LOGINAdriano slowly lifted his boot, letting the blood drip off the leather onto the concrete as his stare swept across the rest. "Now," he whispered, a terrifying smile finally touching the corners of his lips, "Who else feels like telling me a story?" Morgan started sobbing violently. I shook my h
No, no! "I wasn't even there when they hurt the girl!" Cole yelled, "They brought her to me already bleeding! Brianna was the one who hit her in the head! She used a heavy wooden club from the garage! They carried her in here like a sack of rocks, and I was the one who washed the blood off her fac
Cole’s chest heaved, his eyes turned frantic, like a rat looking for a hole in the wall. "I know how Chicago works. You don't survive in this city by picking a fight with the Capones," he slowly shook his head, "I'm not suicidal." My stomach twisted. No. He was lying. I made a desperate sound
"Move!" Capone guards surged forward with frightening speed. Cole's men reached for their weapons but they never got the chance. One guard twisted a man's arm behind his back before he had even cleared his waistband. Another kicked a pistol across the concrete floor. Boots thundered in every dire
I looked at Cole again. He wasn't even watching us. He was checking his phone. Rage exploded inside me, "MMPH!" I lunged forward as far as the ropes allowed. "If she keeps doing that," he said calmly, "she'll reopen the wound." I wanted to claw his face apart. I wanted to scream. Instead, anoth
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ Pain. That was the first thing I felt. It was a deep, heavy ache that pulsed through the back of my head. It throbbed with every heartbeat, every breath, every tiny movement. A quiet whimper escaped me before I even opened my eyes. The world slowly came into focus. The ceiling a
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ I slipped away from Dante's circle of friends for a moment, and wandered toward a quiet corner of the gallery and that’s when I saw it. I stopped dead. The painting was massive. It wasn't a portrait, it was a scream captured in oil. It showed a woman, or the ghost of one, trapped
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom of the venue, and I just… looked. The dress had already settled on my body like it belonged there, like it had been waiting for me. Black smooth silk catching the light in soft flashes every time I shifted my weight. It didn’t cling,
She was clumsy because of the ties, her movements restricted and tight, but that only made it better. The way she struggled to get a better grip, the way she squeezed me with that desperate friction, the way she was forced to be completely present in every sensation, it was intoxicating. I watched t
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ You ever have that one pathetic moment where your brain just glitches? Where you decide to hit the rewind button on your own life and only play the highlight reel? You sit there in the dark and trick yourself into believing that when you walked away from your shitty ex, you







