All Chapters of Burn For Me : Bound By The Mafia King: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

The air stinks of blood and gunpowder—sharp, metallic, suffocating. My left shoulder’s soaked in it, hot and sticky, where it seeps through my shirt. Some of it’s mine. The rest… I don’t have time to care. My head’s still ringing from when one of those Holt bastards slammed it into a metal shelf, and my arm is on fire. The bullet skimmed me good. But I’m still standing.Still breathing.Still moving.The box digs into my ribs with every step, each breath punching against the bruises blooming beneath my skin. The safe’s tucked under my other arm, heavier than it should be for its small size, slick with something warm and suspiciously chunky that I refuse to look at.We hit the stairwell hard—boots pounding down rusted metal steps like a military drum. Each one shudders up through my bones. Behind us, doors slam open. Voices roar. Footsteps hammer closer.“Down the alley,” Ryker barks, shoving the door with his shoulder, gun leveled. “Go!”We burst into the night like hellhounds on the

The walls don’t echo like your typical empty space.But the silence suffocates, pressing in tight like a second skin stretched over raw nerves. It fills every inch of this windowless box until the air tastes sterile and still, like a hospital after the last heartbeat stops.I’ve memorized the room. Every inch of it. Counted the cracks in the tiles beneath my boots, the scratches on the metal edge of the bedframe, and the slow, uneven drip of the sink that refuses to fully shut off. I’ve cataloged every breath I’ve taken since he left—every shallow inhale, every slow exhale I use to keep from screaming.Sleep doesn’t come again. Not in this place. Not with adrenaline still humming through my veins like electricity wired wrong. Not with betrayal curled up inside my chest like barbed wire.And rage. Always rage.I’m not used to being caged. Not like this. Not by someone whose presence makes my pulse skip in ways I don’t understand, whose voice digs under my skin like a splinter I can’t p

Everything passes like a blur.It’s what happens when survival mode kicks in.I answer every question tossed my way with vague nods, tight smiles, clipped words that barely scrape the surface of polite conversation. I let Hale lead me through like a well-trained pet, smiling when I have to, laughing when I’m expected.All while my brain fractures behind my eyes, every beat of my heart a warning.I don’t think about Belle.Because if I do, the panic claws its way up my throat until it feels like I’m choking on it.I don’t think about my brothers or my father either, because when I do, emotions flicker—hurt, rage, betrayal—all fusing into something sharp enough to cut me from the inside out.I focus on breathing.On staying upright.On doing whatever the hell it takes to survive this nightmare night without unraveling.Before I know it, it’s over.The guests start to file out, each handshake and feigned smile leaving a little more of my soul scraped raw. The grand hall empties, the heav