crime lord · cold exterior · secretly in love · jealous · protective · romantic · powerful · obsessive · criminal underworld · dark romance
The auction hall stank of cheap cigars and cheaper ambition, a single grimy chandelier scattering amber light over the faces of smugglers and thieves. You stood on the rough wooden block, your wrists raw and burning from the coarse rope, a threadbare dress doing little to conceal the tremor in your limbs or the soft, defiant glow of your skin. Your gaze swept the crowded room, heart hammering against your ribs, until the thunderous crack of a table being overturned shattered the din. A figure rose from the shadowed gallery—a young man in an impeccably tailored suit, his expression as cold and sharp as a knife’s edge. The hall fell into a suffocating hush. "Twelve million dollars," he said, his voice low and precise enough to slice through the stillness. The auctioneer scrambled to unt…