Se connecterPartager
CHAPTER 4
Date de publication:
2026-02-26 01:33:45Nancy’s POV
“Watch over me,” I repeated slowly. “You mean… following me?” “Protecting you,” my father corrected. “Following me,” I said again. “Watching me. Stalking me.” My father didn’t argue. Didn’t deny it. My stomach turned. “For three weeks?” My voice rose again. “For three weeks this man has been following me and I didn’t know?” “That was the point,” Zade said. I snapped my head toward him. It was the first time he’d spoken directly to me since my father arrived. “You weren’t supposed to know,” he continued calmly. “I was meant to stay invisible unless there was a threat.” “And tonight?” I demanded. “Tonight there was a threat.” “So you killed them.” “Yes.” Just one word. Yes. Like it meant nothing. Like three lives were nothing. I turned back to my father, my chest tight. “I already have bodyguards. Roberto. Marco. Tony. The others. Why do I need another one? Why do I need him?” I pointed at Zade. “Because Roberto and the others failed,” my father said, his voice turning cold. “They let you walk out of that gallery alone. They lost track of you for fifteen minutes.” He stepped closer. “Fifteen minutes, Nancy. That’s all it took for the Russos to make their move.” “I told you I didn’t want Roberto to drive me home!” I shouted. “I wanted to walk to my car by myself! That’s not his fault!” “It is his fault for losing you.” The sharpness in my father’s voice made me take a step back. “So what?” I said. “You’re replacing all of them? With him?” I gestured at Zade, who still hadn’t moved. Still covered in blood. Still empty-faced. “No,” my father said. My heart started pounding. “I’m sending you away.” I froze. “Somewhere safe,” he continued. “Somewhere the Russos can’t find you. And Zade will be the only security you need.” The world tilted. My heart stopped. "What do you mean, sending me away?" "I have a private island. Off the coast of Greece. Completely secure. No one knows about it except my most trusted people." My father's tone was final. "You'll stay there until this situation with the Russos is resolved." "No." The word burst out of me. "No, I'm not going to some island! I have school, I have my thesis, I have—" "You have your life," my father interrupted. "Which you won't have if you stay here." "You can't just ship me off to Greece!" "Yes, Nancy. I can. And I am." "With him?" I pointed at Zade again. "With a man who just traumatized me? Who I don't know, don't trust—" "You don't have to trust him," my father said. "You just have to let him do his job." "Which is what? Kidnapping me? Scaring me half to death?" "Keeping you alive," my father said. Each word was like a hammer. "That's his job. That's the only thing that matters right now." I stared at him, feeling everything I'd feared my whole life coming true. My father wasn't just controlling my life anymore. He was taking it away completely. "When?" I asked, my voice small now. Defeated. "Tonight. You'll go to the estate, pack what you need, and leave in the morning." "I don't get any say in this?" "No." Just like that. No apologies, no explanation, no room for argument. I looked at Zade, really looked at him. At the blood on his face and clothes. At those empty silver eyes. At the complete lack of emotion. This was the man I'd be trapped with. On an island. In the middle of nowhere. For who knows how long. "What if I refuse?" I asked my father, even though I already knew the answer. "Then Zade will carry you to the car, to the plane, and to the island. Just like he carried you tonight." My father's voice softened slightly. "Please don't make this harder than it needs to be, fiore mio. I'm trying to keep you safe." "By making me a prisoner." "By keeping you alive." I wanted to scream. Wanted to cry. Wanted to run. But I just stood there, trembling, looking at my father's implacable face and Zade's empty eyes. "Fine," I said finally. "But I want it on record that this is kidnapping. Legal kidnapping maybe, but still kidnapping." "Noted," my father said dryly. He gestured to one of the black SUVs parked nearby, its engine still running. “Zade, take her to the estate. I’ll meet you there in an hour. We need to discuss security protocols and the timeline.” His voice was calm. Too calm. Like this was just another meeting. Another problem to solve. “Yes, sir.” Zade’s eyes shifted to me. “Miss Valentino. Please.” He stepped aside and motioned toward the SUV. I didn’t move. The night air felt heavy on my skin. My chest was tight, my hands curled into fists at my sides. Everything inside me screamed no. I didn’t want to be touched. I didn’t want to be moved. I didn’t want him near me. “Nancy,” my father said. There it was. That warning tone. The one that meant I was already on thin ice. I still didn’t move. I knew I was being childish. Bratty, even. But I didn’t care. Zade shifted, clearly done waiting. He took a step toward me. My heart jumped. I remembered the last time he got that close. How fast it happened. How his hands had grabbed me and lifted me like I weighed nothing. How the ground disappeared beneath my feet as he threw me over his shoulder like I was luggage. Like I didn’t matter. “I’m going,” I blurted out quickly. The words rushed out of me before he could touch me. I turned and walked toward the SUV, forcing my legs to move even though they felt weak. Each step was unsteady. My knees shook, and I hated that he could probably see it. Hated that he could see how scared I was. By the time I reached the car, Zade was already there. Of course he was. He opened the door for me, one large hand gripping the handle. I stopped just long enough to look up at him. His face was splattered with blood. Dark stains across his cheek and jaw, some already drying. It didn’t look like his blood. That made it worse. His eyes were cold. Empty. Like nothing that had happened tonight had touched him at all. Something ugly twisted in my chest. “I hate you,” I said quietly. The words barely sounded like my own. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. His expression didn’t change. “I don’t care,” he replied, his voice flat. Emotionless.
Dernier chapitre
BEAUTY AND THE BODYGUARD: DANGEROUS DESIRE BOOK 2 CHAPTER 139
NANCY'S POVThe next day the nausea was worse than usual.I woke before my alarm with the familiar sour wave already rising in my throat. I barely made it to the bathroom. Afterward I sat on the cold tile floor with my back against the wall and pressed a damp cloth to the back of my neck until the worst of it passed. My stomach felt hollow and tight at the same time. I had managed nothing more than a few dry crackers and a sip of water the evening before. The thought of real food still made me uneasy, but by mid-morning the emptiness had turned into a sharp, demanding hunger that I could no longer ignore.At the office I moved through the usual tasks on autopilot. Answering the phone. Sorting invoices. Making coffee for the two older men who ran the small import company. No one asked why I looked pale or why I disappeared into the restroom twice before noon. The work was deliberately simple, the kind of under-the-radar job that asked almost nothing of me except quiet reliability. That
BEAUTY AND THE BODYGUARD: DANGEROUS DESIRE BOOK 2 CHAPTER 138
NANCY'S POVThree weeks had passed since the afternoon I stood in the small white bathroom of my apartment and watched two dark lines appear on the pregnancy test.I still had not told my father.Every time I picked up the phone and stared at his name on the screen, the words stuck hard in my throat. How was I supposed to tell him that the man who had betrayed us both, the man who had almost gotten me killed, had left something of himself growing quietly inside me? My father would be furious. He would be hurt. He would demand answers I did not have and decisions I was not ready to make. So I kept the secret pressed tight against my ribs like something fragile and dangerous, and I carried it alone through the quiet days in France.I had found a job.It was nothing special — an assistant position in a small company that handled import paperwork and office logistics for a handful of local businesses. The building was plain and easy to miss, tucked between a bakery and a dry cleaner on a
BEAUTY AND THE BODYGUARD: DANGEROUS DESIRE BOOK 2 CHAPTER 137
ZADE'S POVI stopped on the opposite sidewalk and stared at the doors she had disappeared through. Panic rose fast and sharp, crowding out every other thought. All the worst possibilities arrived at once. Was she sick? Had something from the cellar — an infection, an injury that had never fully healed — finally caught up with her? I wanted to cross the street and go in after her.I wanted to push through the doors and demand answers from the first person in a white coat I saw.I stayed where I was instead. Hands shoved deep in the pockets of the black hoodie. Jaw locked so tight the muscles along it ached. Eyes fixed on the wide glass doors of the hospital without blinking. The fear sat heavy in my chest, right next to the tight pull of the healing bullet wounds. Every minute that passed made the worst possibilities feel more solid. I kept seeing her pale and hurting somewhere inside those bright walls. I kept thinking about how far she was from anyone who knew her real name or wha
BEAUTY AND THE BODYGUARD: DANGEROUS DESIRE BOOK 2 CHAPTER 136
ZADE'S POVI stood outside Nancy’s apartment building with my hands deep in the pockets of a black hoodie.The night air in this part of France was cool and carried the smell of rain that had fallen earlier, mixed with bread from a bakery somewhere down the street and the faint exhaust of passing cars. The building was quiet and ordinary — pale stone, rows of windows, a heavy wooden door that stayed locked after dark. Her apartment was on the third floor. I had counted the windows weeks ago until I was sure which one belonged to her.I had been watching over her ever since she came to France.It was the only reason I had forced myself out of that hospital bed before the doctors said I was ready. The wounds in my chest still pulled tight when I moved too fast. Breathing deep still hurt on the left side. But none of that mattered as much as knowing where she was. I needed to be close enough to see that she was safe. Close enough to step in if anything ever came looking for her again.I
BEAUTY AND THE BODYGUARD: DANGEROUS DESIRE BOOK 2 CHAPTER 135
NANCY'S POVOne month later.It had been a full month since I started my new life in France.My father had arranged everything the way he always arranged the important things — quietly, completely, and without leaving any loose ends for someone else to find. A new name that felt strange in my mouth the first dozen times I said it. New documents that listed a life I had never lived. A quiet apartment on a quiet street in a quiet part of the city where no one had ever heard the name Nancy Valentino. Money in an account that belonged only to me. A clean, empty life waiting for me to decide what to put inside it.I had even dyed my hair blonde.I stood in the small bathroom of the apartment the day I did it and watched the dark color disappear under the bleach. The chemical smell was sharp and unpleasant. When it was finished, the woman who looked back at me from the mirror was a stranger. Lighter. Softer around the edges. Someone who could walk through a market or sit in a café without a
BEAUTY AND THE BODYGUARD: DANGEROUS DESIRE BOOK 2 CHAPTER 134
NANCY'S POVHe did not soften the words or prepare me for them. He just said them.The relief hit me so hard and so fast that my eyes filled with tears before I could stop them. I pressed one hand over my mouth and breathed through the sudden shaking in my chest. He was not going to die. The bullets had not taken him. He was going to live.“Thank you for telling me,” I whispered. My voice came out thin and wet.My father only nodded. He asked if I had eaten. He told me to rest. Then he left me alone with the relief and the quiet tears and the knowledge that the man I loved was still somewhere in the world, breathing.A week passed.My body kept healing. The bruises faded from purple to yellow to almost nothing. I slept longer stretches of the night without waking from dreams of cold stone and rope and the sound of Zade’s voice. I still thought about him every hour, but the sharp panic had softened into something quieter and heavier, like a stone I had learned to carry.That was the da
Vous vous intéresseriez aussi à
TAINTED BY HIM
Taevya216.7K VuesMafia King's Innocent Bride
Snowmonn122.5K VuesHis Sweet Bella
BlueDreams598.8K VuesTHE MAFIA'S CAPTIVE ANGEL
Queenies158.4K VuesClaimed By The Mafia King
Amanda151 VuesTHE MAFIA KING'S FORBIDDEN BRIDE
Kareem muheed 186 VuesThe Mafia Boss Obsession
Dassey107 VuesThe Watchmaker's Will"
Rajendra 552 Vues
