Novel-novel oleh Kate Ray

Beth POVThe inside of the armored sedan smelled faintly of stale coffee and desperation. We'd been driving for what felt like fifty years, the city lights blurring into long, meaningless streaks. The bass from my disastrous party still throbbed in my temples, but it was nothing compared to the cold dread sitting in my stomach.Mark and Sage were gone. Vanished. Taken out right from under our noses.I watched Hector, who was behind the wheel. Mark’s right-hand man, the silent shadow, the fixer. Right now, he looked less like a fixer and more like a man watching his entire life’s work disintegrate."We need a signal, Hector. Anything," I insisted, rubbing the fatigue from my eyes. "The last comm pulse we had from Mark was right after the Exchange floor chaos. After that, nothing. She used a scrambler, didn't she?"Hector gripped the steering wheel so tightly I could see the muscles straining in his arms. "Alice is not an amateur, Beth," he said, his voice a low, gravelly rumble. He ha

Mark POVThe return to consciousness was a brutal, jarring ascent. My head throbbed where the bastard hit me, and the paralyzing agent Alice had used on Sage still left a sluggish weight in my limbs. I groaned, testing my restraints. My wrists and ankles were secured to a hard gurney.The first thing I saw was the sterile white ceiling. The second was the terrifying machine standing beside me—a menacing collection of wires and industrial panels, confirming every threat Alice had just delivered to Sage."Welcome back, darling."Alice’s voice, smooth and falsely solicitous, came from somewhere to my right. I strained my neck, the muscle protesting the movement. She was sitting in a simple metal chair, perfectly composed in her dark jumpsuit, watching me with a chilling patience."Where is she?" I demanded, my voice raw."Oh, Sage is fine," Alice purred, crossing one long leg over the other. "She's in her viewing room, watching our little reunion. I made sure she has a front-row seat to

Sage PovThe world returned in dizzying, painful slow motion. One moment, I was laughing at some terrible joke about venture capital, the next, a white-hot flash consumed my vision, followed by a sensation of cold pressure.When my mind finally swam back to consciousness, the first thing I registered was the dull throb behind my eyes. The second thing was the chilling, metallic smell of disinfectants and fear.I wasn't in Beth's loud, sticky apartment anymore. I was lying on something hard—a concrete floor, I realized—in near-total darkness. I tried to sit up, but my limbs felt heavy, unresponsive, dragging through a thick, syrupy numbness. The syringe. Whatever Alice had injected me with was a paralyzing agent, designed for incapacitation, not instant death. A calculated cruelty."Mark," I choked out, the sound dry and thin, barely a whisper.My eyes slowly adjusted. I was in a small, cold room. No windows, just one heavy steel door and a bare, overhead light bulb casting harsh shado

Mark povThe scream tore through the music, a high, panicked sound that cut straight to my gut. Beth’s scream. It hit me with the force of a tidal wave, ripping away the last thread of control I had left.I saw her. Alice. She was closer than my security detail. Closer than my sightline. She was at the snack table, moving with that surgical grace I knew meant lethal intent.My eyes snapped to Sage. She was smiling, reaching for a pretzel, utterly oblivious.I started running. I moved with the blind, desperate speed of a man trying to outrun a bullet. The crowd was a thick, impossible barrier—too loud, too slow, too many bodies."ALICE! NO!" I roared, the sound swallowed by the bass.I saw the flash of silver in Alice’s hand—not a gun, but a syringe. She spun Sage around, and in that sickeningly fluid motion, she prickled Sage with a syringe. It was quick, clean, and utterly professional.Sage’s smile faltered. Her eyes went wide, reflecting a sudden, profound confusion. She didn't fig

Beth Pov The bass was loud enough to vibrate my teeth, which was exactly the volume I needed to drown out the low-level hum of existential dread. I grabbed another plastic cup of cheap champagne and surveyed the carnage. My apartment looked like a bomb hit it, but everyone was laughing, and that was the point. Distraction. Controlled chaos.It had been days since I'd talked to Sage, and frankly, I was worried. After the whole corporate takedown of Alistair Vance, the silence had been deafening. I was waiting for her to pop up on the news announcing her wedding to Mark, but instead, it was crickets. She'd gone dark again, which, in her world, usually meant either extreme danger or extreme dominance sex. Given the current circumstances, probably both.I finally spotted my target lurking near the doorway, looking exactly like a magnificent, expensive shadow. Mark Arthur. He was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt that screamed "don't touch me," even though he was probably just here to ens

Mark PovChapter 122The flight back to the penthouse felt like a lead weight dragging across the sky. The sheer noise of the Exchange floor was nothing compared to the ringing silence left by Alice’s escape. She had used my moment of victory, the chaos, and my damned guilt to vanish.I sat in the back of the SUV, holding Sage’s hand, the small comfort doing little to ease the cold certainty in my gut. Thorne was broken, facing federal charges, but the real architect of the destruction was free."She won't stop," Sage whispered, her voice tight. She knew Alice better than I did, having faced her calculated poison directly."I know," I said, my jaw clenched. "She got what she wanted—she broke Thorne, she humiliated me, and she exposed the truth about her involvement. Now she’s retreated to consolidate.""She's retreating to plot the final humiliation," Sage corrected. "She didn't just want the company, Mark. She wanted to prove she was better than me, that she still owned you."We got

"Aurora's POV ""Lira," I called, holding her fingers."This other place, so you know where it is? The location?" I asked."N-no-no,""Think about it, maybe a signal, a name, a street, location, a secret code, we know now that there's another location they use, but it's vague, the search, if not fruitless, it's going to be hard, so I need you to give us something..."“Lira,” I said again, firmer this time, holding her fingers so she wouldn’t pull away. “This other place they use. You said you heard them talk about it. Not where you were kept. The other one.”She swallowed. Her eyes shifted, not in panic, just searching.“They didn’t take me there,” she said quickly. “But they talked about it. When they thought I was asleep.”“Talked how?” I asked. “Arguing? Planning? Bragging?”“Planning,” she said. “Like… who was going to handle deliveries there. Who was on rotation.”My grip tightened. “Names. Did you hear any names?”She nodded slowly. “Kade. And someone called Roman. They said Rom

Nestore’s POVI sent a message to Aurora, to tell her we were already heading home and a small tired smile pulled from my lips as she met us in the hallway before we even reached the living room.Her eyes went straight to the case in my hand.“Did you—” Her voice broke, just a little. She stopped herself. “Did you get it?”Nevio lifted the case slightly. “Ten. Sealed.”She exhaled like she’d been holding her breath since yesterday."I'll bring her," Aurora said and turned away to lira's room, knocking softly on the door before she pushed it open.“It’s me,” she said gently. “We’re coming in.” Aurora's said and after a few seconds, she walked in to Lira's on the edge of the bed.Her eyes went straight to the case.“What’s that?” she asked, barely above a whisper.Aurora sat beside her. "It's an antidote,"Lira’s face drained of color. “For… for who?”“For you,” Aurora said. “And for the others. When we find them.”Lira stared at the case like it might explode. “No,” she whispered. “Th

Nestore's POV Lira pushed herself to her feet, wobbling. Instinct kicked in—I took a step forward, but stopped myself when Aurora reached her first, steadying her with both hands.“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Aurora said quietly. “Nothing.”Lira’s breath hitched. “They used to say that too,” she whispered. “Right before—”“That’s not here,” Aurora cut in, not harshly, just firmly. “That’s over.”Nevio stayed where he was, jaw tight, fists clenched at his sides. He looked like a man holding himself back from tearing the world in half for someone who wasn’t even his blood.I watched Lira closely, the way she kept glancing at the door.The way she flinched whenever someone shifted their weight.The way hunger still fought fear in her eyes.This wasn’t greed, wasn’t lack of manners.It was survival.Nina guided her toward the couch. “Sit. You’re not cleaning anything.”“But I made a mess,” Lira said, panic creeping back in. “They’ll take it out of—”“No,” Nina snapped softly. “They wo

Nestore’s POV“Good day, Mr. Cavarallo.”The guards at Nina’s bar straightened as we walked in, hands snapping to their sides in something that looked like respect and fear tangled together.“Table sixteen,” one of them added quickly. “He’s already waiting.”I moved first, slow and deliberate. Nevio followed a step behind, positioning Aurora between us without making it obvious—muscle memory, not possession. Protection without announcement.Silas was already seated when we reached the table.He looked exactly like the kind of man who survived too many fights—lean, sharp-eyed, with a long scar dragging across his face from right to left, old and badly healed. A reminder of something he hadn’t won cleanly.His gaze flicked to Aurora the moment we sat.“I didn’t think you’d come with a girl,” he said, lips curling slightly.I didn’t respond.Aurora leaned back against Nevio’s chest, casual, unbothered. Her fingers rested lightly on his thigh.“That must’ve hurt,” she said softly, eyes fl

Aurora's POV I glanced toward Lira, pale and still under the blanket. The idea that her survival was on a clock made my vision blur.“There is another way,” Nina continued, lowering her voice. “But it’s ugly.”“Tell me.”“There are brokers,” she said. “Men who don’t touch the girls directly but handle logistics. Supply chains. Transport. Chemicals.” Her eyes flicked to me. “They drink at my club.”That didn’t surprise me. Nothing did anymore.“They talk,” she went on. “Not loudly. Not openly. But enough. Names, codes, locations. Who’s buying. Who’s selling. Who’s expanding.”“And you can get us in,” I said.She shook her head. “Not directly. I can’t introduce you. Too risky.”“But you can point us to someone who can,” I pressed.She hesitated and then nodded.“There’s one,” she said. “Mid-level. Ambitious. Thinks he’s smarter than he is. He’s been trying to move up, get closer to the inner circle. If someone came along with money and the right appetite… he’d bite.”Nevio’s words echo

Aurora's POV Nina knelt beside Lira, hands already working, checking vitals, lifting her eyelids, pressing fingers against her neck. “She’s dehydrated. Fever’s bad. Possible infection, maybe worse.” She glanced up at me. “How long since she escaped?”“Three days,” I said.Nina swore under her breath. “Lucky she made it at all.”She pulled out syringes, vials, tools that didn’t belong anywhere near a living room. No one questioned it. This was the kind of woman who didn’t need permission.“She needs fluids. Antibiotics. And sleep somewhere quiet,” Nina said. “No moving her again tonight.”“She stays,” Nestore said immediately.Nina’s eyes flicked to him. “Good. Because if she spikes any higher, she’ll seize.”My chest tightened.Nina started an IV with steady hands, murmuring softly to Lira even though she was barely conscious. Watching her work was grounding, like proof that not everyone in this world destroyed—some still fixed what they could.When she finished, Nina stood and wiped