LOGINCHAPTER THIRTYPOV: Ava"Ava, come on. It doesn't take that long to try a dress on," Dominic laughed.I was in his guest room, trying on the dresses he'd brought. I'm not going to lie, the man has good taste. I loved every single one of them, though the one I currently had on, while I loved it, was a little tight, a little too short for a gala. It was more the kind of dress you'd wear clubbing, not something you'd wear to a formal fundraiser."No. It's too tight for a gala, Dominic. This is more of a clubbing dress," I called out."Ava, don't make me come in there," he said.I groaned, rolled my eyes, and eventually stepped out of the bedroom into the living room, where he was waiting. The second I was in front of him, I caught his eyes trailing over me. The dress showed off my legs, hugged the curve of my hips, made my ass look good, I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The way he was looking at me made me anxious. When his eyes finally met mine, his face had gone slightly flushed, hi
POV: AvaIt was the end of the day, and I couldn't have been more relieved, though not for the reasons I would have expected that morning. The day had been strange for one thing, and unbearable for another. I'd spent most of it unable to look Dominic in the eye, the weight of what I'd done sitting so heavy in my chest that every glance in his direction felt like a confession waiting to slip out.I'd toned down the security I built for him. I'd let Dillan's presentation go through clean. I'd helped a man I was actively trying to destroy walk out of that boardroom looking like a legitimate business partner, and I'd done it without saying a single word to the one person who deserved to know exactly what had walked into his company that day.He hadn't called me into his office all afternoon, holed up instead with Marcus and a couple of men I didn't recognise. Every hour that passed without a word from him convinced me a little further that he already knew, that whatever he'd found while I
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTPOV: AvaAfter Dominic left for his coffee break, I got straight to work, because I already knew what was coming, and I knew exactly how to stop it. I wasn't going to let Dillan, or whoever he was working for, get their hands on Dominic's company.I didn't fully understand yet what they were planning, but I understood enough to know I had to protect Dominic, and this company, from whatever they had in mind.I started reinforcing every layer of security Dominic had, at the office, at his house, everything I could reach remotely. I locked down protocols so tight not even the best hacker in that underground facility could breach them.The prototype could act as a Trojan horse, pulling sensitive documents straight off a company's servers undetected. It could authorise fund transfers, move money invisibly, commit crimes under a completely false digital trail. And I'd just discovered something new buried in the design, something even worse. It could plant fabricated evi
POV: AvaBeep, beep, beep.No. My alarm. Please tell me last night was all a dream. I groaned, grabbed my phone, switched the alarm off, and dropped it back on the bed. I sat up slowly, reaching for painkillers, because I already knew I'd need them.I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to go to work. But I couldn't let last night mess with my job, not on top of everything else already sitting on my plate.I finally dragged myself up, showered, got ready, grabbed a quick breakfast. I decided to walk to work instead of driving, not trusting my head, and it gave me a little extra time to clear my mind before facing Dominic. By the time I reached the building, I found myself frozen just outside the doors, deciding exactly how to play this.I settled on normal. Act completely normal, and never bring up last night at all. I took a few slow breaths and walked in."Morning," I said, smiling at the receptionist."Morning, Ava. Just a heads up, he's not in the best of moods today," sh
POV: AvaWhen the blindfold finally came off, I blinked hard against the sudden light and looked around.My stomach dropped straight through the floor.We were inside an underground facility.It was huge, cold, and brightly lit with the same clinical white lights you would expect to see in a hospital. But instead of beds, there were rows of workstations. Hackers sat hunched over multiple monitors, their fingers moving quickly across their keyboards. Scientists in lab coats moved from one station to another with the kind of quiet urgency you only saw when the work actually mattered to whoever was paying for it.It looked like something straight out of a movie.Except the danger in the room felt real enough to taste.Nobody looked up as I was led through the facility.That alone told me a lot.People who could stay so focused and calm while a blindfolded, handcuffed woman was being dragged past their desks were people who had stopped asking questions a long time ago.Dillan led me towar
POV: AvaDillan sent me an address, and I regretted agreeing to it the moment I actually arrived. An abandoned warehouse on the edge of the industrial district, nothing but broken streetlights and empty loading bays. Dillan was sitting in the front passenger seat of a blue van, a stranger beside him in the driver's seat, looking at me the way a predator looks at something it's already decided to eat.The second I stepped out of my car, Dillan was out of the van and on me, furious that I'd driven myself instead of letting him collect me. His hands wrapped around my throat before I could even get a word out."You came here yourself instead of letting me pick you up?" he snarled, squeezing. "Are you hiding something from me, Ava? Why won't you let me come over? I'm sure you let the boss come over to your place whenever he wants. Why him and not me? Why can't I know where you live?""Stop it, Dillan!" the stranger shouted from the driver's seat. "You'll kill her!"He wrenched Dillan's han







