Scarlett
# UNHINGED OBSESSION
### Chapter One — Scarlett
The basement smelled like a mixture of blood and copper, regret feeling like air, like a cool breeze.
Scarlett Vane crouched in front of a man tied to a chair made of iron and brass, wired for electrocution, staring intensely at the man who betrayed the clan, eyes sharp like a blade, cold like ice.
Marco had been with the Red Heart Syndicate for six years. Long enough to know the clan rules. Long enough to know what betrayal feels like in the hands of She-Lucifer. That's Scarlett's name in the clan.
"One last time, Marco," she said, voice cold, which made the air much colder. "Who did you sell the shipment routes to?"
Marco's head tilted to one side, energy drained from the electrocution, blood dripping from his head and split lip down onto his already dirty shirt. "I already told your father everything..."
A heavy blow from Scarlett landed on his left eye. "Wrong answer, Marco." She turned on the switch. The current struck like an invisible beast, surging through his body in a violent rush, seizing his muscles, stealing his breath, and turning every nerve into a screaming wire of pain. Making him scream in pain.
Just then she heard the door creak open behind her. She didn't turn back, already knowing who it was. Only one person in this family walked like that, unhurried and unbothered. She turned off the switch, still facing Marco, her back to the door.
"Scarlett." Luciano's voice rose, low and commanding, like someone choosing his words carefully.
"I'm busy."
"You're done," Luciano said as he stepped further into the room, followed by two mobsters whose eyes didn't go anywhere else but to the chair, to who was sitting on it, to her hand, then to the knife she hadn't put down.
"Let Dante finish with him. I need you to come with me upstairs."
Scarlett straightened slowly, wiping the blade, then said, "No one touches him. He's mine to deal with."
She turned to her father, still cleaning the rag, eyes still cold and sharp. "Since when did this start?" Her voice was void of any emotion.
"Since when did what start?" Luciano questioned, voice still low.
"You interrupting my interrogation."
"Since I received a call an hour ago that changes everything," Luciano said, jaw tight.
And for the first time in years, she recognized that look.
He looked afraid — of whatever he had to say, and how it would turn out.
---
## THE DINING ROOM
The dining room upstairs was too quiet.
Jane sat at the far end of the table, back straight, hands folded, a perfect posture of a woman rehearsing sympathy she didn't feel.
Madison and Addison flanked her, smiling like they knew something Scarlett didn't.
"Sit," Luciano said.
"I'll rather stand," she said, crossing her arms.
He didn't argue. He just poured himself a drink he didn't touch and said the words that would end the version of life she'd ever known.
"The Blackwoods have agreed to peace."
The atmosphere dropped low, everywhere became silent like a graveyard. Scarlett's eyes turned colder. The Dark Shadows Syndicate. The only clan in the underworld that had ever challenged their authority.
"Peace," she repeated, voice flat. "Sounds foreign. After thirty years of dead bodies. After what they did to Uncle Theo. After—" She paused, trying to cool her temper.
Luciano's voice slipped into the silence. "After I decided this family has bled enough." His voice cracked slightly. Not for anyone to notice, but Scarlett did.
"The alliance will be sealed properly," he spoke again. "Formally. Through marriage."
The room tilted.
"No."
"Scarlett—"
"Absolutely not." Her voice rose, anger flaring up. "You can't possibly tell me you traded me like a shipment of guns to a family that tried to burn ours to the ground."
"It's not a trade." Luciano said, not looking at her. That told her everything. "It's survival."
Across the table, Madison's smile widened, sharp and malicious. "I think it's romantic," she said sweetly, voice dripping with venom. "Marrying the most feared man in the country."
"Say that again and see if you don't lose your tongue," Scarlett said, anger visible in her voice, gaze sharp.
Madison flinched and tried to mask it. "I'm only saying." Her eyes glittered — all fake concern, which Scarlett noticed.
Addison said nothing, only watching as always. Quiet. Patient. Scarlett had known for a long time that Addison was the dangerous twin. Madison threw knives you could see coming. But Addison... Addison buried hers where you'd never think to look.
"When," Scarlett said, turning back to Luciano, her mind already calculating her next move.
"Three weeks from now. The engagement dinner is Friday. Both families." Luciano finally raised his eyes to meet hers. Beneath the exhaustion, beneath the guilt, she saw one thing that made her stomach turn colder than anything else.
He was relieved. Relieved that he wasn't going to fight the Blackwoods again. Relieved that it wasn't going to be him standing in the same room with Azrael Blackwood.
"You're among those afraid of him," she said. Not a question. Her voice dripping with disgust.
Luciano didn't answer. He didn't have to.
Scarlett turned and walked out before anyone could see her hands shaking. Not from fear. From fury.
She was Red Heart's heir. She had put men in the ground with her own hands, broken so many bones, made professional killers flinch at the sound of her voice. She was not some prize to be wrapped in silk and handed across enemy lines to make peace her father was too tired to fight for.
Whatever... whoever... Azrael Blackwood was, he was about to learn that the Vane family didn't hand over lambs.
They handed over wolves wearing lipstick.
---
*End of Chapter One*
