Tears fell freely now, tracing bright lines down her pale cheeks. Her lips trembled, jaw tight, as she struggled to form words that wouldn’t co. She had known that Luca was dangerous. But to see him like this...
Luca’s hand reached for a knife from the array of tools spread ticulously on the desk. "I wanted to prolong his suffering..." he murmured.
"Luca..." she whispered, a plea that contained everything—fear, frustration. Her eyes were wide, tracking his movents.
"But since this is a show and tell..." Without a pause, he cut the rope holding Inferi’s wrists, letting the man drop heavily to the floor with a thud that made the room shudder. Inferi’s eyes, wide with terror, flicked to Vee as his body twisted weakly under the weight of his injuries.
The gag in his mouth muffled a desperate plea, but his eyes spoke volus. He looked helpless, beaten, completely at the rcy of Luca’s wrath.
"This isn’t one of those tis when you ask to let soone go, I am going to kill him right here." The knife glead in his hand, poised above the broken man on the floor, an instrunt of finality.
"You have two choices," he continued. "Walk away right now, and I will accept that you will never accept who I am. Or stay and watch kill him, to prove to that you accept all of , that you want all of ."
Her chest heaved, lungs desperate for air.
And in that instant, Vee knew that whatever decision she made, nothing would ever be the sa. To stay was to embrace his world, to accept his violence as part of the man she was falling for, to willingly walk into a darkness she had always feared. To walk away was to betray herself, to leave behind a connection she could never sever.
Luca despite all his evil, had drilled himself into her, so deep she couldn’t find the entry point.
"God, please, Luca, don’t do this." Behind Luca, Inferi struggled weakly on the floor, a ruined man waiting for the final sentence.
Luca looked only at her. "It’s simple, Vee." The knife rested easily in his hand, an extension of him, as natural as breath. "I am giving you a choice. I don’t have a gun to your head, now, do I? Are you ashad of who I am, or do you accept who I am?"
"It’s not so simple!" Vee yelled. "You’re asking to stand here while you take a life."
"I will count to ten." He gestured with the knife toward the steel door behind her. "There is the door. Here is ."
"Jesus!" Vee bit down on her lower lip. She squeezed her eyes shut. "Jesus Christ!"
"One..."
A strange, terrible calm slid over her skin. The panic that had been clawing at her lungs began to recede, not because the situation had softened, but because she suddenly understood sothing fundantal. Luca fed on fear. It validated him. It confird that the monster he believed himself to be was real.
"Two..."
Her eyes opened. She stepped toward him.
"Three..."
"I’m not running." She moved closer. "I will not run. I will stay."
Luca’s brow lifted slightly, skeptical, amused. He thought she was bluffing.
"Four..."
Vee drew in a shaky breath, steadying herself against the tidal wave inside her. "I ant what I said last night. I said I love you. I ant it. But don’t subject to this. It will not change how I feel about you. It won’t." She stepped even closer, until the knife hovered inches from her hip. "But it will most definitely change ."
She swallowed hard. "If you make stand here and watch this, you are not testing my love. You are reshaping into sothing I may never recognize again." Her hands ca up slowly and pressed against his chest. "I love the man who protects. The man who terrifies everyone else but holds like I matter."
Her eyes glistened, but she did not look away. "I know what you are. I accept what you are. But do not ask to beco it."
Inferi made a strangled sound on the floor. The knife glead between them.
"Five..." Luca moved behind Inferi now, the knife hovering at his throat. Vee’s feet rooted to the floor, the edge of Luca’s jacket gripped tightly in her fists. Her eyes, brimming with tears locked onto his, daring him to see, really see, what she was becoming in his presence.
If he wanted to witness the mont she turned—the mont she stepped fully into the darkness that danced alongside his light.
"Six..." he continued. He held the knife steady against Inferi’s skin, a cold, absolute line of judgnt, waiting. And in that pause, Luca realized a part of him wanted her to run, desperately. He wanted her to bolt, to retreat from this room of blood and fear, because maybe, just maybe, if she ran, he would see the futility of the obsession clawing at him from the inside.
Perhaps he would finally understand that what he wanted, what he needed, could never be his. But she did not move. Not an inch. Her body remained a tense, vibrant counterpoint to the lethality that surrounded her.
"Seven..." he murmured, and the faintest twitch appeared at the corner of his lip, imperceptible but telling. He saw it in her posture—the settling of her shoulders, the way her chin lifted, proud and resolute. Acceptance radiated off her in waves, not just of submission but of understanding.
She was choosing this path, choosing to et him in his darkness. She would own her own darkness for him, and the knowledge that she could do this, that she would do this, left him enthralled.
"Eight..." His mind flicked to his father, the patriarch who demanded strength in every mber of the Genovese household. If his father could see her now, he would recognize her instantly as the bride the family had always needed.
"Nine..." He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t let this continue. She was the good to his bad, the light to his chaos, and he couldn’t push her into the abyss he inhabited. "Go! Now!" he snapped.
And then, she smiled, a triumphant, wicked, defiant smile.
"Oh, you bitch!" he hissed through clenched teeth. She had t him in his world, had stared at the abyss and chosen not to look away.
She had seen him, all of him, and she had not fled. And in that refusal, in that single act of defiance, she had claid a piece of him he wasn’t willing to give to anyone.
Vee’s laugh echoed, a bright, ringing sound that felt sacrilegious against the lingering tallic tang of blood in the air. She hurried past the threshold of the room. She didn’t look back, before slipping out of the chamber, leaving Luca alone with the finality of his actions.
He glanced down at Inferi, already bored. He held the knife steady and sliced his neck clean through. His body landed forward, sprawled grotesquely on the floor. The anger that had built in his chest—the searing, relentless fire that had demanded attention all day—dissolved in that mont, leaving only an icy satisfaction.
He had defended what was his obsession. There would be others, of course, those foolish enough to challenge or threaten her, but they would fall eventually.
Dropping the knife onto the desk, he pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at the residual blood on his fingers. He then left the room and headed back to his office.
He found her waiting, the subtle curve of her hips frad by the tight fabric of her black dress, the arm warrs adding a hint of rebellious edge to her elegance. The fire in her eyes t his with unflinching boldness, a silent challenge that thrilled and unnerved him in equal asure.
"What now?" she asked.
"Now," he said, "I fuck you. Go ho and wait for ."
Vee’s lips curved into a hard smile, and she nodded. She slipped his jacket from her shoulders, shedding his protection to reveal herself entirely to him.
"No, take it." His hand grazed hers as he replaced the jacket over her shoulders, the heat of his touch lingering. "Oh, and Vee?" His lips twisted into a dangerous smile, dark amusent flickering in his icy blue eyes. "You better be wearing that dress when I co ho... and you better be on your knees."
She swallowed, a shiver coursing through her at the tone in his voice, the thrill of being claid, tested, and desired all at once. Yet she held his gaze with unflinching audacity, her lips curling into a grin.
She stepped closer, bridging the space between them, and pressed her lips hard against his in a kiss.
"I’ll be waiting," she whispered against him, pulling back just enough to let the heat of anticipation linger between them, letting him feel the hunger in her eyes as clearly as he felt the thrill of possession in his chest. She turned gracefully as she strode toward the door, leaving him standing in the office.
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