5 – Between Two Fires
881 Words
Sienna's POV
I didn’t sleep.
Not after finding the bullet.
It sat on my nightstand like a loaded truth, cold and gleaming under the lamp. A quiet promise that someone knew. Someone close. Someone watching.
The note hadn’t been signed. The threat hadn’t said her name.
But I knew.
Alessia.
Not her father. Not a bodyguard. Not some faceless underboss in a backroom cigar den.
Her.
Because a woman scorned doesn’t just want to break bones. She wants to crush everything soft and sacred—and leave you bleeding in the silence.
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Lily came by in the morning. I didn’t tell her about the bullet. I didn’t tell her about the security detail Rafael had stationed outside my building either.
Because I was scared.
Not just of Alessia.
But of what Rafael’s world was starting to do to mine.
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” Lily said as she handed me a cinnamon bun and eyed me like she could smell my stress through the walls.
“I’ll stay out of trouble.”
She smirked. “Says the girl caught between a mob prince and a hometown heartthrob.”
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Later that afternoon, I went to Luca’s.
I didn’t plan to stay.
But he opened the door, and I couldn’t bring myself to walk away.
He was warm and quiet. The opposite of the firestorm I’d just come from. He made me grilled cheese. Sat with me on the couch. Let me rest my head on his lap while he ran his fingers through my hair and read out loud from a book he knew I loved.
Peace.
He was peace.
But even wrapped in it, I couldn’t stop remembering the storm.
“You’re not sleeping,” he said softly.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
“I know.”
He tilted my chin. Looked into my eyes like he could hold every broken part of me.
“If you want to leave this all behind,” he said, “we go tonight. I’ll take you somewhere no one can touch you.”
I blinked back heat.
“But you don’t even know if the baby’s yours.”
He touched my stomach. Gentle. Reverent.
“Doesn’t matter. I already love you both.”
I should have kissed him.
I almost did.
Until my phone vibrated.
Once.
Twice.
Then again.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
Nonstop.
Luca glanced at it, confused.
I picked it up.
Notifications flooded the screen.
Sienna Caruso...
Girl from D’Angelo’s engagement party?
That moan tho...
Whoa. She let him record it?
This has to be fake. Right? Right?
My heart stopped.
My hands trembled as I opened a link.
And there I was.
Face tilted. Back arched. Breasts exposed. My mouth open in a perfect, vulnerable “O”.
The masquerade.
The s*x.
Me.
I dropped the phone. Covered my mouth.
Luca picked it up. Watched two seconds.
Then shut it off.
“I—” My throat burned. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know he recorded it.”
“I believe you.”
His hands were on my shoulders now, steadying me.
My body went cold, then hot.
“This was her,” I whispered. “It had to be. Alessia got her hands on footage. Surveillance. Something.”
“She’s making you a target.”
I nodded. Numb.
“She’s not going to stop.”
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I stayed at Luca’s that night. Not because I needed his touch. But because I needed a place that still felt untouched.
He made up the guest bed. Sat on the edge with me.
“You don’t have to stay in this war,” he said. “You don’t owe Rafael anything.”
I looked at him, broken.
“Even if he’s the father?”
Luca nodded.
“You owe yourself first.”
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The next morning
I woke to banging on the front door.
Not police.
Not neighbors.
Rafael.
Luca opened the door before I could move.
“What the f**k did you do?” he snapped.
Rafael’s eyes were wild, hair mussed, tie half undone. Like he hadn’t slept.
“She leaked it,” he said. “Alessia leaked the footage. Not me. I would never—”
“I know,” I whispered.
They both turned toward me.
Rafael stepped in. “I’m fixing it. Every channel. Every copy. Every man who’s ever touched that file will wish he hadn’t been born.”
“I’m already exposed,” I said. “The damage is done.”
“I’ll bury her.”
“No.” My voice cracked. “You’ll make this worse. That’s what you do.”
“I protect what’s mine.”
Luca cut in. “She’s not yours.”
And that’s when they both looked at me.
Waiting.
Breathing.
Burning.
“I need time,” I said.
It was the only truth I had left.
Rafael’s jaw clenched like he wanted to argue. Luca went still beside me.
But then something inside me turned sideways.
A tilt. A wave. The floor swam.
I grabbed the doorframe. Blinked. Heat flushed through my skin.
“I—” My knees buckled.
And then everything spun black.
Last thing I heard:
“Sienna!”
“Move, she’s going down!”
“Call someone! Now—”
- Writer
