His Father, My Master

The cave and the hunt

The second froze, eyes wide behind the mask. Damian didn’t hesitate. Another shot. Another body on the floor.

Lila screamed, hands clamped over her mouth.

Damian lowered the pistol slowly, his breathing steady, his face carved from stone. He stepped over the bodies as if they were nothing more than broken furniture. “He sent them for you.”

She trembled, staring at the blood seeping across the carpet. “Damian… you killed them.”

He turned, his gray eyes burning into hers. “And I’ll kill again. For you.”

Ethan

Across the city, Ethan waited for the call. When it came, the silence on the line said it all.

“They’re dead,” the voice finally muttered.

Ethan’s hand shook, fury boiling through his veins. His father had beaten him again. Humiliated him again. Stolen Lila again.

He smashed the phone against the wall, his rage uncontainable. “Fine,” he snarled to the empty room. “If bullets don’t take him, the truth will. I’ll bury him in blood or scandal. I don’t care which comes first.”

His reflection glared back from the dark window, twisted with hatred. He no longer cared about the deal, about Anna, about reputation. All he wanted was revenge.

And Lila.

Always Lila.

Lila

Later that night, the bodies were gone, the carpets scrubbed, the silence restored. But the scent of gunpowder still lingered in the air.

Damian stood at the window, weapon holstered now, but his posture taut, alert. “He’s getting desperate,” he said softly. “Desperation makes men dangerous.”

Lila wrapped her arms around herself, her voice shaking. “And what about you?”

He turned, his eyes softer now, but darker too. “Me?” He crossed to her, his hand brushing her cheek. “I don’t get desperate, Lila. I get ruthless.”

Her heart pounded, caught between terror and the same pull that had drawn her to him from the start. For the first time, she realized what it meant to belong to Damian Hart: safety and danger, devotion and destruction — all at once.

And as his lips brushed her forehead, she knew the war between father and son had only just begun.

Lila

When her eyes fluttered open, the first thing she noticed was the cold. The room was bare concrete, the single window barred, a single lamp burning overhead. Her wrists ached — tied to the iron headboard of a narrow bed with rough rope.

Ethan sat in the corner, watching her. No mask now, no pretense. Just his raw hunger, sharpened by obsession.

“Do you see it now?” he whispered. “Do you feel how close we’ve always been? You were never meant for him.”

Her throat burned. “You’re lying. Damian said—”

Ethan leaned forward, his smile sharp. “Damian says what he must to keep you obedient. That’s all you’ve ever been to him, Lila. A possession. But me? I don’t want to own you.” His eyes glittered with something feral. “I want to save you.”

She pulled against the ropes until they bit into her skin. “Save me? You kidnapped me!”

He didn’t flinch. Instead, he reached into a box by the bed and drew out something metallic — not a weapon, but a set of cuffs lined with black leather. He let them dangle from his fingers, the faint clink echoing in the silence.

“You don’t understand yet,” Ethan murmured. “But you will.”

Her pulse thundered, torn between rage, terror, and the seed of doubt his words planted.

What if Damian had been hiding something?

⸻

Damian

The bullet hole in the glass still smoked when Damian gave his orders. His men waited, tense, as he stalked the room like a caged beast.

“Lock down every dock. Every safehouse. Every backstreet rat who’s ever worked for Ethan — drag them in,” he barked. “And if they don’t talk, break them until they do.”

One guard hesitated. “Sir, the press—”

“The press can choke on their lies,” Damian snapped. “My empire burns, my enemies circle, and my son dares touch what’s mine.” His hand clenched around the pistol still warm from firing. “Do you understand what that means?”

The guard swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Damian’s voice dropped to a growl. “It means I don’t care how much blood floods these streets. I will find her.”

And when he did, his son would no longer be a son. He would be a corpse.

⸻

Lila

Hours blurred together. Ethan circled her like a predator, sometimes gentle, sometimes sharp. He pressed a glass of water to her lips one moment, then hissed accusations about Damian the next.

“You think he loves you? He doesn’t even know you. Not the way I do.”

“You’re insane,” she spat.

“Am I?” His voice rose, cracking. “You never wondered why he’s so protective? Why he keeps you so close but never speaks of the past?”

Her heart lurched. She had wondered. More than once.

Ethan saw the flicker in her eyes and smiled, triumphant. “That’s right. Deep down, you already know. You’re tied to him in ways he’ll never admit. But me? I’ll tell you everything. Even the truth he fears.”

He leaned close, his breath hot against her ear. “Because you were mine long before you were his.”

Her skin crawled, but her mind spun. Lies or truth? She didn’t know anymore.

⸻

Damian

Night fell like a shroud as Damian moved through the city, his men feeding him scraps of information. A warehouse by the river. A van spotted at the edge of the estate. Ethan’s trail was messy — desperation always was.

Every step he took, the leash around his control frayed further. His empire was collapsing, his reputation ruined. None of it mattered. Only Lila did.

He paused on a dark street, staring out at the docks. Somewhere in this city, Ethan had her. Somewhere, she was afraid.

And that was enough to turn Damian Hart into something worse than desperate.

Something ruthless.

⸻

Cliffhanger

Back in the room, Lila jolted as Ethan set the cuffs aside and crouched before her, eyes burning.

“You don’t have to fight me,” he whispered. “If you let go, if you trust me, I’ll show you what freedom feels like. I’ll make you forget him.”

She shook her head violently. “Never.”

His smile faded. Something darker slipped into his expression. “Then I’ll break you until you do.”

At that same moment — across the city — Damian’s phone buzzed. A single message flashed on the screen:

Warehouse. Pier 17. She’s here.

Damian’s eyes narrowed, his hand tightening on his gun.

“Hold on, Lila,” he murmured to the night. “I’m coming.”

But as Ethan leaned closer, fingers brushing her cheek, Lila realized something with bone-deep certainty:

Whoever reached her first — father or son — her life would never be the same.