CHAPTER 5
906 Words
## No Going Back
The silence inside the VIP lounge felt lethal.
Dante stood frozen near the doorway, shock written plainly across his face as his eyes flickered between Kai and Luca.
Kai recovered first.
Of course he did.
His expression hardened instantly, cold enough to cut glass.
“Get out,” Kai said flatly.
Dante hesitated. “Boss, I—”
“I said leave.”
The warning in Kai’s voice was enough.
Dante lowered his gaze immediately before stepping back outside and shutting the door behind him.
The moment the door clicked shut, tension exploded through the room again.
Luca exhaled slowly. “Well… that could’ve gone better.”
Kai dragged a hand through his damp hair in frustration.
“This was a mistake.”
Luca’s expression shifted slightly.
“The kiss?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t mean that.”
Kai looked at him sharply. “Don’t tell me what I mean.”
“But you kissed me first.”
That shut Kai up instantly.
Because it was true.
And they both knew it.
Luca stepped closer again, though more carefully this time.
“You can push me away all you want,” he said quietly, “but that didn’t feel like a mistake.”
Kai hated how softly Luca spoke to him sometimes.
Like he was something fragile instead of dangerous.
“You don’t understand what happens now,” Kai muttered.
“I think I do.”
“No.” Kai’s voice darkened. “You really don’t.”
He turned away, staring toward the rain-covered windows.
“In this world, rumors kill faster than bullets. If Dante talks—”
“Do you trust him?”
Kai fell silent.
That answer alone said enough.
Luca watched him carefully.
“You’ve spent so long surviving,” Luca said softly, “you don’t know what to do when someone actually cares about you.”
Kai laughed bitterly.
“That’s because caring gets people buried.”
Luca walked up behind him slowly.
Close enough to feel warmth.
Not touching.
Just there.
“And what if I decide you’re worth the risk?”
Kai shut his eyes briefly.
This was bad.
So unbelievably bad.
Because every wall he built around himself was starting to crack whenever Luca looked at him like that.
“You should leave,” Kai whispered.
This time Luca didn’t argue immediately.
Instead, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
“There’s going to be a meeting tomorrow night,” he said. “An abandoned hotel near the river.”
Kai turned slightly.
“What kind of meeting?”
“I’m not sure yet. But I overheard one of my father’s men talking about a deal with someone inside the Moretti family.”
Kai’s expression darkened instantly.
The traitor.
Still moving.
Still hidden.
Luca handed him the paper carefully.
Their fingers brushed.
A tiny touch.
Yet Kai’s pulse stumbled anyway.
“You trust me with this?” Kai asked quietly.
Luca smiled faintly.
“I already kissed you. Feels a little late to play safe.”
For the first time that night, Kai nearly smiled back.
Nearly.
Then suddenly—
A loud crash echoed downstairs from the main club floor.
Screams followed.
Kai immediately reached for his gun.
So did Luca.
Both men looked at each other instantly.
Gunfire erupted below.
“s**t,” Kai muttered before storming toward the door.
The nightclub had descended into chaos.
People ran toward exits while armed men overturned tables and opened fire across the dance floor. Glass shattered everywhere beneath flashing red lights.
Romano soldiers.
Moretti guards.
Blood.
Kai’s eyes sharpened instantly as instinct took over.
“Get down!” he shouted, firing twice toward one of the attackers.
A body dropped.
Another shooter emerged near the bar—
Luca shot him first.
The two men moved back-to-back naturally, almost effortlessly, despite being born into enemy families.
Years of survival instinct.
Years of violence.
And somehow they trusted each other anyway.
“Left side!” Luca warned.
Kai turned instantly and fired again.
More screams echoed through the nightclub.
Music still blasted absurdly through the speakers while panic consumed the room.
Then Kai noticed something wrong.
One of the attackers wasn’t aiming at guards.
He was aiming directly—
At Luca.
“Kai—”
Too late.
The gunshot exploded through the club.
Kai moved without thinking.
He shoved Luca violently out of the bullet’s path.
Pain ripped through Kai’s shoulder instantly.
The force sent both of them crashing onto the floor.
Luca’s eyes widened in horror.
“Kai!”
More guards stormed the nightclub seconds later, overwhelming the remaining attackers.
But Luca barely noticed any of it.
Because Kai was bleeding heavily against him.
Warm blood soaked through Luca’s hands as he pressed desperately against the wound.
“You i***t,” Luca whispered shakily. “Why would you do that?”
Kai’s breathing came uneven now.
Yet despite the pain—
He looked strangely calm.
Because Luca was alive.
“I told you before,” Kai said weakly. “People close to me don’t survive.”
Luca’s eyes burned with something dangerously emotional.
“Then stop deciding that for me.”
Kai stared at him silently.
The nightclub chaos blurred around them.
For one terrifying moment, Luca realized how close he’d come to losing him.
And the fear in his chest felt far too much like love.
- Writer
