Adriana’s POVThe first thing I felt was the pounding in my head. It throbbed behind my eyes, like someone had taken a hammer to the inside of my skull. My body ached, my throat was dry, and for a moment, I didn’t even remember where I was.Then the memories hit me like a crashing tide Rayna’s voice, her hands, the cold floor, the gun pressed to my head.My eyes snapped open.I was in a room. A familiar one. Hunter’s room.The soft gray walls, the heavy black drapes, the faint scent of his cologne lingering in the sheets—everything around me screamed safety, and yet I felt like I was still shaking. My fingers gripped the blanket wrapped around me.“Miss Hayes,” a gentle voice called. I turned toward it slowly.Two maids stood in the doorway, both wearing the soft gray uniforms of the house staff. One of them, older and motherly, held a silver tray in her hands. On it sat a plate of steaming scrambled eggs, toasted bread, and slices of fresh fruit. The other, younger, had a clean set o
Adriana’s POVThe first thing I felt was warmth.Not pain. Not fear. Just… warmth.For a moment, I thought I was dreaming. That somehow, I’d slipped into some kind of fantasy where sheets smelled clean, where air drifted through half-open windows, and where my body didn’t ache from cold concrete floors or rough hands.Then I blinked.The room came into focus—dimly lit, peaceful, familiar. My eyes adjusted slowly to the soft glow of the bedside lamp. Cream-colored walls. Tall windows. The faint scent of citrus and leather. I knew this room.Hunter’s room.My chest tightened.I tried to sit up but winced as a jolt of pain raced through my ribs. That’s when I noticed the IV drip, the bandages on my wrists, and the oversized hoodie wrapped around my frame like a cocoon. His hoodie.“Don’t,” came his voice—low, gentle.I turned my head.Hunter was sitting in the armchair near the foot of the bed. Elbows on his knees, hands clasped. His jaw was tight, his blueish-gray eyes dark with somethi
Hunter’s POVI hadn’t slept in two days.Not a damn second.Our room was untouched, just the way she left it the book on her nightstand half-open, the perfume on the dresser barely moved. But the silence of her absence screamed louder than anything I’d ever heard.I stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows in my study, overlooking the city like a predator hunting in the dark. My fists clenched at my sides, phone pressed to my ear. “Did you get anything from the cameras?”My second-in-command, Luca, responded over the secure line. “We found a partial plate from the SUV that left the wedding. Ran it through every black-market registry. Rayna’s crew used a ghost vehicle, but they slipped.”“Where is it?” My voice was low, dangerous.“A warehouse. Outside the industrial zone, near the water. Remote as hell. We got it off a delivery drone feed—grainy, but she’s there, Hunter. Adriana’s there.”A muscle in my jaw twitched. “Get everyone. Now. I want that building surrounded in thirty.”Click.
Adriana’s POVTwo days. Or at least I think it’s been two.The room they kept me in had no windows, just four gray walls and a flickering light overhead that buzzed like a dying insect. The cold concrete floor felt like ice through my thin dress, and the silence the terrifying, suffocating silence was broken only by the echo of distant footsteps or muffled voices beyond the door.I barely ate. A slice of bread. Half a bottle of water. I didn’t trust it, but I was too weak not to. Hunger clawed at me, but it was the fear that kept me curled up in the corner, knees drawn to my chest, shivering even though it wasn’t cold.Then she came in.Rayna.The woman who’d barely spoken to me at the wedding before I was taken. She had fire in her eyes now no, poison. She stood in the doorway, arms folded, hips cocked to one side like she owned me. Like this was her house. Her world.“You think you’re special?” she sneered, slamming the door behind her. “You think just because Hunter brought you aro
Rayna's POVHe was never supposed to fall in love.Not with her.Not with anyone.Hunter Rivers wasn’t made for softness. He was made for smoke, for thunder, for fire. And I—I was the one who stood beside him through every storm. Every deal, every betrayal, every gunshot. My blood spilled for him once. I still have the scar on my shoulder to prove it. He kissed it once, long before Adriana showed up and rewrote him.I remember the first time I saw him look at her like that. Not with lust. Not even with desire. With reverence. Like she was something holy in a world we both helped damn.It made me sick.Not because she was beautiful. She was. Not because she was fragile. That part I even understood. He’d always been drawn to things that needed protecting. What gutted me was the way he looked at her like she mattered more than everything we’d built together. Like she was his reason now. Not Deal Dynasty. Not revenge. Her.I gave him my loyalty. My body. My years.She gave him a glance and
Adriana’s POVMorning light poured through the curtains, golden and soft, spilling over the tangled sheets and the warm body beside me. I stirred slowly, comforted by the weight of Hunter’s arm draped across my waist, anchoring me in a rare sense of calm.His chest rose and fell steadily against my back, bare skin pressed to mine. For the first time in a long while, I didn’t feel like a prisoner in his world. Not entirely. Not this morning.His lips brushed lazily against my shoulder. “You’re awake.”I turned to face him, blinking up at his blueish-gray eyes. “Barely.”“I’ve got news.” He stretched, muscles shifting beneath his skin. “Blade’s getting married.”I blinked. “Blade? The one with the tattoos on his neck?”“The very one,” he said with a smirk. “His girl finally said yes. The wedding’s tonight. He wants the whole crew there.”“You going?”“I don’t do weddings,” he muttered, swinging his legs out of bed.I pushed myself upright. “But he’s your guy. Won’t it look bad if you don