LOGINChapter 146Nina’s POVHe was conscious by the time the night shift came on.I was still in the chair beside his bed when his eyes opened properly. Not the half-awake drifting he had been doing for the past hour. Fully present. He looked at the ceiling first and then at the window and then at me.“You stayed,” he said.“Yes.”He was quiet for a moment. The monitor beeped. The officer by the door was a different one now. They had rotated shifts without making much noise about it.“Your mother used to do that,” he said. “Stay. Even when I gave her every reason to leave.” He looked at the drip in his hand. “She was better than me in every way that mattered.”I did not say anything. I just let him talk.He told me things I had not known. Small things. How they met at a university function where he spilled tea on her white dress and she laughed instead of being angry. How she used to hum when she cooked. How she kept every card he ever gave her in a box under the bed that he only found aft
Chapter 145Nina’s POV“What did you say?”My voice came out flat. The paramedic was still beside my father on the stretcher. The ambulance doors were open. The hospital entrance was lit up white behind the officers standing in front of us.The senior officer looked at me. Then past me at my father on the stretcher. “We have a warrant for the arrest of Governor Marcus Osei.”“He just won an election.”“Yes ma’am.”“He has a gunshot wound. He just came from a cliff where someone tried to kill his daughter.”“We are aware of the situation.” The officer’s voice was professional and completely unmoved. “He will receive full medical attention. A guard will be stationed at his ward. When he is stable enough for transfer he will be moved to a secure facility.”I turned to look at my father.He was watching me from the stretcher. His face was tired. His hand was still connected to the line the paramedic had put in. The monitor was still beeping. He looked at me with an expression that was not
Chapter 144Nina’s POVEverything broke at once.Isabella’s eyes had found what they were looking for. I saw it happen before I understood what it meant. That flash of calculation. That sudden brightness. And then she moved.She was fast. Faster than anyone expected from a woman in heels on uneven ground. She lunged toward the nearest officer before he could adjust his stance. Her hand went straight for the weapon at his hip. He grabbed for her arm. She twisted under it with the specific desperation of someone who had nothing left to lose and got her hand around the grip.The officer shouted. Another one rushed forward. Two more converged from the left.Someone screamed get down. Someone else was calling into a radio. The field erupted. Isabella’s remaining men tried to move and were immediately met by officers. Bodies colliding. Shouting from every direction. The floodlights caught everything in hard white and made the chaos look flat and overexposed like a scene from a nightmare.I
Chapter 143Nina’s POVThe gunshot still echoed somewhere in the darkness behind the trees.Nobody moved for two full seconds.Then everything happened at once.Headlights. Multiple sets. Cutting through the dark from the far side of the field. Vehicles moving fast over rough ground, their beams swinging wide before settling on the lit circle where we all stood frozen. The sound of doors. Boots on grass. And then voices, sharp and commanding, carrying the specific authority of people who were used to being obeyed.Police.Twelve of them at least. Moving in from two directions. Weapons drawn. Flashlights cutting across the floodlit circle and beyond it.Isabella’s men looked at each other.The one whose hand was still on my shoulder let go.I stumbled forward and Dante caught me before I hit the ground. His arm came around me and pulled me away from the edge in one hard movement. I felt the shift in ground under my feet as the cliff dropped away behind me and then I was three meters fr
Chapter 143Nina’s POVThe gunshot still echoed somewhere in the darkness behind the trees.Nobody moved for two full seconds.Then everything happened at once.Headlights. Multiple sets. Cutting through the dark from the far side of the field. Vehicles moving fast over rough ground, their beams swinging wide before settling on the lit circle where we all stood frozen. The sound of doors. Boots on grass. And then voices, sharp and commanding, carrying the specific authority of people who were used to being obeyed.Police.Twelve of them at least. Moving in from two directions. Weapons drawn. Flashlights cutting across the floodlit circle and beyond it.Isabella’s men looked at each other.The one whose hand was still on my shoulder let go.I stumbled forward and Dante caught me before I hit the ground. His arm came around me and pulled me away from the edge in one hard movement. I felt the shift in ground under my feet as the cliff dropped away behind me and then I was three meters fr
Chapter 142Nina’s POVI never saw the sack coming.Something heavy dropped over my head from behind. Rough fabric. Dark and suffocating. Before I could scream again my arms were wrenched behind my back and something bound my wrists. Hard and fast. Practiced. These were people who had done this before.I kicked. I twisted. I bit at the fabric over my mouth and tasted dirt and dust. Someone lifted me off my feet entirely and I was moving before I understood what was happening. A door. Cold air. Steps. Then the hard floor of what felt like a vehicle and the sound of doors slamming and an engine starting.I tried to track time. I tried to count seconds. I lost count somewhere after two hundred. The road under us changed at some point from smooth to rough. The vehicle bounced. My shoulder hit something hard and I bit down on the inside of my cheek to stop from crying out.I thought about Amanda.I had not texted her when I got inside. She would notice. She would call. She would keep calli
Chapter 50 Nina’s POV My knees hit the wet asphalt with a sharp crack that sent pain shooting up my legs, but I barely felt it. The world narrowed to a tunnel of black spots and flashing red lights, my lungs seizing up like they had forgotten how to work. The sheik’s men advanced, their dark s
Chapter 46Nina’s POV The auctioneer’s gavel hovered mid-air. Thirty million going once. My eyes stayed squeezed shut. Stage lights seared through my eyelids like branding irons. The crowd’s roar pressed against my skull, a living thing hungry for blood. I waited for the final strike. For the
Chapter 45 Nina’s POV The champagne flute cracked in my hand like brittle bone. Golden liquid splashed across marble in shimmering arcs, pooling around my strappy heels. Heat roared through me humiliation, rage, old shame all crashing together until my vision tunneled. I forced a breath. In.
Chapter 44 Nina’s POV “No no, you have to change!” The voice—low, commanding, laced with barely restrained heat—froze me mid-stride. Crimson satin swirled around my legs like liquid fire as I spun. Nikolai stood framed in the doorway, golden-hazel eyes devouring me in one unguarded heartbea







