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Chapter Nine
Date de publication:
2025-11-29 13:12:49
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Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter One hundred
Elena's POVThe ballroom smelled like roses and lemon polish. I wore a simple gown. It was not loud. It folded against my skin like a promise. Rosalind sat near the edge of the dais. She had a shawl and a face that looked like sunlight.“You look beautiful,” she said when I reached her. Her voice was small and steady.“Thanks,” I said. I felt my heart move like a small animal. I held her hand for a second. Her fingers were warm and sure.We took our seats. The room was full of faces I knew and faces I didn’t. People whispered. Waiters moved with trays. The band played something slow and gentle.I saw Dominic at the edge of the stage before he spoke. He had a simple suit and no tie. He looked like a man who had fixed his life into something honest. He caught my eye and nodded once. His hand brushed his chest. I felt that small motion like an anchor.“Ready?” Rosalind asked.“Yes,” I said.A man from the board introduced Dominic. He walked onto the stage with a steady step. The lights s
Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Ninety Nine
Percival's POVI arrived at the office before dawn. The city was still. My inbox was not.“Percival,” Corbin said as I walked in. He handed me a tablet with the live feed from the warehouse intake and a list of seized exhibits.“Good work,” I said. “Summarize.”He spoke fast and spare. “Ledger bundles, router dumps, ledger-to-voucher matches. Shooter’s confession. Email header chain tying the burner to Voss’s holding company. Mirrors hashed and notarized.”“Send it to Reyes,” I said. “Seal the packet. I’ll draft the filing.”He nodded and left to collate. I sat at my desk and opened a blank filing memo. My hands were steady. My mind ran through the checklist. Evidence, chain, witness protection, preservation, motion to present under seal.Percival thinking aloud is useless here. So I called Reyes first.“Reyes, we have the packet,” I said. “We will present it sealed to your magistrate. We ask immediate asset freezes and a hold on distribution.”“Send it encrypted,” he replied. “We’ll
Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Ninety Eight
Dominic's POVI drove with the windows up and the radio off. The city dropped away and the warehouses came. My hands gripped the wheel until they hurt.“Where exactly?” I asked Corbin on the secure line.“Unit 14 near Dockside,” he replied. “Old refrigeration yard. Cameras show activity two nights in a row. We have a delivery van on a scrubbed plate. Navarro is five minutes out with tactical.”“Good,” I said. “I’ll meet you at the west gate.”I killed the engine two blocks out and walked the rest. The salt air felt like glass. I kept my head down. The tactical vans were lined up like dark beetles. Navarro met me, face set.“You were insistent on coming,” he said. He did not ask why.“I want to see it,” I said. “I need to watch this end.”He nodded. “Fine. Stay behind the line. No heroics.”Percival joined us with a sealed folder under his arm. His expression was all business.“We go in at my call,” he said. “Search, seize, mirror. If anyone resists, Navarro will take point. We documen
Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Ninety Seven
Elena's POVI was at the window when the phone rang. The secure line glowed. My heart did a small flip even before I answered.“Elena Hart,” I said.“Ms. Hart,” a voice said. Calm. Smooth. Too calm. “This is Voss.”My stomach dropped like I had stepped off a curb.“What do you want?” I asked. I tried to keep my voice steady.“A friendly word,” he said. “I thought you should know when things get messy.”“Why are you calling me?” I said. “Talk to counsel. If you have an issue, speak to Percival.”He made a small sound that might have been a laugh. “Percival is a good man. He gives you good advice,” he said. “But sometimes counsel is slow. People get hurt while counsel thinks. I prefer directness.”“Then be direct,” I said. “Say what you want.”“Step away from the investigation,” he said. “Step away from Dominic’s fight and peace will follow.”“No,” I said.There it was. The word came out without rehearsal.“You really should consider it,” Voss said. “People are exhausted. People make mi
Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Ninety Six
Percival's POVI was still at my desk when Corbin knocked and pushed a tablet toward me. He did not smile. He never smiled at evidence.“Read this,” he said.I looked at the screen and tasted coffee. The email chain was small and ugly. Short lines. Dates. Burner addresses. A string that started with a throwaway account and threaded into directives.“Where did you pull this?” I asked.“The router mirrors and seized drives,” he said. “We found outgoing SMTP headers that matched the aggregator hops. I lifted the bounce and followed the relay. It terminates at a nominee address but the mail headers show a handoff with Voss’s company on the same day as the last smear blast.”I read the messages. They were clipped. One line: meet handler. Another: move funds to trustee channel seven. Another: make her invisible. The language was not poetic. It was business.“This is the correspondence tying money and direction,” I said slowly.“Exactly,” Corbin said. “Not a smoking gun by itself, but it bui
Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Ninety Five
Dominic's POVWe gathered at the operations center before dawn. The room smelled like cold coffee and printing ink. Lights hummed. Screens showed maps and camera feeds.“Status?” I asked.“Warrant in hand,” Percival said. He spoke like he does in court—flat and precise. “Magistrate signed at 03:10. Preservation notices served.”“Reyes?” I asked.“Foreign liaison standing by,” Reyes said. “We have a request to freeze related accounts upon seizure.”“Corbin?” I turned to him.“Mirrors live. Router taps ready. Kiosk CCTV pulled,” Corbin said. His hands moved on the keyboard as he spoke. “We can track any upload and link it to an IP if it hits the net.”Navarro came in with his tactical team. He was a steady man in a world that tried to rush. “We go in twenty,” he said. “We move clean. No public exposure unless forced.”I looked at him. “I’m going,” I said.“No,” Navarro said quickly. “You should not be on the ground.”“Yes,” I said. “I made the call. I’m going. I’ll be in command, not in
Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Thirty Six
Dominic's POVI started the day in the boardroom with coffee gone cold and a stack of briefing notes. Percival had already threaded the agenda. I walked in and felt the usual weight of eyes, the same quiet calculation I had watched for years.“Ladies and gentlemen,” I said, standing at the head of
Dernière mise à jour : 2026-03-23Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Fourty
Dominic's POVI woke to a call from Corbin. He was tight and quick on the line.“We move at dawn,” he said. “We have a location on one of Marcellus’s lieutenants. He’s meeting someone, likely to shift papers. We can get him in the act.”“Who else is on?” I asked.“Percival, Castillo, two teams from
Dernière mise à jour : 2026-03-23Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Thirty Seven
Elena's POVThe cafe smelled like burnt coffee and warm pastry. I sat at a corner table because the investigator said the old man preferred a public place. He arrived late, slow on his feet, hat in his hands. He looked smaller than I had expected.“Ms. Hart?” he asked, voice thin.“Yes,” I said. I
Dernière mise à jour : 2026-03-23Bound by Contract, Freed by Love Chapter Thirty Nine
Elena's POVI woke up to a text from Percival: subpœna at nine. Be ready. He used the old legal shorthand and the small black square of his name made my stomach tighten.I had rehearsed the night before. I had run questions with Percival, with Ms. Alvarez, and with Dominic. We kept the answers shor
Dernière mise à jour : 2026-03-23
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