CHAPTER 3 — "STAY CLOSE
This is intense, emotional, mafia danger + slow-burn heat)
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Aria followed Luciano down the hallway, her pulse tapping against her ribs like a fist trying to escape.
He didn't speak.
Didn't look at her.
Didn't slow his pace.
But his presence was a massive, unmovable force — one that pulled her inside its gravity like she had no choice in the matter.
He reached a door she'd never seen before, guarded by two men in all black with weapons drawn across their chests.
"Open it," Luciano ordered.
No keycard.
No passcode.
Just his voice.
The guards moved instantly.
Aria stepped inside.
And froze.
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The Surveillance Room
It was a cathedral of screens.
A massive circular chamber filled with monitors tracking every DeLuca property: docks, casinos, warehouses, bars, safehouses. Live feeds. Heat maps. Digital pathways. Hidden cameras. GPS pings. Communication threads.
This wasn't a room.
This was Luciano's mind made visible.
Cold.
Precise.
Lethal.
Luciano gestured for her to sit at one of the central consoles.
Aria swallowed. "What is this?"
"My eyes," he said. "My ears. My heartbeat. My empire."
He walked toward her — too close again — and leaned one hand on the console beside her chair.
"And now," he murmured, "yours."
Aria stiffened. "Why would you trust me with this?"
He didn't blink.
"I don't."
Silence cut between them.
Luciano leaned in until his breath grazed her jaw.
"That's the point."
Aria's throat tightened.
"So what do you want me to do?"
Luciano straightened and tapped a screen. The map zoomed in on several red-marked zones — all Bianchi territory.
"You said the attack happens in thirty-six hours. That means Bianchi already has men in place. Scouts. Decoys. Maybe an infiltrator."
His eyes darkened.
"I need to know where they are. What they know. And what they're planning."
Aria nodded slowly. "You want me to trace their movements."
"No," Luciano said. "I want you to outsmart them."
He stepped in front of her, pulling off his watch — a sleek black device with a faint glow — and placed it gently on the table beside her hand.
"Put it on."
Aria hesitated. "Why?"
"Because it tracks you," he said plainly. "Your vitals. Your location. Your proximity to danger."
Her breath hitched. "So I can't disappear."
Luciano's gaze softened half a degree.
Just half.
"So you can't die."
Aria's pulse jumped.
Luciano noticed.
Of course he did.
"Wear it," he said quietly.
Aria slid the watch onto her wrist. The moment it clicked shut, the screen lit up: VESPER — ACTIVE.
Luciano's jaw relaxed.
"Good."
Aria looked up at him. "Does everyone wear one?"
"No."
His eyes locked on hers.
"Just the people I can't afford to lose."
Heat flickered through her chest—not desire, not yet, but something sharper and more dangerous.
Something she didn't want.
"Luciano," she said carefully, "I'm not here to be—"
"To be what?" he interrupted. "Important to me?"
Aria swallowed.
He stepped closer.
"Let me make something very clear," Luciano said softly. "I don't trust you. Not fully. Not even close."
His fingers brushed the edge of her wrist where the watch lay.
Barely a touch.
Barely anything.
And yet she felt it everywhere.
"But I do need you," he finished.
Aria's breath caught.
Luciano turned back to the screens, masking whatever had almost slipped through.
"Show me what you found," he ordered.
Aria pulled up the files again, hands steady now that they had purpose.
She opened Bianchi's encrypted communication logs.
"I found their routes, their weapon sources, and the timing of the hit," she said. "But what's strange is—"
She clicked a folder.
"This message. It's different. A higher clearance. This one wasn't meant for Bianchi's men."
Luciano leaned in.
On the screen, a single encrypted text glowed red.
"THE GHOST IS INSIDE.
ONE OF HIS NEW RECRUITS.
SHE IS COMPROMISED."
Aria went still.
Luciano didn't breathe.
Slowly, mechanically, he turned to face her.
"'She,'" he repeated, voice low and lethal.
Aria forced her heartbeat to slow. "It could mean anyone—"
"Don't lie to me."
His voice cut through her like a blade.
Luciano stepped closer, until her back pressed lightly against the console.
His eyes searched hers — not angrily, not suspiciously.
Worse.
Desperately.
"Tell me right now, Vesper," he said quietly. "Are you the ghost they're talking about?"
Aria inhaled.
If she lied, he could tell.
He wasn't normal.
He saw through people like glass.
But if she told the truth—
Mission over.
Death guaranteed.
Everything ruined.
So she did the only thing she could.
She gave him half the truth.
"I'm not working for Bianchi," she said, steady as stone. "And I have never—ever—communicated with his people."
Luciano searched her eyes.
Seconds stretched long and dangerous.
His jaw clenched… then loosened.
"Good," he said finally, voice softer. "Because if you had—"
He leaned down, lips inches from her ear.
"I would've killed you myself."
A shiver tore through her.
But not from the threat.
From the truth beneath it:
He didn't want to kill her.
Not really.
Not unless she forced his hand.
Aria stepped back, needing space. "So what do we do now?"
Luciano's expression hardened.
"Now," he said, "we hunt whoever leaked this."
Aria nodded. "You think there's a rat in your crew?"
"I know there is."
He grabbed a jacket, holstered a gun, and jerked his head toward the door.
"You're coming with me."
Aria stiffened. "Where?"
"To meet someone," he said. "Someone who hates Bianchi more than I do."
"Who?"
Luciano smirked.
"My brother."
Aria blinked. "I thought you didn't have siblings."
"That's because he's dead."
He walked toward the elevator.
"And dead men don't talk."
Aria followed him, adrenaline threading through her veins.
But when the elevator doors closed, Luciano reached out and pressed his hand against the wall beside her head, trapping her lightly between the metal and the heat of his body.
"Before we go," he murmured, "I need you to understand something."
Aria swallowed.
Luciano's gaze burned into hers, slow and deliberate.
"You stay close to me," he said.
"Closer than yesterday."
"Closer than this morning."
"Close enough that if someone tries to take you—"
His fingers grazed her jaw.
"I'll kill them before they touch you."
Aria's breath hitched.
"Why?" she asked, voice barely a whisper.
Luciano's eyes flickered — a storm, a secret, a crack in his armor.
"Because someone inside my world wants me dead…"
His hand moved to her wrist again, thumb brushing the pulse beating there.
"…and someone inside Bianchi's world wants you dead."
Aria froze.
"What?" she whispered.
Luciano's expression darkened to something protective. Something fierce. Something terrifying.
"You weren't supposed to find that message," he said. "It wasn't bait for me."
He leaned closer, voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
"It was a warning for him."
Aria's stomach twisted.
"For who?"
Luciano's lips curved into the slightest, coldest smile she'd ever seen.
"For the person hunting you."
Aria's blood ran cold.
And Luciano added, low and final:
"Which is why you don't leave my side again."
The elevator opened.
Light flooded in.
Danger waited outside.
And Aria stepped forward into the shadow of the most dangerous man she had ever known…
…with no idea that someone out there already knew her real identity.
Someone who wanted her gone.
And someone who would come sooner than she ever expected.
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