Rain screamed and ducked in fear but Alexander held her up and practically meshed their bodies together. “Stay close, Rain.” That deep voice was suddenly the only thing she could sense as her eyes were closed shut from fear and her legs had turned to jelly. “When I tell you to run—” he pulled her to the side and then finally ducked, taking her with him. She heard the sound of a click and she opened her eyes to see that he had brought out a gun of his own and he was loading it with bullets. The loud gunshots stopped a few seconds later, transporting them back to that eerie silence that unnerved her. Rain wanted to look around to search for Romeo and Luigi, her and Alexander had their backs pressed up against a wall that it’s edges were already crumbling, the bullets that had been rained down on it seemed to add more damage. “—you run straight to the car, understood?” He sounded so calm, so I’m control like countless bullets hadn’t just aimed for their heads. Rain stared at the man

Alexander stared into space, lost in thought while trying to ignore Elisa’s annoying pacing at his bedside in the guestroom.Her sneakers squeaked at some point and his lips twitched.“Would you stop that?”It had been four days, four fucking days and the woman has decided that she would pin herself to his side for the rest of eternity. She was worried about him and his health, yes, she didn’t want him to work which was also understandable because Elisa was a woman who didn’t understand how running an empire worked.The second the people who plotted against him realized he was still bedridden, they would see it as an excuse to attack and yes, they would know if he was.He had been avoiding acknowledging that fact because it would change everything for everyone under him and it would change the way he saw the people he considered family. There was a spy among them, a spy that has so skillfully hidden himself or herself and blended in completely and then continued to stay in the sh

His brown eyes stared straight into his father’s, they were fierce, angry as he always was…no, it wasn’t anger, it was disappointment.Alexander knew he would never be enough for his father, he knew that he would never be good enough...But he tried, he tried so fucking hard everyday just to hear one encouragement from the man.“Again!”That one word has pushed him over the edge so many times, literally.Alexander stood under the falling snow, shirtless and a gun in his hand. His entire frame shaking from the cold.He stood in front of fifteen dogs, each chained to individual poles and each of them raised personally by him since he was five years old.Alexander’s thirteen-year-old body shivered and his teeth chattered uncontrollably. He was dripping wet, from head to toe…his brown hair matted to his forehead and he resisted the urge to heave as his stomach felt hollow.This was his fifth try today, the first to fourth ended up with him getting three hard punches to his stomach, his f

“Your brother here is going to sign a contract that’s going to make things easier for both of you, aren’t you Nicky?”Nicholas’ eyes were down, he seemed almost ashamed.As he should be.Rain thought to herself.The bastard never once apologized for leaving her, he avoided the topic whenever it was brought up tried to justify everything he did.Typical Nicholas.“What kind of contract?” Rain asked trying hard not to let her disappointment show. Rain recalled her life in Japan before she decided to come to Italy.She always felt alone despite living in the same house with three other girls. She stayed up all night and didn’t rest through the day, she would write…and write and write and her publisher would keep asking for more, keep setting deadlines. The was like a walking corpse, writing about things she wished she could have in her life and then crying after every chapter, depression consumed her and though her friends tried to help, they couldn’t but she made them believe tha

“Has he left?” Enzo stood behind Alexander and Aldo and Vlad stood by the door to his study, both of them on high alert as he went through the files in his hands. The profiles of each and every man that had attacked them at the basement…and almost killed Rain. Recently, that was the only part of the incident he could focus on. That split moment when her life left her body and she had been so cold and lifeless in his arms haunted him…it made him question so much about himself. If Nicholas managed to repeat that stupid shit he pulled a few weeks ago, she would have to die by his hands…those were the rules and one that his father had called to remind him after Andrea who Alexander had almost forgotten existed, told his father about Rain. “He left early this morning, he went to see his sister beforehand but she didn’t open the door so they didn’t get to see each other before he left,” Enzo said from behind him. Alexander’s lips twitched. Was he just about to smile? Why did he feel s