Undressed By His Arrogance-Chapter 322: God Fucking Dammit!

Tick. Tick. Tick.

No one spoke. No one breathed properly. Every sound felt amplified.

One hour and thirty minutes passed.

Still nothing.

And then Sam smiled.

It spread across his face like a private joke only he understood.

Raphael isn’t calling.

Not because he doesn’t want to. His smile widened. But because he can’t.

And if he can’t, it means only one thing.

She has him.

God help Raphael.

*****

Ivy was escorted down the narrow corridor into the room where Raphael was being kept. The underground of Commissioned had a way of swallowing sound. This room in particular felt smaller than it actually was. Ivy knew this room. Intimately.

She had been here once before.

The memory hit her the moment her foot crossed the threshold. She remembered standing in almost the same spot, her hands shaking, her stomach churning as she watched the love of her life pull the trigger without hesitation. She remembered the sound—the wet, final crack of bone and thought—and how she had walked out afterward, scarred. Back then, Winn had been strong for both of them.

Today, she was that strength.

The realization didn’t frighten her the way she thought it might. Instead, it settled into her bones with a cold certainty. Before anyone could speak, before Raphael could even finish lifting his head in recognition, Ivy reached into her bag with steady hands. She pulled out one of Winn’s guns, and fired.

Raphael’s scream tore through the room, as he collapsed sideways. Blood pooled instantly on the concrete floor from his lower leg, his body convulsing in shock and pain.

"God fucking dammit!" Luca barked, springing to his feet and throwing his hands up. "Please tell me that gun isn’t registered." He shot a sharp look at Reese, who stood by the door, utterly unfazed.

Reese lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug.

"Fuck it!" Luca waved dismissively. "Well, someone dig the slug out."

One of Luca’s men immediately dropped to his knees in front of Raphael and dug his finger into the wound. Raphael screamed louder, his body thrashing, sweat pouring down his face.

Ivy stepped closer. She crouched just enough to meet Raphael’s eye line.

"The antidote," Ivy said evenly.

Raphael’s eyes were wild, darting between her face and his mangled leg. "I—I don’t—" he choked out, gasping as the man dug deeper. "I swear—"

Ivy tilted her head slightly, studying him. Winn was fighting for his life because of this man.

"Raphael," she said softly. "You don’t get to test me today."

He sobbed, a broken sound ripped from deep in his chest. The man working on his leg cursed under his breath as he finally pried the slug free, holding it up triumphantly. Blood continued to flow.

Luca let out a long, theatrical sigh, rubbing a hand over his face. "Women..." he muttered under his breath. "Always acting emotionally." He reached into his jacket and smoothly pulled out a gun, and extended it toward Ivy. "Here," he added dryly.

Ivy glanced at the gun, then at Luca, one brow lifting. She placed the one she was holding in her bag and took the gun.

Raphael, pale and shaking, let out a strangled shout through clenched teeth. "Let me go!" he screamed. "Let me go and I’ll give it to you, I swear—"

Ivy lifted the gun casually, testing its balance. "I was aiming for your shoulder earlier," she said mildly. "We’re still working on my aim. You want to try bullshitting me again and see where the next one ends up?"

Raphael broke. "It’s in my fucking car!" he shouted. "Jesus Christ—it’s in my car!"

"Where is your car?" she asked.

"They have it!" Raphael cried, jerking his head toward Luca’s men as if they were both saviors and executioners. Sweat poured down his face. "They took it when they grabbed me—there’s a case, small, black—" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

That was enough.

Ivy lowered the gun and, without ceremony, handed it back to Luca. The sudden lack of violence seemed to confuse everyone in the room for half a second. Luca blinked, eyebrows shooting up. "What? You’re just going to leave him here?" he asked incredulously. "We cannot let him walk out of here."

Ivy didn’t even slow as she turned away, already following one of Luca’s men toward the door. "Then kill him," she said over her shoulder. "I don’t care." Raphael had already ceased to matter the moment he stopped being useful.

The walk to the garage felt surreal.

It took only minutes.

A small, reinforced case was retrieved from the trunk of Raphael’s car, hidden beneath the rug. One of Luca’s men handed it over. Ivy opened it just long enough to confirm. There were two vials in there. One empty, one full. She guessed the empty one was the one currently killing Winn.

She snapped the case shut and immediately pressed it into Reese’s hands.

The moment the box left her possession, the tension that had been holding her upright finally snapped. Her breath came out in a broken rush, lungs burning, knees buckling beneath her. She collapsed to the floor.

*****

Hours later, consciousness crept back into Winn’s body the way dawn slipped through heavy curtains. His lashes fluttered first, a faint frown tugging at his brows as sensation returned in fragments. When his eyes finally opened, the world swam before settling, and the first face hovering above him was unmistakably Sam’s.

"He’s back!" Sam bellowed.

The room erupted instantly. Chairs scraped back, footsteps hurried, bodies pressed in close as if proximity alone could keep Winn tethered to the living. The VIP hospital room, once hushed and tense, filled with overlapping voices—Anna sobbing his name, Tim muttering curses of gratitude, Irene wrapping her arms around her husband.

Winn groaned softly and cleared his throat. Irene was there in a heartbeat, lifting a glass of water to his lips. He took it with trembling fingers and gulped greedily, water spilling down his chin as if his body feared it might never taste it again. When he finally lowered the glass, chest rising with a shaky breath, he blinked and took stock of the room—too many faces, too much emotion, all aimed at him.

His gaze landed back on Sam.

Winn squinted. "Who are you?"

The room froze.