Chapter 104 Bloodied Lace
❄︎ Viktor ❄︎
I was falling.
That’s what it felt like. Falling through flashes of lives I both remembered and didn’t remember living. They flashed so fast I couldn’t breathe.
Rosa’s figure glowed behind my eyes, her shape flickering like candlelight, her voice shaking: ‘What have you done, Viktor?’
My father’s face, severe and cold: ‘You must crush your enemies.’ My mother, standing on a high bridge, her skirts whipping in the wind. Then Rosa standing beside her, her white dress ruined with a bloodstain at the chest.
Blood soaked white lace.
I snapped awake with a jolt.
My vision wavered, the whole room tilting. But I gripped the edge of the bed for balance, my fingers clawing the wood as I gritted my teeth through the wave of dizziness.
The famiglia doctor was beside me , smallish but old, with sharp eyes that studied me intently. She pressed a glass of water into my hand without a word.
My wrist burned as I tore the IV out, but I didn’t care. I drowned the water in one go, the cool rush fighting the cotton that had taken over my mouth.
Adrian leaned in the corner with his arms crossed, looking too fucking calm standing in my room while Rosa was still gone.
“Any update?” My voice came out rougher than I intended, my throat raw. “On Rosa.”
“She’s safe.”
I froze, relieved at first. Then fury bled through every pore, tinted with self-disgust. I’d been flat on my back, unconscious, while she’d been in danger or worse.
“How long?”
“About an hour.”
I pushed up from the bed, too fast. The floor buckled under me, my head threatening to split. I slammed a hand against the wall and clenched my teeth, refusing to give the dizziness victory.
The doctor hovered but didn’t interfere. She knew better. Quiet as ever, she placed two vials and a blister pack on the side table, then gave me a firm nod before leaving. I nodded back.
Transaction complete.
When the door shut, I turned to Adrian. “What the fuck happened?”
He stepped out of the shadows. “I reached Dante as soon as I was called. He said he found her on the outskirts, and took her straight to the Grand Marlow. She’s there now.”
My jaw tightened. “So it was all a ploy?” suspicion was already snaking its way through me.
“No.” Adrian said. “I checked the footage. She was taken.”
He handed me a tablet.
I gripped it, my eyes tracing every inch of the dark screen. Then Rosa staggered into the frame. Her arms were wrapped around herself, her eyes wild as she stumbled toward a payphone.
The image of her clutching the receiver and crying into it made my chest tighten until I forced a breath through my teeth.
Then Dante’s car rolled up.
My lips curled in a humorless smirk when I watched the moment she abandoned Sabella on the curb without a backward glance.
But my smirk died when I saw who picked Sabella up. A familiar figure. The bastard from the club.
The tablet creaked in my grip. Adrian snatched it before I ground the thing into dust. He knew me too well.
I stood still, replaying the flashes in my mind, the sigil, the blood, Rosa’s face, and now him.
I didn’t need to work for the connection. I understood it perfectly.
“Guererro Sanchez,” I muttered, more to myself than to Adrian. “That’s his son.”
Adrian gave one sharp nod. He didn’t argue. He never did when I spoke like that.
“There’s a rat in this house,” I added flatly.
“I figured as much.” A beat. “I’ll handle it.”
Of course he would.
He tilted his head, studying me like he was weighing something behind his eyes. “You okay?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I pushed past him, already heading for the door. My body ached, my head still fogged from the lost hours, but that was nothing. What mattered was Rosa.
“Viktor.”
His voice stopped me mid-stride. I glanced back impatiently.
“I kept my promise,” he said smoothly, “I’m not hurting her.”
I snorted. “I’m not the one you should be worried about. It’s Rosa.”
His lips twitched into a smile.
I smirked as I turned away. He’d been sharp enough to notice something was off with me and to test it. And now, with my memories back into place, I could see everything clearly.
Adrian thought he was clever thinking no one noticed the games he was playing with Juliana. And Rosa hated it because she feared Adrian would crush her cousin’s heart.
The soldiers in the hall straightened the second they saw me. They parted like water, their shoulders stiff, eyes locked forward.
I pressed my knuckles against my beard, reveling in the pleasant hum of newly found wholeness. My pulse was steady too, for the first time in days.
I remembered every thread, every enemy. Every piece of the board.
But first, I was going to get my wife back.