His dangerous obsession

Chapter 5

The kiss ended, leaving the air between us heavy with unspoken tension and unspent heat.

Lucian’s hands remained planted on my waist, his thumb lightly stroking my hip through my jacket. He looked down at me, his dark obsidian eyes calculating, intense, and steady.

"You want proof?" Lucian asked, his voice a low, raspy purr. "Then you're coming with me."

I stepped back, adjusting my collar and keeping my guard up. "Where are we going?"

"My private study," he said, turning toward his mahogany desk. "If you want to know who really signed the order that took your father five years ago, you need to see the ledgers."

He walked over to a heavy bookshelf against the wall, pressed a hidden release mechanism, and pulled back a section of the wood. Behind it sat a high-tech biometric safe. He scanned his palm, and the heavy metal door clicked open.

He pulled out a thick, leather-bound book and a secure encrypted tablet, placing them on the desk between us.

"Five years ago, your father, David, was managing shipping routes out of Pier 4," Lucian explained, leaning his hands on the edge of the desk. "He discovered that someone inside my organization was smuggling illegal weapons without my consent. He came to me with the names."

I frowned, stepping closer to the desk to look at the documents displayed on the screen. "If he came to you, why did my family get targeted three days later?"

"Because the man he exposed wasn't working for me," Lucian said, his tone turning icy. "He was a double agent working for the Falcone syndicate. Before I could clean house, Falcone's hitmen took out your father to cover their tracks and pinned the blame on my crew to start a war."

I stared at the digitized bank transfers and encrypted email logs on the tablet. The dates, signatures, and wire transfers lined up perfectly with the files I had stored on my hidden micro-drive. The piece of the puzzle I had been missing for five years was right in front of me: the order hadn't come from Lucian Vance. It had come from Don Falcone.

My stomach dropped, a cold realization washing over me. All this time, my target had been the wrong man.

"You look disappointed," Lucian murmured softly, stepping up behind me. His chest pressed against my back, his warm breath fanning across the sensitive skin of my neck.

"I built my whole life around destroying you," I whispered, my eyes still fixed on the screen. "I trained for years just to get close enough to put a bullet in your chest."

Lucian reached around my waist, his large hands pulling me firmly back against his body. He rested his chin on my shoulder, his lips brushing against my jawline.

"And yet," Lucian whispered, "here you are, standing in my room, completely free, with the truth right in your hands."

His touch was distracting, sending a thrilling heat through my veins. I turned around in his arms, resting my hands against his broad chest, looking up into his eyes.

"So what happens now?" I asked, keeping my voice steady. "The Falcones attacked your docks tonight. They killed my father five years ago."

Lucian’s lips curved into a dark, lethal smile. His hands slid up to frame my face, his thumbs gently brushing over my cheekbones.

"Now, Victoria," Lucian said, his eyes burning with a dangerous mix of desire and vengeance, "we stop fighting each other... and we tear the Falcone empire to the ground together."

"And after that?" I challenged myself softly.

Lucian leaned in, his lips hovering mere millimeters from mine, his grip on my face tightening with possessive promise.

"After that," he growled, "you stay right here with me."