CHAPTER FOURTEEN
339 Words
EVANGELINE
i woke up tangled in his sheets.
my thighs ached.
my heart? a fkn wildfire.
nikolai was asleep next to me, mouth parted, brow furrowed even in rest like he couldn’t stop fighting—even in dreams.
i didn’t want to move.
but the knock at the door changed everything.
three taps. slow. heavy.
he shot up.
i knew that knock.
it wasn’t a neighbor.
it wasn’t safe.
it was the life.
he grabbed his gun before he even put pants on.
i wrapped a sheet around me and stayed silent. still.
“who is it?” he barked.
no answer.
just an envelope sliding under the door.
he picked it up, opened it slow.
his face… changed.
“what is it?” i asked, stepping close.
he turned the phone in his hand toward me.
it was a video.
grainy. but clear.
me. him. together.
in his apartment. on the wall. in the shadows.
the angles were too perfect.
"someone's been watching us," he said. voice dead cold.
my stomach flipped.
"who the f**k filmed us?"
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NIKOLAI
there’s only one group who would use a tape like this to destroy me.
and it wasn’t the Morettis.
it was the Ivanovs.
rival crew. snake bastards.
they’d been tryin to make moves on Moretti’s port territory for months.
and now they had leverage.
if they dropped this to the boss? i was done.
she was done.
i packed fast. weapons. burner phones. cash.
“we need to leave,” i said.
“leave?” she blinked. “as in run?”
“as in disappear.”
“my father will kill you if he thinks you took me.”
“he’ll kill me if he sees that tape.”
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ANTONIO MORETTI
the USB was on his desk.
anonymous delivery.
he stared at the paused footage. he knew that apartment.
he knew his daughter’s eyes.
his hands trembled—but not from heartbreak.
from fury.
“get me Vasin,” he growled to his men. “alive.”
- Writer
