Novels by siennavale023

Aria'S POVThe room smelled so bad, like there was a dead body close.That was the first thing I noticed as I stood behind Darius, staring at the wall of screens in the tech room. Someone had left a mug on the console too long. “Run it again,” Darius said. His eyes were hooked on the screen as his face hardened be the couldn't believe what he was seeing at this point.The analyst didn’t argue. He rewound the feed, his fingers moving fast, shoulders tight. Lines of data scrolled. Names. Addresses. Application IDs. Redacted fields that suddenly weren’t redacted anymore.I wrapped my arms around myself, nails digging into my sleeves. At this point I was already nervous and didn't just want to admit it..This was supposed to be a distraction. A defensive move. Adoption as a shield. Instead, it had blown the door wide open.“There,” Fiona said sharply.The screen froze.A name sat in the middle of the list, highlighted now, unavoidable.LUCAS DESMOND.My stomach dropped so hard it felt li

ABIGAIL'S POVThe alarms began as a scream.Like a shrill sirens tearing through concrete, red lights strobing so violently they made my vision pulse. The walls seemed to vibrate with it, like the building was about to collapse at any point.Richardson tightened his grip on me instantly.“Evacuation,” he barked into his comm. “Now. Move, move, move!”Richardson pulled me against his chest, one arm locked around my back, the other steadying the gun in his hand. I could feel his heart beat uncontrollably through his vest.We were moving when the thought hit me.If Goergina escaped now, this would never end. She would do all that she can go keep frustrating our lives and even try to kill us if possible. It will be best we just end this for once.My breath caught sharply.“Richardson,” I said, my voice barely audible over the alarms.“We’re getting you out,” he replied immediately, already angling us toward the extraction route. “Stay with me.”“No,” I whispered.He didn’t hear me or mayb

GEORGINA'S POV I watched them run.From the private exit corridor I saw Richardson and his men moving through the facility like they already knew every route so well. Of course my men had failed where I had explicitly told them not to.My fingers curled so tightly around the railing that my knuckles blanched.Abigail was never supposed to leave this place alive.Not after everything. Not after what she knew about me now.Richardson’s presence confirmed what I had been refusing to say aloud for weeks. That the shadows I had built my empire in were thinning. That I was gradually losing everything I took time to get for myself.I inhaled slowly trying to calm myself for the meantime.Still, fury burned hot and wild in my chest as I turned away from the surveillance feed. The heels of my shoes struck marble as I strode down the corridor, my reflection multiplying in polished steel walls.By the time I reached the command room, what was left of my men had already assembled. Their posture

RICHARDSON'S POVI didn’t feel the pain in my shoulder until much later.In that moment, all I saw was her.Abigail was slumped against the wall like the life had been slowly wrung out of her. Bruises bloomed along her arms and collarbone in ugly purples and sickly yellows. Her wrists were raw where restraints had bitten too deep, skin broken and swollen. Her face looked thinner, sharper, as if hunger and fear had carved pieces of her away while I hadn’t been there.And then my eyes dropped instinctively, drawn by terror more than logic.Her stomach was still huge, showing that she was still pregnant. The baby was intact.Something inside my chest loosened and tightened at the same time, relief slamming into rage so violently I had to clench my jaw to keep from roaring.“Secure the room,” I snapped into my comm, my voice steady only because I forced it to be. “Now. Sweep every corner.”Boots thundered around me. Guns lifted. Commands were barked. But none of it mattered. The world nar

ABIGAIL'S POVI had lost count of how many hours I had been in that cell.Time did not move normally down there. It stretched and folded in on itself, turning minutes into hours and hours into something shapeless and cruel. The concrete floor leached the warmth from my bones, and no matter how tightly I wrapped my arms around myself, the cold still found its way in. My body ached in places I had not known could ache, my neck from sleeping upright against the wall, my wrists from the cuffs they had removed only hours earlier, my head from crying until my eyes burned and then crying some more because stopping had felt worse.I was exhausted in a way that went beyond sleep deprivation. I was tired in my spirit, tired in my will, tired in the part of me that had kept surviving when everything else had said I should not.The cell was too quiet.That was what made me lift my head.Footsteps echoed faintly down the hallway outside my cell. Not the lazy, careless pace of the guards who checke

RICHARDSON'S POVThe confirmation came at 3:17 a.m.I was still in my office, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, staring at a wall covered in maps and printouts when my phone vibrated. I didn’t need to look at the screen to know what it was. My gut had been tight all night, the kind of tension that didn’t let you sit down properly. I've been so restless that I couldn't do any other thing.“Say it,” I said the moment I answered.My head of operations didn’t waste time. “We have a location.”I straightened. “Where?”“Underground facility. Industrial zone, north end of the city. Ownership traces back through three shell companies. All of them lead to Georgina.”I closed my eyes briefly and exhaled through my nose. “How secure?”“I want private guards and no official government registry. Power routed separately. Surveillance-heavy.”I opened my eyes and looked at the map again, already knowing where he was going to point. Georgina never reused tactics, but she reused principles. Isolation. Co