Dominc’s pov 

The warehouse smelled like death the moment I stepped in. 

I stepped over the body of Victoria’s informant, blood still pooling around his head where Luca had put two bullets. 

The man had squealed like a pig before he died, giving us what we needed. 

“Boss,” Luca said, wiping his hands on a dirty rag. “The address he gave us… it’s outside the city. About two hours north.” 

I stared down at the corpse, feeling nothing. Three days. 

Three fucking days since Victoria took Aria to another location, and this was the first real lead we’d gotten. Every hour that passed felt like a knife twisting in my chest. 

“Could be a trap,” Luca continued, his voice careful. “Victoria’s smart enough to feed us false information through expendable assets.” 

“I don’t care.” 

“Dom, listen to me…” 

“I said I don’t care.” I turned to face him, and whatever he saw in my expression made him take a step back. 

“Even if it’s a trap, I’ll walk through hell to get her back. Set up the 

convoy. 

Full arsenal.” 

Luca nodded but didn’t move. “What if she’s already dead?” 

The question hung in the air between us like a loaded gun. I’d been asking myself the same thing for three days, torturing myself with possibilities! 

couldn’t control. 

“Then Victoria dies. Simple” 

“And if it’s a trap designed to kill you too?” 

“Then we all die together. Typical live story right? Because I can’t see myself living without her.” 

I saw the surprise on Luca face, but I didn’t have the time 

entertain him right now. 

The drive north felt endless. Every mile stretched like an eternity, every minute another chance for Victoria to hurt Aria in ways I couldn’t protect her from. My hands gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles went white, the leather creaking under the pressure. 

The abandoned mansion sat on fifty acres of overgrown land, a Gothic monstrosity that had been empty for decades. Perfect place for someone like Victoria to conduct her business without interruption. The windows were boarded up, but I could see light leaking through the cracks. 

“Motion sensors along the perimeter,” Luca reported through the earpiece. “At least six armed guards on the grounds. Sniper positions on the roof.” 

“How many men do we have?” 

“Twelve, not counting us.” 

Not great odds, but I’d worked with worse. “Circle around back. Give me ten minutes, then create a distraction. I’m going in the front.” 

“Boss, that’s suicide-” 

“Ten minutes, Luca.” 

1/3 

08:06 Sat, 28 Jun W 

Chapter 202 

I checked my weapons one last time. Two Glocks, extra clips, a knife strapped to my ankle. Not enough firepower to level the building, but enough to cut through whatever stood between me and Aria. 

The front door was unlocked. Of course it was. Victoria wanted me to walk in, wanted me to play her game. Fine. I’d play, but by my rules. 

The foyer was all marble and decay, grand staircases leading to upper floors that probably hadn’t seen footsteps in years, I moved carefully, listening for any sound that might give away enemy positions. 

The first guard came around the corner like an amateur, gun drawn but not ready. I put two bullets in his chest before he could raise his weapon. The silencer kept the shots quiet, but not silent. Someone would have heard. 

“Welcome, Dominic.” 

Victoria’s voice echoed through hidden speakers, coming from everywhere and nowhere. “I was wondering when you’d finally show up. Three days is a long time to leave your precious little dancer in my care.” 

I didn’t respond. Talking would only give away my position. 

“She’s been asking for you, you know. Crying your name in her sleep. Well, when I let her sleep. It’s really quite pathetic.” 

My jaw clenched, but I kept moving. Down a hallway lined with portraits of people who’d been dead for generations. Past rooms filled with furniture covered in dusty sheets. 

“Did you know she thinks you love her? Actually believes that a monster like you is capable of redemption. I’ve been trying to educate her, but she’s remarkably stubborn.” 

The second guard was smarter, hiding behind a doorway and waiting for me to pass. I saw his shadow half a second before he moved, diving left as his shotgun blast tore chunks out of the wall where my head had been. 

I rolled, came up firing, and put three rounds center mass. He dropped without 

sound. 

“Oh, well done! I do love a man who knows how to handle his weapons.” 

Victoria’s laughter crackled through the speakers, high and unhinged. She was enjoying this too much. That was good. People who enjoyed themselves made mistakes. 

I found the stairs leading down to the basement. Of course she’d put Aria 

the basement. Victoria was nothing if not predictable in her dramatics. 

The stairs creaked under my weight despite my efforts to move quietly. Somewhere above me, I heard gunfire, Luca and the boys had started their distraction. 

“Your friends are making quite a lot of noise upstairs,” Victoria’s voice followed me down. “I do hope they’re not damaging anything important. This place has such sentimental value.” 

The basement was a maze of corridors and rooms, probably used for storage when the mansion was inhabited. Now it felt like a tomb, all concrete and shadows and the smell of mold. 

I turned a corner and froze. 

Aria was chained to the wall in a small room at the end of the hallway, barely visible in the dim light. Even from twenty feet away, I could see the blood on her clothes, the way she slumped against her restraints. 

“You shouldn’t have come,” she whispered when she saw me, her voice so quiet talmost didn’t hear it. 

I started toward her, then stopped. This was too easy. Victoria wouldn’t just leave her here unguarded. 

“Oh, but he should have come,” Victoria said, stepping out of the shadows behind Aria. She had a gun pressed against Aria’s temple and something that looked like a remote control in her other hand. “We’ve been having such interesting conversations, haven’t we, dear?” 

Chapter 202 

Aria’s eyes met mine, and I saw the apology there. The resignation. She thought we were both going to die here. 

Maybe we were. 

“Let her go, Victoria. Your problem is with me.” 

“My problem is with your entire fucking family!” The mask of civilized madness slipped, showing the rage underneath. “Do you have any idea what you cost me? What you took from me?” 

“I cost you a lot of things. You’ll have to be more specific.” 

Victoria’s finger tightened on the trigger, and Aria flinched. “Don’t play games with me, Dominic. Not when her life is hanging by a thread.” 

“Then tell me what you want.” 

“I want you to suffer the way I suffered. I want you to lose everything that matters to you, the way I lost everything that mattered to me.” 

She held up the remote control, and I saw the small screen displaying numbers. A countdown timer. 

“This entire building is wired with enough explosives to level a city block. I press this button, we all die. I don’t press it, we all die anyway in about fifteen 

minutes.” 

“Victoria-” 

“Let’s see how much she’s worth to you, Dominic. Do you try to save her and guarantee both your deaths? Or do you run and live with the knowledge that you abandoned her to save yourself?” 

The timer read fourteen minutes and thirty–seven seconds. 

And slowly one by one. 

It drops.