Struggling to make ends meet while having to care for a sick mother, Lena is forced into a perilous choice: to borrow a large sum of money from Damian, a feared mafia lord with zero mercy in applying his power. The price? Seven years of her life serving him in his treacherous underworld. What starts as a desperate bid for survival soon turns darker. Damian is ruthless, using her as a pawn in his world of power where secrets and loyalty are as fragile as glass. Though many have shared his bed, no one has touched his heart—he views love as a weakness he can't afford. But as Lena's resilience and quiet strength start to crack his hardened exterior, Damian finds himself questioning everything he once believed. Torn by her own fears and his growing affection, Lena has to tread carefully in a world where betrayal hides around every corner. In a place where love's a liability and trust's a death sentence, will Lena be able to survive Damian's shadowed world, or will she lose herself in the process?
Lihat lebih banyakChapter One Hundred and seventeen: Escape in the DarkLena's POVThere was a single loud gunshot, a slicing cut into the night like a blade. It was a deafening crunch that wedged itself in my ears, pushing out the rest of the world.I froze. My heart stilled. My body froze.For a moment, I wasn't sure if I'd been hit.I hurt nothing—nothing ached or burned. But the quiet after the shot was stifling, a heavy weight of importance suspended in the air.And then I heard it. The hitch of breath, the low, agonized grunt.My gaze snapped to Damian.He crumpled back, his fingers digging into his ribs, clenching his side. Blood seeped through his black shirt, staining it a deep, dark red."Damian!" I exclaimed, racing towards him.His eyes never dimmed, his jaw still set, his face contorted in a scowl, but he didn't collapse. He didn't stumble. Injured, he stood—lethal, unstoppable.Against the wall, Bianca gripped the smoking gun in trembling hands. Her eyes were wild, her face vacillating be
Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: The ChaseDamian's POVThe moment I stepped out of the warehouse, my phone rang. Logan's name was on the screen. I answered in a flash, my voice cold."Tell me you found her."I didn't like the silence, so I waited."We tracked her phone," Logan said. "But it was discarded three blocks from the estate. She's off the grid."My fist clenched around the phone. I knew what that accomplished. Bianca had done it intentionally. She had had Lena under wraps to avoid tracking. My chest seethed with rage and something deeper beneath—fear.Lena was in danger.I gave orders to my men, my voice coldly. "I want everyone on hand out searching for her. Every street corner, every surveillance camera. If anyone even caught a glimpse, I want to know about it."They scattered at once, wiser than to linger. My head was pounding, my pulse a beat of tension. I had kept Lena in the dark, thinking I could shield her from Bianca's manipulations. And now she had been yanked into
Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen: Cret CloserDamian's POVI stood in the middle of my office, staring at the map laid out on the table. My mind was racing, every thought slicing like a knife. I knew Bianca was brewing something big, and with Ricci involved now, things had become dangerous.Bianca wasn't just attempting to make my life complicated anymore. She was hell-bent on ruining me completely. And the worst, she was using Lena as a pawn.I tightened fists.I could not let that happen."Boss." Logan's voice snapped me out of my contemplation. He was at the door, his face serious. "We got more information."I stood up. "Tell me."Logan came in, closing the door. He placed a folder on the desk, but I didn't need to open it to know it was bad news. The tension on his face told me so."She's dating Ricci again," he told me. "Tonight. Same place as before."I gradually let out a breath, holding back my anger. "And?"Logan paused for a moment before going on. "They have something planne
Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen: TrappedLena's POVThe house was heavy with tension. Damian had been tight since the explosion, snapping orders at his men, making late-night calls, and taking off for hours at a time without informing me where he was going. I could feel the shift in the atmosphere—the war had begun at last.And I was caught in the middle.I remained in the living room, gazing at the dancing flames within the fireplace. The heat would have been calming, but instead, it was a reminder of the explosion—the roar of the sound, the shaking walls, the moment that I thought I was going to die.There were so many questions I wanted answered, yet no one was giving them to me.The men in the house avoided eye contact with me. They were keeping something from me. Even Logan, the one who had tried to be nice to me at least, had been chilly. Damian was keeping things from me, and I was sick of it.I needed some answers.I stood up and made my way towards his office. The door was o
Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen : The Chase Begins(Damian's POV)The scent of smoke and blood hung in the air as I loomed over the dead form of the man who had tried to abduct Lena. My fists were clenched at my sides, my temper barely under control.He was one of Bianca's men. That much was certain. But before I could get a word out of him, he had bitten down on something hidden in his mouth—cyanide, most likely.A tidy, efficient way to avoid talking.I expelled a rough breath. Bianca wasn't playing games anymore. She was escalating, putting me on the brink. And if she thought that she could take Lena away from me, she had another think coming.Logan intervened, his face stern. "We searched him. There wasn't much on him—no ID, no money. But we did have this."He handed me a phone. The screen was cracked, but it worked. I rapidly scrolled through it and found nothing but a single unread message."Take her to the docks. Midnight."My grip around the device hardened. Midnight was unde
Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: A Race Against Time(Damian's POV)The room was silent except for the ticking of the clock on the wall. I was by the window, staring out into the dark night, my head filled with thoughts I could not get rid of.Bianca had fled.She had vanished into thin air, and hard as I tried, I could not locate her.That was not the worst part.She had a plan. A big one. And I was wasting time stopping her.My fists tightened. I wasn't a man who let people get away. I wasn't a man who let enemies slip through his fingers. But Bianca had outwitted me, and now she was out there, waiting, plotting, watching.I was interrupted from my thoughts by a knock on the door."Come in," I growled.Logan came in, his face tense. He was holding a file, and by the glance in his eyes, I knew it wasn't good."We scoured all of the safe houses, all of Bianca's contacts," he reported to me. "She's gone. Completely off the grid."I clenched my teeth. "That's impossible. No one vanishes
Chapter One Hundred and Eleven: The Hunt BeginsDamian's POVI sat in the dimly lit office, my fingers clasped tightly around a glass of whiskey I hadn't even taken a drink from. The room was silent, with only the sound of the clock on the wall marking the time, each second ticking by longer than the last. My mind was reeling, taking all of the information I had on Bianca and Ricci.She'd made her final card, and I wasn't going to sit there and wait for the next move to be taken on her behalf. It was time to take the initiative.Logan came in with a groan of the door, his expression serious. "We have a lead," he said, slamming a file down onto my desk.I opened it immediately, reading the information. Photos, timestamps, where. Ricci's men had been entering and exiting the old warehouse off the docks—a place Bianca had been seen near recently."She's hiding there," I snarled, my jaw tightening.Logan nodded. "It's likely. We also apprehended a man who was working for Ricci. He was arr
Chapter One Hundred and Ten: The Shadow Closing InLena's POVThere had been this odd sense creeping over me for days. It was low-key at first—merely a feeling of discomfort, a voice in my head telling me that something wasn't quite right. But the longer it went on, the more difficult it was to shake.It was the way Damian's men looked at me when they believed I didn't see them. The hushed words that ended the moment I walked into a room. The way Damian himself had been acting—tense, reserved, as though he bore a weight too heavy for any single individual.And then the small but undeniable things.The first was the black car that constantly appeared.I had caught a glimpse of it two days prior while darting about on errands. I did not think anything of it at first, then noticed it again. And again. A black sedan with tinted windows, cruising a fancy foreign vehicle. Parked just far enough away not to raise suspicions, always coming different times but never once coming near.The secon
Chapter One Hundred and Nine: A Dangerous BargainDamian's POVThe scent of gasoline and salt hung in the air as I stepped out of the black SUV, my boots crunching into the gravel of the empty dock. The waters were still, too quiet, as though the ocean itself was holding its breath in anticipation. A single warehouse stood in the distance, its rusted front blending it into the darkness. This was where Antonio Ricci had chosen to meet me.I adjusted the gun in my holster, the comforting weight digging into my side. Two of my best men and Logan stood behind me, their faces cold, their hands on their guns. I wouldn't have been surprised if this meeting had turned into a shootout within seconds."Stay sharp," I muttered. Logan nodded curtly, his eyes scanning the area.A moment later, the large metal doors of the warehouse creaked open, and a man stepped out. Antonio Ricci. His suit was a sharp gray, the fabric barely ruffling in the soft breeze. His dark eyes locked onto mine, and the co
Chapter One : The Price Of DesperationLena's PovThe inky night air hung thick and heavy upon me as I headed toward that dimly lit building, the crumpled address fisted in my hand. Every step felt like a jump into something far darker than I'd ever known, but this was my last hope.Damian Russo. His name could freeze blood in this city just from a mention in alleys and bars, served up with nothing more than a whispered warning. I had nothing but one hope-a desperate, foolish hope-and that was that he would help me, despite the stories, about what happened when one fell into his debt. But my mother was fading fast, her medical bills piling up, and this was the last door on which to knock.My legs trembled as I made my way down the corridor. Men of rough countenance watched from the shadows, their eyes cold and steady. One of them muttered something, and there was a ripple of laughter. I hurried my pace, hastening to drown my fear in thoughts of why I was here. But that did little good...
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