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Chapter 31

last update Fecha de publicación: 2026-08-28 10:00:47

Chapter 31

Jordan POV

The leadership meeting was not supposed to look like a trial.

Naturally, it looked like a trial.

Not officially. There was no judge, no clerk, no bailiff, and no one had asked me to rise, which I always appreciated. But the old conference hall Kane rented off Mercer property had the same uncomfortable arrangement: people divided into sides, every face guarded, and one man standing at the front with too many people waiting to see if he would bleed.

Maddox stood near the win
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  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Chapter 31

    Chapter 31Jordan POVThe leadership meeting was not supposed to look like a trial.Naturally, it looked like a trial.Not officially. There was no judge, no clerk, no bailiff, and no one had asked me to rise, which I always appreciated. But the old conference hall Kane rented off Mercer property had the same uncomfortable arrangement: people divided into sides, every face guarded, and one man standing at the front with too many people waiting to see if he would bleed.Maddox stood near the windows, away from the head of the table.That was the first thing I noticed.Not because he lacked authority. Maddox could stand in a janitor’s closet and people would still arrange themselves around him like furniture with instincts. But he had deliberately avoided the obvious seat of power. The chair at the head of the table remained empty.Smart.Dangerous, but smart.If he sat there, Tessa could accuse him of clinging to control while under court restriction. If he refused to appear, she could

  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Chapter 30

    Chapter 30Jordan POVThe thing about ethics crises is that they never arrive wearing a name tag.They slide in sideways.A leaked clause. A headline. A prosecutor with perfect hair and no shame. Suddenly, the cleanest explanation in the world sounds guilty because someone cut out the middle and left the public holding a sentence with no context.I sat in my office with the leaked residency clause glowing on my laptop screen and felt the rare, unpleasant sensation of wanting to throw something heavy through something expensive.Preferably Silvia Smith’s window.Instead, I adjusted my blazer, took a sip of coffee that had gone cold thirty minutes ago, and reminded myself that assault charges looked tacky on defense counsel.The screenshot had already been posted by two local accounts and one legal gossip page that had the journalistic integrity of a raccoon in a dumpster.Defense Attorney Required to Live on Mercer Property During Murder Case?Cute little question mark at the end.The

  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Chapter 29

    Chapter 29Jordan POVBy three in the afternoon, the internet had decided Maddox Mercer was running a cult.Not a criminal enterprise.Not a private security company with terrible public relations and worse timing.A cult.Because apparently when people ran out of legal vocabulary, they sprinted straight to cable-news hysteria and brought snacks.I found the article because Roger texted it to me with no greeting, no context, and one very unhelpful sentence:Don’t throw your phone.Naturally, I opened it immediately.The headline sat at the top of the screen in bold black letters designed to raise blood pressure and lower intelligence.INSIDE THE MERCER HOUSE: SOURCES CLAIM CULT-LIKE CONTROL ON PRIVATE LANDI stared at it for five full seconds.Then I said, to my empty office, “Oh, lovely. We’re doing vocabulary crimes today.”The article was short, sloppy, and dangerous.That was the worst combination.Long articles gave people room to think. Short articles gave them something to repe

  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Chapter 28

    Chapter 28Maddox POVThe courthouse doors opened, and every camera turned toward me.I had walked through gunfire quieter than that hallway.Reporters pressed behind the barricades, shouting my name, Jordan’s name, the company’s name. Questions came fast and useless, designed less to collect answers and more to catch a reaction.“Mr. Mercer, did you intimidate witnesses?”“Are you hiding evidence on your property?”“Is Mercer Security a criminal enterprise?”“Ms. Carter, are you romantically involved with your client?”That last one made my wolf slam hard against my control.Not because the question was clever.Because it was directed at her.Jordan didn’t flinch.She walked at my left side with her binder tucked against her ribs, chin lifted, expression clean and professional. She looked like she could cross-examine God and politely object to the weather afterward. Nothing in her face showed what the hearing had cost her.But I could feel it.The bond was no longer quiet.It pulled

  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Book Two- The Defense of Wolves: Act II- Indictment and Coup: Chapter 27

    Book Two- The Defense of WolvesAct II- Indictment and CoupChapter 27Jordan POVThe courtroom was colder than it needed to be, which is how I knew Silvia Smith expected to win.Not because temperature affects outcomes—if it did, half the bench would be staffed by Florida retirees—but because prosecutors who plan to paint you as dangerous love anything that makes people tuck their hands under their arms and look nervous.Nervous people vote for cages.I stood at counsel table with my binder open, my bail packet stacked neatly beside it, and my face set to calm. Not “I’m fine” calm. “I will bury you with procedure” calm.My body did not match my face.Because Maddox wasn’t in the room yet, and the longer I waited, the more that low, gnawing ache pressed under my sternum. Like my chest was too tight for my lungs. Like something inside me kept reaching out and finding nothing.I told myself it was adrenaline. Stress. Lack of sleep. Coffee. The fact that a prosecutor had filed the word R

  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Chapter 26

    Chapter 26Jordan POVThe courthouse at night feels like a mouth that never quite closes.Even after the last hearing ends, even after the last defendant is led away, there’s still motion—clerks filing, deputies rotating, prosecutors pacing like caffeine is a personality trait. The building stays awake because the system doesn’t sleep. It just shifts into a quieter kind of hunger.I sat in my car in the back lot for a full minute with my hands on the steering wheel, not turning the key, not moving, just breathing.Maddox was in a holding cell.Silvia had filed added charges like she was decorating a Christmas tree.And the phrase medical suppression was still sitting in my bones like a bruise.I turned the engine on and drove, not back to Mercer, not yet—back to my office.I needed fluorescent lighting and paper and the familiar smell of toner to remind my brain that I lived in a world where evidence mattered more than whispers.When I got there, the lobby was dark. I hovered my key c

  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Chapter 55

    Chapter 55Jordan POVI learned a long time ago that the most dangerous person in a room is the one who makes you feel safe.Not because safety is bad—because false safety makes you sloppy. And sloppiness is how you get blindsided.So when I walked back into my suite and everything looked exactly t

    last updateÚltima actualización : 2026-03-28
  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Chapter 56

    Chapter 56Jordan POVI wasn’t supposed to be awake.That was the lie I told myself as I padded out onto the balcony with a mug of coffee that tasted like bad decisions and a blanket that kept sliding off my shoulder like it had commitment issues.The sky was clear—cold, crisp, obnoxiously pretty.

    last updateÚltima actualización : 2026-03-28
  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Chapter 52

    Chapter 52Jordan POVThe problem with the press is they don’t care what happened.They care what sounds like it happened.And right now, the story sounded like this:Wealthy security CEO gets caught with a body on his land.High-powered attorney moves into his home.Missing footage. Anonymous tip.

    last updateÚltima actualización : 2026-03-27
  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series)   Book One- Counsel for the Wolf Act III- The Night That Won't Stay Buried Chapter 45

    Book One- Counsel for the WolfAct III- The Night That Won't Stay BuriedChapter 45Jordan POVBy the time Maddox left the office to go collect Elias and Kane, I’d already turned my bedroom into something between a war room and a craft project.I had started a board when I first arrived, but this w

    last updateÚltima actualización : 2026-03-26
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