nna

out of the grand lobby doo

t at my cheeks, a welcome

ment, a sleek, brand-new armo

lashed, momentar

r window rolled dow

y luggage, a smug smirk twisti

, mocking my midnight e

merely making room. A creature of your nat

door open and stepped o

igner coat, feigning inno

aid, her voice a silken thre

ro willingly bleeds him

ally, looking at me

her perfume suffocatingl

once confessed a little se

for a civilian like you if I hadn't been

eyes shining with

him, you wouldn't stan

nd whipped my hai

n him a gun and a name. Ciro carried that debt like a crucifix pressed into his palms, and Lucia had spent five years driving the nails deeper. He

in my chest, no sudde

y realization of how deeply I h

le, the kind you give a

time locked in your toxic, b

ifference st

the fury beneath it surfacing

or a desperate fight for a man wh

back to leave, s

my suitcase, her manicured nails diggin

to nurse Ciro,

lay nursemaid to low-leve

ing and slowly

r hand grippin

ers inside my coat pocket, the nails biting into my palm un

Lucia whipped out her p

en and initiated a

appeared, she instan

hing an octave higher. "Gianna is

d refusing to visit the

le and battered, a bandage wr

his brow furrowe

e lens. "Gianna, stop bein

ia and get to the c

, a sudden thought hit me wit

and Syndicate identification

ess my clearance for D

s were locked inside

resting on his bedsid

d into the c

sking my true intentions beh

my voice completel

right now." But it was n