I was never supposed to step into his world.
My life had been small. Careful. Quiet. I worked, I paid my bills, and I avoided trouble. I did not ask questions. I did not dream too big. I did not believe monsters wore tailored suits or ruled cities from the shadows.
And yet, here I was-standing in my father's living room, staring at three men who did not belong to my world at all.
The tallest of them stepped forward first. He was dressed impeccably, black from head to toe. His hair was combed back, sharp, severe, and his expression gave nothing away. He did not speak immediately. He didn't need to. His presence alone filled the room, making my hands tremble and my chest tighten.
"Elena Michaelson," he said finally, calm, measured, deadly.
"Yes," I replied, voice trembling despite my best effort.
"She'll do," he said.
My stomach dropped.
My father's hand shot out. "She has nothing to do with this!" His voice cracked under the weight of desperation. "The debt is mine. Take me instead!"
The man didn't even glance at him.
"I don't want you," he said smoothly. "I want leverage."
The word hit me harder than any punch could. Leverage. Collateral. A possession in a game I had never agreed to play.
And then he spoke the words that would change everything:
"You will come with me. You will live under my roof. You will follow my rules. Until your father's debt is paid-or until I decide it is."
I tried to swallow, tried to find a voice, tried to protest. But the room was already filled with the sharp, measured footsteps of men moving around me. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.
Luciano De Luca.
The name alone made men lower their voices. A king without a crown. A devil in a tailored suit. He was not just a man who collected debts-he was a man who claimed souls. And tonight, he was claiming mine.
My father had never intended for this. The business had collapsed under pressure he didn't understand, with investments that went wrong and promises he couldn't keep. But debts owed to Luciano De Luca were not negotiable. They were never negotiable. When he claimed something, it was his by law, by power, by blood.
I had grown up believing I could survive his mistakes. I had thought I could avoid their consequences. But now, standing here in my father's failing apartment, I realized survival meant something very different. It meant obedience. Submission. And for the first time in my life, the definition of safe had vanished entirely.
Luciano stepped closer. His presence pressed into me like gravity, and I felt myself shrink despite every instinct screaming not to. He was dangerous. Ruthless. Calculating. And yet... there was a dark magnetism I couldn't escape.
"You understand what collateral is, Elena?" His voice was low, controlled, every syllable a promise of consequences.
"Yes," I whispered. My hands were shaking. My pulse raced. My chest felt too tight, too exposed.
"Good," he said, dark eyes scanning me as if he could see not just my body but my very soul. "Then you understand why you're here."
I did.
The debt was mine now, too. My father's mistakes had become my punishment. And Luciano De Luca was the executioner, the collector, the king.
"You think you can protest," he said softly, "but that doesn't change anything. You're mine now, Elena. Not temporarily. Not conditionally. Mine."
I swallowed hard, my mind reeling. "I'm not yours," I said, though even as I spoke, a part of me-terrifyingly aware of my vulnerability-felt the weight of the truth pressing down.
"You will learn," he said, and the faintest smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "Ownership is decided by power. And I have all of it."
My father tried again, flailing, pleading. "Luciano, please! Give her back! I'll-"
"You cannot pay," Luciano interrupted, voice sharp, slicing through the room like a knife. "You cannot fix this. And I don't want you. I want the girl. Collateral is cleaner. Easier."
Collateral. Cleaner. Easier.
The words left a bitter taste in my mouth. I realized in that instant that I was no longer a daughter trying to survive my father's mistakes. I was a commodity. A possession. And the man who had claimed me did not negotiate. He did not compromise. He did not forgive.
He circled me slowly, like a predator savoring the hunt. Every movement was deliberate, precise, and designed to unnerve. His gaze lingered on me in ways that made my skin prickle. I wanted to hate him. I should have hated him. But even as terror clawed at me, I felt a pulse of something else. Something dangerous.
"You will leave tonight," he said, almost conversationally, though the air around his words was deadly. "Pack only what you need. You will live in my world now. Do you understand?"
"Yes," I whispered, even though the words felt like a lie.
"Good."
And just like that, my life shifted. My small, careful existence shattered. I was being led out of my father's apartment by men who didn't ask, didn't explain, didn't hesitate.
I looked back once. My father was slumped on the couch, defeated, his world crumbling.
Luciano's gaze caught mine as we stepped into the elevator, his eyes dark and assessing. He didn't smile. He didn't speak. He simply watched. A predator studying prey. Waiting.
It terrified me. And yet... I couldn't deny the rush, the adrenaline, the undeniable pull of a man who ruled the underworld with calculated cruelty.
The ride to his estate was silent. I was herded into the back of a blacked-out sedan, the city lights sliding past like warnings I couldn't read fast enough. Every instinct screamed to run, yet I knew there was nowhere to go. Luciano's reach was everywhere. His control was absolute.
I tried to make sense of my new reality. I, Elena Michaelson, the quiet daughter of a failed businessman, had become property. His punishment. His leverage. His possession.
I wasn't his guest. I wasn't his lover. I wasn't free.
I was his collateral.
And somewhere deep inside, fear mixed with something else. Something I couldn't name. Something I wasn't sure I wanted to.
Luciano De Luca didn't need to speak to assert dominance. Every movement, every measured breath, every glance said the same thing: I own you. You cannot escape. And even if you survive this night, you will never be free.
I was trapped in a golden cage built from power, secrets, and danger.
But the most dangerous thing wasn't the guns, the men, or the blood. It was the way Luciano looked at me when he thought I wasn't watching. The way his control flickered when I resisted. The way his presence consumed the room, consumed me.
Because I had stepped into his world.
And now, I belonged to him.