{EDMONDO'S POV}**The heavy door creaks open, and the weight of silence falls over the room like a guillotine. I step inside, my boots hitting the concrete with a deliberate rhythm. Each step echoes off the cold, unwelcoming walls.My arctic is supposed to be sacred; a fortress of solitude where silence reigns and whispers dare not tread. But now, it’s polluted. The air feels different, tainted by… these people.I don’t ask what’s going on. That would imply I care. Instead, I pause in the doorway, my gaze sweeping over the room. “Well,” I say, my tone light, almost amused. “I didn’t know we were hosting a circus tonight. Where’s the clown?” My lips curl into a thin smile, one that holds no warmth, only ice.Every eye turns to me, fear flickering in some, defiance in others. Good. I prefer a mix… it keeps things interesting.Behind me, my shadows file in. First is my consigliere (advisor), his face a perfect mask of neutrality. He’s clever, but I’ve never trusted him. Trust is a lu
{CARA'S POV}**The cold sends shivers down my skin. This is northern Italy and this room… it's not so different from the ‘north pole’ I was chained in. Secondly, I’m wearing white lingerie and not much else.Who cares? There’s no one to see me in this fortress that spells the word ‘Luxurious’ by looks. No one to see me looking this hot. If I were to be home in Sicily, father would frown at the idea of me wearing these. He preferred his daughters looking masculine.I’m virtually alone up here. I always am. Even at home I had my separate apartment from the main La Rosa mansion and I stayed alone compared to my now, late siblings who lived with dad. Agata was his favorite so she never stayed far from him.The vanity table before me brims with all sorts of hairs. Wigs. Makeup sets of various brands, hairpins, the finest of jewelries… but they don’t count. Not to me. They’re just the equipment brought in to make me look perfect .I should be happy, right? Doesn’t everyone want a set of
{CARA'S POV}**I haven’t fully recovered yet.I haven't even begun to process the mess of what's happening. Every bruise still throbs, every word still stings. The fact that I’m here, dressed up like some doll for Edmondo, the Don of the North, makes my stomach churn with disgust. Yet, here I am. I should be trembling with fear, maybe even begging for my life like the others would expect me to. But instead, I feel... numb.Grief. Pure grief. Grief for the life I had, grief for the person I used to be. But there's no time for that. There's no time for grieving anymore. Instead, this is time for dressing up like a fucking prize, a Donna, for some twisted circus of power.This is all about being owned. I’ve been dragged into their web, and I can’t get out.Edmondo. I should’ve known. I should’ve recognized him for what he is, for who he is. The Don. The man who holds all the power in this damn northern Italy, who controls everything and everyone, and here I am; nothing but a pawn.
{EDMONDO'S POV}**“Dio bono! LChësta fameja i à tütc i oci blö (Good God! Everyone in this damn family has blue eyes),” is what anyone would say walking into this room.It’s like some cursed family heirloom we’re all forced to carry. My mother, my sisters Lucia and Francesca, my brothers Giordano, Giorgio, and Enzo; all with those cold, unforgiving blue eyes.Sadly for me, faces blur together. Features slip away like smoke. Ever since the accident six years ago, my vision’s been a cruel trickster. Details disappear. Identities smear into nothing. It's a disability; I can't recognise faces.So I’ve learned to adapt. I don’t recognize people by their faces anymore; I recognize them by the way they move, the habits they don’t even realize they have.Lucia’s to my left, gripping her glass so tight it might shatter. She always holds onto things like that when she’s on the fucking edge. Like if she can choke the tension out of her life which is a foolish lie.Next to her, Francesca taps h
{EDMONDO'S POV}**Trust me, if I ever lie to the world, I wouldn’t to myself.All I want is to hear her say my name. After hearing her call her father’s name like she’s some fucking robot programmed to, I’m jealous.When I chose to capture her days ago, I thought she’d arrive, I’d fuck her, then torture her until she was close to death. After that, I’d slowly kill both her and her precious papá, who, in her eyes, can do no wrong. But now…Everything’s changed.Now, all I want is to delve into her mind. To learn how a woman so young and shrouded in the darkness of our world can be so…innocent. Yes, surviving in our world as syndicates hasn’t been kind to many of us. But in her short life, she’s far too fragile at heart compared to her rough, scarred body.I hope she finds the picture of her sister, Agata, in the glassy clothes cupboard. I wanted to tell her everything I know about her fucking dipshit of a father, bu
{Edmondo’s POV}**"Ensure nothing leaves that corridor," I say, my tone deliberate and sharp. "No rumors, no whispers, no shadows. If anyone so much as breathes differently—""I'll handle it," Giovanni interrupts, nodding once.For a moment, I let the silence stretch. I study him; faint lines etched around his mouth, the tension in his jaw. Loyalty is one thing; trust is another."Good," I finally say, leaning back in my chair. "Go. I expect updates by tomorrow on the La Rosas."He hesitates, fingers brushing the edge of the desk. "Are you sure about…" He trails off, leaving the question incomplete, dangling in the thick air.I narrow my eyes. "If you have doubts, Giovanni, fucking speak now."He clears his throat, straightening. "No doubts. Just confirming we're clear on the objectives.""Crystal clear," I reply, the coldness in my voice ending the conversation.With a final nod, he turns and leaves, the door clicking shut behind him. Silence follows.I lean back in my chair, my la
{CARA'S POV}**“Huh?” I raise my brow in utter disbelief of what I'm seeing in the fragile paper between my fingers. It is a prescription slip from a doctor. It's harmless at a glance, but at the bottom, scrawled in precise, deliberate letters, is the name: Edmondo D’ Avi.My stomach churns. This prescription slip feels like a key to a locked door. A secret door meant to be hidden from every eye, yet I don’t know if I want to open it. What's really going on with Edmondo? Is he sick? Sick, that he had to see an optician?The sharp creak of the door snapping open wrenches me out of my thoughts.And there he is.Edmondo.He strides in, his movements deliberate, his tailored suit framing the menace he exudes. His presence transforms the room into a cage. The air feels colder, sharper, as his icy gaze locks onto the paper in my hand. He doesn’t speak at first. He doesn’t need to.With two steps, he closes the distance between us. His hand darts out, snatching the paper from me before I
{Edmondo's POV}**I toss her chin away like she’s nothing more than a plague, refusing to let her see the conflict brewing inside me. Her defiance is amusing, even enticing, but it’s also dangerous. I have to keep her in line, keep her beneath me, or risk her discovering truths that could ruin everything.“Prepare yourself,” I say sharply. My voice is cold, calculated. “Wash yourself. If you need assistance, let Madame Margarita know. She’s just an intercom away.”I point to the sleek device on the wall, ensuring she sees it before I add, “I need you clean and sparkly before tonight. That’s why I haven’t shot you yet. Or,” I pause deliberately, letting my gaze linger on her trembling lips, “fucked your brains out, just yet.”The way her breath catches makes something inside me twist. Satisfaction or shame, I’m not sure. I don’t wait for her response. I can’t.I turn on my heel and leave, slamming the door behind me.The hallway stretches before me, dim and endless. My steps echo ag
{GIOVANNI’S POV}**I shut the door behind me seeing to it that the slam echoes in both my ears and hers. My hands flex at my sides, my fingers tingling from where they had just been wrapped around her throat.She wanted me to hurt her. She fucking wanted me to hurt her. Punishment, hard sex... anything that would hurt her she wanted it.And for a second…. for one fucked up second, I almost did. I saw it in her eyes, that plea for something more than just words, something deeper, something that would cut through whatever storm was brewing inside her. And I could have given it to her.But I didn’t.I don't break little girls. Or maybe I do, but I don't want to break her. Also, I don’t indulge their self destruction. Not like that. Okay, maybe I do too but if and only if I should find interest in a little girl, which has never happened aside from Ingrid La Rosa. My jaw tightens, and I push the thought away. I move down the dimly lighted hallway. The weight in my chest is a familiar
{INGRID'S POV}**“Maybe it’s because nobody will ever love me because of my past. Nobody will ever really touch me, no, not after someone else did. Nobody will ever let me know what it’s like to have a man fall in love with me for all time when my heart beats for someone else who doesn't even care. They wouldn’t, now would they? There's nothing good or lovely about me or my life.”His eyes widen on mine, and I see more than those emotions. Worse than hate or disgust. It's Pity. I see damn pity. It's directed towards me. And I hate that. “You need to get some fucking therapy and work on your self and mind,” he says, his hands still gripping tight on my wrists.“....” God I'm speechless. Really? Therapy?! What does he think of me? A lunatic? I have not lost my mind!He stares at my thighs, and I feel ashamed of them, so fierce in my pain. I have a low waistband on, which I made by myself because I feel bold wearing them, but he barely even notices. His attention is so fixed on my fla
{INGRID'S POV}**I feel him nudge me from behind so I move away from the space close to the door. He steps forward and keys into the lock, opening the door and stepping in ahead of me. I enter. I don't even attempt to shut the door behind me after I enter, only fold my arms like a spoilt kid who is being grounded.He finds the light switch as soon as I'm in after him. He peeks out the door, his eyes checking out the neat little hallway before shutting the door. This is definitely a hotel room. No, more like a condo. But it's... unusual. There's a handmade tapestry of a dolphin breaching beside a boat hangs above the bed, and a photo of pirate colleagues on the deck sits on the kitchen counter. It isn't exactly the kind of decor I'd expect to find in a… sort of hotel condo room. But then again, life is full of surprises, and sometimes the most unexpected places can become the most memorable. So, the lady always in a yellow scarf who fed me on the street for a month before she die
{INGRID'S POV}**I really am done with it. I am done with caring. Done with feeling. Done with living like some goddamn pushover. Maybe that punishment will really help in liberating me from this crappy stubbornness of mine and make me a better person that everyone will be satisfied with. Right?I mean, it isn't my fault I grew up to be like this, now is it?To the outside world I am a kid who should listen and be good, but my inside world is a pit of pain and memories of my lonely past. A pit of pain I’ve been breathing through in agonizing little gasps since I was a little girl trying to be good for people around to spear me some food, alms and some money. But now, I feel so fucked up, and used, and twisted with all these looks and words Mr. Giovanni especially throws at me. I've been hurt and is still being hurt by so much of the life I'm still holding dear.Yeah, I am done.And what is with all these? All these family shit, and more secrets. More secrets. The underworld, alcoho
{GIOVANNI'S POV}**I move. Silent. The door clicks shut behind me.In the mirror, I watch her freeze.Her shoulders tense first. Then her grip on the sink tightens, like she’s bracing for a hit.Slowly, so fucking slowly, she lifts her head. Our eyes meet in the mirror. Her pupils go wide, her throat tightens. What does she fucking know? What is she afraid of? Me? And yet, she doesn’t move.I step closer, watching the shift in her body. It's small movements, but still there. The way her breathing changes, the way her lips part like she wants to say something but the words won’t come.She still doesn't back away. So I move closer still.Her breath catches. She still doesn’t speak.She’s holding herself together, but I can see the tension in her arms, the weight of a thousand unspoken things pressing down on her. And I wonder, just for a second, how far she’s willing to push before I fucking break her to total obedience surrender to me.“Well, well, well,” I say. “I never expected to
{GIOVANNI'S POV}**She asks for her father. She says she's here only and only to ask me of her father. Does she know that he is a monster? That he and his empire tore the happiness of Trento apart once. Edmondo's people who are also mine.. some bled to death, girls raped, a few murdered in the eyes of their own children and loved ones.I wonder how pretty little girl La Rosa will look when it is revealed to her just how tainted she and her now dead La Rosa empire is. I wonder how her eyes will glisten with tears as she stare up into the malice in mine when I break it to her what Edmondo and I did to them in return.I wonder how much I can make her pussy stretch for me before she screams when I force myself into her again.Shit. That was random. I'm crazy. I'm a crazy old man. Haha.It's funny, looking around me at all the people in this blue hue room. They don't even have the slightest idea of just how evil a monster I am amongst them. So many idiots… living their idiot lives, havi
{GIOVANNI'S POV}**The ring display is full of light; fucking bright diamond reflections sharp like cut glass, bands of gold and platinum polished to a perfect gleam. Elise is to my right, examining a row of engagement rings with the focused eye of a woman who already knows exactly what she wants.I should be doing the same. After all she's my wife-to-be, right?Instead, my gaze drifts, tracking over the cases until it lands on a section that's further down. There's a different style that seems simpler, yet shiny and clear. It's a pretty section. My eyes skim over the sizes without thinking….. until I pause.Nine.It’s becoming a habit; assessing things that might look good on bambina, measuring them without needing to be told. I better not let it stay till it becomes old and hard to die. My fingers twitch, recalling something unbidden: the weight of a hand gripping mine in the dark of the bunker as I pound into her pussy. So small hands but steady and firmly gripping my shoulders
{INGRID'S POV}**“You don’t look like an Irish lady either,” he counters.I arch a brow. “What do I look like?”He tilts his head slightly, studying me. “Like someone who’s waiting for a reason to burn this whole place down.”The air between us tightens. He has a good sense of humour. And he just called me a lady, not some bambina. Wow. It's weird.The white haired man makes a noise; something between a laugh and a knowing hum, but I don’t break eye contact. I don’t let Ronan think he’s got me figured out just because he threw out some poetic bullshit that happened to land close to the truth.Instead, I set my drink down, lace my fingers together, and give him the smallest, sharpest smile I can muster.“Good thing I left my lighter at home.”Ronan holds my gaze. His own mouth twitches like he wants to say something else. But before he can, the white haired man claps his hands together, breaking the tension. “Well,” he says, amused, “This is going exactly how I hoped.”I shoot him a
{INGRID'S POV}**“.....You could be useful if you have a taste for diamonds.”I scoff. “I do not have my tongue made for engagement rings at such a young age, Ma'am.”Giovanni doesn’t react. He has chosen suddenly not to react. But he gives an order. “You'd get down from the car, Ingrid.”Pfft!I grab my sling purse and step out. The ring store’s sign glows warm in the dimming evening, a respectable little place tucked between high end boutiques. Nothing about it screams it's related to an underground club. But that’s the point I guess.I push through the doors after they do. Inside, glass cases glint under soft lighting, rings and necklaces arranged in perfect, pristine rows. The woman behind the counter barely spares me a glance. She definitely knows why I’m here. To follow the rich ones around like a dog.The couples are lost, picking rich rings. Pathetic. No, I'm just jealous, and it's annoying that I am. I need to get them out of my view.I move past the displays and through