Iris’s POVThe classes were brief and very straight to the point today, mostly theoretical, and soon enough, the large alarm clock in the hallway chimed loudly, indicating the end of lectures for the day.I yawned and stretched as everyone around me quickly packed up their bags, heading out, and I cautiously looked around the hall one more time for any signs of Luca. But he was nowhere in sight.He didn’t seem to have shown up today. Again. What was he up to? Had he stopped the cooking lessons? Impossible… He would have said something to me, and he even seemed to have a deep passion for cooking. So he wouldn’t just stop unless something came up…Has something happened? He seemed to be closer to Damon now, so naturally, he would be more susceptible to danger.And Damon hadn’t been home when I woke up this morning.Probably out in his dangerous world again.I’d looked forward to confronting Luca today about how he’d showed up at the house unannounced, and why, and also about what he had
Damon’s POV“What the fuck is wrong with you, huh? What was that back there?”“Well, I guess I should ask you the same, huh?”Jacob replied, trying to walk past me, and I pulled him right back by his shirt sleeve, forcefully bringing him up close.“I’m talking to you, Jacob,” I spat, glaring at him. “Don’t fucking piss me off.”Glaring down at my fingers curled around his shirt sleeve, he tried to pry them away. But of course, he couldn’t.“Get your hands off me, Damon,” he ground out, his tone bitter. “If anyone should be angry right now, I believe that would be me.”“And what gives you the fucking right to be angry, huh?” I thundered back. “You were the one that stabbed me in the back there!”“Really?” Jacob fired back, a vicious rage brimming in his eyes. “Is that really what you think? Huh?”“Guys, guys,” Luca interrupted then, raising his hands in the air in a despairing move. “We shouldn’t be doing this here now.”“I told you I was going to explain later,” I continued, ignoring L
Iris’s POVGary stopped the car in front of a restaurant that glistened very bright, and as I tried to push the door open, he stopped me.“I’ll get the door for you,” he insisted, unclasping his seatbelt. “We don’t know how safe, or dangerous it is on this street.”Sighing, I leaned back in my seat, and seconds later, he pulled the door open and held it as I stepped out of the car.I walked up to the front doors, delicious aromas wafting into my nose, steering up the hunger pangs and teleporting them straight to my mouth, causing me to salivate.The exterior decoration was so aesthetically pleasing, that I wondered if the food would taste as good as the place looked. I’d seen people post on social media about some of the luxury restaurants they visited, and I’d made a mental note to try out one myself.Taking the lead, Gary pushed the doors open for me and led me into the restaurant. As we got in, my eyes scanned the wide space, taking in every beautifully decorated table in the room,
Damon’s POVThe car had barely pulled in front of the department store when we rushed out, Jacob and I.The call he’d received had been from the financial secretary, with news about a theft in the store.A complete sweep of the finances. And this department store was the paper company that housed a huge percentage of my money.The money I was saving up for a particular project.So when Jacob relayed the message to me, I silently hoped this was a joke.Now, you would be wondering why I was agitated. But the money we were speaking of wasn’t just a little sum. It was a very large sum. Enough to buy a country.“Wait up!” Luca called from behind us as we raced into the building, and we hardly paid him any attention.We dashed into the finance wing, almost colliding with the secretary.“Serena,” Jacob rasped out, pulling her arm. “What was that on the phone? Tell me you’re joking.”“S-sir,” she stuttered, trembling, “it’s true. The money is gone.”What?“How come?” He demanded, his eyes fla
Damon’s POVI stared at the back of the girl’s head as she unlocked the door to her apartment unit with trembling fingers, her shoulders heaving up and down in quick succession as she breathed heavily.I couldn’t believe what was happening. So she stole my money, and kept it in her house? After all I had done for her? Why?I couldn’t just connect the dots. It was baffling…She had copied out the lock combination for the account into a flash drive and taken it to her house.But for what reason? That was what I couldn’t figure out.What would she do with that amount of money? How did she know about the money in the first place?We’d been standing here for about ten minutes now, while she tried to unlock the door, and I was starting to get pissed, and confused because it looked very much like she was just stalling.“What do you think you’re doing?” Jacob bit out just before I could lose my mind, standing in front of me and glaring at her.It was just him, Jessica, and me up here, and I’d
Damon’s POVI dodged to the left just in time, as someone swung a Swiss blade at me, the same that was lodged in Jacob’s chest, and whirling around, I quickly whipped out my knife from my waist holster and went at the bastard, swinging fast and sharp.He had a full-face mask on his face, so I couldn’t tell who he was, but he seemed pretty fast on his feet, like a fucking assassin.We exchanged a few punches, going hard at each other, trying to survive, and just as I thought this battle was getting too tough for me, the sight of Jacob lying in his pool of blood behind me weakened me further, the bastard nicked me in the face.My fucking face? My most treasured body part?Growling in rage, I increased my speed, swinging faster than I’d started, and before he knew what he was in for, I’d slashed him three good times, very swiftly. In critical places. The back of his wrist. His neck. His lower abdomen. Deep slashes.He staggered backward just then, the knife falling out of his hand, his e
Damon’s POVI sat on the hood of my car, my inner shirt soaked with Jacob’s blood, the phone lodged between my ear and shoulder, my palms pressed into the metal.So many emotions coursed through me right now. Rage. Pain. Anxiety. Confusion. Regret.And Iris wasn’t helping matters.Where the fuck had that question sprung from? Her mouth, obviously, but I mean, how did she find out about the death of her godmother?And why would she think I killed her?But I wasn’t in the mood to explain shit to her. My best friend was in a fucking ambulance right now, on his way to the hospital.And the first responders had said something about his condition looking bad, almost hopeless.Fuck.“Damon!” Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and back into reality, and I was forced to whip my gaze back up, my jaw ticking. “Did you hear me?” She asked apprehension in her tone.“I heard you alright, Iris,” I replied between clenched teeth.“Okay…So?”“The woman is dead, right? Who cares if I killed her o
Iris’s POVI stared at the phone long after the call between Damon and I ended, tears blurring my vision. I couldn’t understand how things had escalated so quickly. He’d asked me to leave if I wanted to.Wasn’t he going to stop me like he usually did? Wasn’t he going to try to beg me? Was he pissed? I mean, he hadn’t admitted to or denied killing Mimi Teresa, but he sounded like he’d done it, so why would he be angry?And if he’d killed her, why would he?I’d tried to make him understand that violence wasn’t always the way forward, and he shouldn’t have killed Mimi Teresa, even if she mistreated me when I was still with her, but he’d picked offense instead, asking me to leave if I wanted to.I couldn’t deny the fact that I was torn beyond explanation when he’d readily agreed to me leaving… more broken than when I’d learned he killed Aunt Mimi, or thought so…If he knew he was going to discard me so easily when he was done with me, why capture me in the first place? Why make me fall
Damon’s POVThree months earlier“So, you got a new tattoo?”The voice of the therapist pulled me out of my thoughts, and I pulled my gaze away from the window facing the garden, looking down at the still-fresh tattoo on my arm.“Yeah..” I murmured, tracing a finger across the face on the tattoo, lingering around the eyes that stared back at me.“When?” The female therapist asked, and I shrugged, not taking my eyes off the tattoo.“Just a few weeks back, I guess.”“Really? Can I see?”“Sure,” I mumbled, heaving a sigh.She rose to her feet and moved around her desk, coming over to where I sat and leaning forward behind me.“Wow,” she exclaimed quietly, a little amazement in her voice. “That’s a unique face. A pretty one, at that.”“Yeah, I know right?” I replied, the corners of my lips tilting up in a small smile. “It’s a face I keep seeing in my dreams, Andrea.”Andrea, my therapist, stood back then and observed me closely, almost lik
Iris’s POVA year laterI stood at the floor-to-ceiling window on the balcony of the condo, admiring the beautiful night view, my mind a melancholic mess.It had been that way since that night after Damon had fallen off that cliff.And we hadn’t seen him since.There was nowhere we hadn’t looked.But Damon was nowhere to be found.I’d cried and cried for months, but to my greatest despair, that was all I could do.Sometimes I wished Luca hadn’t showed up with Gary when he did, because then I’d have been killed too, and I wouldn’t have to deal with this pain.At least I’d be dead and buried, probably alongside him.It was as I’d seen him falling off that cliff that I knew I was in love with Damon Vyon, my heart falling right out with him.And I never got a chance to tell him how I felt…“What are you thinking about?”I whirled around to see Luca standing at the balcony door, watching me with a sober expression on his face.He too, had not remained the same ever since Damon disappeared
Iris’s POVThe gun fell out of my trembling hand, clattering to the floor.Did he just ask me to shoot Damon?No, no. I couldn’t.Sighing and pushing his fingers through his hair, Zach bent down and picked up the gun, approaching me menacingly. “Don’t piss me off, pretty girl,” he snapped, his tone laced with derision, as he pressed the gun into my hand again. “Shoot him, I said.”“No!” I screamed now, intentionally throwing the gun far from me, and as it tumbled over the cliff, Zach let out a deep growl and whirling around, he struck me heavily across the cheek.“Fucking bastard!” Damon yelled, struggling viciously to break free of his chains, and tears blurring my vision, I stared down at him, knowing very well that this would end badly.How could we possibly get out of this?What miracle could happen?“Hey you,” Zach snapped his fingers at one of his men, “get me another gun.” They quickly came forward, presenting him with a new gun, and he took it, observing it closely.“Now,” he
Damon’s POVI stared up at the chief coward—Zach, was it?—my vision blurring.Ah. So it was him? The one I’d replaced?This story he recounted.. triggered the memory of a day I’d kept buried and locked up, unconsciously, the pain coming right back and whipping me emotionally.That little boy from back then. I stared at the scar on his chest, remembering how I’d felt seeing him bleed out on the floor that day.“You seem to be getting your fucking memories back, don’t you?” Zach spat, his eyes growing darker than they were already.Of course, that day had been a fucking bloody day. So how could I forget?*****Fifteen years ago“W-what are you doing here?” The man who called himself my father stuttered, staring at me with a fear I’d never seen in his eyes before.We stood facing each other on the rooftop of his new law firm, a stick of cigar in his hand, dark circles underneath his eyes.Had he even been sleeping? Well, how could he sleep, after he sold me off to that maniac of a mafia
Damon’s POVHe glared at me for a long time, saying nothing, his eyes taking on a distant look. Then rising to his feet, he cleared his throat.“It’s your money, quite alright,” he started, shoving his fingers in his pocket, alongside the flash drive, “but this money is nothing compared to what you stole from me, Damon.”What the heck was he talking about? What exactly would I steal from a stranger like him? Someone I knew nothing about?He stopped pacing for a while, staring down at me. “You might have forgotten,” he scoffed, “seeing how fucking clueless you look right now.”“Look,” I started, frustration climbing into my tone, against my will, “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, or how you got your hands on that. But if it’s the money you want, you can keep it.” “Just let her go,” I added, nodding in Iris’s direction. “She has nothing to do with any of this.”He looked back at her for a moment, then threw his head back in a maniacal laughter, shaking his head.“Who sai
Damon’s POVThe slap of the wind on my face was what woke me up this time. Slowly, I peeled my eyes open, every part of my body aching, my head throbbing painfully.Where was I now?Fuck…Iris..There was no time, and here I was..lying around, letting that weird woman keep putting me down.Looking around, I slowly realized where I was. On a cliff? How come? How did I get here? That weird woman couldn’t have carried me here all alone, right?This was a cliff..had to be. That was one explanation for this much breeze and open space.Grunting, I tried to move around, and I was a bit disappointed to find that I was still bound by wrists and ankles. What was I expecting?I tried to turn around then, and someone’s foot pressed into my back, pushing me back to the ground.“Well, well,” an unfamiliar voice rang out from behind me, cold and rusty, and excited, “look who we have here.”I tried to turn around, to see who had joined us, but the person that had their stinky foot on my back pressed i
Iris’s POV“Where the fuck have you been?”I was jammed in the backseat of the moving car, between a woman who smelled heavily of putrid blood, and the man who had slapped me earlier, my hands and feet still bound very tightly, the ropes cutting into my flesh.I had no idea where we were headed.“Well,” the woman cleared her throat, “is that how you thank me for making this fucking easy for you?”Sighing, the man leaned back in his seat and pulled the woman into his lap.“Unlock the windows, Dante,” he ordered, twisting his nose upwards, “it smells so fucking rotten in here.”Then he turned his attention to the woman in his lap. “I’m sorry, my beautiful Anna,” he murmured, stroking her hair. “I was just carried away with all that’s happening, you know. Everything’s happening all at once, and I mean, it’s good. Trust me.”She smiled, reaching into her pocket and retrieving a pack of cigarettes. “Okay..” she murmured, “what do you have to say about my performance?”“I’m duly impressed,
Iris’s POVI’d thought this vile-looking man could be bluffing when he’d insinuated that he had Damon, but from the way his eyes sparkled right now, I feared it wasn’t just an insinuation. He’d meant it.And what was that he said? He wanted me to kill Damon? Why would I do that? Why would he want that? I mean, it was clear now that this man was an enemy of Damon’s, but why would he want me to kill Damon?As I glared up at him, my eyes burning, my heart ramming hard against my chest, I tried to regulate my breathing. Tried to mask the fear that now clouded my senses, making my tongue as heavy as lead.I swallowed hard, wincing from the pain of my hair being pulled right down to the scalp. “You want me to do what?” I demanded, my tone laced with that same fear I tried so hard to mask.Scoffing, he let go of my hair and rose to his feet. “You try to hide it,” he started, “but you seem to be quite distressed by what I’d just said.” He paused, shoving his palms into his pockets and glaring
Zach’s POV“Anna did all of that?”I stood with my back to Dante, staring out the floor-to-ceiling window, the corners of my lips turned up in a satisfactory smile.“Yes, boss,” Dante replied. “We were just on our way to send a message across to Damon Vyon when she called with the information.”Throwing my head back, I let out a small chuckle, clapping my palms dramatically. “She’s a real vixen, isn’t she?” I muttered, shaking my head. “It baffles me, you know, how very alike we seem.”“So,” I continued after a few moments of silence passed, “we have Damon Vyon in our hands right now? Is that truly so?”“Yes, boss,” he replied. “He’s currently at the warehouse we’ve prepared. We await further instructions from you.”“Great,” I murmured, thumbing my beard.I didn’t think it would be so easy to capture Damon Vyon. I’d spent all these years planning, envisioning, dreaming, wishing. Seeing how deadly he was. And now, Anna had pulled it off like it was a fucking walk in the park.I was dul