SARAHI tried to focus on the yarn in my hands, but my fingers trembled too much to knit. The needles clicked together uselessly, slipping from my grasp, the pattern I’d started completely forgotten. My mind wouldn’t stop spinning, tangled in the mess of Aisha’s confession, each word cutting deeper than the last.Marco never cheated.The pictures were fake.Isabella was behind it all.I squeezed my eyes shut, but it didn’t help. The truth slammed into me over and over, breaking apart everything I thought I knew. Everything I let myself believe.I should have known.After Isabella was caught lying about her pregnancy, after she was humiliated and exposed, I should have realized she wasn’t the type to let things go. That woman didn’t lose. She didn’t forget. She was like a viper, coiling in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to sink her fangs into my life and tear it apart.And I let her.I swallowed hard, but my throat was dry, aching with the weight of my own stupidity.Every
MARCOThe knife gleamed under the low light of my office, smooth and polished, stripped of the blood it had worn just few days ago. I turned it in my hand, inspecting the flawless steel. Clean now, harmless too but that would change soon. It always did.I reached for another, picking up the cloth beside me, running it slowly along the blade’s edge. There was something satisfying about it to me, the way a weapon could look so calm until the moment it was used. It was a deception I admired. A blade never needed to look dangerous. It only needed to be.La Paloma had been a massacre. The blood had dried fast, crusting against the ridges of the handle, settling in the fine lines of the steel. It took effort to wipe it away completely. A kill wasn’t finished until the weapon was ready for its next one.I moved to the next knife, then the next, until each one sat before me, shining like they had never been used. That was when I reached for the sharpening stone.A clean blade was one thing. A
MARCOSarah’s laughter was soft, the kind that settled deep in my chest and made me forget—just for a moment—that there was a war outside these walls. My hand rested on her belly, feeling the faint movement beneath my palm. It was a strange thing, feeling something so small and fragile yet knowing it carried my blood. My child. A part of me growing inside her. The thought made something tighten in my chest, something unfamiliar. A kind of protectiveness I wasn’t used to.Sarah placed her hand over mine, her fingers threading through the gaps, holding me there like she never wanted me to move. “She’s kicking again,” she murmured, her voice full of amusement.I smirked, rubbing slow, lazy circles over her stomach. “She?”Sarah arched a brow, tilting her head slightly. “You don’t think so?”I glanced down at her belly, pressing my palm a little firmer against it, waiting for the movement again. A few seconds passed, then there it was—a sharp little kick against my hand. I huffed a quiet
THIRD PERSON Two guards stood at the Rossi estate gates, shoulders hunched under their coats as they leaned against the cold stone wall. The night was quiet, too quiet, the kind that made men like them start talking just to fill the silence.Luca lit a cigarette, smoke curling past his lips as he exhaled slow and steady. “My wife’s still on my ass about leaving all this behind,” he muttered, staring out past the iron gates into the dark. “Wants me to pack it up, move back to Naples, be a family man.”Franco chuckled, counting out a wad of crumpled bills in his palm. “Yeah? And do what? Sell fruit on the street corner? You ain’t made for that life, Luca.”Luca smirked but there was a sadness behind his eyes. “Neither are you.”Franco shrugged. “Fair point. But I’m smarter than you. I ain’t married.” He tucked the bills back into his pocket. “Besides, we’re sitting on money, power. What’s Naples gonna give you that the Rossis don’t?”Luca didn’t answer right away, just flicked his ciga
MARCOThe fire popped low behind me, casting flickers of orange across the dark wood of my study. I sat with a glass of whiskey, the weight of the night still sitting heavy on my shoulders. Across from me, Tony was halfway through his second drink, leaning back in his chair, loose and loud, while Petrov, red in the face from the booze, was already on his third cigar. The room smelled like smoke and old leather, the sharp bite of whiskey in the air. Petrov raised his glass with that big wolf grin of his, eyes gleaming like we were celebrating a birthday.“To Enzo,” he said, clinking his glass to no one in particular. “May that bastard rot.”Tony laughed, swirling his drink lazily. “Shit, boss, I can still hear that scream. The look on his face when you started cutting him up. Priceless.”I didn’t smile. I stared into my glass, watching the way the firelight swirled in the amber liquid. My head wasn’t here, not fully.Petrov kept going, slapping Tony on the shoulder. “You think the Ross
SARAHMarco’s breathing was soft beside me, but it wasn’t peaceful. His jaw stayed tight, and his brow kept twitching like he was fighting someone in his dreams. I lay there curled into him, staring at the ceiling, feeling the weight of his arm across me. Warm, steady, but heavy like everything else about him. The house was quiet except for the crackle of the fire and the sound of him breathing, but my mind was loud. I kept thinking about the way he walked in tonight, smelling like smoke and blood and that sharp scent of gunpowder.Dinner felt like a lifetime ago. The way we laughed while folding baby clothes, how he tried to act like the mob boss folding tiny onesies was beneath him. It had been nice, like a flash of the life we used to have before this war dragged him deeper into the dirt.I couldn’t sleep. I just stared at him. Even now, resting on the couch, with his head tilted back and his hand still half on my belly, he looked like a man ready to wake up swinging. I rubbed my t
SARAHI woke up to the softest light pouring into the room, like the sun was taking its time this morning. The sheets were cold against my skin, the AC turned up too high again. I grumbled quietly, reaching out to switch it off, still half-asleep. But as soon as I opened my eyes, there he was. Marco. Sitting at the edge of the bed, sipping his coffee like he owned the whole world.He didn’t say anything right away. Just stared at me with that usual serious face. The one that always made me wonder if he was solving a problem or planning to break someone’s legs before lunch. But then, just as I was about to tease him, his mouth curled into the smallest, rarest smile.“You sleep like a baby,” he said, voice deep and scratchy from the coffee or maybe just from being Marco.I yawned, still fighting to stay under the covers. “I’m pregnant, I think I’m allowed.”He leaned closer, voice dropping a little as if it was just for me. “No, like a baby baby. Drooling, little pout, the whole thing.”
SARAHMy heart slammed against my ribs as Marco’s words sank in, ringing inside my head over and over. “They found us.” The beach felt like it got smaller, like the whole world shrunk to just the two of us sitting there in the fading light. The soft crash of waves, the breeze off the ocean, the smell of salt in the air—all of it faded behind that one sentence. Marco’s body was already moving, already shifting into that other side of him. The side I hated. The one that made him untouchable and far away, like no matter how close I stood, I could never quite reach him.I just sat there for a second, watching him. The man who had been laughing with me minutes ago, struggling to set up a picnic table like a regular guy, now moved like the man who ran half of New York. His face was stone. Cold. Like every wall I’d been trying to chip away at all these years just slammed back into place. He pulled out his burner phone, barking short, clipped orders to whoever was on the other end. His voic
MARCOPetrov walked in without knocking. He didn’t have to. The door was open, and when things are heavy like this, you don’t waste time with manners. He stepped into the office and came to a stop near the board behind me. Eyes sharp. Face serious.I didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Just stared at the photos, the pins, the lines that connected nothing but dead ends.Then I turned to him. “Denis.”Petrov looked at the picture I was pointing to. “Marcel’s logistics guy?”I nodded. “Yeah. One of our guys spotted him earlier today. Said he was moving different. Not his usual routes. First stop was a fuel depot. He lingered, made a few calls, then drove across town to a shut-down warehouse. Didn’t go in, just parked across from it, like he was checking something. Then he drove to the pier. Got a coffee. Sat there for almost forty minutes. Staring at the water.”Petrov didn’t speak right away. He just stared at Denis’s face like he was reading a puzzle out of it.“That sound like erra
MARCOI stood in front of the board again. Maps. Pins. Strings. Scribbled notes. All of it looking back at me like it had answers. But it didn’t. Not yet.The Bronx setup still replayed in my head. That moment when I saw her. The fake her. How sure I was. The way her hair smelled. Her trembling hands. For a second, I let myself believe it was Sarah. I let my guard down. I walked right into Marcel’s damn show. And he played me like a fool.I stepped closer to the board, staring at a red pin that marked another location upstate. The lead had was still weak, a whisper from a runner who barely made it out alive. But I kept it. I kept every maybe. Because right now, a maybe was all I had.I dragged my fingers through my hair, jaw tight. Every goddamn angle I took just looped me back here. To this board. This silence. And her still missing.“Where the fuck are you, Sarah?” I muttered.The room was dim. Just the lamp by the desk on. Everyone in the house knew to stay away when that light was
MARCEL She sat just like always. On the edge of the bed. Back straight. Hands stiff in her lap. Eyes locked on the window like it had something new to show her. It didn’t. Just the same damn walls, same sky, same guards outside. I sat across from her, cigarette between my fingers, legs crossed. Quiet at first. I wanted her to feel it. The silence. The weight of me just watching. “You look thinner,” I said. She didn’t turn. Didn’t blink. “How long has it been now? Weeks? Maybe more.” I smiled a little. “Still haven’t settled in, huh?” She didn’t answer. “Don’t gotta be like this. You know that.” She turned her head halfway, eyes meeting mine. Cold, tired eyes. “What do you want?” I shrugged. “Conversation. It’s been too damn quiet around here. Figured we could talk.” “You can talk. I’m not interested.” That made me chuckle. “You always had bite, I’ll give you that. Strong. Loyal too. I can respect that. But you’re wasting it, Sarah.” She looked away again. Back t
MARCOI sat silently in the SUV, my head leaning against the window, watching the city pass by like it didn’t just eat me alive. The lights, the streets, the people… all of it blurred together while my mind stayed locked on that damn warehouse. My jaw clenched. I didn’t say a word. There was nothing to say.Marcel played me. He fucking played me like a damn puppet. The whole thing was a trap from the start. He knew we were coming. He was ten steps ahead of us, watching, laughing. Every bullet we spent, every man we lost, every second we wasted thinking we were doing something smart… it was all for nothing. We didn’t win anything. We didn’t find Sarah. That wasn’t Sarah.I whispered it to myself, bitter and broken. “He planned it all. He knew we were coming. He really planted that girl there to make me think that was Sarah.”Petrov kept driving like he always does, calm and quiet. Tony sat beside me, looking straight ahead, no words. What could they say? They knew. They felt it too. Bu
MARCOI stepped closer. My hands were shaking. I didn’t even notice until my fingers touched the edge of the blindfold. The cloth was damp, smelled like sweat and piss. My throat felt dry as I slowly pulled it off.My heart was hammering so hard I thought it would break through my chest. I was ready. Ready to see her face. Ready to pull her into me, to tell her it was over, that I came for her, that I wasn’t too late.The blindfold dropped to the floor.And everything stopped.It wasn’t her.The light from the hallway hit her face and I just stood there. Frozen. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Blonde hair, yeah. But the face… not Sarah. Too narrow, older, bruised. Mouth cracked, lip bleeding, cheeks hollow like she hadn’t eaten in days.My whole body went cold. My vision blurred for a second. I blinked hard. I kept looking at her like somehow she’d shift into Sarah. Like maybe the drugs or the light or my eyes were lying to me. I stepped back once, then forward again.I whispered it
We pulled up two blocks from the warehouse. The SUV came to a slow crawl and stopped, engine running low, like it didn’t want to be heard. The street was dead. Not a single soul out. No cars. No movement. Just the faint buzz of streetlights and the wind dragging trash down the road.I stared out the window, eyes locked on the building sitting in the middle of the block like it was waiting for something to happen. Cracked bricks, rusted windows, a chain-link fence barely standing, like the place was already giving up. But I knew better. That warehouse wasn’t empty. It was hiding something. Hiding her.I turned and looked at the crew. Tony in the front, sliding a mag into his piece, no emotion on his face. Petrov behind me, checking his rifle, smooth and silent. The other two, focused, guns in their laps, eyes on me. Nobody said a word. They didn’t need to. We weren’t here to talk. We were here to finish this.I gave a slow nod. They moved. Tony and the guy beside him slipped out to the
MARCOIt’d been a whole damn day since Tony came back with that lead.Since Mickey Two-Times pointed us toward the warehouse in the Bronx, my world had shrunk to this office. Four walls, a ticking clock, and my phone screen lighting up every couple minutes with nothing but the time. No calls. No texts. Just silence.I hadn’t eaten. Couldn’t. My stomach turned every time I tried. I’d take a bite, chew it twice, and spit it out like ash. The only thing that kept moving was me—back and forth across the room, pacing like some caged dog. Phone always in my hand, like it had answers. Like I could will it to ring.Every second felt like it was dragging a chain behind it. I kept checking my watch, hoping an hour passed when it’d only been five minutes. My nerves were shot. My fists kept clenching up without me realizing. I’d sit on the edge of the desk, then stand again right after. I couldn’t stop seeing her. Sarah. Tied to a chair. Locked in some dark room. Bruised. Alone. And him. Marcel.
MARCOI stood in front of the mirror, elbows on the sink, just staring at myself. Same face, same eyes, but none of it looked familiar anymore. I was pale. Eyes darker. I hadn’t slept. I hadn’t eaten anything that stayed down. My beard was growing in patchy. My shirt was wrinkled. Tie loose. I looked like I’d been hit by a truck and dragged for miles. Maybe I had. Just not the kind that leaves tire marks.She was still gone.I gripped the edge of the sink tighter. My knuckles went white. I stared at my reflection and saw everything I’d lost.Sarah.She was out there. Somewhere. I didn’t know where. I didn’t know if she was safe or suffering. I didn’t know if she was being fed or locked in some cage. I didn’t know if she was being hit, or worse. My stomach turned at that. My heart beat faster every time my mind went there.I hated not knowing.I kept waiting for something. A message. A call. A note. Some kind of signal that Marcel wanted to talk. That he wanted to bargain. But there wa
SARAHMy whole body ached. My back felt like it had been beaten with bricks. My legs were sore, heavy, like they didn’t belong to me anymore. My stomach hurt too, and that scared me the most. I couldn’t tell if it was from hunger or something worse. I hadn’t eaten properly in days. Maybe longer. Time didn’t exist in here. No clocks. No light. Just this thick air that never changed. Always cold. Always still.I laid on the hard floor staring at the ceiling. Nothing up there, just cracks and stains. Still, I kept looking, like it might tell me something. Give me a sign. I didn’t even cry anymore. I couldn’t. My face felt dry, like I’d cried out everything I had.I rubbed my hand over my stomach.Was the baby okay?I tried to feel something. A kick, a twitch, anything. But it was quiet. Still. I didn’t know if that was normal. I didn’t know anything anymore. And that scared me more than anything else.Marco… where are you?The thought crept in without warning. I tried to push it away. I’