A small, fragile tendril of hope kindled inside me.
Maybe… just maybe, I could pull this off.
I could outmaneuver Balthazar.
I opened my mouth to thank him, but he raised a hand, and his face changed. The softness vanished.
“This is serious, Lady Tocino,” he said. “You must doexactlyas I say for the next six days. I can’t let you out of my sight. Not even for a moment.”
I dropped my gaze and nodded. “Of course,” I murmured.
But a knot twisted in my stomach.
Because even now—even here—my heart ached.
Forhim.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Balthazar.
His touch, his voice—how he claimed me, mind and body, until I forgot who I was without him. We had never stayed apart for long. We were fire and shadow, two elements destined to collide no matter how many lives lay in ruin between us.
The ache of longing painted vivid pictures in my mind.
I imagined us curled up on a window seat, the dying light of a sunset washing over our tangled limbs, his fingers threaded through mine as if I belonged only to him.
Or wandering hand-in-hand through an overgrown cemetery, ghosts of the past whispering in the wind while we remained wrapped in our own sacred silence, feeding off of each other.
But the memories were cruel.
They didn’t stop there.
They twisted.
Moments of passion by candlelight bled into blood-slick nights.
Sweet laughter by the river turned into the echo of screams as we fled crime scenes like lovers from a fairy tale written in red.
Those memories clung to me—beautiful and grotesque, all tangled together in a sick fascination that erupted low in my belly like molten lust.
I wanted him.
No, Icravedhim.
I wanted to feel him again—inside me, filling me, taking me the way only Balthazar could. Like I was the only thing in the world that mattered while he fucked the sanity out of me.
But I had to be careful. This was a dangerous game.
And I had to win.
I needed to see this through. I needed the upper hand, for once.
After settling me into a room in the east wing of his estate, Signor Zampa stood at the threshold, his silhouette outlined by the soft hallway glow.
“I’m going to gather a few trusted men and take care of the bodies,” he said gravely. “Do not leave this house. Under no circumstances.”
I nodded, meek and obedient.
But inside?
