Novels by nugbleemily

Zolandria's POVIt’s Tuesday, and Lucien is finally back after it’s been more than a week.He walks off the elevator at around eight fifty-three am straight from the hospital rather than home, which means he went over to Kane first thing and then came here. He's in yesterday's suit, or one that looks like it. He looks tired, and that’s new to me because I've never seen him like this before. He walks past my desk without stopping, goes into his office, and closes the door, but not all the way.I look at the gap for a moment, then I stand and head to the breakroom to make his coffee.He's at his desk when I enter, laptop open, already head deep in work, his hands hovering over the keyboard, his eyes fixed on the screen. I set the coffee on the desk. His eyes avert from the screen to the coffee, then slowly up to my face. Something passes between us that I can’t name but felt like handing over the mantle. "Thank you," he says, and I can’t tell if it’s for the coffee or for while he wa

Zolandria's POVIt’s Tuesday, and Lucien is finally back after it’s been more than a week.He walks off the elevator at around eight fifty-three am straight from the hospital rather than home, which means he went over to Kane first thing and then came here. He's in yesterday's suit, or one that looks like it. He looks tired, and that’s new to me because I've never seen him like this before. He walks past my desk without stopping, goes into his office, and closes the door, but not all the way.I look at the gap for a moment, then I stand and head to the breakroom to make his coffee.He's at his desk when I enter, laptop open, already head deep in work, his hands hovering over the keyboard, his eyes fixed on the screen. I set the coffee on the desk. His eyes avert from the screen to the coffee, then slowly up to my face. Something passes between us that I can’t name but felt like handing over the mantle. "Thank you," he says, and I can’t tell if it’s for the coffee or for while he wa

Zolandria's POVA week passes, and I drown in surviving tasks, in decisions, and the discipline of keeping things running that was built around a person who isn't here.I make his coffee every morning.I don't know why, because he's not here to drink it. I pour it, set it on his desk, and go back to mine, and somewhere around the fourth day, I stopped examining why I keep doing it and just do it. The coffee going cold on his desk is its own kind of vigil.The office runs. That's the thing nobody tells you about holding the fort — it doesn't feel heroic. It feels like making decisions you're not supposed to make and hoping you made them the way he would have.Edgard makes his move on day three. Not the way I might have imagined it months ago when I still thought powerful men made their moves loudly. What he does is: he contacts three of Lucien's remaining business partners, not the Stark Limited partners, the other ones, the ones whose relationships with Lucien exist in the space betw

Zolandria's POVThe office is quieter than I've ever heard it.Not empty — the building runs, people move, calls come in, emails land in the shared inbox, but the pressure of it, the weight that has been present since the day I arrived — is gone. Lucien is gone, and everybody knows.I sit at my desk at seven fifty-eight am and look at the task list I have to work on.Marcus briefed me this morning, not at length but just the essential information. Kane is out of surgery, and his lung has been re-expanded. The next forty-eight hours are critical, and Lucien has decided to stay at the hospital until further notice.Until further notice.I haven't heard from Lucien directly since “not now " was implied by the unanswered calls.I know what I did, and I know what it cost. I really wish I could go back in time and sit my ass down or at least tell him I was leaving for Raven’s. Now, it’s too late, and I am hoping Kane makes it, or else I don’t know what I am going to do. “No-no, he’s going

Lucien's POVI see the ambulance pulling away while my car is still four blocks away, as seen on my street camera feed. I watch the ambulance feed until it goes out of my screen's range.Then I put the phone face down on the seat and look at the city moving past the window, Marcus's voice ringing in my mind: Kane is down, gunshot, right side, we need the ambulance now. I’m out the door right when the driver parks. I go up the stairs without looking at the landing. Marcus gave me the full picture in the car: clinical, precise, exactly what I needed; two attackers detained, one of mine with a graze on his forearm and Kane with a gunshot wound to the right side, possible lung involvement, critical but stable when the ambulance left.I knock on the door at the top, and it opens immediately.She's been waiting on the other side of it. She's been standing at the door.She looks at me, and my eyes linger on her. She's unhurt as she said on the call, but seeing it makes me relax a bit. She'

Zolandria's POVRaven's grip on my arm, her nails through my sleeve, her breathing beside me, is the only thing I'm fully aware of.Lucien is still on the line, but neither one of us speaks. The silence on the other side of the door makes my hand tremble slightly. It feels like whoever is behind the door is waiting for us to make any move, then we’re done for. Then from outside the building, there’s a fast, close sound of a vehicle stopping hard on the street below. Then suddenly, doors bursting open, movement and voices sound up through the windows. Kane.The footsteps outside Raven's door shift, as if whoever it is was calculating their next move. Then the stairwell erupts all at once. Shouting, footsteps, chaos of people moving fast in a confined space. Something hits the wall, then there’s a crash that shakes the door in its frame.Raven makes a sound that isn't quite a scream.I pull her away from the door, back into the kitchen, and away from the line of anything that could c