He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 346

12:14 Mon, Sep 7

Chapter 346

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Vehicles rolled in fast, parking in a rough, careless sprawl around the building. DeLuca had made

sure our own cars were long gone from sight, nothing left behind to hint that anything about this

situation had already changed.

Nico climbed out first, moving with the kind of confidence that only made sense if you had

absolutely no idea what was about to happen to you.

Lillian followed a moment later, gun already in hand, and something in my chest twisted painfully at

the sight of her. I’d once lived beside this person. Traded stories with her at two in the morning,

laughed over nothing, let her see every unguarded version of me that existed.

And now she stood there armed, chasing an empire, willing to hurt anyone standing between her and

whatever she’d decided she deserved.

Their men spread out, surrounding the building, and the quiet stretched even tighter.

Then I froze completely.

Because I’d genuinely forgotten, somehow, that this building had a second floor.

DeLuca stood on the ruined balcony above them, alone, visible, leaning against the rail with the

casual posture of a man who had never once in his life considered the concept of danger. He picked

up a stone and threw it, idly, against the burnt husk of a car below. The sound rang out sharp

against the metal, again, and again, until heads finally started turning toward the source.

They found him.

Every gun on the ground swung upward at once. Someone barked an order, and more men poured

out from inside the building, Nico among them, weapon raised, confusion and aggression tangled

together across his face.

“Shoot him! Get him down!”

DeLuca kept throwing the stone. Genuinely, actually kept throwing it, like the fifty-plus guns now

aimed at him were a mildly interesting weather pattern.

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Chapter 346

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Nico and Lillian both looked increasingly disturbed by the sheer casualness of it, the realization

creeping in but not yet fully landing – because DeLuca had appeared completely alone, and nothing

about that should have felt calm.

He finished the last stone, tossed it aside, and vaulted over the balcony rail, sliding down some

length of exposed piping before landing cleanly on the ground below. He raised both hands the

second the guns found him again, unbothered, and Nico crossed toward him with a pistol raised,

glaring, saying something I couldn’t hear from this distance.

DeLuca lowered his hands anyway.

He ignored every weapon pointed at him, walked to a battered chair sitting off to the side like he

was choosing a seat at a restaurant, sat down, and raised one hand in a simple, deliberate gesture.

Men erupted from every hiding spot at once.

I watched them pour out from behind scrap, from inside gutted machinery, from shadows I hadn’t

even clocked as places a person could physically fit and did some extremely fast, extremely

—

alarmed math. Double Nico’s numbers. Maybe closer to triple. So this was why DeLuca had strolled in

there looking like he owned the weather too. It wasn’t just his usual arrogance wearing a nicer

outfit. He’d already known the answer before anyone asked the question.

Nico’s men scattered in every direction, panicked, guns raised but stretched too thin to actually

cover anything. Hands started going up. Nico screamed something at them, furious, demanding

resistance that clearly wasn’t coming, because apparently his own men could also do math.

Our men moved in and stripped them of their weapons within minutes, forcing them down onto

their knees, rough and efficient. The same treatment came for Nico and Lillian – searched,

disarmed, pushed down to kneel at a distance from the chair DeLuca still occupied, legs crossed,

watching the whole thing unfold like it barely required his attention span.

Something ached in my chest at the sight of Lillian on the ground like that.

My mother’s hand settled gently on my arm.

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12:14 Mon, Sep 7

Chapter 346

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