LOGINChapter 220: Zane's POVI have been waiting for this message and it dropped exactly at 5:47pmIt was from Nikolai, which meant it was important. Nikolai didn't send unnecessary messages, didn't waste time with updates unless something had changed or shifted or gone wrong.‘Found the location. Meet at your place in twenty. We move tonight.’Tonight.That was it.After weeks of searching, we'd finally found it. Finally had confirmation of where he'd been hiding.I should have felt relief. Should have felt something like satisfaction or vindication.But all I felt was this sick heaviness in my gut that told me something was off.I pulled into my building's underground garage and parked in my usual spot. Sat there for a moment with the engine still running, listening to the mechanical hum and trying to identify what exactly was making my instincts scream.The garage was quiet.Too quiet.I killed the engine and got out, and that's when I noticed it.I almost chuckled at their clumsiness.
Chapter 219: Olive's POVMy mom was watching me with growing alarm, clearly able to hear something was wrong even if she couldn't hear the actual words."I'm hanging up—" I started."If you hang up, Brenda dies," the voice said, calm and matter-of-fact like he was discussing the weather.The room tilted."What?" I breathed."Your friend has been very accommodating," the voice continued. "Very willing to make this phone call for me. But her cooperation is contingent on you following instructions.""Where is she?" I asked, and my voice was shaking now, my whole body shaking. "What did you do to her?""Nothing yet," the voice said. "And nothing will happen if you do exactly what I tell you."My mom had come around the counter and was standing next to me now, close enough to hear the distorted voice coming through my phone, and I saw her face go pale."What do you want?" I asked."You're going to come to me," the voice said. "Alone. No police. No Zane Mercer. No one but you."Zane.The vo
Chapter 218: Olive's POV"You're back," she said, looking up as I came in. "I was starting to worry. You're later than usual."I didn't answer.I just went to the fridge and pulled out the wine bottle and grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured myself a generous amount, like more than I should probably drink on a weeknight but I didn't care, I needed it.I downed half the glass in one long swallow and felt my mother watching me with growing concern."Olive?" she said carefully. "Baby, what's wrong?"I poured more wine and drank that too, and then I finally turned to look at her."How do you know when someone is lying to you?" I asked.My mom's eyes widened slightly and she set down the cookie dough she'd been rolling."What happened?" she asked, coming around the counter toward me. "Did Zane do something?""No," I said quickly, because whatever Zane was or wasn't, he hadn't done anything to me today except make me feel wanted and protected and like I mattered. "Not Zane. Cole."My
Chapter 217: Olive's POV"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, but my voice came out wrong, came out defensive and uncertain."Yes you do," Cole said, taking another step closer, and I took a step back automatically. "You've been looking into it, haven't you? Trying to figure out the connection? And you found something, I can see it on your face. Your eyes fucking said it.""Stay away from me," I said, gripping my keys so hard they bit into my palm."Olive, please," Cole said, and he reached out like he was going to grab my arm, like he was going to touch me, and something in me snapped.I swung my bag at his face without thinking, without planning, pure instinct taking over, and the heavy leather connected with his cheek hard enough that I heard the impact, heard him grunt in pain."Fuck!" Cole stumbled backward, his hand coming up to his face, and I saw blood, actual blood running from where my bag had split his lip.I didn't wait to see if he was okay.I didn't care if
Chapter 216: Olive's POVFive more minutes.That's all I needed, just five more minutes and I'd be out of this building and away from the lingering stares and knowing smirks and the way everyone had looked at me when I'd walked out of Zane's office with my hair slightly messed up and my lips still swollen from kissing.Five more minutes and I could breathe again.I grabbed my laptop bag from under my desk and shoved my notebook inside with more force than necessary, my hands moving on autopilot while my brain was still trying to process everything that had happened today, and there was a lot to process because apparently my life had become one of those chaotic romance novels where everything happened all at once and you didn't get a second to catch your breath.The meeting this morning with Elena and her calculated comments about knowing Zane's preferences, with Antonio sitting too close and Cole asking questions designed to make me look incompetent, with Sophia smirking from across t
Chapter 215: Zane's POVHer hand slid between us and I felt her fingers working her clit and the sensation combined with the downward angle of her hand, seeing a partial version of her touching herself while I fucked her was almost enough to make me lose it."That's it," I encouraged, my hips snapping forward harder, faster, chasing both our orgasms now. "Good girl, my good girl, show me how much you need this, show me how much you need me—"I was rambling now, was losing the ability to form coherent thoughts, was just fucking into her over and over while she touched herself and moaned my name."Zane," she whimpered, and I could feel her starting to tighten around me. "Zane, I'm going to come, I can't hold it—""Come," I commanded, my hand tightening slightly on her throat. "Come for me, Olive, let me feel it, let me feel you fall apart on my cock—"She shattered with my name on her lips and I felt her pussy clench around me in rhythmic pulses and that was it, that was all I could tak
Chapter 59: Olive's POVThe second I stepped into the room, Hunter was flanking beside me.He'd shown up at my apartment earlier—uninvited, somehow knowing my address even thou
Chapter 60: OLIVE's POVThere was this one time, about a year ago, when Cole had filmed me in the kitchen.I was making pancakes, flour dusted across the counter and somehow in my ha
Chapter 57: Zane's POVI was halfway to the elevator when I heard it.The explosion.Not literal—though that might've been quieter. This was worse. This was my father's voice, raised to a volume I hadn't heard in years, echoing through the hallway even through the closed conference room doors.He w
Chapter 56: Zane's POVThe conference room doors slid open and I walked in.Black suit. Tailored perfectly. The kind that made me look like a Brooklyn CEO, not a hockey player. Nothing about my appearance today said athlete. Everything said untouchable.Twelve board members sat around the massive g







