Iris’s POVI froze on the spot, my heart pounding.Gary? What was he doing on Damon’s private floor this morning?Swallowing hard, I gathered my clothes tighter around my arms and stood up straighter. “Good morning to you too, Gary,” I bit out, and resumed my steps, walking briskly away from him.“I’m just here to ask if you will be going to the academy today,” he said, maintaining a safe distance behind me as he followed quietly.I was a little confused. Why wasn’t he asking why I had come out of Damon’s room? Why wasn’t he coming to check what I had in my arms? But then, it was none of his business.“The boss sent me,” he added, and my heart skipped. Damon sent him? Where was he, by the way? Why did he think to disappear first, the moment he woke up? Did he not care to explain what last night had meant, or talk about it?I didn’t even think I wanted to…I was soon at my door, and just before I pushed it in and disappeared behind it, I turned to Gary, clearing my throat.“Yes, Gary,”
Damon’s POVI got to the office to find Jacob already there, pacing about with his tie loose, and a glass of whiskey in his hand.Eyeing him carefully, I poured myself a glass and sank into the swivel chair behind the desk.“So, the news and pictures still somehow got out there?” I demanded, taking a sip of the whiskey and watching him from over the rim of the glass.He nodded slightly, his jaw ticking. “Unfortunately. The channel,” he explained, “Channel X, as I’ve heard, happens to belong to a low-key local and international broadcasting station, and the owner has kept his identity anonymous since the station began to operate, so no one could get hold of the management, or the boss.”“Who?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.“Huh?”“Have you tried getting hold of the management, or this anonymous boss you speak of?”“Of course, sir. They are just totally unreachable, almost like they aren’t on the face of this earth.”I scoffed at Jacob’s words, shaking my head.“Something doesn’t seem ri
Damon’s POV“Where is he?! Damon Vyon!”I turned slowly towards the direction of the door, to see Aldo Santino barging through the doorway, his face red and puffy with pure rage.Jacob moved to grab his gun from his holster, and I signaled him to stand back, deciding to watch the scene play out.But the moment Aldo’s eyes fell on Luca, who was still standing too close to me, he stopped dead in his tracks, a look of confusion and disturbing calm washing over his face.“L-Luca?” He stuttered, squinting and drawing forward to have a close look at his son. Couldn’t the man recognize his son at a glance?The extensive background check we’d run on Aldo had brought up Luca as his son and only family left, and I suddenly understood why he’d been at that house that particular day Iris and I had bumped into him.I glanced over at Luca to see he was glaring at his father, his jaw ticking. He didn’t look as surprised to see his father as the reverse was.“What are you doing here?” Aldo demanded,
Iris’s POVI breezed out of the academy, humming my favorite Adele track, as I was in a cheerful mood. Then I noticed the strange man standing beside the car Gary had brought me in, a grim expression on his face, his hands crossed behind his back.Who was that? And where was Gary?I stopped humming, pausing in my tracks and looking around for him, but he was nowhere to be found.Then looking back at the stranger in a suit, I cleared my throat. Dressed like that, he looked like one of them, but you couldn’t be so sure.He could anybody, literally anybody. So I had to be careful.I advanced cautiously, watching him in the same vein. “Who are you?” I demanded, clutching onto my bag tightly behind my back.At the question, he curtsied slightly, bringing his hands to his side in what I suspected to be attention. “Good day, ma’am,” he greeted, lifting his head, and I noticed the cheerful and reverential look in his eyes, “and Gary has asked me to take you home, as he had some emergencies
Iris’s POVI walked into the glass building that looked like a corporate firm, my heart racing at the thought of seeing Damon again soon after the night we’d just stared.And unexpectedly.I wondered what his reaction would be. Happy? Surprised? Angry? Confused?He wasn’t expecting me, so it would be more on the surprised side…Or maybe angry? A bit of both? Confused?God. What was I even doing here? Was I thinking straight at all? Was showing up at his office like this, unannounced, a good idea?For all I knew, they could be planning to butcher someone now or were already doing so. But maybe in the darkroom.But here I was, stupidly running to interrupt them. Maybe. Allegedly.Oh, Iris. What is wrong with you?Meanwhile, Aguero scurried after me, his pleas to turn around and go back home falling on deaf ears.I’d intimidated him into driving me to wherever Damon was, and it turned out to be that he was in one of his criminal-front firms.No one that saw this firm would believe that D
Iris’s POV“You look surprised to see me.”I remained rooted at a spot at the doorway, side-eyeing the consigliere now and then, with a little smirk on my face.He looked shocked to see me, and quite…out of it. Really.Yep. He’d been drinking.Damon approached slowly, his face contorted with confusion and surprise and something else. Something underlying in his eyes.“Of course, I would be surprised to see you. You showed up so suddenly, and I wasn’t expecting to see you. We weren’t supposed to meet up, were we? Plus I don’t think I’ve ever brought you to this office.”He paused, narrowing his eyes at me suspiciously. “How are you here? Where’s Gary? Why aren’t you—““Ughh!” I suddenly interrupted, holding up a hand. “Slow down, will you? Do you expect me to answer all those questions at once? Maybe we should take them one at a time if you don’t mind.”“Well, maybe you can start by telling me what you’re doing here?” He retorted, cocking an eyebrow.“Well, isn’t it obvious? I came to
Damon’s POV“I’ve been avoiding you? Who?”I glared down at the fierce little petal that stood in a challenging posture, pouting her lips.“Well isn’t it obvious?” She blasted back, also stepping closer towards me. “You haven’t come home for days now, heading to a week, just after you did all those things to me. Why? And you even left me that cute note and made me breakfast in bed! Why do you do all that when you don’t like seeing me or having me around you? Why do you keep swaying me?!”I was swaying her? What did she mean?“Was that why you came here?” I demanded, watching her closely. “Because you were missing me?”A blush crept into her cheeks at the question, and she looked away, taking a step backward.“No,” she snapped.I shrugged, “All alright, then.” “So you’re hungry,” I continued, closing the distance between us, “and so I am. What do we do?”“W-what?” She spluttered, seemingly confused.Good, she wasn’t getting the hint.“How about I eat you first,” I started, leaning into
Iris’s POVAbout half an hour later, I lay with my thighs pressed together on the desk, panting heavily, streaks of sweat flowing down my eyes and salting my taste buds.Fuck. What just happened? I’d just had sex with Damon Vyon again…Was this going to be a frequent occurrence? It wouldn’t be a bad idea, but then, I hated him.If the sex had been a mistake the first time, what about this second time?Can mistakes occur more than once?I glanced around to see Damon wading towards the refrigerator in the office, shirtless, his pants askew with the belt and fly hanging open.I felt electric bolts zap through my body as I thought of all the nasty things we’d just done, wanting to do it all over again. With him.What was wrong with me?I hated the fact that my heart was racing at the moment, only just staring at his ripped back.He turned around just then, gripping two cans of water in his hand, and he advanced towards me, his eyes roaming slowly over my almost naked frame.I was suddenly
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