Chapter 5 I know you're lying but God help me, I still want you.

LUCA

The warehouse smelled like gasoline, blood, and fear.The kind of place people were brought, but not always taken from.Luca leaned against the metal table, hands clean but gloves still on. A man knelt in front of him, hands zip-tied, face swollen. Luca didn't know his name. Didn't care.He only wanted one thing.

"Who sent the message?" Luca asked calmly.The man didn't speak. His jaw was already broken.

Niko stood off to the side, arms crossed, looking more bored than disturbed. "He's low-level. Doesn't know much. Might've been the runner, not the author."

Luca didn't blink. "Then he's useless."The man whimpered.

Luca crouched beside him. "You knew who she was. You sent the message to her phone. That wasn't random."

A shake of the head. "I-I was just told to forward the warning."

"By who?"

"I don't know," the man whispered. "He pays cash. No name. Burners. Always changes locations."

"And you never thought to ask why?"

The man tried to lift his face. "I didn't know she was yours."Luca's jaw ticked.

"She's not."He stood.Then turned away.

"Take care of it."Niko didn't ask how.

The muffled sound that followed wasn't loud.But it still echoed in Luca's skull.Because the moment the man said it,she's yours,Luca couldn't stop thinking about the fact that a part of him didn't hate it.That was the problem.Sera Moretti was nothing but trouble.Too clever. Too sharp. Too goddamn stubborn to survive in his world.And yet she was still standing.And now someone else was protecting her.

Not him.

Not yet.

Which meant someone was making moves behind his back.And Luca did not like being outplayed.

SERA

She hadn't slept.Not really.The knock still haunted her. His voice. The way he looked at her like he could see straight through to every ugly, shaking part of her soul and liked what he saw anyway.That scared her more than anything.She was supposed to hate him.Not crave his touch Not remember the ghost of his fingers on her skin like a brand.She sat on the floor of her bedroom, laptop open, Matteo's locked hard drive hooked in. She'd stolen it,yes, stolen,from his old safe while Luca was still downstairs in the damn parking lot.And now it sat in her lap like a ticking bomb.The encryption was brutal. Not standard. Government-level. Not something an average lawyer would use.Which meant Matteo wasn't just playing with fire.

He was building the fuse.

She cracked one layer after three hours. Found a folder labeled PALERMO: CODE RED.

Her stomach turned.Palermo was where Matteo had worked for six months,on "business consulting," he said. Some shell company contract.But this... this was deeper.She opened the first file.

Images.

Of men in suits.Of dead bodies in alleyways.Of Luca.Younger. Gun in hand. Standing over someone bleeding out.Another showed a meeting-l,blurry, zoomed in from far away. Matteo had circled one man's face.The name beneath it made her go still.

Lorenzo Ventresca.

The name meant nothing.Until she Googled it.And realized he was already dead.Murdered five weeks before Matteo.Execution style.And the police hadn't said a word.Sera slammed the laptop shut, heart racing.She needed answers.But there was only one person who had them.And he'd told her not to come back.So of course... that's exactly what she did.

LUCA

He sensed her the second she entered the club.Velvet lighting. Bass heavy in the floor. Men in tailored suits and quiet whispers, brushing shoulders with women in silk dresses and secrets.She didn't belong here.That was the point.She pushed past the guard like she owned the place. Eyes locked on him from across the room.She walked right up to Luca's booth and stopped in front of him, unapologetic.

"I need to talk to you."

He didn't stand.He didn't speak.

He just looked up at her, cold and slow, dragging his eyes over her body,tight jeans, damp hoodie, wild hair,and then back to her eyes like she was the most dangerous thing in the building.

"You have some nerve," he said softly.She didn't flinch.

"I know who Ventresca is."That made him tense. Barely.Luca nodded to Niko. A silent command. Niko rose and slipped out of the booth.

Luca leaned back, legs spread, that cocky arrogance returning. "You been digging."

"Your warning didn't stick."

"It wasn't a warning. It was a test."

"Oh?" Her voice was a challenge. "Did I pass?"

"Barely." His gaze dropped again, deliberately. "And only because you wore that."

Heat rushed to her cheeks. And somewhere much lower.He stood.Now towering over her.

"You found something you shouldn't have, Sera."

"And you're going to tell me what it means."

He smiled.

But there was no warmth in it.

"You think you're in control here."

"I think I'm the only one who gives a damn what Matteo was really doing."That made him stop.Because the truth was, she wasn't wrong.He stepped closer.Too close.

"You want the truth?" he said quietly, bending toward her ear. "The truth is your brother wasn't innocent. He wasn't clean. And the reason he's dead... is because he thought he could play both sides."

Sera's breath caught.

"Then what side are you on, Luca?"

He didn't answer.

Just looked at her for a long, heavy beat.

Then, without warning, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the private hallway behind the club. The door slammed behind them. Low lights. No cameras. No witnesses.

"Let go," she hissed.

But he didn't.

Not yet.

He shoved her gently but firmly against the wall, pinning her with nothing but his body.

"I should make you disappear," he murmured.

"You won't."

"Why?"

"Because you want me."

He stared at her, eyes burning.

Then his mouth crashed into hers.

No hesitation.No control.Just raw, desperate hunger.She kissed him back like she'd waited her whole life to be kissed like this and hated herself for it.His hand slid under her hoodie, gripping her waist, her thigh, her neck,nothing gentle, everything claiming.And then he stopped.Breathing hard.Eyes locked on hers.

"This is a mistake," he said hoarsely.

"Then why does it feel like a promise?"

His forehead pressed to hers.

And for one second,just one,there was silence.Not fear. Not secrets. Just them.Then his phone buzzed in his pocket.He looked.Froze.And then cursed violently in Italian.

"What is it?" she asked.

He didn't answer.

Just turned and shoved his gun into his jacket holster.

"You need to leave."

"What? No. What's going on?"

He glanced at her, something raw flickering across his face.

"They found the other drive," he said darkly. "And whoever has it... they just made you the next target."

End of Chapter Five.