217Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFlRDGjgEg
Luca woke with his head heavy, his thoughts slow to catch up. For a moment he thought he was back in Daniel’s spare room, curled on the old cot, but the air was wrong. Too clean. Too cold. His eyes tracked the ceiling, pale cream with carved molding that looked older than him.
He pushed himself up, stomach twisting, and the rest of the room sharpened into view. The bed was wide, the sheets smooth as silk, the kind he had only seen folded in shop windows. Thick curtains smothered the windows, and a rug spread under his bare feet, soft enough to hide the floor. A wardrobe gleamed against the wall, its surface polished like glass. The place felt untouched, perfect, like something from a world he had never been part of. It made his skin crawl.
His chest tightened, panic cutting through the haze. He stumbled to the door, grabbed the handle, and twisted hard. Locked. He tried again, harder, shoulder slamming into the wood until the jolt burned through his arm. Nothing. His pulse hammered as he turned to the windows.
The curtains tore back in his grip, daylight spilling across glass that looked thick enough to hold back a storm. Still he clawed at the latch, rattling it until his hands stung. It wouldn’t give. He climbed onto the sill, shoving the window open an inch before it stuck, leaving him with nothing but air.
The drop stretched two stories down to gravel. His toes scraped the outside wall searching for footing that wasn’t there. He gripped the frame tighter, breath sharp, mind screaming to move, to climb, to risk the fall if it meant not being trapped.
“You’ll break your neck before you reach the ground.”
The voice froze him harder than the height.
Luca twisted his head, breath still ragged, and found a man in the doorway.
Raven Volkov.
He filled the room without moving. Broad shoulders under a dark tailored suit, the fabric cutting sharp against muscle. A tattoo curved up the side of his neck, black ink breaking the line of his collar. At his hip, barely visible under the jacket, rested a pistol in its holster, the faint gleam of metal like another eye watching. But it was his gaze that crushed the air out of Luca’s chest. Cold, pale gray eyes, sharp as steel, staring at him as if peeling back skin to see what lay beneath.
Raven closed the door behind him without hurry and stood watching, silent. His presence pressed down heavier than the silence had before.
For a moment he didn’t speak. He only looked at him, eyes unblinking, as though weighing how much trouble Luca was worth. The quiet stretched, punishment in itself.
Luca’s grip slipped, arms trembling with effort, and he scrambled back inside. His chest heaved as he slid down the sill to the rug, knees drawn up, eyes locked on the man across the room.
Raven adjusted his cufflink before he spoke. His voice was calm, steady, carrying no strain. “You’ll stay here. You’ll do nothing foolish. You’ll stay out of my way.”
Luca shook his head, words spilling out before he could stop them. “Please, I can’t—”
“You’re wise enough to know what’s best for you,” Raven cut in. His eyes didn’t shift. “Your living depends on Ivanov. Remember that.”
The words hit harder than the threat. Luca’s head lifted, confusion breaking through the fear, but Raven was already turning. He opened the door with the same calm he had entered, and when it shut behind him the silence weighed heavier than his presence.
217Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBUQAcaDPdF
The latch clicked and silence took the room again.
Luca stayed pressed to the wall for a long moment, lungs dragging in air that wouldn’t steady. The echo of Raven’s voice clung to him, each word replaying sharper than the last. Your living depends on Ivanov. He didn’t understand, and that made it worse.
His hands shook as he dragged them over his face. He forced himself upright, but the strength went out of his knees, and he dropped onto the rug instead. The soft weave gave no comfort. He bowed his head, whispering into the quiet.
“Daniel.”
It was barely a sound, more breath than word. He tried again, firmer this time, as if speaking the name could summon him. “Daniel.”
The tightness in his throat broke and tears slid free before he could fight them back. He curled forward, arms around himself, rocking with the rhythm of his own shivering breaths. The silence around him was heavy, pressing down until he felt small enough to break.
A memory cracked through the fear. Rain on the bridge, cold drops pelting his skin until his teeth chattered. He had been ready to slip over the rail, to let the river take him. Then Daniel’s jacket had wrapped over his shoulders, heavy and warm, and Daniel’s voice had cut through the storm. Come on, kid. Let’s get you out of here. A hand steady at his back, guiding him down.
The memory only twisted the knife deeper. He had promised himself he wouldn’t fall back to that place. He had sworn he would never be weak again. Yet here he was, trapped, helpless, waiting for someone else to decide what became of him.
Maybe it was what he deserved. Maybe his parents had seen it too, the curse that clung to him. Why else would they have left him behind, nothing but a bad omen dragging through the years? Every good thing slipped through his fingers, and now Daniel too would slip away if Raven’s words meant what they sounded like.
He pressed his face into his knees, whispering the name again, though it came out broken. “Daniel.”
The walls seemed to lean closer as the light shifted across the room. They dressed themselves in fine paint and silk curtains, but all he saw was a cage. A cage too quiet, too polished, and no less cruel for its comfort.
He curled smaller on the rug, holding himself tight, and let the silence have him.
217Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzY4dXamk8s
*****
Raven buried himself in work the next morning. The study was dim except for the glow of a desk lamp, paper stacked in ordered columns, signatures laid down in his sharp hand. Outside, headlines dragged the Volkov name through courtrooms and newsfeeds, but he never faltered.
The door opened. Maximus came in with his usual weight, boots heavy, jacket crooked. A cigarette dangled from his fingers, already half lifted to his mouth before Raven looked up.
“Not here,” Raven said, his voice flat.
Maximus froze, then shoved the cigarette back into the pack with a muttered curse. “You smoke in here,” he grumbled, half under his breath.
“I do not announce it,” Raven replied, eyes already returning to the papers. The silence that followed said the matter was closed.
Maximus dropped into the chair with a curse, shoving the cigarette away.
His knee bounced, words spilling fast. “DeLuca were working with Vale. That’s why the Mexicans caught the shipment. Vale ratted us out so he could take the contracts for himself. Minister of Defence, clean businessman, and now supplier to the government without your name attached. He wanted you out of the game.”
Raven’s pen stilled. His gaze lifted, pale and steady.
Maximus leaned in, sharp. “You import, He sells it clean. That wasn’t enough. He wanted everything. So he fed Reid DeLuca, and Reid fed the Mexicans and now every rival thinks the Volkovs are bleeding out.”
Raven’s eyes darkened, and for a moment the memory played clear ; Charles Vale on his knees in the dirt, blood streaking his shirt as Raven sliced away each finger, one by one. The pleas…the screams…the terror in his eyes.
The final silence when Raven ended it. Satisfaction had burned cold through him then. Betrayal had a price, and Vale paid it in pieces.
“Vale thought greed would shield him,” Raven said, his voice low.
Maximus cursed. “He thought he’d bury you and Reid’s too reckless to see what happens next.”
Raven poured a measure of whiskey into crystal and set it aside untouched. “If Reid touched what belongs to me, he won’t survive it. Vale’s already in the ground.”
Maximus shoved back from the chair, voice sharp. “You’ll drag us into war.”
“War drains the weak.”
The door slammed behind him, leaving the study in silence again. Raven lifted the phone from its cradle.
“Find that bastard and put him in the torture room.”
The glass sat steady in his hand. The silence closed in heavier than before.
ns216.73.216.33da2
and then Add to home screen.