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CHAPTER 99: JUDAS
تاريخ النشر:
2026-07-23 02:22:01
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OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 105: SUICIDE BOMBER
MATHEWThe van doors hadn’t even slammed shut on James’s departure before the hairs on the back of my neck stood up."Mathew?" Ciara asked, her shoulder still pressed against my arm as we walked toward the gravel road. She felt the sudden, rigid shift in my posture. Her hand immediately went to the side of her coat, her fingers searching for the familiar shape of the weapon she wasn't carrying today."Stay behind me," I grated, my voice dropping into that low, gravelly vibration.I didn't look at her. My eyes were already scanning the perimeter. The production crew was scattered near the two white utility vans parked where the wooden pier met the gravel turnaround. Two technicians were rolling up heavy black power cables; another was carrying a silver reflector panel toward an open side door and then there was the runner.He was moving down the gravel incline from the main road, his boots skidding slightly on the loose stones. At a glance, he looked like a late arrival from the local
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 104: PHOTOSHOOT
CIARAThe screen door didn't just slam; it shuddered against its hinges, a cheap piece of aluminum trying to hold back the absolute pressure cooker of my kitchen.I stood in the center of the linoleum floor, the heavy winter coat draped over my arm, watching the exact moment the red mist in Mathew’s eyes began to recede. My hand was still flat against his chest, feeling the frantic, sledgehammer beat of his heart right beneath his cracked ribs. He was warm—unusually so, the way he always got when his adrenaline was pushing his giant frame past its physical limits."A photoshoot," Mathew muttered, his voice sounding like two boulders grinding together in a dark cave. "Now?""The world doesn't stop because we've discovered your families are psychopaths" I murmured, my thumb tracing a slow, grounding circle against the worn cotton of his shirt before I stepped back. "Keep an eye on Luke. And try not to terrify my staff while I'm gone."Louis let out a low, quiet chuckle from the doorway,
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 103: CRAMPED
MATHEW The morning light filtered through the small transparent windows of the cabin, cutting through the haze of the previous night like an unwelcome wake-up call. If our estate in New York was a fortress built on blood and stone, this place was the exact opposite: cramped, cluttered, and currently overflowing with too many people who knew how to kill a man with their bare hands.My ribs gave a sharp, agonizing thud against my lungs as I tried to stretch. I groaned, rubbing a hand over my face. The black tactical gauze was still wrapped around my right knuckles, stiff with dried blood. The smell of rain from the conservatory had faded, replaced by the rich, domestic aroma of brewing coffee and frying bacon.I moved through the narrow hallway, my six-foot-four frame feeling entirely too large for the low ceilings of Ciara’s safehouse. When I rounded the corner into the kitchenette, I stopped dead in my tracks.Sitting at the small wooden table, cradling a mug of coffee with the despe
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 102: CARLISTA'S VULNERABILITY
CIARA The light outside kept buzzing like it had a personal grudge against my sanity.Every few seconds it flickered red, then blue, then red again, casting strange shadows through the dirty windows of the bar. The sound matched the pounding behind my eyes almost perfectly.Beside me, Carlista barely moved.For as long as I'd known her, she'd been terrifying.The kind of woman who could walk into a room full of armed men wearing six-inch heels and somehow make everyone else nervous.The kind of woman who never cried.Seeing her curled up against me in Matthew's oversized leather jacket felt wrong in a way I couldn't explain.I rubbed her shoulder gently."Come on."She didn't answer."Carlista."A shaky breath escaped her.Then another.Finally she lifted her head from my shoulder.She looked awful.Her eyes were swollen.Her face was pale.Mascara stains still clung stubbornly beneath her lashes despite the tears she'd cried.For the first time since I'd met her, she looked her age
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 101: COMFORTING HIM
MATHEW I stood by the window of the bedroom, the glass cool against my forehead. The house was entirely silent, a suffocating contrast to the absolute chaos of the conservatory we had left behind hours ago. My hands were steady now, the adrenaline that had kept my trigger finger twitching against Maggie’s forehead finally burning down into a low, smoldering ache. I had cleaned the soot from my face, washed the smell of cordite and spilled tea from my skin, but the phantom weight of my sidearm still lingered in the palm of my right hand.Then, I heard the heavy, uneven thud of his boots on the hardwood staircase.Mathew didn't knock. He didn't have to. When the door opened, the air in the room instantly shifted, filling with the scent of rain and the sharp, unmistakable taste of dried blood.He looked like a man who had gone to hell, torn the gates off their hinges, and walked back through the fire just to see if anyone was looking. His black combat shirt was torn open at the collar,
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 100: THE TRUTH
MATHEW The misgivings inside me didn’t just cool when I walked away from Alexander’s broken body; it hardened into a single, unyielding spike.Leaving my older brother bleeding out on the terrazzo floor under the watchful eyes of Mary wasn't the end of the night. It was just the prologue. Alexander was a symptom; the disease was sitting upstairs in the master study of the estate. The architects of every lie I had lived for fifteen years. The creators of the ghost I had spent half my youth mourning.My parents."Mathew," Carlista said, her voice cutting through the ringing in my ears as we moved down the long, vaulted corridor toward the western wing. My sister was walking perfectly in stride with me, her tactical boots clicking a rhythmic, lethal cadence against the marble floor. Her gear was clean, unlike my blood-soaked combat shirt, but the look in her eyes was identical to mine. We had been raised by the same monsters, but we were going to end them together. "You're bleeding thro
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 6: THE FIGHT
MATHEW I stood in the centre of the ring, my knuckles wrapped in tape, looking at the guy opposite me. Tony. The same guy who had been buying drinks for Ciara at the university bar for months. The same guy who looked at her with those smarmy, possessive eyes and the same idiot who came with her to
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 5: THREAT
CIARAMaggie's eyes narrowed as she took in our dishevelled state-mud-caked shoes, rain-soaked clothes, and the undeniable scent of sex clinging to us like a second skin. I instinctively stepped back, crossing my arms over my chest as if that could hide the evidence of our encounter."Well, isn't t
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 4: ARGUMENT
CIARAMaggie's eyes narrowed as she took in our dishevelled state-mud-caked shoes, rain-soaked clothes, and the undeniable scent of sex clinging to us like a second skin. I instinctively stepped back, crossing my arms over my chest as if that could hide the evidence of our encounter."Well, isn't t
OWNED IN THE DARK CHAPTER 3: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
I began pacing around. "Go check out Ciara's movement, and if she's recently made new friends. "Damn .. I need to fix this fast." What did you find?""She's just recently started seeing Tony. She's not made new friends, and she just got out of the hospital."I still go very still at the word hosp
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