LOGIN~ DAMIEN'S POV ~The room Gustavo had chosen said something about him. It was not an office, but it bordered somewhere between the two. It was comfortable enough that he could lean back in his chair and look at ease. He had always understood that an environment was a form of intimidation. He was flanked by his men, and when his eyes found me across the room, he smiled as if seeing me entertained him. I scanned the room before I looked at him, I counted fourteen men. Two exits beyond the one we had come through. Roman had already clocked both without being told to do so.I walked to the center of the room and stopped.Gustavo let the silence stretch for a while trying to assert dominance. What a shame. That nonsense display of power will not work on me. I smiled cockily at him."How many more of our companies are you going to burn?" He asked, taking a sip of his drink. His tone was light. Almost amused but I knew they were all cover-ups. "As many as I want," I replied, "if you ke
~ EVANGELINE'S POV ~I woke up with my face pressed into the pillow and no memory of how I got there.I lay still for a moment, taking stock of the situation. My head was not pounding the way I expected it to. My mouth was awfully dry. But not something I couldn't deal with.I sat up slowly.I noticed the silver dress was gone. I was in a hotel robe that I had no memory of putting on. My shoes were nowhere to be seen. The events of the previous night came back in pieces, the club, the music, Marty being shoved, a hand on my arm, and then Damien's voice putting an end to it all.But after that, it was all pieces that didn't make sense to me at all. I swipe my tongue over my lips out of habit only to feel they are quite tender. I pressed my fingers to my lips just to be sure and indeed, they were swollen.I got up and went to the mirror in the bathroom and looked properly. Definitely swollen. Not painfully, but noticeably. I frowned at my reflection and tried to push further into the
~ Damien's POV ~ I stood there with the card still in my hand long after Roman had walked away. The words stayed fixed in my mind even though my eyes no longer focused on the letters. The noise from the street, the flashing lights of the security vehicles, the murmurs from the gathered crowd, everything faded into the background until it felt distant and unimportant.Fear crept in again, the same cold fear that had gripped me earlier in the evening when her phone kept ringing without answer. I worried I would fail to protect Eva the same way I had failed to protect my mother. The thought lodged in my chest and refused to leave.What most people never knew was that the Blackwood family operated like a dungeon for every child born into it. You either became ruthless or you got killed off. There was no middle ground, no room for softness.My mother, Elizabeth, always saw the good in people. She had spotted a woman injured on the side of the road one rainy night and stopped to help.
~ Damien's POV ~“Put me down right now, Damien. My ass is literally in the air for everyone to see.”I kept walking down the hotel corridor, her body draped over my shoulder. “It wasn’t like you cared back at the club.”She wriggled and made a protesting sound. The thin dress rode higher on her thighs. I used my free hand to tug it down over her bare skin. The elevator doors opened. I stepped inside. Roman followed, Marty still over his own shoulder. No one spoke during the ride up.When we reached the suite I opened the door and slammed it shut behind us. The sound echoed throughout the quiet corridor. I carried Eva to the bed and set her on her feet. She swayed the moment her toes touched the carpet, one hand grabbing my arm to steady herself. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes looked glassy from the alcohol. The little dress clung to her, showing everything and wrinkled from the ride.She kicked one shoe off. It skidded under the coffee table. The second followed and landed cr
~ DAMIEN'S POV ~I was on a call when I checked my watch for the first time.One hour and fourteen minutes.Eva had said she was going to check on Marty and would not be long. I had assumed thirty minutes at most. I finished the call and told myself to wait.But I was not someone who waited well.I used the time to go through my Paris property files, which I had been sitting on for two days now. If the competition board was going to keep us here, I was going to make the stay worth something. I had seven properties in Paris, one in the seventh, two further out, and none of them were currently set up for extended use. That needed to change.Also, I had been watching videos.This was not something I would be admitting to Roman or anyone else, but for the past week, I had been going through content online about what women apparently wanted from the men in their lives. Most of it was useless. Some of it was not. I had been taking notes in my head and had several plans forming that I was
~ EVANGELINE'S POV ~The drive back from the party was quiet.Marty sat beside me in the car and said nothing the entire way, which was how I knew how bad it was. Marty always had something to say. Silence from him was not peace; it just meant he was deeply pained over the actions of Roman tonight.When we got back to the hotel, he waved at me in the corridor outside his room."Goodnight, Eva.""Come and sit with me for a bit," I pleaded. I didn't want him to be alone. He looked so sad yet was acting tough."I'm tired.""Marty.""I'm fine." He smiled, but the smile looked forced. "Goodnight."He went inside before I could say anything else. I stood in the corridor for a moment, then went to my own room.But I was not settled. Marty's face kept playing in my mind. I changed out of my gown, had my bath, and sat on the edge of the bed and tried to think about something else, but couldn't. I kept seeing Marty's face when Roman called him an employee. Fuck! I should not have left him alo
~ EVANGELINE'S POV ~My head was pounding when I opened my eyes. I instantly regretted it as sunlight streamed through the windows like tiny knives stabbing my brain.Fuck! Where was I?I looked around and noticed I was in a different guest room. This wasn't the room I had been staying in.Wait. Ho
~ EVANGELINE'S POV~ Damien opened the door, and Roman strode in with another man trailing behind. “Perfect timing,” Damien said with a sigh. “We were just talking about Paris.” Roman grinned. “That’s why we’re here. I called the office, they said you weren’t in yet, so we came straight over. W
~ DAMIEN'S POV~When I heard what the judges said, my heart sank. I looked at the time and just nineteen minutes were remaining.I knew the judges had been bought and Mrs. Harrington, who was supposed to be one of the judges, wasn't around even after she promised me she was going to come, meaning s
~ DAMIEN'S POV~ I stared at my laptop screen but couldn't focus on the words. The events of yesterday still played in my head and I couldn't get the images out of my mind. My head kept playing out an imaginary Eva standing alone in that ballroom. Surrounded by our enemies. I even saw a video of







