Nico… 

My heart skipped a beat as I turned around and saw him there standing behind me, harids tucked in his dark trousers. I gulped. 

My luck was terrible when it came to escaping. From one cage to another. 

Nico tilted his head slightly, his grin lazily curling like smoke. “Going somewhere, Sweetheart?” 

I stepped back instinctively, pulse thundering in my ears. “Just needed air.” 

He chuckled, low and smooth, like he’d heard that line a hundred times. 

“Right,” he drawled, stepping closer. “Air with a pocket full of cash and a face like a cornered mouse.” 

I didn’t reply. My eyes flicked toward the door again, too late. He was already between me and the only freedom I could taste. 

Without a word, he gestured with his head. “Come on.” 

I didn’t move. 

He stepped in and took my wrist not cruelly, but firmly and led me down the hall. Not toward Dominic’s quarters. Not toward any of the guard checkpoints. 

To the left wing. 

Where no one went without invitation. 

He pushed open the tall black door and guided me inside his private office. The walls were matte charcoal, lined with shelves full of antique books and liquor bottles. A couch sat beneath a wide window veiled in sheer curtains, moonlight casting silver across the marble floor. 

Nico closed the door behind him with a soft click. 

“You can breathe,” he said casually. “I’m not dragging you to Dominic. He doesn’t need to know.” 

I stared at him, skeptical. 

He walked past me, poured himself a drink from a crystal decanter, then perched on the edge of his desk like we were just old friends catching up. 

“I have to say,” he said with a smirk, “I admire your consistency. You’re not very good at escaping, but you’re dedicated.” 

I didn’t respond. My spine was tight, shoulders high. I didn’t trust the quiet way he spoke. 

“Still,” he went on, sipping his drink, “there’s something impressive about it. Even after everything he’s done to you, you still try. Makes a man wonder why.” 

My voice came out hoarse. “Because I’m tired.” 

That surprised him. 

He blinked once, then set his glass down. “Tired?” 

I nodded, the tears finally burning too close to hold back. 

“I’m tired of being used. Of being passed around. Of being watched. Of being touched when I don’t want to be. Of being punished when I breathe wrong.” My voice cracked. “I’m tired of surviving instead of living.” 

The silence that followed was deep. 

And when Nico looked at me again, the smirk was gone. His eyes had softened just enough to show something unexpected. 

Sympathy. 

Or maybe just opportunity. 

He stood, walked toward me slow, deliberate. “You really want out?” 

I hesitated. “Of course I do.” 

He nodded thoughtfully, as if weighing something heavy in his mind 

“I can help you,” he said finally. “I can make you 

My heart kicked. “How?” 

Successfully unlocked! von’t even smell your scent on the wind.” 

“I have connections he doesn’t know about. Safehouses. Routes. A plan that’s been waiting.” 

I narrowed my eyes. “Why?” 

1/4 

Chapter 125 

He gave me a small, wry smile. “Because I’m not him.” 

But there was something darker behind those words. Something sharp. 

“And what do you want in return?” I asked, voice low. 

His eyes gleamed. 

“Information. Access. When the time is right, you help me bring him down.” 

I froze. 

So Carmen was right. 

The traitor wasn’t some low–level soldier. 

It was Nico. 

Dominic’s right hand. His childhood friend. His second in command. 

And now the man offering me salvation. 

At a price. 

“You’d betray him,” I said slowly, trying to hear it out loud. “Just like that.” 

Nico shrugged, but his gaze never left mine. “He stopped being my brother a long time ago. You just didn’t see it yet.” 

I stared at the floor, thoughts spiraling, stomach flipping. 

He stepped closer, his voice a whisper now. “He doesn’t own you. He never will.” 

His words echoed in my mind. 

He doesn’t own you. 

But didn’t he? In every bruised inch of my soul, every broken moan, every fucking time I whispered his name into the dark when I hated myself most 

Didn’t he already own every part of me? 

My voice came out hollow. “Can I ask you something, Nico?” 

He frowned slightly, lifting his glass again. “Shoot.” 

I hesitated. The words scratched at my throat, too heavy to swallow. 

“Why?” I asked, finally. “Why betray Dominic? To Mikael, of all people. What could possibly be worth this?” 

The question hit him harder than I expected. 

His body stiffened. He set the glass down with a soft clink on the edge of the desk and straightened, eyes dropping to the floor for a beat–like he’d been waiting for someone to ask him, but never thought they would. 

When he looked up, the mask was gone. 

What replaced it wasn’t rage. Or cruelty. 

It was exhaustion. 

“I’m tired,” he said, and it wasn’t sarcastic this time. It was quiet. Heavy. Real. “Tired of being less.” 

I blinked. “Less?” 

Nico laughed softly, bitter and low. “You think Dominic’s the only one with ghosts? With scars? I’ve been compared to him since we were kids. Since the cradle. My father used to call him ‘the one with a spine.’ Said I was too soft. Not cold enough. Not brutal enough. Every step I took, Dominic was already two ahead. Every time I got blood on my hands, he already had it soaking his suit.” 

His smile faded. 

“And no matter how much I did for him–how many bodies I buried, how many nights I protected his empire–he still looked at me like I was just his lackey. Not his brother. Not his equal.”, 

I swallowed. The bitterness in his voice was like rust on steel. 

“And Victoria?” I asked quietly. 

Nico flinched. 

“She was mine,” he said, voice tight. “Once. Before Dominic. Before she decided power mattered more than loyalty. She used me to get close to him.” 

I shook my head slowly, the pieces falling into place. “So this… all of this… it’s a competition. You want to win. You want to beat him.” 

Nico’s smile was sharp again now, but it didn’t touch his eyes. 

Chapter 125 

“No,” he said. “I want to dismantle him. Brick by brick. Strip the crown off his head and show the world the man he really is underneath. Cold. Broken and alone.” 

I stayed still. 

Because despite the fury, the betrayal, the lies there was something in Nico that was real. 

His pain wasn’t fake. 

Just twisted. 

Darkened by years in Dominic’s shadow. I didn’t know how to feel about that at all 

He stepped closer to me, slow and sure. 

“Stay with me, mia bella,” he said, voice low, seductive in its rawness. 

His hands found my waist, fingers gliding across the curve of my hip with terrifying familiarity. 

“Let’s burn this world down together.” 

I didn’t know what to say. 

The words sat on my tongue, heavy, splintered, burning at the edges. 

Nico’s breath fanned across my cheek. He was too close. Too steady. And I hated how I didn’t pull away. 

I hated that a part of me was listening. 

To him. 

To the promise of freedom, even if it came from the mouth of a traitor. 

My heart twisted. 

Dominic had taken everything from me my body, my choices, my soul some days. But he’d also protected me, in his own dark, possessive way. Saved my mother. Waged war for my name. Looked at me like I was the only thing that made his brutal world tolerable. 

And Nico? 

He was promising to break that world to free me from it. 

Even if it meant betrayal. Even if it meant fire that would burn me. 

Nico leaned closer. His lips brushed against my jaw, featherlight. Testing. Teasing. 

“Help me,” he whispered, “and you’ll finally be free.” 

I should’ve shoved him away. 

But my eyes fluttered closed instead. 

And when his mouth found mine, I didn’t resist right away. 

The kiss was slow. Soft. Nothing like Dominic’s violent, claiming mouth. It was deliberate. Calculated. Gentle in the way poison is when it first hits your bloodstream. 

Nico kissed me like he wanted me to forget every scream, every bruise, every time Dominic shattered me against his own body like glass. 

His lips lingered. His hands stayed at my waist. 

And I let it happen. 

Just for a breath. 

Just long enough to feel what it might be like to have control. 

When I finally pulled back, I was shaking–not from fear, but from the chaos brewing behind my ribs. 

Nico stepped back too, expression unreadable, that smirk curling just faintly at the edge of his mouth. 

“Goodnight, Nico,” I said quietly. 

He raised a brow. “Just Nico?” 

I met his eyes. My voice was steady, even if my hands weren’t. 

“We aren’t dating, are we?” 

He chuckled. “True. But soon.” 

I forced a smile as I turned away, resting my hand on the doorframe. 

“I’ll think about it. What you said, I would give you my answer tomorrow.”