Chapter 7 Blood on Marble Floors

The corridor smelled faintly of antiseptic and polished stone.

Elena noticed details like that now-the things her mind clung to when fear threatened to take over. The way the lights hummed softly above her. The steady rhythm of guards' footsteps somewhere beyond the turn. The quiet tension that lived in the walls of this place, like the house itself was holding its breath.

She had broken a rule.

A small one, perhaps, but rules here were not measured by size. They were measured by defiance.

The glass of water trembled slightly in her hand as she returned to her room. She closed the door carefully behind her, leaning against it for a moment, forcing her breathing to slow.

Nothing happened.

No alarms. No shouting. No Alessandro.

That should have reassured her.

Instead, it made her uneasy.

Because silence in this house usually meant something was being decided.

Sleep did not come easily. When it finally did, it was shallow and restless, filled with fractured images-gunfire echoing through halls, Alessandro's shadow stretching across marble floors, blood blooming like dark flowers she could not step around.

She woke to shouting.

Real this time.

Elena bolted upright, heart pounding as the sound registered-voices raised, urgent, close. Boots pounded against stone. Someone cursed sharply in Italian.

Then came the gunshot.

Not distant.

Not muffled.

Close enough that Elena felt it in her chest.

She was out of bed before she could think better of it. The door was unlocked-another small mercy, or another calculated choice. She pulled it open just as a guard rushed past, weapon raised.

"What's happening?" she demanded.

"Back inside," he barked without slowing.

But Elena was already moving.

The noise drew her down the corridor toward the central hall-the heart of the estate. The place Alessandro rarely allowed her near. Marble floors gleamed beneath towering columns, pristine and cold.

Until they weren't.

Blood streaked across the white stone in violent arcs. One man lay sprawled near the staircase, eyes glassy, chest unmoving. Another leaned against a column, clutching his side, teeth clenched in pain.

Elena froze.

The smell hit her next-metallic, sharp, unmistakable.

"This is not your place!"

Mara's voice cut through the chaos as she grabbed Elena's arm, pulling her back. "What are you doing?"

"I heard-" Elena swallowed hard. "I heard the gunshot."

"And you thought curiosity was worth dying for?"

Before Elena could answer, Alessandro appeared.

He moved through the hall like a storm given human form-controlled, lethal, furious. His jacket was gone, sleeves rolled up, a thin line of blood running down his forearm that did not appear to be his.

His eyes found Elena instantly.

And darkened.

"What did I tell you?" he said, voice dangerously calm.

"That I shouldn't trust you," Elena replied before she could stop herself.

The words landed like a spark near gasoline.

Alessandro crossed the distance between them in seconds. He dismissed Mara with a sharp gesture and gripped Elena's arm, pulling her closer-not roughly, but firmly enough to make his point clear.

"You broke a rule," he said quietly.

"I stepped into a hallway," she shot back. "Not into a battlefield."

"You don't get to decide where the battlefield is."

A shout echoed from the far end of the hall. Alessandro's jaw tightened. He turned briefly, issuing rapid orders to his men. The injured were dragged away. The body was covered with a dark cloth.

Blood smeared under boots, staining marble that would never quite look the same again.

When he turned back to Elena, his expression had changed.

Not anger.

Fear.

"You could have been killed," he said, lower now. "Do you understand that?"

Elena met his gaze, refusing to look away. "So could he," she said softly, nodding toward the covered body. "Rules didn't save him."

"That man betrayed me."

"And that makes this easier?" she asked. "Watching someone die at your feet?"

His eyes flashed. "This isn't about comfort. It's about survival."

"Then why does it look like it costs you something every time?"

The question caught him off guard.

For a moment, the noise faded-the shouts, the radios, the movement around them. It was just the two of them standing in the middle of bloodstained marble, the truth pressing close.

"You shouldn't be here," Alessandro said finally.

"I am here," Elena replied. "Whether you like it or not."

He stared at her, something sharp and conflicted tightening his features.

"This was because of last night," she continued. "The breach. The meeting. Someone panicked."

"Yes."

"And you knew it would happen."

"I suspected."

"Then you put me in danger on purpose," she said quietly.

Alessandro's silence was answer enough.

Anger surged through her, hot and sudden. "You don't get to play guardian and executioner at the same time."

He stepped closer. "You don't understand the weight of what I carry."

"Then stop pretending I'm too fragile to see it."

Another pause.

Then Alessandro did something unexpected.

He let go of her arm.

"Come with me," he said.

Mara shot him a look. "Alessandro-"

"I said come with me," he repeated, not raising his voice, but leaving no room for argument.

They moved through a side passage Elena had never noticed before, away from the chaos. The sounds of the estate faded until only their footsteps remained.

He stopped in a smaller hall lined with dark wood and mirrors-this place felt older, heavier.

"That man," Alessandro said, breaking the silence, "was trusted. He ate at my table. He knew my schedules."

"And he betrayed you."

"Yes."

Elena studied his reflection in the mirror-how rigid he stood, how tightly controlled. "Did you hesitate?"

His jaw flexed. "For half a second."

"That's what scares you," she said. "Not betrayal. Humanity."

His eyes met hers in the mirror.

"You think this makes you brave," he said quietly. "Challenging me. Watching blood spill and asking questions."

"No," Elena replied. "It makes me honest."

He turned to face her fully. "Honesty gets people killed here."

"Then why haven't you killed me yet?"

The question hung between them, dangerous and intimate.

Alessandro stepped closer. Too close.

"Because," he said slowly, "you remind me of the world I chose to burn down."

Her breath caught.

"That's not fair," she whispered.

"Neither is this life."

A radio crackled in the distance, breaking the moment. Alessandro exhaled, stepping back, the walls going up again.

"You will not leave your room without permission again," he said firmly. "That rule is not negotiable."

Elena nodded. "And if I hear gunfire again?"

"You stay put."

"And if I don't?"

His gaze hardened. "Then the consequences will be severe."

"Severe for who?" she asked.

"For everyone."

Later that night, after the floors had been scrubbed clean and the estate returned to its deceptive calm, Elena lay awake once more.

She could still see the blood.

Still hear the gunshot.

But beneath the fear, something else stirred-clarity.

This world ran on rules enforced by violence, but it was held together by something far more fragile: control.

And Alessandro De Luca was losing his.

Because tonight, in the middle of blood and betrayal, he had not just protected her.

He had let her see him crack.

And that made Elena more dangerous than any enemy at his gates.