INSATIABLE CRAVINGS
Insatiable Cravings – Episode 121
Subtitle; {Loving You Is A Loosing Game}
TAGS: Age-gap, Mafia, Forbidden Love, Drama, Tragedy and Betrayal.
Settings: United Kingdom, Russia and others.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
~ Genevieve ~
“How did you notice it?” Rory’s voice was barely a murmur, as though she were confiding a secret. “It was subtle enough to go unseen.”
I glanced away from Dominic and Dexter, who were engrossed in a conversation too far off to catch, and gave a light shrug. Nonchalant. Or at least pretending to be.
“What do you think the code means?” she asked, casting a look over her shoulder from her crouched position as she rummaged through a low cupboard. “More importantly, what exactly are we searching for?”
We were in Blade’s house now. The drive from Dominic’s had taken about four hours—oddly long considering there was no traffic. I had no clue why Blade had chosen to live this far out, when the others were no more than an hour apart.
It was like he’d deliberately picked somewhere remote. Secluded. The house sat in the middle of an expanse of immaculately kept green, the kind that looked like it had been trimmed with nail scissors. A few trees dotted the land, swaying gently in the breeze. Inside, it looked rather normal. Plain, even.
Scratch that—it looked minimalistic.
“I’ve not the faintest idea,” I replied, eyes darting about like a spy in enémy territory.
My heart thudded violently in my chest, an invisible drumbeat of dreàd. My palms were clammy, the skin slick with either pañic or anxiety—perhaps both. No matter how deep I inhaled, the unease lingered like a stubborn shadow.
“You alright?” Aurora’s voice snapped me out of my spiralling thoughts. She nudged my arm gently. “You look…”
The room tilted. My vision blurred at the edges and I felt nauseously lightheaded. I stumbled, catching myself just in time.
“I’m fine—just stressed,” I muttered, trying to steady my breath. “Come on, let’s check his bedroom.”
She gave me a look—doubtful, questioning—but let it go with a soft hum.
In under two minutes, we were inside Blade’s room. It was utterly out of character. Total chaós.
Blade would never—never—leave his space like this. Not even with a guñ to his head. He was obsessively tidy. Once, he’d had a full-blown outburst over a tiny stain on the barrel of his guñ.
So no, this méss wasn’t his doing. It had to be Dominic’s people, tearing through it during their initial sweep.
“Don’t you find it odd?” Aurora asked, flipping through a book she’d fished off the nightstand. “Him telling us something after what he did? After stabbiñg us all in the back?”
“I do,” I said quietly.
There was something deeply unsettling about it all. Someone who betrayéd those who trusted him wouldn’t just come crawling back with clues. Would he?
The what ifs raced through my head like sprinting phantoms.
What if he’s lying?
What if it’s a diversion?
What if we’re being played?
What if it’s all a decoy?
What if it’s a bloódy setup?
I let out a tired sigh and leaned against the wall, too drained to ransack anything else. My gaze swept the room, scanning every inch.
“I don’t like this,” she muttered.
My eyes flicked to Rory just as she whispered her own misgivings into the still air. She was knee-deep in the search for something none of us even understood, so focused she didn’t realise I was watching her.
So I wasn’t alone in feeling this way.
“There’s nothing here,” she announced, turning to face me with her hands on her hips. She was dressed in soft pink sweatpants and a matching hoodie—oddly cosy for the tension that crackled around us. “Blade wouldn’t just leave something important lying about. That is, if there’s even anything to find.” She flopped onto the bed with a sigh. “I don’t know what you and Dex saw in his finger-tapping. Could’ve been completely random.”
Random?
Even she didn’t believe that. She was trying to convince herself, clinging to the narrative that Blade had betrayéd us, that this was nothing but a déad end.
But I knew what I saw. That tapping meant something—regardless of whether Blade was on our side or not.
“You’re right,” I said.
She blinked at me, stunned. “I am?!”
Her voice went high with surprise before she schooled her face into mock composure. “Well… obviously. I am right.”
I crossed the small distance to the bed and sat beside her, close enough for comfort but not intrusion. “Since you’re so right,” I said, fingers twitching with nerves, “do you have any idea who he might be working with?”
She shook her head. “No. Could be anyone. Dominic’s got more enemiés than friends.”
“Everyone’s got enemiés.”
“Yeah, but Dominic’s wouldn’t hesitate to put a búllet through your skull.”
“True,” I murmured, nodding.
Silence descended then. Heavy. Suffocating. The sort of silence that made you aware of your own heartbeat. It echoed between us, our minds full of questions we didn’t know how to voice. The kind of silence that screamed louder than any words.
“Genny. Rory.” Dexter’s voice broke through the hush. It wasn’t his usual cheery tone—it was flat. Tired. We both looked over instantly. He gave a slight jerk of his head. “Let’s go.”
Rory’s golden-brown eyes met mine, and for a flicker of a second, I saw it—the same hollow déspair mirrored in my own.
So that was it? Nothing?
Had I imagined it all?
Could I really have been wrong?
“Where’s Dominic?” I asked, the thought cutting through my haze like a blade.
“Over there. Gazebo.” Rory answered, her eyes already fixed on him.
“I should búrn that f+cking thing to the ground,” Dexter muttered, veñom lacing his voice. But beneath it, there was something else. Grief. Anger. Heartbreak.
It sounded personal.
Aurora scoffed. “Yeah, right. As if torching it could erase the fact that Blade was a lying bastàrd.”
Then suddenly, as if struck by lightning, Rory gasped. Her eyes locked with Dexter’s.
“The gazebo!” they exclaimed in unison.
“What—” I started, but the words caught as they bolted, Rory slightly ahead.
With a breath of confusion, I followed.
“It’s here,” Rory said breathlessly.
It’s here?
The clue? The code?
Dominic, still on the phone, glanced up in confusion. “What’s here?” he asked, voice low, edged with curiosity.
Dex quickly gestured for him to hang up, before Aurora could blurt anything reckless. She, thankfully, caught on and rushed to cover. “My scrunchie!” she said brightly.
Brilliant.
Although every fibre in my body screamed for answers, impatient and wild with curiosity, I kept quiet.
“Sorry—got to go,” Dominic said into the phone, before hanging up with a heavy sigh. He ran a hand across his face, weariness etched into every line. The stubble along his jaw shadowed him, lending him an edge that, somehow, only made him more attractive.
“Please,” he said, deadpan, “tell me I didn’t just hang up on an important call for a blóody scrunchie.”
Aurora beamed. “You didn’t just hang up on an important call for a blóody scrunchie.”
The sun was sinking, throwing golden slashes across the lawn. It reminded me just how long we’d been here—hours spent chasing shadows and nothing concrete. Time had slipped through our fingers like sand.
And now we were freezing. The air bit at my skin, sharp and unforgiving. I silently cursed myself for thinking a sleeveless gown was a good idea.
Dex chuckled softly, stepping into the gazebo. “Whatever Blade meant to show us—it’s here.”
“Why?” I asked.
“This was our spot. After training. Every single day.”
Rory nodded slowly. Her earlier despair softened into quiet sorrow. “We’d sit out here with snacks, drinks. Just… laugh. If Blade wanted to hide something, something important—he’d have chosen here.”
The gazebo.
So this was it.
The clue was here.
TBC📖✍️
