Jay
The gunshot was still ringing in my ears. Even though the threat had been neutralized—at least temporarily—the adrenaline hadn’t left my system. It lingered, thrumming through my veins as I stood outside Alessia’s door like a sentinel, my back against the wall and my senses on high alert.
The mansion felt unnaturally quiet now, the kind of silence that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. It wasn’t peaceful. It was the calm before the next storm.
I knew Alessia wouldn’t sleep. She was too stubborn, too fiery. She wasn’t the type to follow orders blindly, especially not when she felt vulnerable. And tonight, she was. I could see it in the way her hands had trembled, in the unspoken fear in her eyes even as she tried to mask it with anger.
When the door creaked open,
