LOGINFourty minutes later, I am helping Theo and Marcus pack the car, while Harlan is walking the perimeter with David and going over their plans one last time.
Once Theo made his teasing comment of me ‘using my magic to reset the angry boss’, the conversations between me and the guys went back to normal, as though the last 48 hours never really happened. For a second, I almost forgot myself, until David and Harlan come back, meeting me by the safe-house door.Harlan is carrying a duffel bEli slides off the mattress, yanking the gun from between my thighs and tucking it securely back into his waistband before I can even drag my breathing back to a normal rhythm. He lifts me off him and places me on the bed, then dashes across the room and slips into the narrow space between the heavy oak wardrobe and the bedroom door just as the handle begins to turn. I barely have enough time to kick my discarded panties under the edge of the bed before the door swings wide open and my mother steps in. “Lucy, sweetheart, everything alright in here?” “Of course, Mom,” I say, forcing my voice into a slightly high, airy register as I sit up on the edge of the mattress, flattening my skirt over my knees. “I’m just, uh, resting. It was a long day at school.” Mom’s brows furrow, her gaze sweeping across the rumpled sheets before landing on my flushed face. “Are you entirely certain? I swear I heard a noise from the hallway that sounded precisely like a squeal.” She stops, her nos
A/N: Sorry for the inconsistent updates guys. School has been kicking your girl's ass and I'm currently writing three books at the same time so I'm stretched thin. Butttt, I promise I'm working on a schedule that won't end with me in a coma so I promise it will all stabilize in due time. Also..... gun grinding trigger warning for this chapter (is that even a thing??). Anyway, watch out for some weird ass gun kink with our favorite couple. Have fun! P.S. My new book "His Dominant Sub" is out on GoodNovel now, featuring another couple from the Red Room. Do give it a try and let me know what you think. ~ Chloe is standing by the doorway with her hands resting on the straps of her bag and her eyes moving from the smeared blood on the floor straight to my face. Priya is right behind her, chewing on a piece of gum, her brow raised in that classic, investigative way she adopts whenever she smells drama. “Find out what?” Chloe repeats, stepping further into the room. She looks at Emma,
The heavy glass entrance doors of the high school haven’t even fully settled behind me before Emma blocks my path. She is standing near the rows of green metal lockers with her arms tightly crossed over her chest. I try to offer a casual wave, but she doesn’t blink.“When are you planning on doing it?” Emma asks as I approach.I stop, adjusting the strap of my bag on my shoulder. “Good morning to you too, Em. I slept wonderfully, thank you for asking.”“Don’t do the sarcasm thing right now,” she says, refusing to smile. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Chloe. When are you going to tell her about you and Eli?”I look past her shoulder, scanning the crowded hallway to ensure a specific blonde head isn’t within earshot. “I really don’t know how to tell her, Em. You saw how she ran out of that hospital room. If I tell her that the guy she is crying over has been sneaking onto my roof for weeks, it won’t just hurt her. She will absolutely hate me forever.”“She’s hurting alre
The dining room is filled with the warm, rich scent of roasted lamb and rosemary, the heavy crystal chandelier overhead casting a soft glow across the polished mahogany table. For the first time since the shooting, my family actually feels like a family instead of a collection of heavily guarded assets trying to survive a corporate war. Tyler is currently mocking Lucas about his miserable attempt at a soccer tryout earlier this week, his voice full of that annoying big-brother superiority that usually makes me want to slide a fork into his thigh. “I’m telling you, David, he tripped over the penalty cone before he even touched the ball,” Tyler says, leaning back in his chair with a smug grin as he passes the basket of fresh rolls down the table. “The coach looked like he wanted to cry out of sheer embarrassment for our bloodline.” “It was windy, okay?” Lucas fires back, his cheeks turning a bright, defensive red as he aggressively stabs a piece of potato. “The ground was wet, and T
The white coat of the physician moves back and forth in front of the hospital window, the man’s voice a monotonous hum as he lists the post-discharge instructions. Eli sits on the edge of the bed, already dressed in a clean black t-shirt and jeans that the security staff had brought for him, his chest tightly bound beneath the fabric. “No heavy lifting for at least four weeks, Elias,” the doctor says, checking a box on his digital tablet. “The entry wound has closed nicely, but the muscular tissue beneath the ribs needs time to repair. You should strictly avoid any high-impact movements, keep your diet clean and low in sodium to prevent inflammation, and take the prescribed antibiotics every eight hours without fail. Do you understand everything I’ve just gone over?” “Yes,” Eli says, his voice flat as he stares at his own boots. He hasn’t listened to a single word the man has said for the past ten minutes. His entire brain is occupied by a suffocating mixture of frustration an
Emma’s chest is heaving as she looks from me to Eli and then back again, her face a mixture of deep betrayal and absolute disbelief.“Emma,” I say, my voice dropping into a frantic, hushed whisper as I step back from the edge of the bed. My mind is racing, scrambling through a dozen different lies before realizing that there is absolutely no way to explain away the fact that she just caught me swallowing my bodyguard’s tongue. “It’s not what it looks like. Just… just let me explain.”She steps fully into the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click that sounds like a guillotine dropping. “Oh, really, Lucia? It’s not what it looks like? Because from where I’m standing, it looks exactly like you’re hooking up with the guy who is supposedly supposed to be protecting you, while our best friend is downstairs crying her eyes out because he just broke her heart. Is that the explanation, or do you have a more creative script prepared?”Eli shifts slightly in the bed, a low grunt
I sit on the edge of Lucy's bed long after she falls back asleep, her small hand still curled around mine. The room is dark except for the faint glow of the nightlight shaped like a crescent moon. I stare at it, thinking about how everything I thought I could control is slipping through my finger
We’re officially at 20k views, guyssss 😭 I know this might not seem like a huge milestone to some of you who are used to reading books with 100k, 500k, or even millions of views, but for me?? For the fact that this is my very first book ever??? Speechless. I was surprised when this book even got
I stare into the empty space where the ledger should be, my pulse loud in my ears, each beat reminding me how quickly everything we built to protect ourselves has crumbled. David exhales sharply beside me, the sound cutting through the silence. “Someone knew exactly where to look.” I don’t answer
I grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turn white as I speed through the city streets, David in the passenger seat beside me. "Turn left at the next light," he says quietly, glancing at his phone's GPS. "It'll shave off a few minutes." I nod without speaking and make the turn, the hospital







