LOGINPOV: Kirrily All the breath rushed completely out of my lungs. It felt exactly as if someone had punched me right in the center of my chest. I could not breathe.I stood frozen in the open doorway and stared into the room that used to be my room four years ago. My brain simply refused to understand what my own eyes were looking at. I expected to see empty walls with brown cardboard packing boxes. But there were no boxes. There was no dust at all. Every single personal thing I owned was still here. Every favorite book, every messy pencil drawing I threw on the desk, every tiny piece of the girl I used to be before the world broke my heart, was all right there. Everything was sitting in the exact same spot where I had left it on that terrible, cold night when I walked out into the pouring rain.Very slowly, I took a step forward and walked into the room. My soft shoes did not make a single sound against the thick, warm rug on the floor. I remembered buying that rug. I remembered sitti
POV: Lachlan The ride up to the top floor of the building took almost one minutes, and the inside of the private elevator was completely silent. I watched the numbers light up on the screen above the door. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. With every floor we passed. Next to me, Kirrily stood with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She was staring straight ahead at the metal doors, refusing to look at me. Zane stood quietly in the back corner of the small box. He knew we were going somewhere very private, and he knew he should stay out of the way.When we finally reached the very top floor, the elevator made a soft ping. The shiny doors slid open and we stepped out into my private entrance. I pulled my keys from my pocket and opened the door.As soon as I did, a breath of cool air brushed against my face.I stepped inside the dark foyer of my apartment and waved my hand, silently telling Kirrily and Zane to follow me inside. Zane stopped near the front door. He was very smart. He cou
POV: Kirrily "Give me the second data tracker," I told Zane. My eyes were glued to the giant main screen in the center of the dark room. Lines of green computer code were falling down the black monitor like a heavy rainstorm. My heart was beating very fast. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Even though I felt nervous inside, my hands were completely steady on the keyboard. This freezing computer room was my special place. This was my world. Out there in the real world, Callan was a smooth talker. He could hide behind his fancy business suits and his fake, bright smiles. He could trick people with his clever lies. But in here, among the humming wires and the glowing screens, he could not lie. The computer code always told the exact truth. There was no place for him to hide.Zane nodded and quickly hit a few keys on his side of the long desk. He pushed a special, custom-made computer program into the main brain of the server. "The tracker is running," he announced in a quiet, tight
POV: Lachlan We rode the elevator to the basement of the Vance headquarters in total silence. When the doors finally slid open, we stepped into the private server room. It was freezing cold inside. The air smelled strongly of burnt electric wires and hot computer parts.Rows and rows of black computers filled the huge space. They hummed steadily, sending a deep vibration right through the floor and into my boots. It was a low, steady growl. The sound perfectly matched the tight, nervous feeling in my chest. This was the heart of my company, and we were about to break into it.I walked over to the main control desk, stood next to the master screen and began typing. I was entering the secret security codes that would let us inside the system. Next to me stood Kirrily. She was staring at the blinking yellow lights on the desk. Her face looked as hard as a stone statue. She was trying her best not to show any fear.Behind her was Zane, he was a very smart computer builder who had spent t
POV: CallanThe leather armrest under my palm was beginning to tear where I had dug my fingernails into it for the past twenty minutes. The glass walls of my executive vice president's office offered a panoramic view of the Sydney harbor, but right now, the sprawling vista looked less like an empire and more like a closing cage.My phone vibrated against the mahogany surface, a secure, encrypted burner line that only connected to one person. I didn't answer it on the first ring. I let it buzz twice, my heart hammering a frantic, erratic rhythm against my ribs.They had pulled Tahlia out of the harbor clinic. The extraction had been done professionally clean, leaving behind unconscious guards and zero digital blueprints. Lachlan had moved faster than my algorithms predicted. He had smelled blood in the air.I swiped the screen, pressing the phone to my ear. "Talk to me," I hissed, my voice tight, stripped of the smooth, unshakeable confidence I usually wore like a second skin."The med
POV: LachlanForty-eight hours later, the private Gulfstream jet touched down on the tarmac of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport under the brooding cover of a predawn mist. The cabin was silent as we prepared for descent.We had left Tahlia secured in a hidden, high-security medical safe house monitored round-the-clock by my most trusted men, her detox protocol is progressing faster than expected. Now, we were heading back into the belly of the beast. Back to the towering glass monolith of the Vance Group headquarters, where Callan Vance-Smythe was currently sitting in my executive suite, completely unaware that the trap had already snapped shut around his throat."Remember the rules of engagement," I said quietly, turning toward Kirrily as she adjusted the collar of her sharp, brown designer suit. The vulnerability from the hospital room was completely gone, replaced once again by the razor-sharp armor of a woman ready for blood. "In the public, we maintain the facade. The board still







