Chapter 57
Aria’s POV
“Boss wants her clothes to be taken off and her pictures taken.”
I felt too weak. I didn’t know how long it had been. It felt like months.
But I heard them say it was just two days. But with little food and water, I could not sustain.
If I go on like this. I may be dead by tomorrow.
Or maybe it was the cancer.
Fuck. I… needed my drugs.
My body was nothing but bone and bruises, my skin stretched too thin, too pale under the dim, flickering bulb ovethest My tongue tasted metallic. It came from the back of my throat–blood, maybe, or just the taste of my own rotting insides Withdrawal clawed through me, shaking my fingers, making my breath come too fast, too shallow. My head lolled back against the damp concrete wall, but I forced myself to keep my eyes open.
Don’t pass out. Not again.
The room smelled of mildew, sweat, and cigarettes. I wasn’t alone. I could hear them moving beyond the metal bars, their hushed voices sharp like knives slicing through the damp air.
“She still awake?”
A grunt. The scrape of a chair against the floor.
“Yeah. Barely.”
Barely. They weren’t wrong.
I was slipping, my body shutting down piece by piece. The hunger was a dull, constant gnawing now, a background noise barely registered anymore.
But the lack of blood in my body? That was worse. That was pure fucking agony. My nerves were on fire, my veins screaming for something, anything to numb it. But they wouldn’t give me that. They knew better.
I closed my eyes. Breathed. Focused.
They were waiting for orders. Orders from the man who held my leash, the one who’d stolen me from Dominic like a stray fucking dog and locked me in this cage.
He liked to take his time. Liked to make sure I knew exactly how powerless I was before he sent his little dogs in to do the dirty work.
I wasn’t sure I cared anymore.
Let them strip me. Let them take their fucking pictures. What did it matter? My body wasn’t mine anymore. It belonged to him. It belonged to the disease eating me from the inside out. It belonged to the addiction curling around my spine like a serpent, whispering in my ear that I’d do anything for just one more hit.
My breath hitched. I pressed my forehead against my knees, nails digging into my arms hard enough to draw blood. Just one more.
One more, and I swear I’ll fight.
The door creaked open. Footsteps. Heavy boots.
I didn’t look up. Didn’t move.
Stay still, stay quiet, don’t fight.
That was the rule. Fighting made it worse. Fighting got mw…
A hand grabbed my chin, yanking my face up. Fingers dug into my jaw, forcing my eyes open.
I blinked against the harsh light.
The man in front of me wasn’t one of the usuals.
No. This one was new.
Young. Dark hair cropped close to his skull, ey too much. The kind that didn’t hesitate.
His grip tightened.
“You’re not gonna make it much longer, are you?”
I swallowed. Said nothing.
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Chapter 57
He huffed out a breath. “Shame. Boss liked you.”
Bullshit. If the boss liked me, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be starving. I wouldn’t be shaking apart at the seams, dying slow in the dark like some fucking animal.
Maybe Victoria was pissed.
His thumb brushed over my cheekbone.
Not gentle. Just… testing. Like he was seeing how much give there was before I cracked.
I bared my teeth.
He laughed. “Still got a little fight left, huh?”
A flick of his wrist, and I was shoved back against the wall, my skull bouncing off the concrete with a sickening thud.
I gasped, black spots bursting behind my eyes.
“Strip her.”
Hands. Too many hands. Ripping, tearing, pulling at my already bloodied and spiked clothes.
I thrashed. Bit. Clawed.
Someone cursed. A fist met my ribs, sharp pain cutting through the haze, and I folded, breath stolen.
I was losing. Again.
And then-
A sound. Distant. A low, rumbling boom, followed by the rattling of metal.
The hands on me stilled.
Boom!!
Another was heard.
Closer.
Shouting.
The new guy snapped his head toward the door, barking orders in a language I barely understood.
I curled in on myself, heart pounding.
This wasn’t normal.
This was-
The next explosion rocked the building.
Concrete dust rained down from the ceiling.
Gunfire. Screams. The sickening crunch of bodies hitting the floor.
A new voice cut through the chaos, deep and sharp as a blade.
“Secure the girl.”
No.
No, no, no.
Not another man. Not another fucking set of hands.
I forced myself up onto my elbows, body screaming in protest.”
The new guy turned back to me, expression unreadable.
And then-
A bullet took him in the head.
His body hit the ground with a dull thud, blood pooling fast.
My breath caught.
The man standing in the doorway was a shadow against the smoke–filled light, but I knew that silhouette.
Tall. Broad shoulders. A presence like a storm rolling in.
Not a buyer.
Not an enemy.
“Aria.”
Chapter 57 Familiar.
His.
I tried to speak. Tried to move.
My limbs wouldn’t cooperate. My vision swam
Heavy boots. A hand, gripping my arm, pulling me up, steadying me when my legs gave out.
“Come on,” he said. “We’re getting you out of here.”
I clung to him.
Not because I trusted him.
But because I had no fucking choice. I couldn’t recognize him at first. My brain felt short circuited.
The world tilted. My body felt weightless, the ground slipping away beneath me as strong arms wrapped around me. Dominic.
He was here.
I could feel him his warmth, his strength, the solid press of his chest against me as he lifted me like I weighed nothing. Like
I wasn’t a mess of bruises and weakness, like I wasn’t slipping in and out of consciousness,
I wanted to say something.
Wanted to ask how? How did you find me?
But my throat was raw, my lips too cracked, my body too tired to force the words out,
The sound of gunfire rattled in the distance, but Dominic barely reacted. His grip on me didn’t waver. His heart was hammering under my cheek, fast and steady, but his steps were controlled, precise.
I knew what that meant.
He was furious,
Not the usual, sharp kind of anger I had seen before. Not the type that came with threats and cold words and smirks filled with danger.
No.
This was something else.
This was rage.
This was war.
I forced my head up, my vision still blurry, but I caught the tension in his jaw, the lethal glint in his eyes as he carried me through the wreckage.
His men followed, moving like shadows, their weapons still raised, scanning every dark corner. The air was thick with smoke and the sharp scent of gunpowder.
One of them stepped closer. “Boss, car’s out back.”
Dominic gave a single nod, shifting me slightly in his arms. I barely had the strength to keep my arms around his neck. “Anyone left?” he asked, voice low and controlled.
Matthias–the man I recognized from before–answered. “No one breathing.”
Dominic exhaled through his nose. “Good.”
I swallowed hard.
He had killed all of them.
For me.
I should have been scared. Should have felt something close to horror.
But all I felt was… relief.
Because if he hadn’t?
I would still be in that room.
Still be trapped in the dark, waiting for whatever cruel fate Mikael had planned next.
Dominic’s hold on me tightened as we stepped outside, the cold night air biting at my damp skin. I shivered, curling into him instinctively.
He noticed.
Without a word, he shifted me, peeling off his jacket and wrapping it around me before pulling me closer again.
Chapter 57
I let him.
I let myself sink into him, my fingers weakly clutching at his shirt.
I was too tired to pretend I didn’t need him right now.
The car door opened, and Dominic carefully placed me inside. The second my back hit the leather seat, exhaustion pulled at me again. My eyelids felt heavy, my limbs useless.
But just before sleep could drag me under, I felt his hand.
Warm. Firm. Resting against my cheek.
“Stay with me, gattina,” he murmured.
I forced my eyes open, my lips parting, trying to speak.
Nothing came out.
Dominic’s jaw clenched, his thumb brushing over my skin in the gentlest touch I had ever felt from him.
“I’ve got you,” he said.
And for the first time in forever-
I believed him.
Gunshots.
Loud. Echoing through the night and into
my ears
I flinched against Dominic’s chest, my body too weak to do anything else.
The car swerved, tires screeching as bullets shattered against metal. One of the windows cracked. Someone cursed. The scent of burning rubber filled the air as we sped down the road, escaping whatever was left of Mikael’s men.
Then it was nothing.
Silence.
I felt Dominic’s breath against my hair, fast and uneven. Felt the tension coiling in his muscles as he held me tighter, as if keeping me close was the only thing keeping him sane.
I tried to lift my head, tried to speak, but I barely had the strength.
“Shh,” he murmured, his fingers brushing against my cheek. “Don’t move.”
I didn’t.
Not when his grip tightened, not when his heartbeat pounded against my ear.
And then-
I felt it.
His lips.
Soft. Gentle. Pressed against my forehead. I wondered how he could kiss my dirty haired.
A breath.
A whisper of warmth.
And then… “Fuck.”
Yeah it smelled bad.
I wanted to say, but my vocal cords is lost.
I blinked slowly, forcing my eyes open.
Dominic was staring at me, his jaw tight, his eyes dark and unreadable.
And then I realized-
He wasn’t just looking at me.
He was looking at the bruises.
At the ugly, purpling marks littering my skin. At the cuts, the dried blood, the faint tremble in my fingers.
His expression changed.
Something dark. Dangerous.
Like he wanted to murder someone with his bare hands.
“No one,” he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper, “will ever take you from me again.”
His arms curled around me cradling ma
Chapter 57
I swallowed, my throat dry and sore.
But I didn’t say anything.
Because for the first time, I wasn’t sure there were words.
It was just us.
Just the quiet, suffocating promise that Dominic De Luca was about to burn the entire fucking world down-
For me.
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