Lahat ng Kabanata ng Biker's Forbidden Desire: Kabanata 171 - Kabanata 180

AXEL POV The iron gates of Saint Jude’s Cemetery didn't screech when I pushed them open. They groaned, a low, heavy sound of rusted iron shifting against oil-slick granite. It was a private, restricted colonial acreage in the high valleys of Westchester, completely removed from the public municipal plots where the city buried its common dead.Sacred ground. Restricted access. Armed private security details at the perimeter gatehouse.It was supposed to be a fortress of absolute silence. I had only stood within this perimeter once before in my entire life, years ago, dressed in an oversized black wool suit that smelled of cedar and rain, watching a bronze casket descend into the earth. I didn't remember the geography of the paths. I had spent more than two decades systematically blocking the sensory data of that afternoon from my conscious mind. I was a child then, small enough to be swallowed by the crowd of silent, stone-faced captains who stood beneath t

AXEL POVThe safe house was in Red Hook. It was an abandoned warehouse right on the industrial waterfront—a perfect place for holding hostages, and a perfect place for a murder.Maria drove us there, pulling the car over three blocks away to keep us hidden."From here, you go on foot," Maria said, her hands tight on the steering wheel. "The building is northeast. There is one guard by the front door, and three more inside. Vincent is in there with Isabella, and maybe one other person.""Where is Marcus?" I asked, checking the magazine of my weapon."I don't know," Maria replied. "He operates separately. Vincent doesn't fully trust him.""How do we get in?" Em asked."There is a service entrance in the back. It is locked, but nobody is guarding it. The keypad code is 4-7-2-3. Get Isabella and get out. Do not try to talk to Vincent. Just extract her and run."I looked at Maria, my eyes narrowing as I remembered what she told us at the chur

EMILIA POVThe voice on the other end of the line was calm. It was far too calm—slow and measured, like a man discussing the weather over breakfast, not a criminal mastermind who had been hunting us through the dark streets of the city."What do you want?" Axel asked into the phone. His body was stiff as he sat next to me in the back seat, his hand tightly holding mine."To introduce myself properly," Marcus replied. The speakerphone made his voice sound hollow, but the family resemblance in his tone was undeniable. "You see, you just defeated my partner, Vincent Moretti. While I appreciate the irony—since I was already planning to eliminate him myself—I do have some feelings about how things went down.""Vincent isn't dead," I spoke up, leaning closer to the phone. "Not yet.""He will be soon enough," Marcus said smoothly. "And in the meantime, I would like to make you an offer."Axel turned the volume up, his eyes locking onto mine.

EMILIA POVThree hours.Marcus spent every single minute of that agonizing window making phone calls, utilizing his deepest underground resources, and pulling strings with high-level contacts he had spent decades paying off. Em and I could do nothing but wait in the suffocating silence of the warehouse, watching the minutes tick away on the digital clock.By the three-hour mark, Marcus finally slammed his laptop shut and looked up at us. We had our answers.Agent Thomas Crawford was indeed a real, active FBI agent. But he was completely dirty. He was embedded deep within an elite federal task force investigating organized crime on the eastern seaboard—a specialized unit that had been aggressively trying to locate and crack the five-billion-dollar legacy account for years."He has been hunting this money like a fanatic," Marcus said, bringing up Crawford's hidden financial profiles on his screen. "Crawford is completely obsessed. He wants the fortune so he can retire early, disappear o

EMILIA POVThe text message arrived at exactly 2:00 AM.I was sleeping restlessly beside Axel in the dark bedroom of the safe house when the sharp, aggressive vibration of my burner phone shattered the silence. My heart instantly lunged into my throat. I rolled over, blinking against the sudden, blinding glare of the screen.It was an unlisted, unknown number.I know exactly where you are hiding. And by sunrise, every single rival family on the eastern seaboard will know too. Unless we negotiate immediately.— N.V.I turned and shook Axel’s shoulder immediately, my hands trembling. "Axel. Wake up. Right now.""What is it?" he mumbled, his voice thick with exhaustion, his eyes half-closed as he pulled himself up against the headboard.I didn't answer. I just shoved the glowing screen into his face.Axel scanned the text, and within a fraction of a second, his entire posture went rigid. He sat up completely straight, all traces of sle