Page 22 of Auctioned Innocence

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Contacts in the criminal underworld who might know Dominic’s operation.

But as I pass, I catch James watching me with an expression that doesn’t match his concerned words.

Something calculating.

Something dangerous.

I file it away—another piece of the puzzle, another potential threat.

Right now, Sofia is all that matters.

Finding her. Saving her. Bringing her home.

And making every person who touched her pay with their blood.

Because that’s who I am.

That’s what I do.

I am the monster who guards the Renaldi gates.

The weapon they point at their enemies.

And for Sofia, I’ll become something even worse.

5

SOFIA

My head feels like it’s stuffed with cotton, my thoughts moving slow and sticky through the fog.

Something soft is beneath me—silk sheets, expensive thread count.

The kind Mom insists on for the main house, imported from Italy at some ridiculous price.

But this isn’t my bed.

Reality crashes back like a tidal wave.

The intruders. The phone call to Marco. The chemical-soaked cloth over my face.

I bolt upright, fighting down panic as the room spins.

My stomach heaves, but I swallow hard against the nausea.

Focus. Assess the situation. Plan your moves. Stay alive.

Marco’s voice in my head, from all those security briefings I used to roll my eyes at.

Now I cling to his instructions like a lifeline.

The room is beautiful in the way expensive hotel suites are beautiful—all cream and gold, abstract art on the walls, fresh flowers in crystal vases.

But the windows are blocked by ornate metal grates, and the elegant double doors are reinforced steel beneath their wooden veneer.

A gilded cage.

I scan the room methodically, the way Dad and Marco taught me.

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