THE DARKNESS
The drive back to the D’Luca mansion was a desert of words, yet a battlefield of wills and glances.
The interior of the armored SUV smelled of a suffocating mixture of ozone, fresh leather upholstery, and the metallic trail of the blood that still stained Aaron’s hands.
He didn’t allow me to sit in the adjacent seat. The moment he closed the door, he dragged me onto his lap. His arms coiled around me with the strength of cast-iron chains—a physical possession that brook no argument.
I remained rigid, my gaze fixed on the window, watching the shadows of the Tuscan trees pass like ghosts under the moonlight. My body was trembling, not just from the cold that had seeped into my bones, but from the adrenaline that was beginning to recede, leaving a devastating vacuum in i
