She tried to kill me.
And I still want her.
I should've left her bleeding against that wall.
Should've made her beg.
But that's not how I play.
I chase what's mine until it burns or until I do.
The streets blurred under my tires as I called Niko, my right hand.
"She's slipping intel to Kairos," I barked.
"You want me to ghost her?" he asked.
"No," I growled. "I want to catch her while she's running. She's sexier when she's terrified."
Niko laughed like he understood, but he didn't.
No one did.
This wasn't just about power anymore.
It was about the pulse I couldn't kill. The fire I couldn't walk away from.
I wanted Sienna to be addicted to me.
I wanted her ruined by me.
I wanted her to beg me to stop chasing her, knowing I never would.
I tracked her to a private club buried under layers of fake ownership and mafia fronts.
She walked in draped in crimson silk, owning every eye in the room.
She turned to me.
Her throat was exposed.
I moved behind her, pressing my mouth to the shell of her ear.
"You still carrying that blade, sweetheart? Or did you finally learn who owns you?"
She didn't flinch.
She leaned into me.
"Maybe I like being hunted," she whispered. "Maybe I want to see how far you'll go to claim me."
I slid my hand around her waist, pinning her against me.
"You want to know how far I'll go?"
She shivered when my teeth grazed her neck.
"I'll burn cities for you.
I'll drown, brothers, for you.
And when I catch you, Sienna, I won't ask if you want to be mine. I'll just take."
Her breath hitched, but her fingers laced through mine like she wanted the chains.
"You still don't know who I am," she whispered, teasing.
I spun her around, trapping her against the bar, locking my body into hers.
"I know everything I need to know," I hissed.
"You taste like sin. You live like oxygen.
And you kiss like you're begging me to destroy you."
Her nails scraped along my jaw.
"Destroy me then."
I crashed my mouth to hers, a brutal kiss, hot and heavy, stealing every thought she tried to keep.
But she slipped a note into my jacket pocket.
And when I finally let her go, her wicked smile carved through me.
"Catch me if you can," she whispered and vanished into the crowd.
I pulled out the note.
No address. No signature. Just one word.
Tonight. The note just said Tonight.
No location. No map. No safety net.
But I knew where she wanted me.
The Red Mirage.
A private underground club where deals were carved in flesh and debts were paid in bullets.
I walked in like I owned the floor.
Because I did.
The bass trembled through the walls as bodies tangled on the dance floor like sin on display.
I cut through the crowd until I saw her.
Sienna.
Red silk. Bare back. Heels like weapons.
Dancing with another man.
Laughing like she wasn't mine.
I moved behind her, slow, predatory.
"You've got exactly five seconds to step away from my girl," I snapped at the man.
He turned to challenge me. I broke his jaw with one punch.
The music didn't even stop.
Sienna smiled like she wanted me to break more bones for her.
"You're late," she whispered, teasing.
"I don't show up on time. I show up when it's already mine."
I dragged her through the crowd, slammed her into a shadowed wall, pinning her hands above her head.
Her breathing hitched but her eyes—those wicked eyes—never begged me to stop.
"You think you can run me in circles?" I growled against her throat. "Think you can hide behind games and red silk?"
Her lips brushed my ear.
"I don't want to hide. I want you to chase me harder."
I bit her neck, hard enough to leave a mark.
"You don't know what you're asking for."
"I know exactly what I'm asking for," she moaned. "I want to know what it feels like to be hunted by you until there's nothing left of me."
I slid my hand under her dress, dragging my thumb across the blade strapped to her thigh.
"Still carrying this?" I smirked. "Planning to stab me again?"
"Maybe," she whispered, "but not tonight."
I yanked the knife off her, flipping it, pressing it to her own throat.
"You're dangerous, sweetheart."
"And you're addicted."
The club doors exploded open—gunfire ripping through the music.
Kairos's men flooded the floor, weapons raised.
They weren't here for the party.
They were here for us.
I pressed my lips to hers, tasting her like I might not get another chance.
"This isn't over," I hissed, dragging her behind me as I fired the first shot.
"It's never over with you," she breathed, pressing the spare gun into my palm.
We slipped into the gunfight like we belonged there—back to back, blood in our teeth, fire in our hands.
And right there, in the middle of the chaos, I realized the brutal truth.
I wasn't chasing her anymore.
We were chasing the war together. Gunfire roared through the club like thunder.
Bodies hit the floor.
Screams bled into the music that didn't dare stop.
I fired without thinking—two headshots, a third to the kneecap.
Precision is art. Death is mine.
Sienna pressed against my back, her gun hot and steady.
"You're not going to ask how I knew they'd be here?" she panted between shots.
"I already know," I growled. "You told them."
Her silence was loud enough.
"Was this your game all along, sweetheart?" I barked as I dragged her behind the steel column. "Lure me in, light the fuse, and watch me burn?"
She spun me around, her lips inches from mine.
"Maybe I wanted to see if you'd fight for me."
"I don't fight for girls." I slammed my palm against the wall beside her head. "I fight to own."
Her breath stuttered, but her eyes—damn those eyes—they didn't crack.
"Then own me, Silas."
The gunfire closed in. I dragged her with me, firing back until the clip went dry.
We crashed through the emergency exit, sprinting through the back alley as bullets chased us.
A black SUV screeched around the corner—Niko at the wheel.
"Get in or die pretty!"
I shoved Sienna inside, climbed in after her, and Niko floored it, dodging gunfire.
I grabbed Sienna's wrist and slammed it to the seat, my face inches from hers.
"You tried to set me up."
"You survived."
Her whisper scorched me.
"That's what matters."
I yanked her closer until her knees straddled my lap, caging her in.
"No, sweetheart. What matters now is what I'm going to do to you."
Her breath hitched as I dragged my thumb across her lips.
"You still carrying your little blade?"
She didn't answer.
I slipped my hand under her dress, found the cold steel strapped to her thigh.
Still there. Always there.
"You wanted to stab me again tonight?" I whispered, pressing the blade to her throat now. "You still think you can outplay me?"
"I wasn't going to stab you," she breathed, tilting her neck to bare more skin to me.
"I was going to give you the knife—so you could carve your name into me."
The car swerved. Niko cursed.
I didn't even blink. I didn't even let her go.
"You want me to carve my name into you?" I hissed.
"You better choke on it when you beg for me."
Her pulse thundered under my touch.
She didn't say no.
She kissed me like she was already branded.
Like she knew she belonged to me even if the world burned for it.
But just as the city lights blurred past us, Niko's voice cut through the fire.
"Boss. Problem."
I wrenched my mouth from hers.
"What?"
Niko tossed a folded photo onto the seat between us.
It wasn't her.
It wasn't me.
It was a child.
One Sienna had been meeting secretly.
The back of the photo said one thing:
Your blood. His secret. My leverage. — Kairos.
I turned to Sienna, my grip tightening like a vice.
"Whose kid is this?" I hissed.
Her lips parted, but no words came.
That's when I knew—
I wasn't chasing her anymore.
I was chasing a war I didn't even see coming. Silence hit the car like a loaded gun.
The photo burned in my hand.
I shoved it in Sienna's face, my jaw locked like steel.
"Whose. Kid. Is. This?"
Her pulse raced, but she still tried to play me.
"You think everything's a weapon, Silas. Maybe this isn't one."
Wrong answer.
I gripped her throat, dragging her inches from me.
"Everything is a weapon when it's in my hands. Especially you."
Niko's voice snapped from the front seat.
"Boss, we've got a tail. Two black sedans."
I didn't look away from her.
I wanted the truth more than I wanted to breathe.
"Tell me, Sienna. Now."
Her lips trembled.
"He's not mine."
I narrowed my eyes, fingers tightening around her throat just enough to make her fight for air.
"Then whose is he?"
She cracked.
"Kairos's brother. His blood. His leverage."
"And you've been protecting him?"
She choked on her words, then spat them like glass.
"I've been protecting you. If you kill Kairos's brother's only son, you ignite a war you can't win."
I growled, dragging her closer, voice razor-sharp.
"You don't get to decide what wars I fight."
Her nails scraped across my chest.
"Maybe I already have."
Gunfire exploded behind us—bullets ripping past the SUV.
Niko swerved hard, tires screeching.
"They're trying to box us in, boss!"
I shoved Sienna down, window open, gun up—firing rounds without missing a beat.
"Where's the kid?" I snapped.
"Safe."
I fired another shot, one of the sedans veering off into a wall of flames.
"Where. Is. He."
Her voice was ragged.
"South docks. Cargo ship. He's being moved tonight. Kairos doesn't trust me anymore."
The second sedan rammed us hard, metal crunching, sending us spinning.
I fired straight through the windshield—a dead shot to the driver's skull.
The car skidded. The tail was gone.
I holstered my gun, yanked Sienna back onto my lap, my pulse thundering like war drums.
"You don't lie to me again. You don't make my moves for me. You don't breathe without me owning it."
Her lips parted, her body trembling against me—but her eyes still burned with that sweet, wicked rebellion.
"And if I do?" she whispered.
I leaned in, my mouth dragging across her jaw.
"Then I'll break you so slowly you'll beg me to finish you."
She shuddered like she wanted that.
But Niko's next words burned through me.
"Boss. It's not just the kid. We've got another problem."
I didn't move.
"What?"
"The woman your father's been engaged to…" Niko's knuckles whitened on the wheel.
"She's not who we thought she was."
I tightened my grip on Sienna, heart slamming against my ribs.
"She's not her real mother, boss. She's Kairos's sister."
The air detonated between us.
"You're lying."
Niko's voice didn't shake.
"DNA match. Confirmed five minutes ago. She was planted in your father's life years ago. Long game."
I dragged my fingers through my hair, rage snapping inside me like a lit fuse.
"So what you're telling me," I hissed, locking eyes with Sienna,
"Is that you weren't the only Trojan horse in my house?"
Her silence was an answer.
This wasn't just a mafia war.
It was blood chess.
And I was already deep in check.