Chapter 141

LILY'S POV.

Nothing was as it seemed; I sensed it from the start, from the day he entered the manor with a bandage on his arm, claiming a message from Ruslan.

As I held onto Adler hours after Luciano's visit, one question gnawed at me. It did hurt me then to doubt a friend's story, a close one, but when you've been floored too many times, your instincts spring up at the slightest provocation.

'Ruslan was deadly; him having to pay anyone a visit should signify the end, and if he wanted to send me a message through Luciano, it would be on his decayed corpse.

Something felt off. And the feeling had grown when Adler had confirmed my suspicion.

"He kills without a second thought. There's no one he meets face to face who lives to tell stories," he said.

And no one would know better than Adler, right? Yeah, I was right.

I was in the backseat of a halted car, the gun in my hands, my fingers trigger-hungry, and a cold chill running down my