Chapter 69

• Chapter 69: The Knife in the Velvet
• They didn’t let her sleep.
• Word moved through the mansion like a current: the dons had left; the council had scattered; the hall was being scrubbed clean. But Elena lay awake, the ceiling a blank ocean over her head, every inch of skin still thrumming from the way Gabriel had kissed her in front of Ferrero’s men, from the way Alessio’s hand had settled on her shoulder like a seal only they could read. When she finally rose, late light poured across the floor and painted the bruises at her throat in soft gold. Even the sunlight couldn’t pretend they didn’t exist.