Chapter Three

TOUCH OF A MONSTER

Ava sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the half-empty suitcase on the floor.

The sound of her drawers opening and closing filled the silence, followed by the soft rustle of clothes being shoved in without care. She wasn’t thinking straight. She didn’t even know what to pack. She just kept moving, folding, stuffing, like it might slow down the storm outside her head.

It was barely 6:30 PM, but the sky outside had already turned a deep gray, heavy with clouds. The house was quieter now. Her parents were in the living room, whispering low, probably making plans she didn’t want to hear. Kayla was curled up on the couch, Jaden asleep with his head in her lap. Grandma had lit a candle and was muttering prayers in the kitchen.

Then came the knock.

Soft. Hesitant.

She opened her bedroom door.

“Nico,” she breathed.

He stood there in his signature hoodie and dark jeans, his curls messy, eyes tired. There was a plastic bag in his hand, probably snacks or something dumb and thoughtful like that.

“You okay?” he asked.

She let out a breathy laugh. “Do I look okay?”

“No,” he admitted, stepping inside. “You look like someone just got slapped by life five times in a row.”

She sank onto her bed. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye to the restaurant properly. One second I’m working, and the next? I’m the reason Carson’s bankrupt, my face is all over town, and I owe a million dollars I don’t have.”

He sat beside her, close enough that their shoulders touched. “None of this is your fault.”

“Try telling that to Carson. Or the internet. Or Leo Moretti.”

Nico flinched slightly at the name. “I’ve been reading about him,” he said after a pause. “He’s not just some rich prick. He’s dangerous, Ava. People don’t cross him and get to keep their lives normal.”

“I spilled coffee, Nico.”

“Yeah. And he shut down a business, fined you a million, and vanished without blinking.”

That silenced her.

“I wish I could fix this,” Nico said quietly. “Punch him in the face or something.”

She gave a small, sad smile. “You’d end up in a ditch.”

“Then I’d die defending my best friend. Worth it.”

She looked at him, her heart aching in the worst way. “They want me to leave tonight.”

He nodded slowly. “I figured.”

“They say it’s safer. I don’t even know where I’m going exactly. Just... Cynthia’s house. Her place smells like burnt socks and she thinks WiFi is a government tracking tool.”

“Better paranoid than buried,” he said. Then, softer, “You need to go.”

There was a knock downstairs. Her dad’s voice followed. “Ava! Bus to Greenhill leaves in twenty minutes!”

She stood, zipping the suitcase closed. It looked smaller than it should’ve. Like she was leaving pieces of herself behind.

“You’ll text me?” Nico asked.

Ava turned to him. “Every day.”

He gave her a lopsided smile and hugged her tightly. “Don’t die. Or turn into a weird city person who forgets us country rats.”

She smiled into his shoulder. “Promise.”

Outside, the sky had darkened fully. The bus stop was only a few streets away, but her dad insisted on walking her there. The entire family came—Kayla still scrolling on her phone like she wasn’t crying behind it, her mom clinging to her hand, Jaden still sleepy and confused. Grandma kept whispering prayers in her language the whole way.

The bus was already there, engine humming, headlights cutting through the misty air.

Ava turned to face them all.

“I’ll be okay,” she said, trying to sound brave. “It’s just for a while.”

Her mom kissed her forehead. Her dad hugged her tighter than usual. Nico was the last one to let go.

She climbed onto the bus, her heart pounding.

As the door shut behind her, she looked out the window and caught one last glimpse of home.

Then the bus pulled away.

And the monster she didn't know had already decided that she isn't leaving the world that easily.

LEO WAREHOUSE

The warehouse smelled of gunpowder and gasoline. Blood painted the floor like spilled wine. Two bodies lay on the ground, both still twitching from the last few bullets that tore through them.

Leo stood in the center of the chaos, black gloves on, coat dripping with rain. His men were scrambling—some tending to the wounded, others barking into radios.

Across from him, Matteo, his second-in-command, wiped a streak of blood from his cheek and muttered, “That’s the third base hit in four days. They’re not backing off, Leo.”

Leo turned his head slowly. “And what did we do about it?”

Matteo hesitated.

Leo’s voice dropped an octave. “Exactly.”

There was something about the way he stood—completely still in a room of chaos—that made him terrifying. The kind of stillness that came just before a lion lunged.

“They’re getting bold,” Matteo said. “The Dark Horse crew isn’t hiding anymore. They left tags on the wall like they want us to know. They’re coming for us.”

“They can come,” Leo said, finally moving. He walked past the bodies without looking down. “Let them break down every door. They’ll still crawl when I’m done.”

“But if they get to the docks—”

“They won’t.”

The room fell silent.

Behind him, Leo’s personal assistant, Kellan, stepped forward, phone in hand. “Do you want to respond publicly?”

Leo lit a cigarette. The flame from his lighter briefly lit up the coldness in his eyes. “No. Let them think we’re bleeding. That’s when you strike hardest.”

He took a drag, then looked out through the warehouse’s broken window. Rain streaked down the glass like veins.

“This isn’t just about territory anymore,” Matteo muttered. “It’s personal. They want to humiliate you.”

Leo exhaled smoke slowly. “Then they’ll learn what humiliation feels like when I carve their leader’s heart out and feed it to his crew.”

No one spoke.

Kellan cleared his throat. “There’s one more thing…”

Leo looked at him.

“The girl.”

Leo’s jaw tensed, but he didn’t respond.

“The restaurant incident—it’s all over the news. Blogs. Threads. TikTok. People are eating it up. Some are even defending her.”

Leo turned away from the window, voice like stone. “Delete every video. Every post. Find the originals. Burn the backups.”

“She boarded a bus, sir. Left town. We’re tracking it.”

Leo nodded once. “Good.”

Matteo frowned. “Leo… with everything happening—do you really care about her right now?”

There was a long silence.

Then Leo said, calmly, “I don’t leave things unfinished. Especially not her.”

Matteo looked at Kellan, but neither of them said anything else. They knew better.

Leo turned back toward the door.

“Get ready,” he said.

The bus was warm and quiet, filled with tired passengers and the low hum of the road stretching endlessly ahead. Ava sat by the window, her hoodie pulled over her head, hands tucked in her lap. The motion of the ride, the quiet rhythm, it all felt… safe.

For a moment.

She tried not to think of home, of her family’s worried faces, or the cold finality of Nico’s goodbye. She tried to ignore the ache in her chest that grew with every mile. Maybe in another city, she could disappear. Start fresh. Survive.

But fate didn’t care about her plans.

The bus slowed.

Ava blinked and sat up straighter, peering out the window. They weren’t near any known stop—just a long stretch of road surrounded by trees. Then came the red and blue lights. Not police. Black SUVs with dark tinted windows and flashing internal lights, pulling up like sharks circling prey.

The bus came to a full stop.

“What’s happening?” someone asked.

The driver was already standing up. “Everyone stay calm,” he said, clearly not calm himself.

Three men boarded. All in black. No logos. No badges.

Ava felt her stomach twist.

They didn’t speak. They walked straight down the aisle like they knew exactly where they were going.

Her.

“Don’t move,” one of them said.

Ava’s voice caught in her throat. “Wh—what?”

One grabbed her arm. She yanked back, panic flaring. “Get off me!”

A few people pulled out phones, trying to record.

The second man moved fast. One by one, he knocked the phones out of their hands and crushed them beneath his boot.

The third man pointed a small device at the bus’s cameras.

Static. Silence.

“No police,” the tallest said. “No noise. You come quietly, and you won’t get hurt.”

“Who are you?!” Ava shouted, trying to scramble away. “I didn’t do anything!”

No one helped her. Some passengers looked away. Others just froze, eyes wide with shock.

One of the men grabbed her by the back of the neck, the pressure sharp. Ava kicked and thrashed, but he was stronger. A cloth was pulled over her eyes. Something rough bound her wrists. She screamed, and someone told her to shut up. Then she was being dragged.

Out the door. Into the cold. The wind hit her face. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t breathe.

“Please,” she choked out, “please—I don’t have anything—I didn’t do anything—”

She was shoved into the back of a car.

Tight. Smelling like leather, metal, and silence.

Her ankles were tied next. Her wrists ached. Every time she moved, the rope burned her skin.

The engine roared to life. The door slammed shut.

Ava lay there, heart pounding out of rhythm. Her breathing was too fast, too shallow. Her mind kept screaming—Leo. This is Leo.

Tears blurred her vision under the blindfold. She bit her tongue to keep from sobbing.

She thought she’d escaped. She thought she was safe. That he’d forget about her and move on to whatever monsters like him focused on next.

But monsters don’t forget.

And Leo Moretti had marked her.

Not for death.

But something worse.