Chapter 1 1

Damien POV

The scent of my own bourbon and cedar cologne hung heavy in the suffocating silence of the bedroom. The thick burgundy velvet curtains sealed us off from the bitter Chicago night, turning this sprawling mahogany suite into exactly what it was: a gilded cage. And the little bird inside it was currently thrashing against the bars.

Isabella bolted upright on the Egyptian cotton sheets, a violent gasp tearing from her throat. Her chest heaved, her skin pale and slick with cold sweat.

I stepped closer, the instinct to soothe her warring with the cold reality of our arrangement. But the moment her wide, frantic eyes locked onto mine, I stopped dead.

There was terror in her gaze. A raw, visceral horror that seemed to bleed from her very soul. But beneath it was something that twisted the knife in my gut-a desperate, obsessive fixation, as if she were looking at a ghost.

My jaw clenched. I was a fool to think time would soften her. I had dragged the senator's daughter into my dark world, and this was my reward. She wasn't just afraid of me; she was utterly repulsed by my existence. The mere sight of me in her waking moments was enough to trigger a nightmare.

A bitter, icy resolve settled over my chest. I was Damien Moretti. I commanded the Chicago underworld. I did not stand around to be looked at with such profound disgust by a sixteen-year-old girl I had claimed as collateral.

Without a single word, I turned my back on her. I would leave her to her trembling. I would leave her to her hatred.

My hand wrapped around the cold brass of the door handle.

"Don't."

The word sliced through the heavy air. It wasn't a plea. It wasn't the tearful beg of a frightened captive. It was a command-cold, sharp, and entirely devoid of the fragile innocence I thought I had broken.

I didn't turn around. "I have no patience for your hysterics tonight, Isabella."

"If you walk out that door, Damien Moretti," her voice rang out, steady and chillingly clear, "I will write a letter to Sicily. To the Bellini family."

My grip on the brass handle tightened until my knuckles turned white.

"I will tell them," she continued, the cadence of her voice echoing the ancient, ruthless laws of our world, "exactly how the true Don of the Moretti family has imprisoned and shamed a Bellini princess. And I will demand that they cross the ocean to wage a *Vendetta* for my honor."

Silence crashed down on the room, heavier than lead.

*Vendetta.* Blood revenge.

She wasn't just a senator's bastard daughter. The Bellinis were the oldest, most lethal bloodline in the motherland. A war with them would drown Chicago in blood.

Slowly, I released the door handle. The dismissal I had felt seconds ago evaporated, replaced by a surging, dangerous adrenaline. I turned around to face the massive four-poster bed.

Isabella sat there, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders, her chin tilted up in open defiance. The terrified, trembling girl from the nightmare was gone. In her place sat a strategist who had just played a hand that could burn my entire empire to the ground.

I stared at her, my eyes narrowing as I re-evaluated every single thing I thought I knew about the creature I had locked in my bedroom. She had just forced the most dangerous man in the city to stay exactly where she wanted him.