LOGINSiennaRoxy let out one last, muffled curse into the fabric of the pillow before she finally dragged herself out of bed, her feet scuffing loudly against the floorboards as she trailed behind us like a sullen teenager who had just been grounded.We headed down the grand staircase and pushed into the large kitchen. The space was already warm, the large industrial ovens preheating and huge stockpots sitting on the ranges, steam rising toward the vents. The room smelled of garlic, onions, and heavy broth, a comforting, domestic scent that didn't belong in a place surrounded by security cameras and razor wire."Alright, laundry brigade, grab a knife," Ma Rosa ordered, tossing a heavy wooden cutting board onto the central island. She dumped a massive mesh sack of red potatoes between us. "Sienna, you're on dicing. Roxy, start washing the greens. And don't give me that face, Rox, or I'll make you clean the grease traps.""I am a guest, not a sous chef," Roxy muttered under her breath, tho
SiennaIt had been a week since I sat at that long marble table, suffocating under the weight of Marcello’s frost, and a week since I had last seen him.He hadn't returned since he walked out to handle whatever crisis had flared up. Seven days of silence from the man who claimed he owned my schedule. In his absence, the house had settled into a quiet, heavily guarded routine, the armed giants in the corridors remaining as stone-faced and unmoving as ever. Since I’d been stripped of my normal routine and cut off from the life I knew in LA, the empty hours should have driven me insane. But I was grateful for Roxy being with me. The girl always found a way to keep us busy, refusing to let me sit in a corner and spiral over the contract. She was a whirlwind of distraction, inventing tasks out of thin air just to keep our minds from focusing on the armed guards standing right outside our doors.Right now, we were sprawled out on Roxy's bed, the sheets covered in half-empty bowls of popc
SiennaIt had been a week since I sat at that long marble table, suffocating under the weight of Marcello’s frost, and a week since I had last seen him.He hadn't returned since he walked out to handle whatever crisis had flared up. Seven days of silence from the man who claimed he owned my schedule. In his absence, the house had settled into a quiet, heavily guarded routine, the armed giants in the corridors remaining as stone-faced and unmoving as ever. Since I’d been stripped of my normal routine and cut off from the life I knew in LA, the empty hours should have driven me insane. But I was grateful for Roxy being with me. The girl always found a way to keep us busy, refusing to let me sit in a corner and spiral over the contract. She was a whirlwind of distraction, inventing tasks out of thin air just to keep our minds from focusing on the armed guards standing right outside our doors.Right now, we were sprawled out on Roxy's bed, the sheets covered in half-empty bowls of popc
Sienna I sat frozen, my fork hovering uselessly over my half-eaten plate as I stared dumbfounded at the double doors Marcello had just stormed through. I let out a ragged breath I hadn't realized I was holding, my shoulders slumping as the rigid posture I had forced myself into collapsed.What a joke. I looked down at the dress, suddenly feeling ridiculous. I had actually listened to Roxy. I had sat at the vanity, letting her convince me that putting on makeup and dressing up would give me some kind of upper hand. And for what? The man hadn't even blinked. He hadn't acknowledged the effort, he hadn't lingered on the dress, and he certainly hadn't given me the satisfaction of seeing him stumble. Instead, he had sat there looking like a striking, unbothered god in a bold red dress shirt, his dark hair pulled back into a neat man bun, treating me with the exact same detachment he’d probably use to read a manifest. He had just laid down his cold, unyielding rules like a judge handin
MarcelloI stared at the ceiling for hours, watching the shadows shift as the first weak rays of light filtered through the heavy curtains. Sleep never came. My body was heavy with the kind of exhaustion that settled deep into the bone, a consequence of running on pure adrenaline since the ambush. Between handling the fallout, securing the safe house, and sorting out the grim message we had to send back to the Sicilian syndicate to mark our borders, I had managed maybe two hours of actual rest.But the business wasn't what kept me awake. That was the problem.It was pathetic. I was a man who ran an empire, yet I had spent the night restless over a girl who hadn't laid a finger on me. Even after jerking off under the freezing shower spray, the knot of need she left in my gut still refused to loosen.The memory of her standing in my office, her body giving in while her mind fought me, stayed locked behind my eyelids. I hated myself for it. I hated that she had found a way to clog my
MarcelloAn hour after Sienna left the office, I was still sitting behind my desk, trying my best to stay focused on the paperwork stacked in front of me. The dark-covered contract she had signed sat to the side, a completed transaction, but the stack of supply manifests and reports demanding my signature remained untouched. I stared at the lines of text printed on the page, the ink crisp and clear under the desk lamp, but none of it was registering. No matter how hard I tried to force my brain to process the logistics, I couldn't shake her out of my thoughts. She was consuming my head, her presence lingering in the quiet room like a thick fog that wouldn't lift.I shifted in my leather chair, the friction of my tailored trousers against the seat sounding loud in the silence. I flipped the document, trying to read to the next page, hoping a new set of figures would finally ground me.The safe house was quiet, the thick walls built to isolate the outside world, yet the silence insid
SiennaThe air in the room vanished entirely, leaving behind a vacuum that smelled faintly of static electricity and impending ruin.With every slow, deliberate step he took, the cheap laminate flooring beneath my bare feet seemed to tilt, warping the axis of my world until the only coordinates tha
Marcello She saw me in approximately three seconds.Her eyes found mine and everything she had been about to say evaporated completely. The color drained from her face fast. Her eyes went wide and her lips parted.For a moment, she just stood there, dripping onto the floor, staring at me like I wa
Sienna The world didn't just stop; it fractured.The mask hit the stage floor with a hollow thud that echoed louder than the bone-rattling bass. Under the harsh, blood-red spotlights, the "Healer" looked up.It was a face I had kissed every morning for three years. The same jawline I’d traced whil
Sienna “I’m telling you, Dave is acting strange.”I rolled my eyes at Roxy for the umpteenth time.“Dave isn't acting strange Rox, you don't know him well enough to say that.” I capped my mascara, and picked up my lip liner.“I have a strong feeling he's cheating on you.” Tina's calm voice filtere







