ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 198: Once a Boris, Always a Boris

Chapter 198

ROMEO POV

"If so much as a shadow touches anyone in my house. I won’t just kill you, Marco. I will erase your entire bloodline from the history of this country. I will burn every stone you’ve ever touched."

Marco didn’t smile this time. He looked at me with the eyes of a man who had already accepted the consequences of his gamble.

"Then you should probably stop talking to a dead man and start driving." I didn’t waste another breath.

Marco’s head snapped to the side, his eyes rolling back as his knees buckled. He hit the floor like a sack of grain, unconscious before he even realized I’d moved.

I stood over him for a fraction of a second, my chest heaving, the urge to empty the magazine into his skull nearly overwhelming my logic.

But I needed him alive. I needed someone to scream. "Take care of this," I spat, not even looking at Antonio but he didn’t need further instructions.

Whether he was dragging Marco to the basement of a safe house or finishing the job after an interrogation, it didn’t matter.

I didn’t wait to hear the body being dragged. I turned on my heel and walked through the doors of the meeting room.

Every second I spent in this "neutral ground" felt like a gallon of blood leaving my body. If Marco was right—if the threat was already inside—then every security protocol I had perfected was a joke.

I pulled my phone from my pocket, my thumb hovering over the speed dial, hissing a curse as it rang.

"James," I said into the phone the moment it was at my ear. "Start the car."

There was no hesitation on the other end. "Already running."

"Good," I replied. "We’re leaving."

I ended the call and kept walking, my mind already elsewhere—on timing, on loose ends, on the growing sense that tonight was something else.

I reached the entrance, throwing myself into the back seat before the car had even come to a full stop.

"The estate," I barked, pulling out the tablet that was on the car, the screen lighting up the dark interior of the car.

James pulled away from the curb immediately, tires whispering against the asphalt as the city lights streaked past the windows.

My fingers moved fast as I keyed in the password without looking, muscle memory taking over as layers of security peeled away one by one.

Encryption. Biometrics. Time-stamped clearance. The estate’s security grid filled the screen.

Every camera. Every corridor. Every blind spot I had personally eliminated years ago.

I leaned forward, jaw tight, scrolling through feeds—external perimeter first. Gates. Walls. Guards on rotation. Nothing out of place. No alarms. No forced entries.

Good but it was too good, I switched to interior cameras, slicing through floors with sharp swipes of my finger.

Hallways. Staircases. Common rooms. Staff quarters. Even nonna’s room.

Normal. All of it looked normal. Nonna was sound asleep in her bed, nothing abnormal and that was the problem.

My pulse thudded hard against my ribs as I pulled up the top floor. My floor.

The screen split into multiple feeds—corridor angles, elevator access, stairwell cameras. I scanned them rapidly, my eyes trained to catch the smallest inconsistency.

Empty hallway.

Another angle. Still empty.

I adjusted the time slider back a few minutes, scrubbing through the footage with increasing tension.

The elevator doors opened. There. Katya stepped out.

My grip tightened on the tablet, it was past midnight, why was she awake.

I don’t want to believe it that she’s the traitor even when she wasn’t a threat anymore. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted her.

Wait trusted? I never trusted her, I never ever. Fuck I focused on the scream as she moved slowly, shoulders slightly slumped, the way someone walked when they were exhausted and half-asleep.

She paused mid-hallway. Stopped. I leaned closer, my breath shallow. She looked around.

The feed showed nothing else. No one stepping into frame. No sudden movement. Just her... sneaky?

My stomach twisted. I watched as she shook her head, as if dismissing whatever she thought she was about to do and continued toward her room.

"Come on, Don’t be the traitor" I muttered under my breath, thumb dragging the timeline forward.

She reached her door. Opened it. Stepped inside.

Relief barely had time to register as the feed glitched. Just for half a second. Static tore across the screen, before the image snapped back.

The corridor was empty again. My blood ran cold. "That camera," I snapped, already tapping commands. "Zoom. Enhance. Rewind five seconds."

The system complied instantly. I replayed it slower this time. Frame by frame.

Nothing. No visible intruder. No shadow. No distortion except that brief, impossible interference.

Which shouldn’t exist. Not on a closed internal system. James glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "Don?" 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Drive faster," I said quietly. The tablet felt too light in my hands now. Useless. Deceptive.

Marco’s words echoed back, sharp and mocking. Then you should probably stop talking to a dead man and start driving.

My jaw clenched so hard it hurt. The tablet remained frozen in my hands, the image of that empty corridor burning into my skull.

Only her camera.

Out of an entire floor protected by redundant systems, only the feed outside Katya’s room glitched.

And the worst of it all was that her room was the only room that didn’t have a camera, a tradition, a Donna room should be untouched and unchecked as it was disrespectful.

This wasn’t coincidence. I didn’t believe in coincidence. I’d buried too many men who did.

I scrubbed back again, slower this time, watching her movements with a colder eye. The way she stepped off the elevator. The slight pause. The glance around the hallway.

Sneaky.

Careful.

Like someone checking whether the coast was clear.

My jaw flexed. My room and my office were both on that floor. Neither locked. Neither secured against internal access because no one was supposed to be there at night—no staff, no guards, no guests.

Except her.

Why was she even awake? Why now? Why that floor? And why did the glitch happen the exact second she crossed the threshold of her door?

I pulled up the system logs, fingers flying. No alarm triggers. No forced overrides. No external breach.

Which meant the interference came from inside. Someone with access. Someone who knew my system well enough to blind it—if only for half a second.

Too clean. Too precise. My chest tightened as the thought settled in, ugly and unwanted.

She wasn’t alone.

She couldn’t have done that herself. Katya didn’t have clearance, didn’t have the codes, didn’t have the technical reach to ghost a camera on a closed loop.

She wasn’t even that educated unless she could pretend well.

So someone had to be walking with her. Just out of frame.

Just close enough. Who the hell would risk moving on my floor?

Who would be stupid enough—or confident enough—to think they could slip past me in my own house?

Marco’s voice echoed again in my head, taunting now. My grip tightened until my knuckles burned.

The realization settled heavy in my chest. If someone was inside my house, then the worst mistake I could make was hesitation.

I didn’t hesitate. My thumb snapped across the tablet, pulling up the master control panel. One command. One confirmation.

LOCKDOWN: FULL ESTATE.

Steel shutters slid into place across external doors. Internal access points sealed. Elevators froze between floors. Stairwell locks engaged.

Every smart door on the property deadbolted simultaneously.

No one in.

No one out.

If someone thought they were walking freely through my house, they were about to find out how wrong they were.

I was an hour far from home but that doesn’t mean I still wouldn’t have control over my house I switched tabs, already lifting my phone to my ear.

It rang once before the head of gate security picked up. "Don," he said immediately, alert snapping into his voice.

"Listen carefully," I said, my tone ice-flat. "No vehicles leave. No personnel rotate. No exceptions. Anyone tries to exit the estate—anyone—you stop them. I don’t care who it is."

"Yes, Don."

"Lock the outer gates manually," I continued. "Switch to visual confirmation only. If anyone approaches, you notify me before you breathe."

"Understood." I ended the call and leaned back against the seat, exhaling slowly through my nose.

The car surged forward as James obeyed my earlier order, the engine humming lower, faster.

Inside my chest, my thoughts sharpened into something cold and precise.

Katya...Once a Boris always a Boris. I should have known. aAnd to think I was pitying someone like that. Thinking she was a victim to her father.

Was she really that good? My jaw clenched. I looked back down at the frozen corridor feed, at the space outside her door where nothing appeared.

I sure hope she didn’t do anything to my nonna.

††

I know some of you might hate Romeo for thinking Katya is the bad guy but come on,he saw a totally different thing from his view but y’all can hate him for now lol