Chapter 5 She's a Psycho

The world blinked out.

A flashbang sounded somewhere behind them-white heat, deafening ring, and then black.

When Luca came to senses, his arms were bound above his head, wrists throbbing from the weight. A single bulb swayed above him in a cold, concrete room. His shirt was gone. Blood dried in a tacky smear over his temple. His vision swam, then refocused.

Valentina sat opposite him, ankles crossed, a gash on her cheekbone still weeping.

She looked... bored.

No panic. No fear.

Amused.

"You're awake," she said casually, as if they were at brunch instead of chained in a torture room. "You scream in your sleep, you know."

Luca winced. "Where the hell are we?"

"Somewhere beneath the Bravado estate. Old wine cellar turned dungeon. Cute, right?"

Footsteps echoed down the hallway. Heavy. Intentional.

Luca tensed. "Valentina-"

"Relax," she cut in, examining her broken fingernail. "They won't kill us. Not yet."

"And how the hell are you so sure?"

Her eyes flicked up to his, a spark of venom behind their calm. "Because I made myself more valuable alive than dead. You, on the other hand..." She smirked. "Well, we'll work on that."

Before Luca could curse her, the iron door groaned open. Two Bravado enforcers entered, dragging something between them-a rusted cart stacked with tools that shouldn't exist in any civilized world.

"Tell us what you stole," one of them said, glancing at Valentina.

She stared back, unimpressed. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be bleeding out in your mother's kitchen."

The guard struck her.

The crack of skin against skin echoed.

Luca surged forward, roaring. "Touch her again and I'll-"

But the second guard turned to him with something in his hand-a blade, narrow and silver, sliding just beneath Luca's ribs. Not deep. Not yet.

"I'll start with you then," the man growled.

Pain sliced through him. Luca jerked against the chains, breath ragged. "Son of a-!"

He turned to Valentina, desperate, panicked.

She met his eyes. Calm. Cold. Then-shockingly-she laughed.

It was soft. Amused.

"Luca, darling," she said as if chastising a child. "Don't break so easily. You haven't even lost a finger yet."

"You find this funny?" he gasped.

She didn't answer.

But something shifted. That aura she carried, the one that made powerful men stutter, coiled tighter around her like a storm building pressure.

The guards turned back to her, mocking now. "Your lapdog squeals louder than you ever did. Maybe you've gone soft."

Her smile vanished.

"Maybe," she whispered.

Then-chaos.

She twisted suddenly, launching herself forward-legs swinging up, snapping around the nearest guard's neck in a brutal scissor hold. Bones cracked.

He dropped like a sack of meat.

The second guard raised his weapon, but Valentina had already rolled to her feet, using the body to leverage a hidden blade from her boot.

It sang as it cut through the air.

Blood splattered across the floor.

Luca stared, breathless, as the last man fell. And just like that, it was over.

Valentina stood, chest heaving slightly, lips parted, eyes blazing. A goddess carved from violence.

She turned to Luca, hands slick with blood.

"Well," she said, strolling toward him, "you wanted to know what game you were playing. Congratulations. You're in it now."

She cut his chains with the blade.

Luca collapsed to the floor, arms numb, eyes still wide. "You could've stopped them sooner."

She crouched beside him, voice low. "And robbed you of the lesson? Pain teaches faster than words, Luca. You don't survive this world by being liked. You survive by becoming the nightmare they think they can control."

He looked at her-really looked. And for the first time, he understood why people followed her, feared her, worshipped her.

She wasn't human in the way he was. She was forged-fire, ambition, and something ancient and cold.

She helped him to his feet. He swayed.

"Come on," she said. "This place has tunnels. We disappear before they realize we turned the tables."

Luca didn't argue.

But as they vanished into the passageways beneath the estate, one thought pulsed in his skull:

He was no longer just surviving her world.

He was becoming part of it.

Whether he wanted to or not.

She freed them from their attack , yes she saved them. He wouldn't lie she knows how to keep things off no wonder age was this fierce , a part of him too feared . What if he tries to free himself from her ? At this juncture only she had this effect on him . They had managed to flee from the enemy.