《Venom & Vows 》全部章節：第 31 章 - 第 40 章

"Dorian." The man beside me at the bar raises his glass. "Your father. How is he managing? Since the funeral.""As well as can be expected," I say. I have said this exact sentence four times tonight to four different people, delivered with the same measured warmth, the same careful openness that communicates loss without communicating weakness. It is a performance I could run in my sleep. The people asking are not asking because they care. They are asking because knowing how Massimo Valenti is managing tells them something about the current state of the organisation, and information is currency in every room I enter. I give them nothing useful and call it condolence.I keep one eye on the dance floor.The Flamingo and Orlov are moving together near the centre of the room. I cannot see her face from this angle. What I can see is her figure, the precise taper of her waist, the full shape of her, the waves of dark hair falling against the exposed olive skin of her back. I register it the

"Stay away from me."Sera's voice carries down the hallway before I have fully registered the approaching footsteps. I turn. Maksim Orlov is moving toward us with Leander two steps behind him, radiating the particular controlled fury of a man who has spent the last twenty minutes being publicly humiliated and is now calculating the cost of every available response. Leander's jaw is set. His eyes go to his sister first, then to me, and they do not warm.I think, briefly and without meaning to, about the night six weeks ago. Her voice then was soft and slightly slurred and she was trying to press money into my hand with the earnest conviction of someone who believed she was being helpful. That woman and the one standing in front of me now, damp and composed and watching Orlov approach with the cold precision of someone who has already decided how this ends, share a face and nothing else. This version is cunning in a way the drunk one had not yet deployed. Sharp in a way I had not antici

"Let me do the talking," I say. "Once we are inside. Both of you."I have taken over the driving for the final stretch, which tells its own story. Enzo handled the first leg from the airport. Then we went to McDonald's because Dante insisted. Then Enzo spilled something on himself in the car and demanded to go home and shower before setting foot in my father's compound, which added forty minutes. Then all three of us got sidetracked in the kitchen feeding Mina and throwing her ball toward the twins so she would attack them on her way back to retrieve it, which was not entirely the twins' fault. I was looking for reasons to delay. I will not say so out loud.Two hours. Two hours past when we should have arrived.Enzo reaches forward from the passenger seat and claps a hand on my shoulder. "We have got your back. Whatever happens."I look at his hand. Then at the road. He means it. That is the thing about Enzo that makes it simultaneously touching and completely useless — he means every

"You nearly killed her," Caspian said, on the car ride back from the gala."She threw champagne at me.""She was an actress, Sera.""I did not know that at the time.""You pulled a knife in a ballroom full of witnesses."I looked out the window at the passing lights. "I am aware."The interrogation lasted the entire drive home and then continued inside for another forty minutes, during which I also had to disclose what had happened six weeks prior on my birthday, specifically the part where I wandered significantly further from the safety of the venue than anyone had authorised. Leander gave me a look that communicated approximately four different threats simultaneously. Caspian shook his head so many times I lost count.I acknowledged to myself, privately and without pleasure, that I had a temper problem.Then came my father.He was not angry about the actress or the champagne or the knife. He was angry about the optics. "We do not do things like that," he said, standing in the doorw

"Move quickly," I tell Nico and Marco as we pull up outside the bar. "The jet leaves in an hour.""Understood," Marco says, already opening his door.Nico checks his weapon at his hip without looking down, a reflex so ingrained he probably does it in his sleep. "We will be fast."They climb out and the security team forms around them as they move toward the entrance, sauntering through the Turin night with the particular ease of men who have done this a hundred times and expect it to go the same way it always does.I remain in the car. Dante stares at the club entrance beside me with the poorly concealed longing of someone watching a party he has not been invited to yet."Are we going in?" he asks."Yes," I say. "They clear it first. Then we go."Enzo nudges my leg with his knee. "You are the king of this operation, you know that?""Do not touch me."The smirk drops off his face in under a second. He sits up straighter and clears his throat and looks out the window as though the stree