The Contract

Signed In Blood

DANTES POV

watched her break.It was a sequence I knew by heart. First, her eyes darted frantically between the gun and the blood on the floor. Then her chest locked up, her breath turning shallow and ragged. Finally, the quiet set in. That sudden, total drop of the shoulders when someone realizes they're out of moves.She was going to sign. They always did when you took away their choices.But looking down at her face, something cold and specific snagged in the back of my mind. It wasn’t just a passing thought. It was a sharp, uncomfortable pull of recognition, like an old photograph trying to push its way through years of scar tissue.I knew her. I’d seen those wide, dark eyes before.The thought twisted in my gut while I counted down. *Eight. Seven. Six.* I looked at the line of her jaw, the way her dark hair fell across her face as she fell apart. *Five. Four.*The familiarity gnawed at me, but I didn't have time for ghosts. I had a debt to collect."I'll sign," she whispered. Her voice was so quiet it barely carried across the marble. "I'll marry you. Just please don't hurt him. Don't hurt anyone."Something shifted in my chest. It wasn’t satisfaction, and it definitely wasn't guilt. It was just a cold appreciation for how clean the trap had sprung.She’d folded faster than I expected. Usually, people need a finger broken or a warning shot to believe the threat. But Elara Santos had spent the last eight years playing mother to the waste of space bleeding onto my floor. She loved him, even though he was entirely worthless.Love is a pathetic vulnerability. It makes people predictable. And predictable means easy to handle."Smart choice," I said.I stepped behind her chair and pulled a small, black-handled blade from my pocket. The second the steel clicked open, she went completely rigid, bracing her shoulders for a blow."Relax," I muttered, cutting through the heavy hemp around her wrists in two quick strokes. "I'm just freeing you."I leaned down and sliced the cords at her ankles. She didn't try to run or jump up. She just sat there, immediately rubbing at the deep, angry red welts the rope had left behind.I walked back to the desk, slid the folded contract across the polished wood, and tossed a heavy silver pen next to it."Sign at the bottom. Full legal name and today's date."She stared at the paper like it was a loaded weapon. Her hands were shaking so badly she dropped the pen twice before she could actually grip it. She threw one last desperate look at her brother, then pressed the ink to the page.*Elara Santos.*Just like that, she was mine.I picked up the contract to check the ink. I didn't care about the legalities or how a real court would look at this paperwork. In my world, a contract like this was just a piece of paper for a bought-and-paid-for clerk at the city registry. Once her name was on it, she was officially under my roof, under my rules, and off the grid."Congratulations, Miss Santos." I folded the paper and slipped it into my inside jacket pocket. "The ceremony will be a private matter in three days. My people will handle the license."She didn't move. She just stared at her empty palms, her skin looking completely drained under the office lights."Say your goodbyes to your brother," I said. "You're not going back to your apartment. Everything you need is already here."That finally snapped her out of it. Her head jerked up, her eyes wide. "What? No. I have to go back. I have to get my clothes, my papers—""You don't need anything from that place," I said, walking over to the massive glass windows overlooking the city lights. "Your old life is done. You stay here.""My job," she stammered, scrambling to her feet so fast her knees wobbled. "The hospital. I can't just disappear from the ER. People are going to look for me. They'll call the cops.""Let them." I didn't even turn around to look at her. "You'll log into your portal tonight and send a resignation email. Effective immediately. Tell them it's personal reasons. They're short-staffed enough that they'll process it by morning just to clear the slot.""You can't just erase my life.""I can do whatever I want, Miss Santos. You signed a contract confirming it. From this second on, I am your legal proxy. I control where you live, what you spend, and who you see."Of course she hadn't read the fine print. She’d been too busy trying to keep her brother's skull intact."Can I at least call my aunt?" Her voice had shrunk to a tiny whisper. The fight was completely gone. "Just one call to tell her I'm okay. She'll worry if I don't answer.""No.""Please. Just five seconds—""No contact," I said, turning to face her. "You cut that tie the second you put ink on the page. If your family starts digging around, they become a problem. And we already discussed what I do with problems."She looked like she wanted to scream, to fly across the desk and claw my eyes out, but she looked back down at Matteo and the fire died. She was a fast learner."What are you doing with him?" she asked flatly."He's going to a private clinic. They'll set his jaw, patch his ribs, and dump him on a curb forty-eight hours from now.""And then?""And then he goes back to his miserable life knowing his sister sold herself to keep him breathing," I said. "Maybe the weight of that will keep him from stealing from people like me again."Her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides, her knuckles turning white, but she kept her mouth shut. She knew I was right. She knew the kid on the floor was a parasite who had taken everything she had and still came back for more. But she had ruined herself for him anyway, because that’s the fatal flaw with moral people. They break themselves trying to fix things that are already completely shattered."You need to rest," I said, checking my watch. "It's past midnight. My security team will show you to the guest suite. Tomorrow we deal with the dress."I turned toward the heavy double doors of my office, ready to call the boys in to haul Matteo out. The room was completely silent, heavy with her quiet despair as she stood there staring at her shoes.I was three steps from the door when the lock clicked violently.The heavy oak doors didn't just swing open; they slammed back against the drywall with a massive, echoing crash.I lunged instantly for the holster under my left arm, my fingers wrapping around the grip of my Beretta before the intruder could even cross the threshold.Someone burst into the room, breathing heavy, their silhouette completely blocking the light from the hallway.