Chapter 20 - Debt Of Trust

The morning sunlight filtered through the penthouse windows in slow, golden shards. Raven stirred beneath the sheets, the space beside her cold. Jaxon was already up. She could hear faint sounds, muffled footsteps, the hiss of espresso, the rustle of newspapers.

She lay still, her nerves pulled tight under her skin.

Last night felt like a dream soaked in guilt and pleasure. His touch had been reverent, his body a balm against the guilt that rotted her from the inside, but now, the clarity of morning was brutal. Sharp. Unforgiving.

When she finally emerged, Jaxon was at the kitchen island, sleeves rolled, black coffee in hand. He didn’t look up when she padded in barefoot.

“You sleep?” he asked.

She swallowed. “Some.”

He finally glanced at her. Not smiling. Not scowling. Just… watching.

Then he said, “You forgot to reset the thermal imprint.”

The words dropped like ice in her stomach.

“What?”

“The safe.” He turned the coffee mug slowly between his hands. “The scanner logs the last heat signature. Yours is fresh. Very fresh.”

The blood drained from her face. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. She had no excuses left. “You knew,” she whispered.

“I suspected.” He set the mug down. “Now I know.”

She took a slow step forward. “Jaxon...”

He held up a hand, not angry, just tired. “Don’t lie. Not now.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

He turned fully to face her and what she saw in his expression wasn’t fury, it wasn’t even disappointment. It was pain.

“I let you in,” he said quietly. “I gave you my bed and I protected you.”

“I know.”

“And you went into my safe.”

“I had to.”

His voice broke slightly. “You didn’t trust me.”

She flinched. “You never gave me a reason to.”

That did it. His jaw clenched, a muscle ticking along his cheek. He stepped closer.

“You think I don’t see how you look at me? Like I’m one of them?” he hissed. “Like I’m just another monster in a thousand-dollar suit.”

Her breath caught. “I saw what was in those files, Jaxon. The trafficking routes. The bribes. The girls...”

“I told you,” he cut in. “I don’t traffic women.”

“But that doesn’t mean you haven’t done business with men who do.”

Silence pulsed between them. Jaxon exhaled slowly, jaw relaxing.“No,” he said. “It doesn’t.”

Her eyes widened. He continued, voice low. “The club recruits from a global network. Some of it’s legitimate. Some of it… less so. I’ve tried to clean house, but the rot runs deep. Talia came through a third-party group based in the Balkans. I didn’t know they were laundering girls until it was too late.”

Raven’s hands trembled. “She’s safe?”

“She’s at the guesthouse. She had a panic attack after that day you didmt answer her messages of calls. She's safe.”

Her heart twisted, part with guilt, part with relief.

“I should’ve told you sooner,” he said. “But I was afraid you’d run, or worse, do exactly what you did last night.”

“I didn’t take anything. I didn’t tell anyone.”

“But you looked and you didn’t tell me.”

Raven swallowed hard. “I didn’t know how.”

Jaxon leaned against the counter, his gaze unreadable. “He’s been circling you, hasn’t he?”

Her silence gave her away.“I didn’t tell him anything...”

“But you met with him.” Jaxon’s voice hardened. “Behind my back. Again.”

Raven stepped closer. “He told me you were hiding a child.”

Of all the things she could’ve said, that was the one that cracked something behind his eyes.

Jaxon didn’t speak right away. “There was a child,” he said at last. “A stillbirth. A long time ago. But not mine. Zane used the story to make it look like I was hiding an heir. He wanted to poison my standing with the board.”

“Why?”

“Because Zane isn’t just my brother,” he said. “He’s my shadow. Everything I build, he wants to destroy. He doesn’t love people, Raven. He uses them.”

Her voice broke. “He said you would destroy me next"

Jaxon’s expression twisted, half rage, half sorrow.

“He will say anything that shit. Anything that destroys what makes me happy.”

She felt herself unraveling again, raw and exposed.“I didn't know what to believe," she whispered.

“I want to believe you,” Jaxon said, stepping close. “But trust isn’t given. It’s earned. And right now, Raven… you’re in debt.”

Tears stung her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. “Then let me earn it back.”

He didn’t answer. Just watched her like he was trying to decide whether to kiss her or cast her out forever.

Finally, he spoke. “There’s a gala tomorrow. The Calabrese Foundation. Zane will be there. So will half the underworld.”

She nodded slowly. “You want me to be bait.”

“No.” His voice dropped. “I want you at my side, as my girlfriend. In public. Where he and everyone else will see it and where he’ll feel it.”

Something in her chest cracked. She touched his face. “Then you have to trust me, too.”

He didn’t move.

“You can’t protect me if you keep shutting me out,” she whispered. “And I can’t help you if you don’t let me in.”

His eyes burned. “If I lose you...”

“You won’t.”

“You could’ve ruined everything last night.”

“But I didn’t.”

Silence again was dense and heavy. Then, he moved. Fast. Desperate. He grabbed her face and kissed her like he was dying. Like her mouth was the only air left in the world.

She kissed him back with the same fire, the same grief. Their clothes came off in pieces, scattered across the marble floor. He lifted her onto the counter, her legs wrapping around him, heat and hunger pulsing between them.

It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t rough. It was survival.

He pushed into her with a groan that came from someplace ancient. Her hands clawed at his back, nails digging into flesh. His forehead pressed to hers as they moved, sweat slicking their skin.

“I hate you,” she gasped. “I hate that I need you.”

“I need you more,” he choked out. “And that scares the fuck out of me."

Their bodies moved together in frantic rhythm until everything broke, pleasure, pain, guilt, and something like forgiveness. When it was over, they collapsed onto the cool floor, limbs tangled.

Neither spoke for a long time.

Only when their breathing calmed did he finally whisper, “When I lost Sabine, I vowed never to let another woman in.”

Raven’s breath hitched.

“She trusted me,” he said. “And I failed her. I won’t do it again.”

She turned her face to his. “Then let me help you bring him down.”

He met her gaze. “You’ll have to get close to him. Closer than I would like tlypu to be."

“Whatever I do, whoever I have to be for him, I’m yours. Only yours.”

His jaw clenched. “If he touches you..."

“He won’t, because I won’t let him, but I can’t do this if you don’t believe in me.”

He pulled her into his chest, his voice a whisper.

“I believe in the way you never flinch. The way you survive. That’s how I'll know you’re not his.”

She closed her eyes.

Tomorrow, they’d step into the fire together, but tonight, they lay still, bound by something more dangerous than lust. Truth.