Novels by Kate Ray

Aurora's father POV "Sir," a man called gingerly behind me, too afraid to speak up too loud."Are you going to just let the mistress stay there with them?" He asked and I nodded."W-why sir?" He asked and I stilled."Because I don't want her running away from me, I don't want her sneaking away from me, it wasn't their fault she was kidnapped, it's not their job to eradicate all the traffickers, the only fault they had was be together among the people who saw her only as a sex object," I responded, staring back at the hospital."But you're not going to let her just be," He said and I nodded, and turned to one of my most trusted men, whispering into his ears."I think he's asking too many questions sir, there has to be something about him..." Martell said."Find information about him, secretly, make sure you've solid information about him before you lay him off and you know the way, torture to death," I said."And about the young mistress sir?" He asked.“Make sure all three of them ar

Aurora's POV He sighed and walked back to Nestore who was already seated, and a small part of my heart tugged at how powerless they looked, all because of me.They weren't the Cavarallo I knew and somehow, somewhere only hurt harder."You both look at me," my father started, staring at them like he was going to kill them any time from that moment."If anything happens to her...""Nothing's going to happen to her," Nevio rasped from his hospital bed, moving to get up but one glare from me set him back on place."I don't care about your foolish words, your stupid promises or whether you're planning on giving up your entire life to make it up to her,""Mr..."“Shut up and let me speak,” my father snapped, and the whole room shrank around the sound of it.He planted his hands on his hips like he was bracing himself against the world, eyes flat and hard as flint. “If anything happens to her,” he said slowly so every syllable landed, “if she sets one foot into that war and comes back broke

Aurora's POV I woke up the next morning to Nestore's coat around my body, while his head was lolled on the chair, thrown backwards, exhausted.A terse smile played across my face and I stood up when a familiar voice coursed through the corridor "Dad..." I mumbled, staring frantically at where I could hide to no avail, the door was kicked open and all I could do was stare at his angry face, stomping closer to me."Aurora!" "Dad," I muttered, staring down at his feet."I gave you warning Aurora, to not come here!" Nevio and Nestore were already awake, I could see him from the corner of my eyes move to stand up, but one glare held him back."You're coming with me Aurora and this is the last time, you're not going to come back here," He yelled, pulling my arms towards him."I'm not going with you anywhere dad, I'm staying here, I'm fighting for myself!""Aurora!""Father!" We both barked at ourselves, our breaths heaving heavily.“I’m not an object,” I spit, the words sharp enough to c

Nestore's POV "Aurora," I muttered, as she walked into the room."What are you doing here?" I asked, staring at her face."Nothing that you need to know about, but I know you're staying," She said resolutely."Mr Cavarallo," the doctor called, staring at Nevio and me."We'll stay if she says to stay," I said again, shocking the doctor."Oh—okay, I'll get a room ready now," He said and trotted away, leaving us with Aurora and a damning silence."Were you going to push yourselves to death if I hadn't come?" She asked, breaking off the silence in the room."No, w-we just had some things to do, we had to m-make it up to you..." Nevio muttered, staring at me like I was the one that pushed him to go home.I clenched my jaw, not missing the way Nevio’s eyes flicked to me, like he needed someone to blame for the fact his body finally betrayed him.“Don’t put that on me,” I said, sharper than I meant. “You could’ve told me when your head started spinning. Instead, you walked out like you were

Nestore’s POV"Mom," The young girl I saved from Pavel moaned as she walked in the room, her eyes brimming with tears.They both broke down, staring at each other like they were the only thing that they needed at that moment."You'll be given Maximum security, and be rest assured that nothing's going to happen to you anymore, your husband's in jail and next time, fight for your daughter," I said gravely, holding back the yawn that was forming in my chest.Nevio moved to walk away when he staggered, a seizure running through his spine.The sound of the girl’s broken voice—“Mom”—was still ringing in my ears when Nevio swayed beside me. At first I thought it was nothing, maybe fatigue pulling at his shoulders, the way it had been these past few days. But then his knees buckled, and his body seized like an electric current ran through him.“Fuck—Nevio!” I lunged forward just in time to catch him before he hit the ground. His jaw was clenched, his eyes rolling back, his chest heaving in st

Aurora's POV "Any information on what they're up to?" I asked the maid that was assigned to me."I don't really have access to informations concerning other people, my Lady, but I've heard the Master and some of his men talking about his Nestore and Nevio have been going around, killing some of these traffickers and I think, they said without a conflict or problem, they'd have eradicated 80% of the traffickers," She explained.I nodded my head in response, and stood up from the chair in my room to the living room to my father and he was seated, face deep into papers that were scattered across the table before him."Aurora..."He called as soon as he noticed my presence in the room, closing the pages before him shut."You didn't have to stop working, I'm just here to stare," I sank into the armchair across from him, tucking my legs beneath me the way I always did when I wanted to talk without saying I wanted to talk.He watched me for a moment, his expression softening just slightly b

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