Page 247 of Untamed

I’m still wearing the same black shirt, sleeves rolled, the cuffs soaked dark and crusted at the edges. There’s blood on my knuckles, some on my neck. A line of it dried beneath my jaw like a warning written in silence.

I don’t wipe it off, let them see it. Let them remember what happens when someone touches what’s mine.

Inside, the villa is quiet. I walk the halls with purpose, but the floor creaks like it’s trying to announce me anyway.

Dante’s voice comes low from the kitchen. “You get what you needed?”

I nod once, still walking. “Is it done?”

“It’s started.” He doesn’t ask any more. He doesn’t need to.

I climb the stairs slowly, fingers brushing the carved wood of the bannister out of habit. The guest bedroom door is cracked. Lightfrom the bedside lamp spills into the hallway, dim and warm. She left it on. She hasn’t been able to go into my bedroom since that night.

My chest tightens.

She’s curled under the blankets, one hand fisted near her cheek, lashes dark against her skin. Still wearing that bracelet.

That’s my girl.

I lean against the doorframe, watching her breathe. Steady.Safe. Completely unaware that hours ago, I had a man begging at my feet before the truth spilled from his throat with his blood.

I should shower, clean up before she wakes. But I don’t move.

Because standing here, in the doorway of the only thing in my life that doesn’t reek of death and betrayal, I feel it again, the pull.

The war out there is real. But the war inside me?It’s her.

When I stepped into the shower, the water ran red before it turned clear.

Even now, fresh clothes on, hands clean, hair damp, I can still smell him. Still feel the way the blade dragged through cartilage. The way truth spilled out only when there was nothing left to hold it in.

I take the steps down two at a time.

The sun hasn’t broken over the hills yet, but Dante’s already in the kitchen, elbows on the table, black coffee in one hand, gun within reach of the other.

He glances up when I enter, eyes scanning me like he’s checking for more than blood.

“You didn’t sleep.”

“Nah, didn’t deserve to.”

I pull out the chair across from him and drop into it, forearms resting on the edge of the table. Dante waits. He doesn’t speak, doesn’t push. So, I give him the truth.

"Adriano was the leak. Gate rotations. Code access. He’s been feeding someone updates through a burner; thirty grand hit his brother’s account last month. Leo confirmed it.”

Dante’s face tightens. He doesn’t ask the obvious because he already knows the answer. “That fuck.” And then, softly, dangerously, he adds, “You put him down?”

“Slow.”

Dante exhales through his nose and takes a long sip of coffee.

“That’s one. There’ll be more.”

“Yeah. There’s more.”

I reach into my coat and slide the burner phone across the table. He looks down at the screen. Still open...still glowing.

Package confirmed. Gate access cleared.

---