ВойтиMATILDA'S POVThe question hung in the air between us like smoke."Who are you, Gideon Vale?"The city glowed behind him through the floor-to-ceiling windows, painting silver lines across the sharp lines of his suit. For a second, I thought he hadn’t heard me. Then his fingers tightened around the neck of the bottle—just slightly. A tiny movement, but I noticed.His eyes lifted to mine, and something cold settled over his face."Who do you think I am?"The answer caught me off guard. Not because of what he said, but because he had answered at all.I shrugged, trying to ignore the strange feeling crawling through my chest. “I don’t know.”A humorless laugh escaped him. “That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said all week.”I rolled my eyes. “There he is.”His gaze sharpened. “There who is?”“The insufferable asshole version of you.”Something flickered in his eyes. Not quite amusement, but close enough to make my pulse stutter.The bottle touched his lips again. “Trust me, Matilda.
MATILDA'S POVI should have left it alone. That would have been the smart thing—the safe thing. Blossom had already given me enough answers to piece together why the people here looked at Gideon Vale the way they did, why Ash would follow him into hell without hesitation. It explained the tension that seemed to follow him like a shadow.But curiosity has always been my weakness. In books it gets people killed. In movies it gets them cursed. Tonight, it had me wandering deeper into the Den, searching for a man I was supposed to hate.The hallway grew quieter the further I walked from the bar. The thump of music faded, replaced by the low murmur of distant voices and the occasional heavy tread of boots. I passed a biker carrying a stack of paperwork. He slowed when he spotted me.“The boss’s little headache,” he muttered.I stopped, folding my arms. “Excuse me?”His mouth twitched with amusement, but it died quickly when I asked where Gideon was. His face turned serious.“You don’t want
MATILDA’S POVThe noise of the den didn’t feel the same when we walked back in.It was still loud. Still alive. Music humming low under conversations, glasses clinking, boots dragging across concrete floors. But there was something underneath it now. Something quieter. Sharper. Like everyone knew something had just happened… and no one was saying it out loud.Blossom walked beside me, but slower this time.Not her usual bounce. Not her easy glow.Just… smaller.I didn’t touch her. I didn’t know if she wanted that. Didn’t know if I even had the right. So I stayed close instead, guiding her toward the bar like that alone could hold her together.The bartender looked up the second we approached. Her normally hard face dissolved into concern immediately she saw Blossom “Hey,” she said softly, already reaching for a glass. “Sit.”Blossom didn’t argue. She slipped onto one of the stools, fingers curling lightly around the edge like she needed something solid.A glass of water was placed in
GIDEON VALEI walked without slowing, without acknowledging anyone who crossed my path. People moved out of the way instinctively anyway. They always did. There was something in my expression that told them not to test it.Good.Because I didn’t have the patience for mistakes today.By the time I reached my office, my jaw was still tight, my mind still louder than it should have been. That… rarely happened. I didn’t carry things with me like that. I handled them. I ended them. I moved on.That was how control worked.But today something had followed me into that room.And I didn’t like it.The door slammed harder than intended behind me, the sound cracking through the space like a gunshot. Silence followed immediately, thick and suffocating.I stood there for a second.Just standing.Breathing.Letting the last remnants of that room drain out of my system.It didn’t.My hand moved to the bar without thought. The glass was already in my grip before I registered it. Scotch. No ice. No h
GIDEON VALEThe door closed behind me with a quiet finality that most people would have mistaken for calm.It wasn’t.The room was soundproof. Clean. Deliberate. Built for moments exactly like this, where noise didn’t need to escape for damage to be done. The man stumbled forward the second my men let go of him, catching himself on shaking hands before turning back, eyes wide, breath uneven, panic already setting in like rot.I stepped forward slowly, rolling my sleeves up with measured precision, my gaze fixed on him in a way that made men understand, very quickly, that this was no longer a situation they could talk their way out of.“I didn’t— I didn’t know—” he started, his voice breaking over itself as he backed up a step. “I didn’t know she was—”“Mine?” I finished calmly.The word hung in the air. Not loud. Not dramatic.But absolute.His throat bobbed. “I wasn’t trying to— I just asked for her number, that’s all. I swear, that’s all—”I tilted my head slightly, studying him lik
MATILDA’S POV“I thought you said we need to talk,” I said, my voice cutting clean through the silence. “So talk.”The words sat between us like something thrown, something sharp enough to draw blood if it landed wrong.Gideon didn’t answer immediately.Of course he didn’t.He never rushed anything. Not words. Not decisions. Not people.He sat there in that perfectly tailored three-piece suit, like he had been carved into it instead of dressed, posture relaxed but not careless, one arm resting along the back of the chair like he owned not just the room, but the air inside it. And his eyes—God.His eyes moved.Slow.From my face…Down.Deliberate. Unapologetic. Like he was reading something written on my body that I didn’t even know was there.And I hated that I felt it.That awareness crawling under my skin, making me hyper-conscious of everything—the fall of my dress, the way I was standing, the fact that I had walked into his house like I wasn’t stepping straight back into a proble
GIDEON VALEI can’t get her out of my mind. She’s turning my carefully built world upside down and it’s fucking annoying. I’m slipping up. I don’t ever slip up. I couldn’t afford it.The thought doesn’t come once. It loops. It presses. It lingers like something unfinished, something scratching at t
MATILDA’S POVThe hum of the city was a distant buzz beneath the sharp stillness of his office. It was familiar, and yet, it was different this time—like déjà vu wearing a new face. I stood still, my eyes tracing the same floor-to-ceiling windows that I once thought were a luxury. Now, they felt li
MATILDA’S POVThe building didn’t look like the kind of place that ruined people.That was my first mistake.Glass. Steel. Clean lines that caught the sunlight and threw it back like something expensive and untouchable. Everything about Gideon Vale Automobiles whispered control. Not chaos. Not dang
MATILDA’S POVThe banging came again.Like the person was doubting their decision to knock but Knocking anyways.I groaned into my pillow, dragging it over my head like that could block out reality for five more minutes. I'd barely slept in days.“Matilda!”My eyes snapped open.That was Ruth, my m







