Home / MM Romance / Call it love,Call it war / Chapter 6: Hearts on the line

Share

Chapter 6: Hearts on the line

Author: SELENE HART
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-07-24 04:59:50

“Roman? Harlow? What the hell are you doing here?” Riven’s voice echoed off the pine-paneled walls, sharp with surprise.

Roman stepped forward, his tone steady but urgent. “We got the burner alert about the fire. First flight out. We drove straight from the airport.”

Harlow didn’t bother with a greeting. “This wasn’t some accident. You know that. So do we.” Her hood dropped back, revealing her platinum bob as she scanned the room like she expected something hidden in the walls.

Kael turned from his workbench and cleared his throat. “Am I supposed to know what’s going on?”

“I’m Kael Quinn.” He extended a hand to Roman.

Roman met it with a firm grip. “Roman Vale. Riven’s brother.”

Kael gave a brief nod, then looked to Harlow.

“She’s my manager,” Riven said quietly.

Kael studied her. “You’re the one who keeps him alive, huh?”

“Most days,” Harlow replied, her voice dry but not unfriendly.

“They’re here because this fire wasn’t random,” Riven added. “Someone set it.”

Kael’s expression hardened. He nodded once. “Alright. What do we know?”

Roman pulled a small hard drive from his bag and connected it to a weathered laptop on the workbench. Code filled the screen, followed by a list of video files. The air in the room thickened with a kind of dread only secrets could summon.

“Let’s start with this,” Roman said, opening a file labeled FIELD_TEST_2015.

The footage flickered to life. A teenage Kael stood in a school hallway, gripping a small camera, face tight with anger. Two boys appeared in the background—one of them unmistakably Riven, younger and visibly cornered. Kael shouted something, shoved the camera toward Riven, who flinched.

“Pause,” Harlow said, stepping in. “Back it up.”

Roman scrubbed back a few seconds. A third figure appeared deep in the background, standing still, holding another camera. Their face was hidden, but their posture suggested they weren’t just a bystander.

“They were recording you both,” she said. “From two angles.”

Riven leaned closer to the screen. “I remember that night. The hallway. The yelling. But I thought I imagined it.”

Kael’s voice was low. “We weren’t alone. And we weren’t safe.”

Roman tapped a key. “There’s a metadata log in this file. Someone uploaded it to a restricted server within an hour. It was deliberate. They knew what they were doing.”

“You think it was Mason?” Riven asked.

Kael nodded, gaze fixed on the screen. “He controlled school security. He installed the cameras.”

Roman didn’t look up. “I traced a second upload from that night to an encrypted off-grid vault. Same IP used by Silas Greaves' tech firm. They didn’t just monitor you. They stored it. Cataloged it.”

“Why?” Kael asked.

Harlow stepped forward. “To build a profile. To decide which ones were useful, and which ones were threats.”

Riven’s voice was tight. “And I was a threat.”

“They didn’t want your truth. They wanted your silence,” Harlow said. “So they erased what you knew. They made you believe it was your choice.”

The weight of it all pressed against Riven’s chest. “I thought I ran. But I was pushed.”

Kael didn’t let him off easy. “You still ran.”

“I know.”

Roman cut in. “We’ve got more. This is just phase one. The real story’s on this.” He slid over a second drive. “Harlow intercepted it from Leo Vane’s private server.”

Riven’s eyes narrowed. “Leo had access to this?”

“Silas used him,” Harlow said. “And now we have his data. They’re selling these surveillance tools to defense contractors. Tracking emotional responses. Memory suppression trials. It's worse than we thought.”

Rain began to tap against the windows as storm clouds rolled in outside.

Kael crossed his arms. “What’s the move?”

“We leak it all,” Riven said. “Everything.”

Roman launched the decryption, lines of code racing across the screen. Names. Dates. Transfers. And then — a new video appeared. Grainy, but clear.

Two figures walked toward Riven’s cabin. One held a fuel-soaked rag.

The timestamp was minutes before the fire started.

“They didn’t just want to scare you,” Harlow said. “They wanted you gone.”

Ari Hollis burst through the side door, soaked from the rain. “You’re gonna want to see this.” He held up his phone, displaying a photo. The doorpost outside had been carved with a fresh emblem — a jagged B inside a circle.

“Mason’s mark,” Kael said quietly.

He turned, grabbed a hammer from the wall, but Riven stepped in front of him.

“Don’t be reckless.”

Kael looked at him for a long beat, then set the hammer down. “Then we go smart. But we go hard.”

Roman glanced at the clock. “We hit Mason’s server before midnight. That’s the only window.”

Harlow nodded. “Once he sees the footage was copied, he’ll wipe everything. We won’t get another shot.”

Thunder rumbled deep and long above them.

They gathered what they could — laptops, drives, jackets — preparing for a night none of them could take back.

But just as Riven reached for the doorknob, it turned on its own.

The door creaked open.

And there he stood.

Mason Briggs. Dripping from the rain, coat dark and heavy, boots caked in mud. He said nothing at first. Just watched them. Studied each face.

Kael’s fists curled at his sides.

Riven’s heartbeat pounded in his ears

.

Then Mason spoke, his smile was slow and cold.

“I wondered when you’d come knocking.”

SELENE HART

Just when you thought the truth was starting to surface… Mason walks in. What’s he hiding? What’s coming next? And will Kael and Riven survive the weight of their past and the storm closing in? If you’ve made it this far — thank you. You’re officially deep inside the chaos. I promise you, things are about to unravel faster than they can run. 🔥💔 Hit that like, drop a comment, and let me know — Do you trust Mason? (…Because I sure don’t.)

| Like
Patuloy na basahin ang aklat na ito nang libre
I-scan ang code upang i-download ang App

Pinakabagong kabanata

  • Call it love,Call it war   Chapter 7: What's left behind

    Kael stepped forward, keeping Riven behind him as tension rippled through the room. Ari hovered near the wrecked console, Roman’s laptop clutched tight. Harlow stood from where she’d been crouched behind a fallen beam, her face drawn but steady.Mason stood in the doorway, rain dripping from his coat, voice calm and unnerving. “I wondered when you’d all arrive,” he said. “I’ve been expecting you.”Kael didn’t flinch. “We’re not here to talk. Get out of our way.”Mason’s mouth curled. “You think this is victory? You’ve barely peeled back the first layer. You don’t even know what you’re walking into.”Roman stepped forward. “You torched the house. You endangered everyone.”Mason gave a slow nod. “I warned you to stay buried. But no one listens anymore. Not until it’s too late.”Harlow locked eyes with him. “Are you planning to finish what you started?”His gaze held hers for a beat longer, but whatever game he’d come to play, he was done with it. “Not today.” He turned, walking into the

  • Call it love,Call it war   Chapter 6: Hearts on the line

    “Roman? Harlow? What the hell are you doing here?” Riven’s voice echoed off the pine-paneled walls, sharp with surprise.Roman stepped forward, his tone steady but urgent. “We got the burner alert about the fire. First flight out. We drove straight from the airport.”Harlow didn’t bother with a greeting. “This wasn’t some accident. You know that. So do we.” Her hood dropped back, revealing her platinum bob as she scanned the room like she expected something hidden in the walls.Kael turned from his workbench and cleared his throat. “Am I supposed to know what’s going on?”“I’m Kael Quinn.” He extended a hand to Roman.Roman met it with a firm grip. “Roman Vale. Riven’s brother.”Kael gave a brief nod, then looked to Harlow.“She’s my manager,” Riven said quietly.Kael studied her. “You’re the one who keeps him alive, huh?”“Most days,” Harlow replied, her voice dry but not unfriendly.“They’re here because this fire wasn’t random,” Riven added. “Someone set it.”Kael’s expression harde

  • Call it love,Call it war   Chapter 5: The ashes we live in

    The day was too bright for how wrecked Riven felt inside. His skin buzzed with the weight of last night’s dream, the photo album still burned behind his eyes, and Kael’s name clung to the back of his throat like smoke he couldn’t cough out.He wasn’t ready to confront him..not yet,but the universe didn’t wait for readiness.Because there he was. Kael was standing outside the bar just off Main, laughing with someone.Riven stood still on the sidewalk, breath catching like he’d been slapped. The man next to Kael was tall, tan, and tattooed, with a cocky smile and a backwards hat. He leaned into Kael too easily, touched his shoulder like it meant something. And Kael didn’t pull away.Jealousy wasn’t something Riven liked admitting to. But it bloomed inside him anyway, slow and sour like poison spreading in his chest.He tightened his grip on the envelope in his hands — the one holding all the photos and old evidence he’d found.Before he could take a step, a hand tapped his shoulder fro

  • Call it love,Call it war   Chapter 4: A fragment from the past

    Riven dreamt in heat and in breathless scenarios. A name echoed louder than thunder.“Kael”It slipped from his lips like a prayer, dragging him out of sleep with a gasp. Sweat clung to his chest, hands twisted in the blanket like he’d fought something in the dark.He sat there breathing hard, eyes adjusting to the dimness.Just a dream, he told himself. Only a dream.But it didn’t feel like one. Not in the way his bones trembled..And definitely not in how clearly he remembered the shape of Kael’s mouth when it said his name.He climbed out of bed on silent feet, the wooden floor cold beneath him. His head felt fogged — not from alcohol, but from something heavier.At the fireplace, he opened the old cabinet.Inside was filled worn magazines, faded postcards, a box of letters that smelled like dust and loss. At the very bottom, shoved between yellowed newspapers, was a thick leather-bound photo album. Still wondering how he didn't take notice or see any of them all this while,his fing

  • Call it love,Call it war   Chapter 3: The one thing he couldn't resist.

    The sky cracked open before Riven could hurry out to go get groceries.Rain fell like punishment — harsh and unrelenting, loud enough to drown out thought.The truck's light blinked twice and died, and darkness swallowed everything except the sound.He stood by the window, coffee cooling in his hand, watching headlights bob through the trees. The light cut a jagged path through the fog until it hit the clearing. A truck,old and familiar. Kael’s.The engine sputtered, died, then turned over again and failed completely. The door opened and Kael climbed out, soaked from hair to boots, moving fast through the storm like he hadn’t meant to stop . Like something had pulled him off course and dropped him here anyway.Riven cracked the door open and shouted over the rain.“Truck dead?”Kael didn’t look up. “Yeah.”“Well,” Riven called, shrugging, “guess you’re stuck here.”Kael finally turned. His hair clung to sharp cheekbones, shirt plastered to every muscle, rain rolling off him in sheets.

  • Call it love,Call it war   Chapter 2: No one is safe.

    The cabin was too quiet but not peaceful — just the kind of quiet that curled under your skin and made your neck itch.The coffee in Riven's hand was bitter and watery, but it was hot. That was enough. He sat on the porch step, hoodie tugged low over his eyes, staring into the thick fog as it slid between the trees like it was alive.It had only been two nights, but already the place felt less like a hideout and more like a slow, sprawling trap. His phone had two bars, barely. Still, when it rang, he answered before the second buzz.Harlow.“Took you long enough.”Her voice cut sharp. “Took you long enough to almost ruin your life.”“I thought we were past that.”“We’re not past anything, Riven. Your dick is still trending.”He leaned back against the wooden post, lips tugging into a smirk. “So it’s true what they say. Bad press is still press.”“This isn’t press. It’s war.”She wasn’t joking. Not really. Her voice cracked just enough at the edges to let the truth bleed out.“I’m in

Higit pang Kabanata
Galugarin at basahin ang magagandang nobela
Libreng basahin ang magagandang nobela sa GoodNovel app. I-download ang mga librong gusto mo at basahin kahit saan at anumang oras.
Libreng basahin ang mga aklat sa app
I-scan ang code para mabasa sa App
DMCA.com Protection Status