Chapter 6- The Gun and the Lie

Elena’s POV

The whole room went dead quiet except for the low hum of the vent.

The gun in Adrian Blackthorne’s hand glinted. It was pointed right between my eyes. His finger rested on the trigger like he’d done this a thousand times. One wrong word and that was it.

“Who the hell are you?” he said again.

Not loud. Just… flat and dangerous.

“Uhm… hi.” My voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. “I..... I came for the interview.”

I could feel the tremor in it.

His eyebrow went up. “I told my assistant I wasn’t seeing any more candidates.” He took a step closer.

“I kinda… sneaked into the elevator,” I heard myself say, looking down. Staring at the floor tiles felt safer than looking at him.

He smelled expensive. Like money and cologne and decisions. It was so harsh, I almost gagged.

“How did you get past two armed guards and a locked elevator?” he asked.

My mouth opened. Then closed. My brain split into a thousand useless thoughts. “Say something smart.”

" Say nothing." 

 “Choose a lie.”

 “Choose silence." 

 I sucked in air and nothing came out.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you, girl.” He didn’t shout. He didn’t have to.

My hands shook.

His hand was cold when it grabbed my chin and tipped my face up. Those grey eyes….. the ones from magazine covers felt sharper in person, the ones from our unforgettable escapade. Much more Real, worse and sexy. My throat tightened. Somewhere between terror and something else, I felt heat crawled up my body again and I hated that it did.

“Don’t you fucking play games with me.” He tightened his grip. “You’re not the first person I’m going to kill in this office. How did you get access if you’re not a Carter spy?”

A Carter spy. My brain fizzed. So my dad had sent people here before. Lovely.

“Your assistant said the interview was over,” I blurted. “And….and I really need this money, sir.” The words came out small and pathetic.

His eyes went to the gun, then back to my face. The cold metal pressed to the base of my skull.

“Let’s start over, shall we?” he said, slow. “Where’s the wire?”

“Wire?” I echoed, stupidly.

He gave this low, mean chuckle that had no humor in it.

“Six spies tried to infiltrate my company,” he said, grin slow and ugly. “Two in HR, two in accounting, two in security. Guess where they are now.”

He made a short, flat motion with his hand like blowing someone’s brains out.

“So don’t even try to play dumb,” he said, cold as ice.

I found my voice at last. “Please… I’m sorry. Let me go…I just….”

“You just what?” His tone got harder, sharper. “Thought you could sneak onto a private floor and waltz into my office unannounced?”

My mouth opened, then closed. Nothing came out.

He moved closer. 

“Where’s your badge?”

“I don’t have one….”

“Your ID.”

“It’s…. it’s in my bag.”

“Put it on the desk.”

He tilted his chin at the bag slung over my shoulder. I hesitated, and that tiny pause made his eyes narrow.

“Now,” he said.

My fingers shook as I lowered the purse onto the glass desk. He motioned with the gun. “Open it.”

I did. All that was in there was lip balm, a notepad,a fake résumé, a single metro card and a Chessie-O’s coupon.

His jaw tightened. “Empty it.”

I turned it upside down as everything clattered onto the glass in one big heap. He watched in silence, his gun still pointed at me. Then in one swift movement, he reached forward and swept through the contents with his free hand

He found nothing. But he didn’t look satisfied.

“Strip.”

“What?” I whispered.

“Strip. I want to see where you hid your goddamned wires. Don’t make me f**king repeat myself,” he said, cocking the gun.

My body obeyed before my brain could catch up. My heart pounded against my ribs as I felt his presence behind me like a heatwave. What if he recognized me from our one night four freaking years ago?

I peeled off my cheap sweater, feeling his gaze burn into my back like a laser.  

I hesitated, eyes flicking up to meet his. That look on his face... he wasn’t bluffing.  

With a shaky breath, I unhooked my bra and let it fall. My boobs were bare now….exposed under his sharp, unreadable gaze. His gaze followed every curve of my body….. maybe he remembered?. I thought, holding my breath.

Just then, a knock shattered the silence.

His jaw clenched. “Don’t come in. What do you want?”

“Sir, there’s an intruder on this floor… we were wondering if you’ve seen her,” came that same bitchy assistant’s voice from earlier.

He glared at me, like he was calculating his next move. I stood frozen, half-naked in a stranger’s office….an intruder, completely at his mercy.

He could hand me over. Or he could do something much worse.

He glared at me like he was calculating which way to ruin me.

I was half-naked. Caught. A half-naked intruder in the damn CEO’s office. He could throw me in jail with a single phone call….or worse.

“No,” he said finally.

My lungs didn’t even realize they’d been holding air until I heard the assistant’s footsteps fade away.

I exhaled slowly, shaky. I was relieved.

But then his voice cut through the silence again.

“This isn’t over.”

The way he said it was low, dark and made my stomach twist.

With trembling fingers, I slid down the thrifted jeans I’d bought that morning. They pooled around my ankles. Then, slowly, I slipped off my panties too, my cheeks flaming red.

His gaze didn’t flinch. Just… followed every curve of my body.

Then he moved.

He walked up to me and let his hand roam across my bare skin. Not soft. Not sexual. Just deliberate. Not like that night.

And yet every time his palm touched a new place, a fresh shiver raced down my spine. His touch had always made me come undone.

I held my breath. He still hadn’t lowered the gun.

“Turn around,” he said.

My throat went dry. “W…what?”

“Turn. Around.”

His voice was quieter now. Like ice cracking right before it shatters.

Everything inside me screamed to run….but I didn’t.

I turned, slowly, until my back faced him. My whole body trembled like I was seconds from collapsing.

Then…I heard him step closer. I felt his gaze on me. 

“Nothing,” he muttered after a beat. “No wire. No tracker. No clue what the hell you are.”

I glanced over my shoulder, voice barely a whisper. “Can I go now?”

He didn’t answer.

He just stepped in, way too close. His hand caught my jaw, tilting my face up until I was forced to meet his eyes….those sexy, steel-grey, unreadable, soul-dissecting eyes.

“You’re not off the hook,” he said low and deadly, the cold press of the gun under my chin. “If I find out you’re lying…”

“I’m not!” I snapped, panic spiking in my voice.

He tilted his head, studying me like I was some puzzle he couldn’t decide whether to solve… or burn to ash.

Then, after what felt like an entire hour compressed into five seconds, he finally stepped back and lowered the gun.

“Get dressed,” he said flatly. “You’ve got five minutes to explain why you’re here before I decide whether to call security… or handle you myself.”

Handle me?

He didn’t say it like a threat. He said it like he meant it….like it was already decided.

I barely managed to nod, scrambling to collect the pieces of my dignity and clothes. My fingers shook as I pulled my bra and sweater back on, every nerve still lit up from fear.

He turned away, strolling to the floor-to-ceiling window, back to me, gun still dangling lazily at his side. 

“I’m not with them,” I said, trying to keep my voice from cracking. “Please, you have to believe me.”

He didn’t turn. “Then tell me something real. Something I can verify.”

I froze.

Think, Elena. Think.

“I… I’m here for the contract marriage job,” I blurted out. “I saw the posting. I lost everything. I’m just trying to start over.”

That made him pause. Slowly, he turned to look at me, eyes narrowing.

“Start over… by breaking into my building?”

My mouth opened. Nothing came out.

Then something reckless and unfiltered fell from my lips.

“You were the only one who’d hire someone like me!”

His brow twitched. “Someone like you,” he echoed. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

I forced myself to meet his gaze. “Someone with nothing left to lose.”

Silence stretched between us.

His eyes moved over me: my face, my trembling hands, the mess on his desk, the worn-out bag I’d dropped, the fake résumé half-crumpled beside it.

I didn’t flinch.

And for a second, I swore something shifted in his expression just a flicker.

“You’ve got guts, Ms. Reed. I’ll give you that.”

I blinked, unsure if I’d heard right.

He turned halfway, his expression unreadable. “And stupidity. Equal measure.”

My throat felt dry. “So… are you going to call security?”

He studied me, silent and calculating. Then he pressed the intercom.

My pulse raced.

“Cancel the rest of my schedule,” he said. His voice was calm and controlled like pointing a gun at me was just another Tuesday.

“I just found something interesting.” He said scanning me with his eyes.

A beat of static. “Yes, Mr. Blackthorne,” his assistant replied.

He turned back to me, pocketing the gun but not the threat behind his eyes.

“Congratulations, Ms. Reed,” he said, slow and deliberate. “You just got the job.”

I blinked. “The… wife position?”

“That’s right.”

He moved closer, close enough for his cologne to drown my thoughts.

“Effective immediately.”

My pulse kicked. “Wait….what?”

He smiled, the kind of smile that could burn or freeze you alive.

“Welcome to your new life, Mrs. Blackthorne.”

I didn’t have time to respond.

Adrian turned toward his desk without another word. His movements were calm….too calm. I watched as he opened a drawer and pulled out… a gas mask?

“What are you…?” I started, but he was already sliding it over his face.

Then I heard the click, a low hiss filled the air.

The vents.

Panic slammed into me as a strange, sweet-smelling mist began curling up around me from the ceiling. My vision blurred as my whole body suddenly felt weak.

“W….what the hell is this?”

I staggered, gripping the edge of a chair. 

Through the fog, I saw his eyes….cold, unreadable behind the mask.

“When you wake up, remember….. you chose this.” his voice was muffled and echoing almost gentle.

Then everything went black.