LOGINNiaThe heavy oak door had barely clicked shut behind Raymond when another violent wave of nausea tore through my stomach.I gasped, clutching my midsection as my mouth filled with a sudden metallic taste.Pushing myself up from the bed with trembling limbs, I stumbled blindly into the adjoining bathroom.I barely made it to the porcelain toilet before my body convulsed. I dropped to my knees, gripping the cool ceramic edge as I threw up, dry-heaving painfully into the bowl.Cold sweat broke out across my forehead and back. Trembling, I sat back on my heels, touching my lower belly with a shaky hand and wiping my lips with the back of my wrist—only for another harsh contraction to hit my chest.I leaned over again, throwing up until my stomach was completely empty.Breathing heavily, I rested my forehead against the edge of the marble counter.This isn't just stress. It isn't just from skipping meals.A sudden terrifying thought struck me, sending an icy chill down my spine: the missi
NiaValentina’s breath hitched, the half-finished sentence dying on her tongue as Raymond towered over the table. His presence seemed to pull all the oxygen out of the room, casting a heavy, suffocating shadow over both of us.I looked up at him, a sudden wave of relief mixing with the cold knot of dread in my stomach. "Raymond..."He didn't look at me immediately. His dark eyes remained fixed on Valentina, burning with a lethal, icy calm. "I asked a question, Valentina. Mind if I join the discussion?"Valentina recovered her composure almost instantly, leaning back in her chair with a smooth, practiced smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Raymond. I was just giving your new girl some friendly advice about how dangerous this city can be.""Is that what we're calling it now?" Raymond’s voice was dangerously soft as he pulled out a chair beside me and sat down, his hand immediately reaching under the table to take my trembling fingers in his own, gripping them with firm, grounding heat.
NiaThe question lingered between us longer than it should have, the candle flickering between the wine glasses as if it were waiting for my answer too."Not much," I said finally. "He died when I was fifteen. A heart attack, they told me. I was still in high school, still figuring out how to do my own laundry, and then he just wasn't there anymore."My fingers found the edge of the tablecloth and smoothed it flat, an old habit whenever I talked about him. "My mother never spoke about him much after that. I always figured it was easier for her that way."Valentina watched me with an expression I couldn't quite place—not warmth, exactly; something closer to calculation dressed up as concern."So you don't know what he did before you were born? Before you could remember him as anything other than your father?""He worked in finance." I frowned, trying to summon details that had never really been there in the first place. "Or logistics, maybe. Why does it matter?”"It matters," she said,
NiaI felt it before I understood it—that particular itch of being watched, the kind that makes you glance up from your monitor for no reason at all.The man at the desk by the server room wasn't new. Correction: he was new, badge and all, but something about the way he never quite looked at his screen made my skin prickle.I told myself I was imagining things. Sterling Media hired people every week. Not everyone who avoided eye contact was hiding something.Still, when Mrs. Collins stopped by my desk at noon, I found myself asking, "Who's the new hire in IT?"She barely glanced over. "Temporary contractor. Why?""No reason." I smiled and let it go, though the itch didn't.At lunch, Jesse called, breathless with excitement about nothing in particular, and for twenty minutes I let myself forget the last two days entirely—the break-in, the shattered photo frame, the black envelope Raymond wouldn't let me see.It was easier to laugh at Jesse's story about a disastrous blind date than to
Raymond "I can't."The words left my mouth before I could stop them, and the room swallowed them whole. For a moment, nobody breathed.Every elder stared at me as if I had just confessed to burning down the family estate myself. Valentina's smile didn't so much fall as freeze, held there a beat too long before it cracked.One of the elders rose slowly from his chair, palms flat on the table as though he needed it to keep his balance."What did you just say?""I said it plainly enough." I kept my voice level, though my pulse wasn't. "I won't hand her over."The bang of another elder's fists against the table cracked through the hall like a gunshot. "Raymond!""She's the daughter of John Harrington.""I'm aware of exactly who she is.""And you're protecting her anyway?"I let my gaze move across every face at that table, unhurried and unflinching. "I won't hand her over," I said again,
Raymond "What are you saying?" My voice came out colder than I intended. "Are you certain?"Marcus didn't flinch, which somehow made it worse. "According to the server logs, the classified file was accessed using Nia Harrington's employee ID.""That's impossible.""I thought the same." A beat of silence stretched down the line, heavy enough that I could hear him choosing his next words. "I've checked it three times. I'm sending you the data now—see for yourself. The clan has already called an emergency meeting."My stomach dropped before my mind caught up. "They know?""They know."I closed my eyes for a second. "I'm coming."I ended the call and opened the file before I'd even sat down. Login time, employee ID, security clearance—every line of it pointed to Nia, laid out clean and undeniable, as if someone had built the case for her guilt before I'd had a chance to doubt it."No," I said to the empty
I woke up up to the soft glow of morning light slipping through the heavy hotel curtains. My body felt heavy, used in the most delicious and terrifying way. I felt a deep, unfamiliar ache pulsed between my thighs, a blunt reminder that I was no longer a virgin. My muscles were sore in places I didn
Nia’s POV “Daniel…” I whispered breathlessly when he finally pulled back so I could grasp air. The name sounded strange even to my own ears. I pushed the thought away, it didn’t matter. He was here now, that was all that mattered. His only response was a low, brutal sound that vibrated through his
Raymond's POV I stepped into the dimly lit suite, the electronic lock clicking shut behind me with a soft sound. I had just come from a tense business meeting, another late night negotiation with clan associates who thought they could test my patience. Exhaustion weighed on my shoulders, the room
I adjusted the delicate strap of the red lace lingerie one last time, my fingers trembling slightly against my warm skin. The fabric was sinful, barely there, sheer in all the right places, specifically designed to drive a man wild. I spent weeks picking this exact set, imagining Daniel’s reaction w







