Chapter Six CHIARA #2
“Smile,” he murmured. “You will always smile when they take our picture.”
“I’m not happy,” I hissed.
His fingers pressed into my hip, just enough to remind me I wasn’t the one in control. I forced a small, tight curve of my lips anyway.
“Better,” he said.
“You’re humiliating me,” I murmured. His grip tightened slightly, not enough to hurt, just enough to hold me still.
“No,” he said quietly. “I’m protecting you from every bad man in this room.”
I went still at that, the words settling somewhere deeper than I wanted them to.
Another man passed by the table, his gaze lingering a fraction too long. Leo didn’t move, didn’t say anything, but the man faltered anyway, looking away like he’d been warned. And it was all clear to me.
This wasn’t just about control. This was a message. To everyone watching. To the cameras. To anyone who might be thinking the wrong thing.
Don’t touch. Don’t look. Don’t forget.
Because I wasn’t just sitting on his lap.
I was being claimed. And the worst part was…
it was working. I could feel my body giving in even when I tried to stop it.
Somewhere inside me, the need to be touched woke up.
I had to fight my body not to show how much it wanted his touch.
How I craved his hands on me. How I wished they’d be even more daring.
I hated my body disobeying me. But I still smiled, just like he’d told me to.
The show ended in a blur of applause and movement, people rising from their seats, conversations picking up again as the lights shifted. Leo’s attention slipped for half a second, just long enough for someone to approach him, and long enough for his hand to loosen at my waist.
That was all I needed.
I slid off his lap before he could stop me, forcing myself not to rush, not to draw attention as I stepped away from the table.
“I’m going to the bathroom,” I muttered. “Where is it?”
His eyes swallowed me up, amusement playing behind them. “Down that hallway.”
My heart was already racing, my ankle protesting with every step, but I didn’t let it slow me down.
Don’t run, I reminded myself. Not yet.
I moved through the crowd, weaving between bodies, keeping my head down just enough to avoid recognition while still looking like I belonged. The exit was there, I’d seen it when we came in. Glass doors, security just beyond.
Freedom was within reach. I picked up my pace. No one stopped me. I could barely believe it, and my heart sped up with hope and fear combined.
The air shifted as I pushed through the glass doors, the noise of the event fading behind me, replaced by the cooler, quieter space outside. My breath came faster, uneven, as I kept moving, ignoring the sharp pain shooting up my leg.
Almost free.
I didn’t stop when the night air hit my lungs, didn’t slow when the music dulled behind me or when the pain in my ankle sharpened into something hot and vicious, because stopping meant thinking, and thinking meant hesitation, and hesitation would get me caught.
I pushed forward, forcing my body through the shadows until the lights from the event disappeared behind me, and the world narrowed into a dark, unfamiliar stretch of an empty alley that felt like the only place left to breathe.
It was narrow, with trashcans and garbage littering the ground. The kind of place no one lingered in. For a fleeting second it felt like freedom.
My breaths came uneven and too fast as I stumbled deeper inside, my hand sliding along the cold brick to steady myself while the sharp echo of my heels followed me like a warning, too loud, too exposed.
I kicked my shoes off without stopping, barely noticing where they landed, and kept moving barefoot over the rough ground, ignoring the sting, ignoring everything except the need to get farther away from The Serpent.
Just a little more, I told myself. Just a little farther and I’ll find a way out.
But the alley didn’t open. It ended.
The moment I saw the wall, solid and unforgiving, something inside me dropped so violently it left me dizzy.
I slowed without meaning to, my steps faltering as disbelief settled in, because it didn’t make sense, there had to be something.
Another path, a door, anything. But there was nothing except brick stretching upward and outward, sealing me in.
A dead end.
I couldn’t breathe, my chest tightening as my pulse crashed against my ribs in heavy, panicked beats. I turned in place, searching, hoping I had missed something, but the only way out was the way I had come, the long stretch of darkness leading straight back to him.
Think, Chiara.
The words echoed in my mind, sharp and urgent, but every option felt useless the second it formed. The walls were too high to climb, smooth and empty without anything to grip, and there was nowhere to hide except shallow shadows that would offer no protection if someone stepped into the alley.
If he stepped into the alley.
A chill slid down my spine at the thought, and even as fear tightened around me, his name surfaced in my mind with a weight I couldn’t ignore.
Leo would come for me.
I swallowed hard, my breath catching as conflicting instincts twisted together inside me, because I knew what I should do. I should go back, compose myself, pretend I had taken a wrong turn and nothing more, because that was safe and expected and controllable in a way this situation wasn’t.
But my body refused to follow reason.
Even now, even with panic clawing at my throat and my heart racing hard enough to make me lightheaded, there was something else beneath it, something warmer and far more dangerous that pulsed through me when I thought about him.
I could still feel the way his eyes had lingered on me, the way his voice had wrapped around me like something tangible, something that held and claimed and refused to let go.
Possession. Ownership. The Serpent’s bite had confused me. Did I really want to run? Was there really a better world out there, without him?
The thought settled deep, unsettling and impossible to ignore, and I hated the way my body reacted to it, the way heat coiled low in my stomach despite everything telling me to run.
I pressed my thighs together instinctively, frustrated and shaken by my own response, because none of this made sense.
I should have been afraid of Leo, completely and without hesitation.
And I was. Just not enough.
My breath came slower now, heavier, as panic tangled with something darker, something that made the choice in front of me feel less clear than it should have been. The decision pressed in on me, suffocating in its weight, until the faint sound of footsteps reached me from the mouth of the alley.
I froze.
Every muscle in my body went tight as my gaze snapped toward the street, my pulse surging all over again as the sound grew closer, steady and unmistakable.
Time had run out.
“Lost, sweetheart?”
The voice, loud and unwelcome, stopped me cold. It wasn’t Leo’s voice.
I turned too quickly, my pulse spiking as two huge men stepped into my path, blocking the way forward. They didn’t look like security. They didn’t look like good news. And certainly not like they were going to help me.
“I’m not lost,” I said, forcing my voice steady.
One of them smiled, slow and knowing. “Could’ve fooled us. You walked out of there alone. And you’re not wearing shoes.”
“I’m meeting someone,” I snapped. “Move.”
Neither of them did. Instead, the other one took a step closer, his gaze dragging over me in a way that made my skin crawl.
“You don’t look like you should be walking around without company,” he drawled out. “Who would let their woman walk around like this alone?”
My stomach dropped. This was all wrong.
“I said move,” I repeated, sharper this time, even as my fingers curled at my sides. “Now. Before my husband sees you.”
The first man laughed under his breath. “Husband?”
My pulse pounded in my ears. I took a step back, but they followed, closing the distance just enough to make it clear I wasn’t getting past them easily.
“Don’t touch me,” I warned.
“Relax,” the second one said, reaching out like he intended to prove he could. “We’re just talking.”
His hand brushed my arm.
Everything in me went still. Not fear. Something colder. If Leo found me now, he’d kill them both. I knew that with a deep certainty.
He grabbed my left arm and inspected it. I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me, chuckling darkly.
“No wedding ring,” he told the first guy. “She doesn’t have a husband. Lying little slut.”
“No husband, huh?” the other one said with a smirk. “So you’re looking for some fun. We can give you that. Make you feel real good.”
The man who was holding my hand twisted my arm behind my back and I cried out in pain while they laughed at me.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” The voice came from behind us. Calm. Controlled. Lethal.
The men froze, just for a second, before turning.
Leo stood a few steps away, his expression unreadable, his gaze fixed entirely on the stranger’s touch still hovering on my wrist. In one hand, he held a smoking cigarette. His posture was relaxed, but his eyes weren’t.
“Back off,” the first man said, trying for confidence and missing it. He let go of me. “We’re not looking for trouble.”
Leo didn’t even acknowledge him. His attention stayed on me. “Did you like it when he touched you, Chiara?”
My throat felt tight. “No.”
That was all it took. The shift was immediate. Leo flicked the cigarette away and sighed. Then, he moved without warning, closing the distance in a few long strides. The man barely had time to react before Leo’s hand caught him by the throat, slamming him back hard enough that the sound echoed.
“Hey man, we’re just looking for some fun,” the guy choked out, hands clawing at Leo’s firm grip. “She looked lonely.”
“Wrong answer,” Leo said quietly.
The second man lunged forward, but it didn’t matter. It was already over. There was a flash of movement, something cold and precise, and then…
Blood. Running out of the first man’s stomach, making him gurgle his now incoherent words.
The man choked on the blood, his body jerking as Leo drove the blade in with brutal efficiency, not once, not twice, but enough times to make it final.
The world went quiet. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
The first man collapsed to the ground, the sound heavy and wrong against the pavement. The other one staggered back, pale, shaking, his bravado gone. He turned on his heels and ran.
Leo let the body fall like it meant nothing. Then he turned, slowly.
His gaze found me again, dark and steady, like nothing about what just happened had unsettled him in the slightest.
“No one touches what’s mine,” he said. The words landed heavier than the body at our feet.
“I was fine,” I managed. “I was just…”
“Don’t,” he cut in softly.
I stopped. Not because I wanted to. Because something in me knew better.
Leo stepped closer, close enough that I could see the faint smear of blood along his knuckles, the calm in his expression that made it worse.
“You ran away from me,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
My pulse started racing again, panic clawing its way back up my throat. “I had a chance.”
“And you took it,” he said. Something flickered in his eyes then. Not anger. Not exactly. Something darker.
“Good,” he added, almost thoughtfully. “As expected. I’d have been disappointed if you didn’t try to get away.”
I stared at him, trying to understand how that could possibly make sense.
“Next time,” he continued, his voice dropping just enough to make my chest tighten, “you won’t get that far.”
“I almost did,” I shot back, because I couldn’t not say it.
His mouth curved, just slightly. “You keep telling yourself that.”
Silence stretched between us, thick and suffocating, the reality of what had just happened settling heavier with every second.
The body. The blood. The fact that no one was coming to help me, and my escape plan was wasted, gone.
“That was your warning,” he said finally. “Do you want to start a body count of people I’ve killed to have you?”
My stomach dropped. “I didn’t ask you to… To kill him!”
His gaze didn’t leave mine. “I’ll kill anyone who lays hands on my property.”