From the outside, the Moretti estate was a fortress disguised as a palace.

High stone walls, crowned with cruel wrought-iron spikes, surrounded the property, while armed guards patrolled the manicured lawns.

Inside, the floors were gleaming imported white marble, and crystal chandeliers hung from vaulted ceilings.

It was achingly beautiful.

And it was to be my cage.

Dante dragged me up the grand staircase, his grip a manacle on my arm, and shoved me into a massive bedroom.

The heavy oak door slammed shut behind us.

I stumbled, catching myself on the arm of a velvet sofa as he remained standing, a silhouette blocking the only exit.

The hard click of the lock echoed in the sudden stillness of the room.

I turned to face him, my heart hammering a panicked beat against my ribs.

He shrugged out of his suit jacket and tossed it over a chair.

With a methodical slowness, he unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves, revealing forearms that were a tapestry of dark, intricate ink.

"You will not leave this room without my permission," he stated, his tone stripped of all inflection, as dry as weathered bone.

"You will not speak to my men. You will eat when you are told, and you will sleep when you are told."

A hot spark of anger flared in my chest, burning away the tattered edges of my fear.

I pulled my shoulders back, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I am a prisoner, then."

"You are a guest who needs to learn her place."

"I am not a dog you can train, Dante."

His dark eyes locked onto mine, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop.

He closed the distance between us in two long strides.

I stumbled backward until my shoulders hit the cold plaster of the wall.

He planted his hands on the wall on either side of my head, trapping me within the cage of his arms.

He leaned in, his hard chest brushing against mine.

My breath hitched somewhere in my throat.

"You are property, Sophia."

He spoke the words slowly, as if pressing each syllable like a brand into my skin.

"Your stepfather traded you for his life, and then he lost his life anyway. You have no one. You have nothing."

I glared up at him, refusing to let the hot tears gathering in my eyes fall.

"I have myself."

He let out a harsh, humorless laugh.

"Not anymore."

He reached up and grabbed a fistful of my hair, tugging my head back just enough to expose the pale column of my neck.

I gasped, my hands flying up instinctively to grip his tattooed wrists.

He leaned down and pressed his mouth against the sensitive skin just below my ear, his breath a furnace against my pulse.

"Every breath you take in this house is because I allow it."

He lingered there, his lips brushing my skin for a torturous second longer than necessary, before releasing me.

He stepped back, his expression smoothing into a blank mask once more.

"Dinner is at eight. Be ready."

He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, the heavy lock turning with a final thud as the guard secured it from the outside.

Left alone in the ringing silence, I slid down the wall until I hit the floor, pulling my knees to my chest as the first tear finally escaped.

An hour later, a soft, hesitant knock came at the door.

A moment later, I heard the lock being drawn back as the guard outside granted access.

Luca slipped inside, carrying a heavy tray of food.

He closed the door quietly behind him, his eyes searching the room until they found me.

"I brought you something to eat."

He carefully set the tray on a small table by the window.

I did not move from my huddle on the floor.

He crouched down in front of me, his warm brown eyes filled with a disquieting concern.

"You have to eat, Sophia. You need your strength if we are going to get you out of here."

I looked at him, desperately wanting to believe the brittle shard of hope he was offering.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because you do not belong in this place."

He reached out, his fingers gently closing over my cold hand.

"Just play along for now. Do not fight Dante. It only makes him worse."

The door handle rattled.

Luca jumped up as if struck, stepping far away from me just as the heavy door swung open.

Dante stood in the doorway, a dark silhouette against the hall light.

His gaze, sharp as a blade, darted from Luca to me, measuring the distance between us.

His jaw clenched so hard I thought his teeth would crack.

"I told you to leave the food, Luca," he growled. "I did not tell you to socialize."

Luca bowed his head in deference.

"Apologies, Boss. I was just making sure she ate."

"Get out."

Luca did not hesitate, hurrying past him and out the door without a backward glance.

Dante stepped into the room, his dark gaze fixated on my hand—on the exact spot where Luca had just touched me.

He stalked over, grabbed my wrist in a punishing grip, and hauled me to my feet.

With his free hand, he pulled a crisp white handkerchief from his pocket and aggressively wiped the skin of my hand, as if trying to scrub away some invisible stain.

I tried to yank my arm away, but he held it frighteningly tight.

"What are you doing?" I cried out.

He threw the crumpled handkerchief to the floor in disgust.

"Do not let other men touch what is mine."

The quiet in the estate was not an absence of sound; it was a presence, pressing down on my eardrums like the weight of water in a deep pool.

I lay stiffly in the massive bed, staring at the ornate plasterwork of the ceiling while my mind spun in frantic circles.

Even with the low hum of the air conditioning, I felt like I could not breathe.

Needing air, I threw off the heavy silk covers and made my way to the door.

I turned the brass handle, expecting the hard stop of a lock.

Instead, the latch clicked open.

Dante must have forgotten to turn the deadbolt after dinner.

I slipped out into the cavernous, dimly lit hallway.

The marble floor was freezing against my bare feet, sending a shock up my legs.

I had no destination; I just needed to walk, to feel some semblance of control over my own body.

My aimless wandering led me down a long corridor I had not seen before.

The walls were lined with imposing old oil paintings of men who looked just as cold and cruel as Dante.

At the far end of the hall, a heavy steel door stood shut, but a small, barred ventilation grate near the floor spilled a thin sliver of light onto the marble.

A low, rhythmic thud echoed from the unseen staircase behind it.

I crept closer, my pulse picking up its rhythm with every step.

The smell hit me before I reached the threshold—a sharp, metallic, rusty smell that pulled me back instantly to the warehouse.

Fresh blood.

Just as I reached the door, it was pushed open by an exiting guard. I held my breath, catching the heavy steel plate before it could latch, and peered through the narrow crack down the concrete stairs.

The basement below was bathed in the harsh, sterile glare of fluorescent bulbs.

In the center of the room, a man was bound to a metal chair.

His face was a swollen, unrecognizable mass of purple and red.

Dante stood in front of him.

He was not wearing his suit jacket, and the sleeves of his crisp white dress shirt were rolled up to his elbows.

The pristine white fabric was splattered with stark, dark red stains.

With a terrifying casualness, Dante pulled his fist back and struck the man across the face.

The sickening crunch of bone giving way echoed up the stairwell.

I gasped, clapping both hands over my mouth.

The sound was tiny, less than a breath, but in the dead silence of the basement, it was more than enough.

Dante froze mid-swing.

He slowly turned his head, his gaze tracking up the stairs.

His pitch-black eyes locked directly onto mine through the crack in the door.

He did not look surprised. He did not look ashamed.

Instead, a dark, possessive gleam flared in his irises—he looked like a wolf who had just spotted his mate trembling in the brush.

"Come down here, Sophia."

My legs refused to move.

Every instinct screamed at me to run back to my room and hide under the covers like a child.

When I did not move, his voice dropped an octave, carrying a quiet, lethal warning.

"Do not make me come up there to get you."

My body shaking, I pushed the heavy door wider and slowly began the descent down the concrete steps.

A violent chill that had nothing to do with the cold air racked my body.

I stopped a few feet away from him, keeping my eyes fixed on the stained cloth of Dante's shirt, entirely unable to look at the bleeding man in the chair.

Dante closed the distance and grabbed my chin with his blood-soaked hand.

I jerked my head back, the heels of my bare feet scraping against the concrete, but the half-dried film of blood on his palm clung to my jaw like a suction cup.

He held me firm, his grip an iron vise as he forced my head to turn toward the chair.

"Look at him."

I squeezed my eyes shut, tears stinging their corners.

"I said, look at him," he commanded, his voice a blade of ice.

I forced my eyes open.

The man was barely conscious, a thick rivulet of blood dripping from his chin onto his chest.

"This man sold information to the Chicago outfit," Dante said, his voice completely devoid of any emotion. "He broke his vow."

I swallowed against the bitter bile rising in my throat.

"Why are you showing me this?"

Dante turned my face back to him, his gaze intense.

Slowly, deliberately, he smeared a thick streak of blood across my pale cheek with his thumb.

"Because you need to understand the kind of filth that runs in the drains of this basement."

His eyes bored into mine, ruthlessly looking for weakness, waiting for me to break.

"There is no mercy here, Sophia. There is only loyalty, and there is punishment."

I stared back into the abyss of his dark eyes, the cloying scent of copper filling my lungs with every shallow breath.

"Are you going to kill him?"

"Yes."

He let go of my face, his expression hardening as he stepped back into the harsh light.

"Go back to your room."

I turned and fled up the stairs as fast as my shaking legs could carry me.

I did not stop running until I had locked myself inside my bathroom, frantically scrubbing my cheek with a washcloth soaked in scalding hot water.

But no matter how hard I scrubbed, no matter how red and raw my flesh became, I could still feel the phantom heat of his bloody fingerprint burning into my skin.