—was somewher
Last Updated : 2025-04-09Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FORTY SIX (MATTEO'S POV)
The restaurant is in chaos. Luca is tearing through tables, chairs scraping against the floor as he shoves them aside in his blind desperation to find Eli. A waiter backed up against the wall, his eyes wide with fear as Luca grabbed him by the collar. "Where is he? Where the fuck is he?" The poor man stammered, his face draining of color. "I—I don't know, sir! He went to the restroom and—" Luca throws him aside before he can finish, raking his hands through his already disheveled hair. His breathing was ragged, and his entire body was rigid, he was like a volcano ready to erupt at any second. I can practically feel the heat of his fury radiating off him. My own stomach was twisted in knots, but I couldn’t let my emotions take over. One of us had to think rationally. I turned to the manager next to me who was trembling as he clutched a tablet in his hands. "Security cameras. Now."
Last Updated : 2025-04-09Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN (LUCA'S POV)
The world felt like it was slipping from my grasp, and I was powerless to stop it. I hated that, I haven't felt this feeling for a long time. It was a nightmare during the day that I couldn't wake up from. Eli was gone. Every muscle in my body was locked, my jaw aching from how hard I was clenching my teeth. I had been in life-or-death situations before. I had stared down a rival who pointed a gun between my eyes, unflinching, I buried men alive, walked away from explosions without flinching. But nothing, nothing had ever made me feel this level of pure, unhinged terror. Eli had vanished. And I had no fucking clue how or why. Matteo and I tore the restaurant apart, questioning every employee, reviewing every second of security footage, demanding answers that no one seemed to have. The cameras were useless—Eli had somehow slipped through the cracks like a goddamn ghost.
Last Updated : 2025-04-10Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT (ELI'S POV)
When I run, I don't run blindly. From the moment I woke up in that suffocating mansion being pressed down by the memories of that dungeon, the weight of their regret and the torment of everything, I knew that I had to run. I was silent, waiting, watching and calculating. Luca and Matteo thought I was broken, and maybe I was, but not in the way they had imagined. I wasn’t a broken doll waiting to be put back together. I was a man who had been trapped too long, who had spent sleepless nights trying to figure out how to break free without ending up dead. So, when Matteo suggested we go out, I saw my chance. The restaurant was perfect—crowded, noisy, full of distractions. It gave me just the opening I needed. I had made out exits from the moment we arrived, but my stomach sank when I checked the bathroom. The moment I stepped into the bathroom, I knew this w
Last Updated : 2025-04-10Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FORTY NINE (ELI'S POV)
The silence stretched between us, thick and suffocating. He opened my door and leaned against the body of the car. I looked between him and the black, tinted car blocking our path. I felt trapped and suffocated. My heart thundered in my eyes as I looked at Don Ricci who had such a calm aura that only a man who was in complete control could possess. He was watching me, his green eyes steady, assessing. There was no urgency in his movements, no aggression—just an unsettling, casual calm, as if kidnapping me off the street was no different than discussing the weather. “Now,” he finally said, voice as smooth as silk. “You have two options.” I forced myself to breathe, my muscles were pulled so tightly I thought I might snap. Ricci continued, his expression unreadable. “You come willingly, and no one gets hurt.”
Last Updated : 2025-04-11Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FIFTY (LUCA'S POV)
The city was drowning the noise of people going about their daily lives but all I could hear was the pounding in my skull. My temples throbbed in sync with my racing heart, a steady rhythm of rage and desperation. We had turned over every rock, checked every corner, tracked down every informant we had, and yet—nothing. It was like Eli had been taken by something we couldn't see. Matteo was doing his best to keep it together, but I saw the cracks forming. He barely spoke, his jaw locked so tight it could snap at any moment. The dark circles under his eyes mirrored my own, evidence of the sleepless nights we’d spent tearing this city apart. We weren’t just looking for Eli. We were hunting. And every second that passed without a lead, the animal in me grew wilder, more uncontrollable. “Anything?” I snapped, pacing in front of Matteo as he got off the phone with one of our guys. My voice was ra
Last Updated : 2025-04-11Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FIFTY ONE (ELI'S POV)
The 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
Last Updated : 2025-04-12Bound by blood and lies CHAPTER FIFTY TWO (LUCA'S POV)
It had been a few days since Ricci called, sending me into a rampage. Now, here I was in my office, drowning myself in alcohol as I was on the verge of going mad and this was the only thing keeping me sane. The Sharon sound of a phone ringing pierced through my thoughts making me sigh and run a hand through my hair before picking it up and answering. The moment Ricci’s voice came through the speaker, something inside me snapped. “Eli looks good here, you know. Maybe I should keep him.” My grip on the phone tightened until my knuckles turned white. Matteo was watching me carefully, his jaw tense, but he didn’t say anything. He knew. He could see the rage pouring out of me in waves. The kind of rage that burned everything in its path. “You’re a dead man, Ricci” I growled into the phone. My voice was low, steady, but filled with a lot of venom that I wished I could flood into his veins,
Last Updated : 2025-04-12
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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
Bound 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
Bound 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
