Se connecterMarcelloI stood in the gravel parking lot in front of the doors of my main city warehouse, the cool night air doing nothing to cut through the heavy, suffocating grit coating the back of my throat. Behind the reinforced metal doors of the facility, the low, mechanical hum of the forklift engines was finally grinding to a halt. We had just closed a major, high-stakes supply deal with the Irish syndicate.The work for the night was done. I had no logical reason to still be standing out here in the dark, watching the exhaust fumes from the transport trucks slowly dissipate into the hazy city sky.But I stayed. I leaned my hip back against the cold hood of my sedan, staring blankly at the cracked asphalt beneath my boots, unable to understand why the thought of turning the key in the ignition made my chest tighten with a foreign hesitation. I was avoiding my own home. Worse, I was actively avoiding her.Sienna.The realization made a venomous taste flare up at the back of my tongue, a
SiennaTwo weeks. Fourteen days of looking at the same walls, tracking the same shadows across the floorboards, and trying to make the best of it.It had been two weeks since I last saw Marcello, since he left me sitting alone at that dining table with a list of rules ringing in my ears. And the worst part—the part that made me want to scream into my pillow out of frustration—was that I was actually beginning to get worried.It was a twisted realization to come to in the middle of the night. I was a captive. A girl from Los Angeles who had been forced to sign her life over to a mafia don just to keep herself and her best friend from being wiped off the map. I should have been celebrating his absence. I should have been praying that whatever war he was fighting out there kept him occupied forever. But instead, every time the front doors opened or the guards’ radios crackled to life down the hall, my chest tightened. My mind kept betraying me, flashing back to the image of his dark h
SiennaRoxy 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
Sienna The cold of the alleyway fueled the fire roaring in my chest. I wiped the back of my hand across my mouth, erasing the last trace of the girl who had spent three years playing house with a monster.“Im in,” my voice sounded like gravel. “I’ll do it.”Roxy’s eyes lit up, a triumphant spark d
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
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







