“I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe,” I whisper, voice raw, cracked open, the words burning the whole way out. “I swear to you, Emery.I’ll get us out.”
But even as I say it, the lie curdles on my tongue.Because deep down, under every promise I give her, under every fucking hope I try to hold onto… I know the truth.
This life has already branded me.It’s in my blood.Carved deeply into my bones.I’m the heir.The legacy.The next in line to wear the crown built out of blood and cruelty.That no amount of love could ever wash clean.
And as for my father… He’ll never let me go.Not while I carry his name like a curse.Not while I'm the last thing he owns.Not while I still fucking breathe.The only way out for me is a bullet.Clean.Final.Merciful.
And maybe I’ll welcome it when it comes.Because when the darkness finally drags me under… when it strips me of the last piece of whatever soul I’ve got left… I’ll make sure Emery’s nowhere near it.
I’ll push her away if I have too.Break her heart just to save her soul.Rip myself out of her life with my own bare hands.Because I’ll be damned if Emery ever has to look me in the eye and see nothing staring back.
Chapter Fourteen
Matteo
Theworldoutsideisa vast expanse of nothingness.It's as if the night has swallowed the land whole, and everything in it.
The only light is the moon… bleeding pale silver over the treetops.
I sit in the chair, whisky burning a slow path down my throat.Eyes locked on the darkness outside.Hand hovering close enough to the gun on the table that it almost feels like control, even though I know it’s not.
I haven’t moved.
Haven’t blinked.
Haven’t fucking breathed properly in hours.
Every muscle in my body wound tight.Coiled with waiting, for the smallest twitch in the shadows.The tiniest breath of movement.The moment when silence breaks and the nightmare I was born into finally comes to collect.
Because I know they’re coming.
They always do.And this silence is just the last mercy before the storm.
I should feel calm here.Safe.Hidden so deep in these fucking woods that even my demons lose their way trying to find me.
But nothing about tonight feels safe anymore.
Not with her scent still in my lungs.Not with the way my body still aches for her.
Fuck, my head’s a mess.A tangled storm of memories, mistakes, and she is at the center of every single one.
I can still feel her.Pressed tight against me.I can still hear the broken sound she made when I slid my cock inside her, like she was starving for me and I was the only thing left worth dying for.
She’s burned herself into my brain.Every curve.Every breath.Every reckless surrender in the way she let me take her.She didn’t just break me.She fucking destroyed me.
We fucked as if the world was burning down around us—nothing left to save but this.One last thing that felt real before the world catches up with us.
And even now… even sitting here with a gun at arm’s reach and a death sentence crawling through the trees… it’s not the fear that wrecks me.It’s her.
I’ve never fucked that way.Not once.Not even close.
Not with the girls in the clubs, grinding on me to leave a mark, not because they want me, but because they crave the empire welded to my back.The name.The filthy, blood-soaked kingdom my father built on broken bodies and spilled guts.
They don't give a fuck about me.Just the crown.Just the cock that comes with the promise of power.
They drop to their knees fast, mouths wide open, not for me but the legacy.For the whispers they could spin after, eager to suck my cock just to brag about tasting the devil’s son.How they wore my cum like a trophy.
The ones who spread their legs too easily.Their pussy wet not for me, but for the idea of what having my cock between their thighs could buy them.Leverage.Status.
