?Chapter 22: The Judas Hour

                                        

                                              
This chapter will be in different POV. I hope you enjoy it ❤️. Who's your favorite character so far? let me know. 

Luca's POV
The Weight of Blood and Debt
He sat in the back of the blacked-out sedan, hands clenched on his knees, sweat prickling beneath his designer coat. Rain tapped like impatient fingers on the window. Every instinct in Luca's body screamed for him to turn around to call Dominic, to confess. He was panicking.
But Dominic didn't know what Ivan had on him.
And if he did... he wouldn't forgive it.
The car pulled into the underground garage beneath an abandoned textile warehouse in Queens. Two armed guards waved them through. Luca stepped out, walking slowly toward the waiting figure ahead broad shoulders, leather gloves, gray hair like cut steel.
Ivan Markovic. The Devil.
"Ah, the prodigal brother returns," Ivan said, voice smooth as oil. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
Luca didn't sit. "I gave you the access you wanted, I warned you about Dominic's shipments. I'm done."
Ivan chuckled, motioning to a table of files and digital screens. "Done? My dear boy, betrayal isn't a service. It's a subscription."
Luca's gut twisted.
"I want out," he said firmly. "You said once the leaks caused instability, I was free."
"I said you'd be alive. I never said free." Ivan said dryly 
Ivan circled him like a vulture. "You're in too deep now. If Dominic even suspects your shadow has touched his empire, he'll bleed you out on the penthouse floor."
Luca swallowed.
Ivan smiled wider. "So, Shall we discuss the next phase?"
⸻
Ivan's POV
Weakness was predictable. Especially in men like Luca men who wore loyalty like a rented suit.
But Dominic... Dominic was a harder beast to break.
So Ivan stopped aiming for the walls.
He aimed for the heart.
He pulled out a file from the stack on the table a grainy photo of Aria, leaving the clinic. Her hand on her belly. Her eyes wary.
Next to it, a new file, Ezra Dalton.
"A little flame from her past," Ivan said thoughtfully. "And he's burning with jealousy." He observed closely.
Ezra, when approached, had been eager. Angry. Entitled. Everything Ivan needed in a disposable puppet.
"He thinks we're reuniting him with his family," Ivan murmured. "Poor bastard doesn't even know he's bait." He laughed. 
He tapped his phone.
SEND.
The message was dispatched.
⸻
Aria POV
Aria stood outside the bookstore, glancing over her shoulder. Dominic had been more protective than ever  insisted she text him every time she stepped out, a bodyguard discreetly nearby. But today she just wanted a moment of normal.
Then she saw the message.
Ezra."I just want to talk I swear it's safe, Meet me at the garden near 6th and Carmine and Please don't be late". 
Something tightened in her chest. She knew it was stupid. She knew better.
But something about it desperation? Sadness? pulled at her.
She walked.
⸻
She never saw the van coming.
A hand clamped over her mouth. A needle in her arm. Her scream swallowed by the void.
The last thing she heard was
"Don't hurt the baby." A faint voice said 
⸻
Ivan's POV (Continued)
Predator's Patience
"She's secure?" Ivan asked.
His man nodded. "Unharmed. Sleeping, Baby's still fine, We sedated her. Ezra thinks it was just for protection."
Ivan stood at the window, the skyline spread like prey before him.
"Good," he said. "Now let's see what Dominic Voss does when the one light in his darkness goes out."