LOGINOutside Warehouse Number 5, the bright sun shone down on twenty shocked men.Mr. Cobb dropped his megaphone on the concrete floor. His mouth hung wide open as he stared at the giant iron door lying in the dirt—and the tall, scarred man standing in the doorway holding a bent steel crowbar."W-What are you waiting for?!" Mr. Cobb screamed at his thugs, backing up behind a forklift. "He’s just one guy! Chop him up!"Three big men holding long butcher knives yelled and ran straight at Cyrus.Cyrus didn't even blink.He stepped forward faster than a shadow.WHACK! CRACK!With two swings of the steel crowbar, he knocked the knives right out of their hands and sent all three thugs flying across the yard like rag dolls!Before the next five men could swing their baseball bats, Cyrus side-kicked the biggest guy right in the stomach—sending him crashing into the other four like bowling pins.Inside the doorway, Nova peeked out from under Cyrus’s warm black jacket. Her eyes were wide and bright.
The bright morning sun shone through the thick glass windows of Ocean-Cliff Fortress, warming the big master bed.Nova woke up slowly.For a second, she didn't know why she couldn't move her legs. Then she looked down.She was wrapped up inside Cyrus’s strong arms like a little teddy bear. Her head was resting right on his bare, scarred chest, and one of his heavy, muscular legs was thrown over hers under the soft white blanket.Even in his sleep, the scary ex-cop was holding onto her waist like he was afraid someone would steal her away.Nova’s cheeks turned bright pink as she remembered the storm last night—how Cyrus had lifted her onto the wooden dresser in his oversized black t-shirt, and how hot and hungry his kisses had been until the sun almost came up.She carefully reached up and poked the rough scar on his jaw with one tiny finger.Before she could pull her hand back, Cyrus’s big hand shot up and caught her wrist.His dark eyes opened slowly. There was no sleepy look in them
Over the next forty days, Nova and Cyrus went on the biggest shopping spree the country had ever seen.Using five rented warehouses by the train station so nobody would see how her magic ring worked, Nova spent hundreds of millions of dollars every single week.She bought twenty thousand tons of white rice, flour, noodles, and cooking oil. She bought out an entire meat factory—filling her magic warehouse with fifty thousand boxes of A5 Wagyu steak, pork ribs, chicken wings, lamb chops, and fresh lobsters.She even bought ten whole trucks of strawberry cake, hot chocolate, ice cream, potato chips, and milk tea from the best shops in the city—and because time stood still inside her ring space, the hot food stayed steaming hot and the ice cream never melted!Every night after the truck drivers went home, Nova would walk into the rented warehouses alone, wave her little hand, and whoosh—empty the whole building into her ring in thirty seconds flat.Meanwhile, back in the city, Luke, Bella
That night at midnight, Luke, Bella, and Nova’s dad were out at an expensive club, drinking champagne to celebrate stealing Nova’s "diamond mine" contract after borrowing fifty million dollars from Boss Razor.They left the big city mansion completely empty.A black pickup truck pulled up quietly outside the mansion’s back garden gate. Cyrus turned off the headlights and looked over at Nova, who was wearing a cute black hoodie and sneakers."The guards out front are asleep," Cyrus whispered, opening her door and lifting her down from the high truck seat by her waist. "Are you sure you want to go inside? What are we taking?""Everything," Nova smiled, her eyes shining in the dark. "Wait right here by the gate and keep watch for ten minutes. My mom paid for this whole house, and I’m not leaving those three rats a single spoon."Nova used her old key to unlock the back kitchen door and stepped inside the dark mansion.As soon as she was alone, she held up her hand with her mom’s diamond
Ten minutes later, Cyrus walked out of the locker room wearing a clean black t-shirt that stretched tight across his chest and a pair of dark jeans. He carried his whole life in one small gym bag over his shoulder.When they drove back to the tall glass building downtown so Nova could pick up the final stamped copy of her divorce papers and her mom’s land deeds, Cyrus walked half a step behind her like a real bodyguard—his sharp eyes watching everyone on the street.Just as they walked into the shiny marble lobby in front of the private elevators, an angry voice shouted Nova’s name."Nova! Stop right there!"Nova turned around.Luke Palmer and Bella Martin were marching through the glass front doors. Luke’s face was bright red because the bank had just called to tell him all his credit cards were canceled!"Nova, what kind of crazy game are you playing?!" Luke yelled, stomping right up to her. "The bank just told me you moved all two billion dollars out of our family account! And my s
Nova didn't wait for Luke or her dad to stop yelling. She grabbed her car keys and her purse, walked out the front door, and drove her red sports car straight downtown.She had sixty days before the sky rained blood, and she wasn't going to waste a single minute.Her first stop was the main city bank. Because her mom had left the two billion dollars solely in Nova’s name, it took Nova less than an hour to cancel all the family credit cards Luke and Bella were using and move every single dollar into a brand-new secret account.Next, she stopped at her lawyer’s office and signed a fast-track divorce paper to be delivered to Luke by five o'clock.By two in the afternoon, Nova parked her car on 4th Street in front of an old, noisy underground boxing gym called The Iron Cage.In her past life, Nova was too scared to ever step foot in a rough street like this. Now, her heart was racing with excitement as she pushed the heavy door open and walked inside.The gym smelled like sweat and old le







