Chapter: Dead Twice(ELARA'S POV)The static from the radio died out, leaving a high-pitched ring in its place. The urgent warning hung in the air, a countdown clock we couldn't see, but Dante didn't move. He stayed frozen on his knees, his eyes locked onto mine, a storm of unsaid words crashing behind his dark irises.For a second, I thought he was going to ignore the radio entirely. I thought he was going to give me the answer that was currently choking him.Then, a distant explosion rattled the foundation of the concrete room. Dust rained down from the ceiling, dusting his dark hair with white ash.The spell broke.Dante lunged to his feet, the vulnerability that had just cracked his features vanishing behind a mask of cold, lethal efficiency. He grabbed my arm, his grip firm but careful not to hurt me."We have to move," he said, his voice dropping an octave, slipping back into the tone of the man who commanded empires."No!" I yanked my arm back, the revulsion sharp and electric. "Don't touch me! I’
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-06-25
Chapter: The Hesitation**ELARA'S POV**The world went white.The sound of the door blowing inward was deafening, a sharp crack of wood and metal that rattled straight through my teeth. Dust and grey smoke flooded the small concrete room, stinging my eyes.Through the haze, a dark silhouette appeared.It was Dante.He didn't look like the man from the penthouse. The elegant, calm billionaire was completely gone. This version of him was terrifying. His coat was stained with soot, his jaw was set like stone, and the heavy black gun in his hand looked like an extension of his own arm. His eyes cut through the smoke, instantly locking onto mine.For a fraction of a second, the entire world went completely still.My heart hammered against my ribs, but it wasn't just from the explosion. I stared at him, and my mind felt like it was splitting in half.I saw the man who had held me gently in his penthouse hours ago.But behind him, the frozen image on the static screen was still burned into my retinas. The younger D
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-06-22
Chapter: GhostDante's PovThe moment the voice in my wrist comm cut to static, I moved.I didn’t panic. Panic is for people who don’t have a plan, and I always have a plan. I just recalculated.But when I tried to look around, the penthouse didn’t respond. The smart-glass partitions remained frozen and the climate control had flatlined, leaving the air heavy and dead. That alone confirmed what my gut already knew but my mind didn’t want to admit. This wasn’t some amateur hack from the outside. Someone was inside my walls. They had internal access.I stepped through the pitch-black space, keeping my gun leveled and steady. The glass fragments under my shoes crunched softly, each snap sounding like a gunshot in the suffocating silence.“Elara,” I called out once.Nothing.I bit down on my back teeth. The system was never supposed to allow a silent extraction. Every single movement inside this perimeter should have tripped a domino effect of alarms, physical lockdowns, and lethal countermeasures.
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-06-18
Chapter: NightfallELARA'S PovThis apartment always felt too safe. That was the first lie Dante built into this place. It wasn't about the expensive floors or the huge glass windows. It was just the quiet. It was the kind of deep quiet that made you think nothing bad could ever happen up here unless he said it was okay.I stood by the edge of the living room with my arms wrapped tight around myself. I was trying hard not to think about how I got here. He brought me here against my will. I kept trying not to think about Matteo, or the blood on the floor, or the cold way Dante had looked at me. He looked at me like I was just a thing he owned now. I am a nurse, so I know what bad situations look like. But this was different. This was just a man using quiet to hide a trap.Across the room, Dante stood by the big glass window and talked into his watch. His voice had no feeling in it at all. He just asked if the outside was clear. A tiny voice came back through the static and said yes. Dante did not rel
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-06-18
Chapter: StonewallELARA’S POVThe words didn’t make sense at first.They hovered on the screen like a different language, something my mind saw but refused to read.*Recovery Protocol for Subject Elara Santos.*I stared until the letters blurred.“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, Dante, that’s not real.”My voice didn’t sound like mine. It sounded thin and uncertain.Dante didn’t move or blink. He kept the phone angled toward me, showing a document neither of us could ignore.“You’re reading it wrong,” I said faster, panic rising in my throat. “This is a setup. Someone is trying to confuse me.”“To confuse you?” he cut in.His stare felt heavy, like pressure against bone.“Yes,” I whispered, but it came out weak.Dante let out a short, rough breath. “Elara. This file didn’t get leaked to confuse anyone.”He lowered the phone, letting the screen glow fade from my face.“Kovac doesn’t make mistakes,” he said. “If this is out, he wanted it out.”My throat felt tight. “You keep saying names like I’m supp
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-06-16
Chapter: Sealed### ELARA’S POVThe photograph felt entirely too heavy for a piece of glossy paper.I looked from the image to Dante, then back again, my eyes tracing the stark details captured under the harsh glare of a camera flash. Rain streaks on metal. The looming shadows of shipping containers. Heavy floodlights cutting through the dark.And me. Standing right beside him.This wasn't a snapshot of the night we met at the gala. It couldn't be. In the photo, I wasn't looking at him with the guarded curiosity of a stranger. I was standing beside him with an easy, chilling familiarity. Like I already knew him. Like I belonged there in the dark at his side.My fingers tightened around the edges of the print, bending the paper slightly. "What is this?"Dante didn’t answer. He just stood there, his silence stretching out until it became a heavy weight in the room.My pulse began to thud, a low, rhythmic drumming in my ears. "What is Witness Seventeen?"His gaze stayed locked on mine, completely unread
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-06-12
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