Chapter 6: The Ticking Clock

I stepped inside my apartment and shut the heavy door, leaning my back against the wood as the lock clicked into place. The sudden quiet of the room didn't bring any peace. It only made the invisible clock ticking inside my head sound incredibly loud. Every second away from my mission felt like wasted time. My skin still felt dirty from being around Julian, so I headed straight for the bathroom. I needed to wash the memory of that entire evening off my skin. I stripped down and let the hot water run, standing under the spray for a long time, trying to drown out the sound of his voice.

When I finally stepped back out into the bedroom, wrapping a plain white towel tightly around myself, my breath hitched.

Silas was sitting right there on the edge of my mattress. He didn't have his suit jacket on, and he was holding a sleek tablet in his palm. The bright blue glow from the screen cast a sharp light across his lean jawline.

My heart did a violent flip against my ribs. A wave of intense discomfort rushed through me, making my posture go completely stiff. My immediate instinct was to snap at him for breaking into my private space, but I forced myself to swallow the words. I kept my mouth shut because I was terrified of pissing him off. He held all the cards, and I couldn't risk losing the only lifeline I had left.

Silas didn't look up right away, his fingers tapping against the glass. "You arrived just in time," he said. His deep voice cut through the quiet room, sounding entirely too calm.

I instinctively gripped the edges of the towel tighter against my chest, my knuckles turning white as I tried to make sure every inch of me was covered. Suddenly, his head tilted up. His cool, grey eyes swept over me just once. It wasn't a lingering look. It was completely detached, looking at me as if I were just any other ordinary girl standing in a room. There wasn't a trace of heat or attraction in his expression.

A sudden, hot flush of embarrassment hit my face. I looked away quickly, my cheeks burning. I felt completely exposed and furious at myself, mostly because I didn't even understand why I was feeling embarrassed in front of him. Did some stupid part of me want him to actually look at me like a woman? I shook the ridiculous thought out of my head and focused on the floor.

Silas stood up, his tall frame instantly making the bedroom feel much smaller. He walked over to the small desk in the corner and signaled with his hand for me to come closer.

I took a few hesitant steps forward, keeping my distance, and peered over his shoulder. The tablet screen was filled with live financial graphs, updating numbers, and moving red lines. "What does all that mean?" I asked, my voice still a bit breathless.

"The money Julian just spent at the charity auction," Silas explained, his finger tracing a line graph that was steeply diving downward into a dark red zone. "It's hitting his system right now. He completely drained his core operational liquidity just to buy that antique jade dragon to impress you. He has absolutely no safety net left."

Silas set the tablet down on the wood, his eyes reflecting the glow. "Julian is about to understand exactly what his pride is going to cost him. In forty-eight hours, we are going to sit right here and watch his entire financial world play out and crumble together."

Hearing Julian's name spoken so casually made the anger in my chest flare up again. The image of his smug face at the auction table flashed in my mind. I stared at the screen, frustration bubbling up inside me, and mumbled a bitter complaint under my breath about how slow forty-eight hours felt.

Silas happened to pick it up. In the next second, he was towering over me.

He moved with a terrifying, quiet speed, cutting off the air in front of me. Within a fraction of a second, he was directly in my personal space, standing so close that his clean, distinct scent completely clouded my senses.

"What did you just say?" he asked. He leaned down slightly, his grey eyes locking onto mine with an intense, demanding glare that made it impossible to look away.

I swallowed hard, my heart hammering wildly against my ribs. The heat from his body was making the damp towel feel suffocating. "Nothing," I tried to lie, taking a small step back until the edge of the desk hit my hip. "I didn't say anything."

Silas didn't back down. He stepped closer, cornering me completely, his voice dropping to a dangerous, warning whisper. "Don't forget your place here, Veronica. Your only job right now is to follow my instructions to the letter. Nothing else matters."

The frustration and the sheer exhaustion of the night finally snapped something inside me. The fear of making him angry vanished, replaced by pure irritation. I couldn't help myself.

"It's hard to just sit around and stay out of it when the clock is ticking every single day!" I snapped back, tilting my chin up to look right into his stubborn, handsome face. "You aren't the one who has a target on their back if this takes too long!"

Silas’s jaw tightened, his eyes darkening as if he was about to lay into me for talking back. He opened his mouth to reply, his chest rising as he took a breath, but before a single word could come out, a sharp, loud beep echoed loudly from his wrist.

We both froze instantly. The heavy tension between us hung in the air as I looked down at his smartwatch in absolute shock.

Silas tore his gaze away from me and looked down at the flashing red notification pulsing on the screen. The annoyance left his face, replaced by a completely serious, cold expression.

"Julian," he said shortly.

My breath caught in my throat, all my anger disappearing as a chill of pure terror ran down my spine. I gripped my towel even harder, staring at the door. "Is he... is he here?"