Chapter 28 - Burn The Mask

The raid didn’t start with sirens. It began with silence. The kind that pressed against the walls of Club Eden like a coming storm. The lights flickered twice, just enough to draw wary glances. Then came the shudder of steel gates locking from the inside. Dancers paused mid-routine. Bottles stilled behind the bar. A slow, crawling dread settled over the room like smoke.

Jaxon stood in the VIP gallery, arms folded, expression unreadable. No one dared approach. Not Dante. Not the bartenders. Not even the bouncers who’d once claimed they’d take a bullet for him. He radiated something colder than command, calculation, distance, threat.

Raven watched it unfold from the hallway near the dressing rooms, her gut coiled tight. She hadn’t been warned. He hadn’t told her. That meant this was real. Or at least real enough to send a message.

Within minutes, men in black tactical gear flooded the club, unmarked, untraceable. Raven knew the difference. These weren’t Feds. They were Eden’s ghosts, off-the-books mercs Jaxon only unleashed when the house was bleeding.

They moved with military precision, snapping open lockers, storming through VIP corridors, yanking dancers and staff into tight lines for questioning. No shouting. No brutality. Just clean, clinical disruption.

And then, “Hands where I can see them.”

Raven’s blood iced. It was her friend, Tessa. The dancer who’d pulled her into Eden’s world, the one with the aching laugh and bruises she never explained. Two of the fake agents had her pinned near the makeup counter, face against the wall, wrists zip-tied.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Raven pushed through the crowd, shoving past a burly bouncer.

“She didn’t do anything, she’s not...” She reached for Tessa, but one of the men stepped between them, silent and immovable.

Tessa’s eyes locked on hers, wild with panic. “You brought them here,” she gasped. “You said we were safe. You said...”

“I didn’t know,” Raven whispered. “I swear to God, I didn’t know.” But Tessa was already being dragged down the hallway.

By the time Raven turned to Jaxon, he was gone.

It took two hours for the club to return to norma, or some fractured version of it. No one was hurt, nothing was stolen, but the damage was done.

A message had been delivered.

Raven paced the edge of the penthouse’s living room like a caged animal. Her skin felt too tight, her mouth dry from every apology she hadn’t voiced. She didn’t even know if Tessa had been released. The men had vanished like vapor. No records. No explanations. And no Jaxon.

Until now, when she heard the elevator hiss, the sound of custom steel parting like breath. He entered the room without a word, tossing his black jacket onto the couch, rolling the sleeves of his dress shirt to his elbows with methodical ease.

“You knew,” she said. “About the raid.”

He nodded once. “I planned it.”

Her stomach dropped. “Tessa...”

“She’s fine. She’s at the Southside clinic, cleared and released.”

“You traumatized her.”

Jaxon looked at her like she was missing the point. “I needed to see who flinched, who would run and who would try to hide records or text Zane.”

Raven’s voice cracked. “She thinks I betrayed her.”

“And maybe you did,” he said coolly.

The silence that followed was sharp enough to draw blood.

She turned her back to him, but her voice came low, raw. “You manipulated me, too.”

“Did I?” His tone remained maddeningly neutral. “Or are you angry because I did what you’ve been doing for weeks?”

She turned to face him. “Don’t twist this.”

“You’ve been lying to me.” He met her eyes then, and the temperature in the room dropped five degrees. “Watching me. Sneaking into safes. Following Dante. Feeding breadcrumbs to someone at the paper, don’t insult either of us by pretending otherwise.”

The air left her lungs. “You knew,” she whispered.

“I suspected. Now I know.”

He wasn’t shouting. He wasn’t threatening. He was still. Measured. Dangerous in the way only truly controlled men can be and somehow, that terrified her more than if he’d exploded.

Raven’s legs gave out. She collapsed onto the couch, elbows on her knees, hands in her hair.

“I didn’t want this,” she choked out. “I didn’t mean to...God, Jaxon. I didn’t even send the files. I couldn’t. I tried. I looked at them a hundred times and still... I couldn’t.”

He said nothing.

“I thought I was here to expose a monster,” she went on, voice shaking. “But now I don’t know who the fuck I am. I don’t know if I’m a reporter or your whore or...”

“Stop.” Jaxon’s voice cut through her spiral like a scalpel.

She looked up. His face was unreadable, but something flickered in his eyes.

“Tell me the truth. All of it.”

She swallowed hard. “I found trafficking routes. Arms deals. False contracts. The Eden pipeline runs through more than just sex. You know that.”

A beat.

“I do.”

“I traced some of it. Tried to pass it anonymously to my editor through a burner account, but I didn’t follow through. The closer I got, the more I realized this wasn’t just about you. Zane’s name came up. So did your mother’s. And Dante’s. And if I exposed one of you, the rest might slip away.”

Jaxon leaned forward slowly, bracing his hands on the table. “So what were you going to do?”

Raven stared at the rug. “I don’t know.”

Silence stretched.

Then, so quiet she almost missed it: “Thank you.”

Her eyes shot to his.

“I wanted to hate you for digging,” he said, “but I can’t, because I needed to know if you’d choose me. Even when you saw the rot. Even when you could’ve burned everything down.”

“I still might,” she whispered.

“I know.” He straightened, crossing to her. “But I need you to understand something.”

He knelt, level with her, and took her hands gently.

“If you’re going to be in this world, my world, you don’t get to wear masks. Not with me. Not anymore.”

She blinked, eyes swimming. “I’ve been lying to you,” she said.

“I know.”

“I’ve hurt people.”

“So have I.”

She stared at him like he might dissolve if she moved. “Then why aren’t you furious?”

He kissed her knuckles, soft and slow. “Because fury’s easy, but losing you, that would destroy me.”

Tears slid down her cheeks. She didn’t wipe them away.

Jaxon’s voice dropped to a whisper. “So now you have a choice.”

She nodded, bracing for the ultimatum.

“Show me everything,” he said. “Or lose me.”