Luca's POV I wasn’t expecting to see Astrid at her desk when I walked into her room. The sight froze me in my tracks, and for a long moment, I just stood there, staring at her like a fool. She was working—actually working. Fingers flying across the keys of her system like she hadn’t been out of commission for weeks. Like she hadn’t been a ghost of herself since the accident.“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice coming out low and uneven. She looked up, blinking at me with that same sharpness I used to know, the kind that could pin someone in place with nothing but a glance. “What do you mean?” Her tone was calm, almost puzzled. “I’m working.”Working. Just like that, as if nothing had changed. Relief hit me first, a rush so intense it nearly buckled my knees. She remembered. She still knew how to do it—how to dive into her system and piece together the world in code. She hadn’t completely lost herself in the injury, in the haze of her fractured memories. But then my eyes drif
Luca's POV The air outside was biting, the kind of cold that seeped into your bones. It matched the tension winding tighter in my chest as we approached the meeting point. When Halo called, it wasn’t a suggestion. It never was. Whatever he had to say, it was important. And with nine people missing and no leads, I couldn’t afford to ignore him.Nico pulled the car to a stop outside the warehouse, the sleek black vehicle blending into the shadows of the industrial lot. He glanced at me in the rearview mirror, his expression cautious. “You sure this is a good idea, Boss?” His voice was calm, but the edge of doubt was unmistakable. “I don’t have the luxury of good ideas right now,” I replied, sharper than I intended. I opened the door and stepped out into the cold without waiting for a response.The warehouse was dark, save for the faint glow of light spilling through the cracks in the old metal door. I pushed it open and stepped inside, the air immediately warmer but heavy with the sm
Astrid's POV It had been a week since I last set eyes on Luca and it had been a week since I took my medications, even though I was in the knowledge that the medication was meant to help me in recovering my memory and not for the gunshot wound I had survived by a hair. It seemed Nico and Vincent had suddenly disappeared along with Luca. Even though I pretended not to be concerned, I couldn't help the worry that I felt at intervals. How could he just disappear like that without even leaving a word for me and I couldn't go to ask those fierce looking women about Luca's whereabouts, they would pummel me within seconds, if I dared to anger them. I decided to rely on my intuition that Luca was probably alright and was in a hurry to leave without informing me. The silence felt unbearable. I tried distracting myself, throwing all my energy into the system, but even that didn’t help. My fingers flew across the keyboard, but my mind wandered. Every time I glanced at the door, I half expec
Astrid's POV I was growing more relentless as the days went by. I was getting more and more nervous over Luca's disappearance, who was I going to confront about his disappearance. I hadn't heard a word from him for days. No one was able to urge me on to take my drugs just like Luca did. I'm just a few minutes, he had gotten to realise that I hated taking drugs so much and understood my phobia for pills, yet, he encouraged me to take the pills and now, I had gotten used to swallowing those choking pills along with his encouragement. "Oh Luca, where are you?!" I said as I clutched my phone in my grasp. "Why are you taking so long to come back to me." I let out before forcing myself to get up to my feet. It felt as if my blood had ceased flowing into my legs so I had to get up to my feet to allow blood flow. I gritted my teeth in pain. But instead of feeling pity for myself, I could only feel spit at my own weakness. I let out a sigh as I reached for the edge of the bed and sank b
Luca's POV I paced the floors of the room impatiently while the rest of them sat without a single in this world round the table."We can't stay back and do nothing, Halo, Marcello is taking our silence for weakness." I let out my anger and displeasure. Why the hell was Halo still folding his hands at this. This was a heavy slap across la oscuridad's face and yet, he didn't see that there was anything wrong in that. The numbers of the people going missing everyday were ascending, and yet Halo didn't think it was time to retaliate, didn't even think that it was time he put an end to this nonsense and addressed the source of the multiple kidnap. Even the police made no attempt to find out who the culprits were—it seemed Marcello had paid them heavily not to come after their tail; that was possible anyway so I wouldn't be more less surprised if Marcello eventually kidnapped everyone in the city and the police would stay mute about it. "It isn't the time to strike yet...""When is it e
Astrid's POV. I kept myself back from gagging the moment I tasted the pill on my tongue. I twisted my face into a scowl and immediately washed down the pill with a glass of water. I stayed still for a moment while closing my eyes and waiting for the pill to take its effect, but it didn't seem to be working anytime soon. Especially not for the pain. It seemed the drug was punishing me in a way for abstaining from it. I raised the bottle of the pill to my face, pretending to read its contents but I didn't understand a single thing of what was written on there. All of a sudden, I felt a jolt of electricity course through my body. I had to hold on to the edge of the bed so I wouldn't fall and sustain more injuries from the effect. "What the hell was that?" I managed to say when the feeling had subsided. "Was it from the pill?" I thought out loud, but I couple tell if it was so I hurriedly tightened the cap over the pill and set it back down before I stood up and made my way to the b
Astrid's POV Strolling toward where those women sat felt like I was walking straight into a lion's den. Most of them refused to acknowledge my presence, but only one women did. She had kept her gaze on me even before I got to arms length. "So you finally decided to show up!" The red haired woman said with a smile on her face. "Uhm, I must apologize for that, I was quite busy with a lot of things...."Shit, that was not what I had meant to say at all. 'i want a retake!' The woman clutched her belly and roared with laughter. "Oh really now, so that means that we're the jobless ones, isn't that right?" She asked me. "No, no I didn't mean it that way. In fact I've come here to ask for a favour!" I replied hastily and immediately regretted what I had just said. Why did I say that suddenly? I was not supposed to say I wanted a favour at this point, it sounded more like an order than a request. "A favour hunh?" The woman said with keen interest as she placed her hands on her waist.
Astrid's POV The cold night air bit into my skin as I crouched behind the crumbling wall of an abandoned factory. I feared that the loud beatings of my heart on my chest would give me away so I tried to steady my breathing. I wasn’t supposed to be here alone, but impatience had gotten the better of me. I thought I could scout ahead without involving Nico and Vincent—it was just going to be a quick look, nothing risky. Now, I regretted that decision. The men chasing after me were relentless, with their shouts echoing in the empty space, their boots crunching on the gravel-strewn floor. I gripped the handgun Nico had reluctantly given me with my hands slick with sweat. I’d never felt so exposed, so vulnerable in my life. “Spread out! She couldn’t have gotten far!” one of them barked, his voice was gruff and filled with stern authority. I peeked around the edge of the wall, my breath was already catching in my throat at this point. There were at least five of them, armed to the t
Astrid's POV The evening of the ball had come and all of sudden, I began to develop cold feet about stepping outside with the way I looked. As I stared continually into the room, I could not recognise who was staring back at me. I had never looked so beautiful and elegant in all my years. "I'm just going to add some finishing touches to your make-up before you leave." The head of the women who had been in charge of my preparation broke through my thoughts. The other three women stood behind me, joining me to admire myself—perharps they were drooling over the woman they had transformed me into. I don't think I needed any more make-up, I could barely even recognise myself. My hair had been tightly packed into a bun which aligned the features of my face more vividly. And who still used glitter for make-up in this age, because I could see a small amount of it on both sides of my cheeks. "She looks really beautiful...." The first woman said. "I tell you, she is going to capture the
Astrid's POV I waited patiently until they all had left the dining table. None of them had eaten even up to half a morsel from their plates—not to mention requesting for more. I looked around me—the only people left were the maids who looked like they were ready to clear the table and were waiting for me to follow suit by leaving. I would have broken out in a loud laughter at the look on their faces. Did they think that I was going to abandon this food and go to bed hungry? I had not had anything as good as this food in years, and I was bound on devouring the whole thing from my plate before I took a step from this place. "If you want more miss, I can dish some more out for you!" The maid behind me said in a warm tone. She didn't look like she was mocking me or anything and genuinely looked like she was ready to dish more food for me. I couldn't say no to a request like this. I shamelessly smiled at her, revealing the food stuck in between my teeth and nodded my head in approval
Astrid's POV How dare Luca leave me alone with his family, what the hell was he thinking?!All my efforts to avoid his family had been in vain and for some reason, I kept winding up with his sisters even when he told me that the probability of running into any of his family members when I was on a tour in the house was close to zero. Had Luca lied to me or did his sisters just loved to snoop around the room at every chance that they got? I couldn't have had the energy to restrain the urge to want to look around the house and When Luca told me that it was okay for me to look around the house but with the aid of the butler, I had jumped at the chance. And now it felt like I was trapped in a maze with no way of getting out. With shaky fingers, I reached for the glass of wine in front of me and gulped down the whole content. And I regretted it almost immediately. I held myself back from slapping myself across the forehead when all of Luca's family turned to look at me. They were se
Luca's POV The one thing I hated the most was being interrupted, especially when I was almost on the middle of moving into another dimension with Astrid. I wiped my hand across my face trying to hide the irritation making its way to my face as I turned to face my sister. I knew she was the one from the way she kicked the door open, only she had the audacity to kick my door open even after I had warned her countless times not to do so. "Have you suddenly forgotten the art of knocking?!" I asked her, placing both hands on my hips. She didn't seem to mind the fact that I was pissed that she had forced her way into my room when I had told her several times to act like that lady like she was and knock on the door before I decided of to open the door to her not. And instead, her attention was on Astrid who seemed to cower under her gaze. "Father ask that you have dinner with him!" She finally said but not without folding her arms at me. I knew that she was ready to ask who Astrid was
The subtle murmurs, the slight gazes was the least way i thought I would be welcomed by Lucas's family. Why the hell did he not tell me anything about his family before bringing me down here?! "Astrid, what are you still standing for there, come let's go inside. Or don't you need some rest?" Luca's voice jolted me out of my thoughts. I swallowed as I made my way past the pair of eyes that stayed glued to my body. I could hear their side talks but I chose to ignore them. I couldn't bare to look at me—i would be drowned in the scornful pool of their gazes. I felt I didn't belong here or rather, they made me feel like I didn't belong here. The youngest women among them stared down at my dress and my shoes with a look in the eyes that I couldn't discern if it was irritation or surprise. Now I wished that I had taken my time to dress up like I belonged to their class. I wanted to scream it out to them that I had better clothes and shoes than this. I hated the look of judgement that th
Luca's POV My legs were already killing me from having to sit down behind the wheels for almost twenty hours without stopping. Getting down from the car felt like I had forgotten the art of walking. I looked over at Astrid who had found her way to the rear of the car, signaling to me to open up the boot for her so she can take out her things. "Hold on, Astrid!" I said to her, trying to conceal my tired smile as I reached into the car to unlock the boot of the car. "It's open now, Astrid, do you wanr to come take your things out for you?" I asked her. "No, I can handle my things by myself." Astrid replied with a grunt and the next thing I heard was a loud thud on the ground. Astrid had fallen one of the luggages on the ground. I rolled my eyes into the back of my head before made my way toward her. "I asked if I could help!" Was the only thing that I said before I grabbed the luggage she was struggling to lift from the floor. With the way she acted, I knew that she wanted to get
Astrid's POV "Geez, what do I pack, what do I pack, what do I pack?" I said a thousand and one times again. How did I not know what I was supposed to take and now, Luca had given me a time frame to get done with my packing. I couldn't deny the fact that I was equally nervous that I was going to meet Luca's family....for the first time. What are they going to think of me. I hoped I'd be able to impress them by the time I got there. The smile on my face vanished immediately I caught myself smiling. What was I even getting excited about, I was supposed to be pissed that Luca had asked that I start getting myself prepared for an impromptu trip and here I was, smiling to myself like a five year old child who had just been asked to get prepared to go to Disney world. Well this wasn't the first time that Luca had asked me to get ready for an impromptu trip but I was still getting quite used to it. I didn't know how long we were going to stay for so I had pack things—majorly my dresses t
Luca's POV "There's no way father needs me now!" I let out when I saw the text message from my father's butler hovering over the notification screen. I texted him back to assure him that I would be leaving first thing tomorrow morning and I'll definitely arrive before dusk tomorrow. I had already calculated the distance from my territory to my father's and it would take quite a long drive before I get there and besides, I hadn't started packing up yet. I was about to get back to business when I heard another notification. It was the butler suggesting that I leave today. "You know what, I'm just going to call my father and tell him that I won't be able to make it out today!" I said slowly while I typed down onto my phone. He replied instantly; "please sire, your father is extremely busy and I'd suggest that you follow his instructions and leave today.""Extremely busy, oh really now, even for his own son." I rolled my eyes into the back of my head and set the phone down, leaving
Astrid's POV I guess the alcohol had started to kick in already at this point because the only thing I could think about was Luca taking me to my climax. When I was supposed to be mad at him for leaving me for so long, all I could think about now was pleasing Luca and making him get the same sensation I was having down there. "Spread your legs wider for me!" Luca instructed before he crashed his lips against mine. I did as he said while my tongue did a little dance with his inside his mouth. I felt Luca thrust in deeply into me, ascending a peak I had never attained. I moaned against his lips while he continued thrusting deep inside of me. I couldn't hold my legs up any longer and wrapped it around it his waist instead while he sent me forth to paradise and back. "Fuck, Luca...." I screamed out his name at the top of my lungs when I felt my walls climaxing. I sank my fingers into his back and raised my hip toward him while my eyes were rolled inside my head with pleasure. After