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Dreams.

Author: Bea Baum
last update Last Updated: 2025-10-28 03:31:27

VEX POV

My jaw tightens at her words.

“Convincing. Right.”

I exit the car the moment we arrive, coming around to Brynn’s door—but I don’t offer my hand this time. The small gesture feels too intimate now. Too dangerous.

“You’ve given the watchers what they needed to see. Your brother will have his proof of life.”

I take a deliberate step back, forcing space between us I desperately need.

“I’ll be in meetings for the remainder of the day. Don’t leave the villa grounds.”

I turn to walk away, but something ugly twists in my chest, dragging the words out of me.

“That kiss crossed a line, Brynn.”

A beat.

“Don’t do it again.”

I don’t wait for her response. Distance is the only way I keep control.

Hours pass. The villa sinks into silence—the soft thud of waves against stone, the distant echo of footsteps from the night patrol.

I stand at the terrace railing, staring out over the darkening sea, the Mediterranean wind threading through my hair.

But all I can feel are her lips.

The taste of ras
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  • Cage to Cage   Controlled and Uncontrollable

    BRYNN POV The door opens again. I feel it before I hear it—my body tightening, breath going shallow, muscles coiling like they’re anticipating something my mind still can’t name. He steps inside. The same man. The same calm. The same wrongness. I lift my head, heart pounding. “You didn’t answer me.” He closes the door behind him, the click final, deliberate. “You didn’t ask the right question.” I swallow. “Then ask it for me.” He studies me for a long moment, eyes dark and intent, like he’s memorizing my face all over again. Not hunger. Not cruelty. Ownership. “You asked why you don’t remember me,” he says quietly. My pulse spikes. “Yes.” “Because Robert didn’t just erase memories,” he continues. “He dismantled a life.” Cold spreads through my chest. “You were his,” I say, forcing the words out. “You keep saying that like it means something.” “It means everything,” he replies. He moves closer, stopping just out of reach. I can smell him now—clean, sharp, familiar in

  • Cage to Cage   Buried

    “I remember,” I whisper.The words sit between us, heavy and real.Every memory is there—settled, sharp, intact. Vex’s voice in my ear. Kade’s hand steady on my back. The weight of silk and blood at the wedding. Salt air and sun on bare skin during the honeymoon. Love, violence, loyalty, power.All of it.I lift my head fully now, testing the ache in my neck, the pull of the ropes at my wrists.“I remember everything,” I say again, firmer this time. “So why is it that I don’t remember you?”The man across from me doesn’t answer right away.He watches me.Not like someone waiting for a confession.Like someone checking a system status.A flicker crosses his face—not surprise, not anger.Satisfaction.“That part,” he says calmly, leaning back in his chair, “is still locked.”Cold slides down my spine.My pulse kicks harder, but my body doesn’t panic. It should. I’m tied to a chair in a concrete room with a man I can’t place, can’t read, can’t remember.Instead, my muscles stay ready. Co

  • Cage to Cage   Won’t Lose Her Again

    VEX POV Jessie Mason is still smiling. That’s how I know we’re running out of time. Not nervous. Not defiant. Not cracking under the pressure the way most people do when they realize they’re sitting in a concrete box with two men who don’t miss. She’s comfortable. Legs crossed. Shoulders loose. Mouth curved like she’s enjoying the show. That smile tells me everything I need to know. “She’s not here anymore,” Kade says, voice sharp as broken glass. He slams both hands onto the steel table, the sound echoing through the room. “Where did he take her? Where the hell is Ivan operating out of?” Jessie lifts one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “Told you. I don’t know specifics.” I don’t interrupt. I just watch her. “I wasn’t inner circle,” she continues. “I passed messages. Drop points. Locations after the fact. That’s it.” Kade’s jaw flexes. He’s barely holding himself back from flipping the table and dragging answers out of her the hard way. I don’t blame him. But rage is loud. An

  • Cage to Cage    First Truth

    BRYNN POVI come back to pain.Sharp. Splitting. Violent enough that for a second I think my skull is actually cracking open—that whatever is inside my head is trying to claw its way out.I gasp.The sound is short, strangled.Because I can’t move.My wrists are bound behind the chair, rope rough and unforgiving against my skin. Not sloppy. Purposeful. Tight enough that every small shift sends a sting up my arms. My ankles are tied too, chair legs biting into my calves. My pulse pounds so hard it feels like it’s echoing off the concrete walls.Concrete.That’s the first thing I register.Cold air. Damp. The faint metallic tang of rust and oil. Somewhere nearby, water drips in a slow, maddening rhythm. A single bulb hangs from the ceiling, swinging just enough to make the shadows stretch and shrink like something breathing.Basement. Warehouse. Somewhere forgotten.Somewhere people disappear.A figure sits across from me.Comfortable.Too comfortable.He’s leaned forward slightly, elbo

  • Cage to Cage   Gone

    BRYNN POVTwo weeks later, I almost forget what fear feels like.That should’ve been my first warning.The city is busy in that late-morning way—cars humming, people weaving past each other with coffee cups and headphones and places to be. I have bags looped over my wrist, new clothes folded neatly inside. Things I chose. Colors I like. Proof that I exist outside guarded halls and marble floors.Normal.I’m halfway down the sidewalk, mentally checking off errands, when something shifts behind me.Not a sound.A pressure.Instinct sparks—but too late.A hard, brutal force slams into the back of my head.White explodes behind my eyes.My knees buckle as the world tilts violently sideways. I barely register the shape of a hand grabbing my arm, yanking me off balance, my bags hitting the ground with a useless scatter of fabric and paper.“Don’t scream,” a voice murmurs close to my ear. Calm. Familiar in a way that makes my stomach drop. “You always were bad at that part anyway.”I try to

  • Cage to Cage   Almost normal

    BRYNN POVTwo days pass without another memory.No flashes. No jolts. No cold rush of recognition stealing the breath from my lungs.Just… quiet.Which feels almost suspicious.By the third morning, I’m sitting at the long breakfast table with a mug warming my hands, watching sunlight creep across polished marble like it belongs there. Vex is on his phone, jaw set in that focused way that means business. Kade leans against the counter nearby, arms crossed, pretending not to hover.Normal.As normal as this life gets.I take a bite of toast and try not to flinch when the butter melts against my fingers.“That’s progress,” Kade says lightly, nodding toward my plate. “You’ve eaten more today than yesterday.”I shrug. “Guess my body decided it likes routine.”Vex’s gaze flicks to me—quick, assessing—then away again. He doesn’t comment. He never pushes. It’s one of the reasons I feel steady enough to be sitting here at all.I lift my coffee.That’s when it happens.Not a crash.A slide.Th

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