Into The Fire

Chapter Five

Aria’s POV

He almost kissed me.

Julian Blackwell my dangerously handsome, impossibly powerful boss stood inches away, looking like sin carved into flesh, and for one terrifying, electric moment, I wanted him to. I wanted to taste that danger, let it devour me.

And then the knock shattered everything.

Now I’m sitting at my desk, trying to remember how to breathe like a normal human being. My skin still tingles from where his gaze roamed, and my lips feel swollen with anticipation that never got to land.

What the hell is happening to me?

I’m supposed to be smart. Logical. Focused on my career. Not spiraling into lust with a man who practically radiates darkness. But when he looks at me like that as if I’m both his salvation and his undoing I forget why I should run.

Or maybe it’s because deep down…I don’t want to.

I’m so distracted I don’t even hear the footsteps until his voice cuts through the silence.

“Go home, Aria.”

I turn, startled. Julian’s standing in the doorway to his office, arms crossed, looking more like a shadow than a man. He’s trying to pull back. I can see it in the stiffness of his shoulders, the restraint in his jaw.

“I still have work”

“I said go home.”

There’s no malice in his tone. Just an edge of something that sounds too much like fear.

Fear for me.

I gather my things slowly, not breaking eye contact. “You can’t keep pushing me away and pulling me in. That’s not how this works.”

His expression doesn’t change, but something in his eyes flickers. Pain? Frustration?

Or maybe guilt.

“Do you really want to find out how I work, Aria?” he murmurs, voice almost too low to hear. “Because once you see it… there’s no going back.”

My heart thuds unevenly.

Then show me, I want to say. Let me see what you’re hiding.

But I don’t.

Because I’m scared I’ll actually like what I find.

By the time I make it back to my apartment, it’s nearly 1 a.m.

I strip out of my clothes and fall into bed, but sleep is impossible. My body’s too keyed up. My brain’s still playing back every second of our interaction. The nearness. The scent of his cologne dark and musky, like forbidden things. The gravel in his voice when he said I was a distraction.

And my traitorous body loved it.

God, what’s wrong with me?

I should  be terrified. He practically admitted that I’m tangled in something bigger than I can see. The file he showed me today still haunts me names of people who’ve disappeared, people silenced.

And yet, all I could think about was the way his eyes dropped to my mouth.

I roll over and groan into my pillow.

This can’t go on.

I need to get control of myself and this situation.

The next morning, I wake up with a plan.

I don’t know how much Julian is hiding, but I do know one thing: I need leverage. If I can uncover what exactly he’s involved in or who Dominic Voss is then maybe I can finally protect myself. Maybe then, this obsession will lose its grip.

So I start digging.

I take my laptop to a quiet corner at a coffee shop, order something strong and bitter, and search discreetly. Voss’s name doesn’t bring up much public records have been scrubbed clean. But when I dive deeper into Blackwell Global’s previous acquisitions, I find a curious string of shell companies…all tied back to a private equity group called Stonegate Holdings.

Which, according to one buried report, used to be helmed by none other than Dominic Voss.

Bingo.

I follow that rabbit hole for two hours. A pattern starts to emerge. Companies acquired. CEOs ousted. Whistleblowers silenced.

And in the middle of it all?

Julian Blackwell.

Not always directly. But enough to raise suspicion.

I close my laptop, hands trembling. I should be angry. Appalled. Instead, I feel…

Cold.

Hollow.

Because the more I learn, the more I realize the man I’m falling for might be the same man I can’t trust.

Back at the office, I pretend nothing’s changed.

I smile when I need to. Take notes in meetings. But underneath it all, my heart is a storm. Julian’s distant today intentionally so. He barely looks at me. Barely speaks.

And still, I feel his presence every second.

At 5:46 p.m., I find an envelope on my desk.

No name. No label.

Inside is a USB stick.

My blood turns to ice.

I glance around no one’s watching. With trembling hands, I plug it into my work laptop.

One video file.

I click play.

The footage is grainy, black and white security camera style. It shows an underground garage. A man walks out of a car.

It’s Julian.

Then another man approaches tall, broad. They exchange something. Money? A flash drive?

The second man steps closer.

Suddenly, Julian slams him against the wall and pulls a gun.

My stomach drops.

I fast-forward. The man slumps to the ground. Julian steps over him, walks away without a single glance back.

Oh my God.

I yank the USB out and stash it in my drawer, heart racing.

Who sent this? And why?

Is it a warning?

Or a trap?

I barely make it into the elevator when my phone buzzes.

Julian: Come to my office. Now.

I hesitate for one split second before moving.

His door’s already open when I arrive.

He’s leaning against his desk, jaw tight, eyes burning with a storm I don’t understand.

“Someone’s been digging where they shouldn’t,” he says quietly.

My spine straightens. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He pushes off the desk and stalks toward me. “Don’t lie to me, Aria. I warned you.”

I force myself not to flinch. “You also showed me a file of dead people. Forgive me for wanting to stay alive.”

His gaze softens for just a second. “You don’t understand the kind of war you’re walking into.”

“Then explain it,” I whisper. “Tell me who Voss is. What he has on you.”

Julian closes the distance between us.

“Dominic Voss was my father’s fixer. Now he wants to be mine. But I don’t follow orders.”

I blink. “So this is a power struggle?”

“It’s blood,” he growls. “Family. And secrets that don’t belong in daylight.”

I step closer, even though my instincts are screaming. “And what am I, Julian? A pawn in your war?”

He leans in, mouth inches from mine. “No. You’re the only thing keeping me sane in it.”

Just as I’m about to speak, a loud crack echoes outside the office.

Then another.

Gunshots.

Julian shoves me down behind his desk, body shielding mine.

“Stay down,” he growls.

I hear chaos outside shouting, running footsteps.

Julian pulls a gun from his drawer.

“What’s happening?” I whisper, breath shallow.

He looks at me, eyes full of fire.

“They’ve found us.”