"Long time no see."
The voice came from the shadows, deep and ruthless, cutting through the damp silence of the basement like a blade.
Alexa's head lifted slowly. Her face was swollen, her lip split, her hair matted with blood that had dried hours ago. The chains around her wrists clinked as she moved, metal against metal, the only sound in the room besides her ragged breathing. One eye was nearly swollen shut, but the other burned with a hatred that no amount of beating could extinguish.
And there he was. Leonardo Moretti. Standing in the dim light, his hands in his pockets, his posture relaxed, like he had all the time in the world. Like she was already nothing.
Her eyes flashed with hatred. "Go away," she spat. "You bastard."
Leo didn't move. Didn't blink. Just watched her with those cold gray eyes, the same eyes she had been trying to catch for as long as she could remember. The same eyes that had always looked through her like she was glass.
