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CHAPTER 37
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2026-08-18 23:46:56
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His Deadly Obsession CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 42CASSIAN I woke to the low, steady beep of a monitor and the smell of antiseptic that always meant hospital. For a few seconds I only stared at the ceiling, trying to piece together how I had gone from the gala bathroom floor to a bed with an IV in my hand. Then I turned my head and found Rafael standing a few feet away, still in the same dark clothes he must have worn on the plane, one shoulder propped against the wall as if he had been there for hours.He noticed the moment my eyes opened and pushed off the wall without a word. There was a plastic cup of water on the side table. He picked it up, slid a hand behind my shoulders to help me sit a little higher, and held the cup to my mouth. I drank slowly, the cool water easing the raw feeling in my throat, and when he started to set the cup down and reach for the call button I moved first. My fingers closed around his wrist before he could press it.“I missed you,” I whispered.The change in him was immediate. His whole bod
His Deadly Obsession CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 41RAFAEL The jet touched down just after eleven local time. I waited until the engines cut and the cabin door opened before I switched my phone out of flight mode. The screen filled immediately with missed calls, all of them from Cassian, the most recent only forty minutes earlier. Something cold settled in my chest. I called the lead of the detail I had left behind while I was already moving toward the terminal exit.He answered on the second ring, voice tight. “Mr. Vitali—”“Where is he?”“We lost visual at the gala. He left and never came back out. We’ve checked the main floor and the side corridors. We can’t find him.”I stopped walking for half a second. “You had one responsibility. One. If anything has happened to him I will kill every single one of you myself. Find him. Now.”I ended the call before he could answer, flagged the first black car that looked private, and gave the driver the gala address with instructions not to spare the engine. The scars across my back
His Deadly Obsession CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 40CASSIANThe fundraising portion of the night began with the usual polite applause and the soft clink of glasses. Servers moved between the tables offering champagne and something darker in crystal tumblers. I took a glass without really looking at it and drank while the first speaker listed donation tiers and matching gifts. The liquid sat cool on my tongue and then burned faintly on the way down, but I paid it no attention. Sofia was still beside me, making quiet comments about the foundation’s previous events, and I answered her with half a smile while the room continued its slow, expensive conversation.Ten minutes later the heat started.It rose from my stomach into my chest and then higher, settling behind my face until my skin felt too tight. I set the glass down carefully and tried to draw a full breath. The air in the ballroom suddenly seemed thin. Sofia turned her head and studied me.“Cassian? You okay?”“I’m fine.”“You don’t look fine. Your face is red.”“It’s w
His Deadly Obsession CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 39CASSIANThe limousine arrived exactly on time, its black surface gleaming under the estate lights while one security car idled in front and another waited behind. I checked my reflection once more in the hallway mirror, the new charcoal suit sitting clean across my shoulders, makeup already done so that the cameras would find nothing tired in my face. The silent detail opened the door for me without a word. I slid into the back seat, smoothed the front of the jacket, and watched the gates of the house disappear as the small convoy pulled away.By the time we reached the venue the red carpet stretched long and bright under a tunnel of flashbulbs. The moment the limousine door opened the sound hit me in a wave of screams and shouted names. I stepped out, straightened, and let the first wave of cameras catch the smile I had practiced for years. Hands reached over the barriers. Phones waved. Someone yelled that they loved me and another voice cracked with pure excitement when I
His Deadly Obsession CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 38CASSIANI came back to consciousness on a cold concrete floor with my wrists locked in heavy iron cuffs bolted to the wall behind me. My shirt was gone. The air bit at my bare skin. Seven men stood in a loose semicircle in front of me, the same elders who had once decided a child could be carved into a weapon. The oldest of them, the one who had always spoken with the softest voice and the hardest hands, watched me with mild disappointment, as if I had failed a simple test.I gritted my teeth until my jaw ached and forced the familiar words through my mind in a steady loop.Do not feel. Do not show.“You have grown slow,” the head elder said. “Comfortable. The reports from the United States make you look distracted. Machines do not become distracted. Machines do not require reminders.”I lifted my head and met his eyes. “Your intelligence has not improved with age. If you needed a conversation you could have requested one like civilized people. Instead you resort to theat
His Deadly Obsession CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 37CASSIAN They opened doors, started the car, and walked three paces behind me at every location, but none of them ever met my eyes or answered when I tried to make ordinary conversation. The first morning after Rafael left I had asked the tallest one if he wanted coffee; he had simply looked past me and adjusted his earpiece. The second day I tried a joke about the traffic. Silence. By the third day I stopped trying. They drove me to fittings, to a short press interview, to a late rehearsal, and then back to the house again, always the same blank professionalism that made the absence beside me feel sharper than it should have.I missed Rafael in a way that felt almost embarrassing. The house was too quiet without his measured footsteps and the low sound of his voice cutting through my complaints. I caught myself listening for the front door at odd hours and then pretending I had only been checking the time. At night I slept poorly, turning over the last conversation we had
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