I suck in a breath, hold the burner screen out in front of me, and brace.The second I cross into the slaughterhouse; it’s like the world splits down the middle.
Every gun in the room snaps toward me, metal mouths hungry to shred through flesh and bone.Shouts explode.Orders barked, panic ricocheting, rage and confusion colliding in the air like static.
And then… stillness.
Alessandro doesn’t move.He only presses the barrel harder against Matteo’s forehead, as if deciding whether to end it right here.But I know he sees the countdown.It pulses across the screen like a throbbing vein, each second not a threat, but a vow.A slow, deliberate unveiling of everything he’s tried to bury, poised to go public.
“What the fuck is this?”he growls.
I don’t move.Not even when Matteo’s eyes lock onto mine.And there it is, that flash of fear.Not for himself.Not for the gun pressed to his head.But for me.
“You shoot me or Matteo,” I say slowly, “and your entire world burns.Every kill order.Every dirty cop.Every bloodstained dollar, every hidden account, it all goes live.You’re entire fucking kingdom exposed.Every enemy you’ve ever made will pick your bones clean before the sun rises.”
He goes deadly still.
Even his soldiers falter, a flicker of hesitation bleeding into their eyes.
They feel it.
The shift.
The threat.
The moment the ground starts to crack.
“You’re bluffing,” Alessandro growls.But his voice isn’t steady.It wavers, just a fraction.Enough for me to smell the fear bleeding through the cracks in his control.
I tilt my head, eyes locked on his like I’m daring him to move.
“Try it,” I say.“Kill him, and everyone finds out.All of it.”
He doesn’t lower the gun.It stays pressed against Matteo’s forehead, his finger twitching on the trigger.But I see it.The hesitation.The crack.The tremble hiding beneath the monster.
Good.Let him feel what it’s like to lose control.
“You kill either of us,” I go on, taking a few more steps forward, steps that feel steadier than I am inside, “and the countdown ends.Everything goes live.Emails.Videos.Bank records.The whole fucking house of cards comes tumbling down.”My voice shakes, but I force it steady.Because Matteo’s watching me as though I’m the last thing holding him together, the only thread keeping him from unraveling completely.And I can’t let go.Not now.
Alessandro’s eyes narrow.I see the exact moment the truth lands.The second he realizes I’m not bluffing.That I’d rather burn it all down than let him walk away with the win.And that scares him more than any bullet ever could.
Matteo shifts slightly on his knees, and the corner of his mouth lifts into that cocky, reckless smirk.The one that used to drive me crazy, the one that still fucking gets me.
Even with death breathing down his neck, he’s looking at me as if I’m the brightest thing to ever blaze through his darkness.As if I just set the world on fire, and he’s proud to watch it burn.
I drag my eyes from his, just long enough to meet his father’s.
“Let him go,” I spit, voice low and shaking with fury.“Or lose everything.Your legacy, your power, all of it.Your fucking choice.”
I take another step forward.
Silence.
His father hasn’t moved.
Hasn’t lowered the gun.
He’s testing me, daring me to crack.
I tilt my head slightly, eyes locked onto his, letting the seconds drip like blood from an open wound.Every heartbeat that passes ratchets up the tension, and I know exactly how much it’s killing him to stand still.To hesitate.To let a girl he once saw as powerless hold him hostage.
