Every breath.
Every step.
I’m right back in it.The world I ran from.The name I shed like skin.The life I clawed my way out of, bloodied and broken, just to taste freedom for the first time in years.Now I’m back in the grip of the man I swore I’d never face again.Back in the goddamn fire, choking on smoke I thought I’d finally outrun.
A bulb snaps on with a click, and the light punches through my eyelids like a fucking spotlight.It’s harsh.Yellow and unforgiving.It’s the kind of light that doesn’t reveal, it exposes.
My eyes squint against it, twitching, refusing to cooperate.Everything in me wants to stay under, to sink back into the dark I was drowning in.But the brightness keeps clawing at me, dragging me up by the throat.
Muscles slow.Vision blurred.Every blink is a losing battle.
I force my eyes open slowly, lashes sticking together like they’ve been glued shut by the dark.Light burns at the edges, and the world tilts sideways as my lashes lift, slow and shaking.The edges of reality smudged with shadows and pain.
Then I see him.
A silhouette carved out by the light, standing dead in front of me.Shoulders squared, posture locked with that rigid, quiet control I could never forget.His face is swallowed by shadow, but it doesn’t matter.The shape of him hits like a punch to the chest.Broad frame.Sharp edges.His presence is a fucking weapon.
My stomach knots, tight and mean, a sick twist of panic and knowing.Because I know exactly who the fuck is standing there.And I know exactly how fucked I am.
And for a split second… just one—I panic.
Not because he’s here.But because of what I’ve got stashed away.
The files.
The ones that could bring everything crashing down if he ever found out.If this is about that… if he knows… No.He can’t.He can’t know.
This man staring me down isn’t the boy I once loved.
That boy had softness behind his eyes, heat in his hands, and a future hidden in his grin.This one… He’s colder now.Sharper.Like the world carved the softness out of him and left nothing behind but steel and silence.
I jerk against the restraints again, harder this time, metal clanging with a warning bell no one’s going to answer.The rope bites deep into my wrists, the pain sharp, but it’s still better than doing nothing.Better than sitting still while he watches me in a way that I’m prey that wandered back into his trap.
I grit my teeth and pull again.
That’s when his voice cuts through the silence.
“Stop fucking moving,” he snaps, the words cold and razor clean.“You’ll only make it worse.”
He steps forward, slow and lethal, like every inch of him is wound tight with purpose.The light finally catches his face.It’s sharper than I remember, harder.
His eyes don’t flicker.They don’t soften.They just look at me like I’m the problem he’s already solved.
“You think you can fight this?Fight me,” His mouth curls, but it’s not a smile.It’s a warning dressed up in cruelty.“Go ahead.Keep struggling.Maybe if you bleed enough, you’ll finally remember who the fuck you're dealing with.”
My breath stutters, catching in my chest before I can stop it.But I recover quickly, lifting my chin slowly, ignoring the burn in my wrists because the fury pulsing beneath my skin is louder, stronger, more fucking real.
Matteo has always said it, even when we were kids, whispered with the reverence of gospel into my ear, "Never let your enemy know you’re scared."
Now he’s the enemy.
Now he’s the one standing across from me, with cold eyes and an even colder heart, trying to carve fear from my flesh.
So, I do exactly what he taught me.I stare back at him, bury every tremor behind a steady gaze and razor smile, and speak low, cold, cutting—
“Still pretending you’re in control, Matteo?Is that cute little monster act working for you these days?”
His jaw tightens, just barely, but I fucking see it.
