MasukGabriel POVThe room was very still. The overhead light buzzed faintly, casting everything in a flat, clinical white."I know," I said quietly.Nine and seven. A boy and a girl. Orphaned once by a car accident and now orphaned again by a bullet through a kitchen window on a Tuesday morning.I set the photograph down on the table carefully as if it were made of glass."Where are the children now?" I asked."At home. Mrs Harlow's flat in the Adisa district. A neighbour is watching them. They don't know yet. The news hasn't reported any names, and the government hasn't sent anyone because the excavation is still ongoing.""When will they send someone?""Tomorrow, most likely. After the site is processed and identities are confirmed.""And when they do?"Leo hesitated. "Standard procedure for minors with no surviving family is temporary placement in government care. Foster system."Foster care. Two children who'd already lost their parents would be shoved into a system that ran on bureauc
Gabriel POV"Reach out to every network we have. Bangria, Crescent Harbour, Lisaro, Casavera, everywhere. Every contact, every operative, every asset. Tell them to go underground immediately as per the new protocols. Move to the facilities prepared for this scenario—no communication via standard channels. No movement. No operations. Everything pauses."Dante's eyebrows rose fractionally. Going underground meant shutting down the entire operation. Every revenue stream, every supply chain, every relationship we maintained with port authorities, customs officials and local power brokers. It meant going dark in a way that would take months to recover from."For how long?" he asked."Seven days. I'll issue further instructions then. But for now, everything stops. Everyone goes to ground. I'm not losing another person because we were too busy running operations to secure our people."He nodded. "Anything else?""The compound. What's the situation there?""Media arrived within the hour. Heli
Gabriel POVThe bullet had entered through the kitchen doorway and passed through the outer edge of my left shoulder, carving a trench through skin and muscle before exiting cleanly on the other side. A graze, technically. The kind of wound that combat medics called "lucky" and that only felt lucky if you'd never been shot.It didn't feel lucky. It felt like someone had pressed a lit cigarette into my shoulder and held it there.I'd been moving toward the hallway when it hit, pulling my sidearm from the holster I wore at breakfast because paranoia was the only habit that had never let me down. The impact spun me sideways, slammed me into the kitchen island, and my hand hit the countertop hard enough to crack my phone's screen, which skidded across the tile into the mess of broken glass, spilt food, and plaster dust that my kitchen had become.After that, everything was compressed into instinct.I stayed low. Returned fire through the blown-out window, two controlled shots toward the m
Adrian POVThe elevator would be too slow, so I took the stairs, all twenty-three flights, my shoes hammering against concrete, the sound echoing through the stairwell.By the time I hit the ground floor, my heart was slamming, and my shirt was damp under the jacket. I didn't care because somewhere across this city, Evelyn was watching a television screen that was telling her Gabriel Ross was dead, and I had the one piece of paper that could tell her otherwise.I crossed the lobby at a pace that made my security team jog to keep up. I went through the glass doors into the underground parking garage that I use alone. I dismissed my security team and told them I wouldn't need them for the rest of the day. Even my driver was surprised when I asked him for my car keys and asked him to take the day off. I started the car, the tyres screaming against the concrete as I pulled out of the space and aimed it toward Wrenfield.It was a fourteen-minute ride in moderate traffic from Whitmore Towe
Adrian POVShe rose to her feet and then walked to my desk. She placed both hands flat on the surface and leaned forward until her face was inches from mine."But here's what you didn't account for," she said. Her voice was quiet now. Dangerously quiet. "I didn't orchestrate Evelyn's kidnapping because I wanted her dead. I orchestrated it because I was desperate. Because the man I'd spent half my life protecting, the man I'd given up everything for, the man who promised that he would take care of me and that no one would come between us, was slipping away. And the person he was slipping toward was Evelyn Bennett."Her eyes were bright with unshed tears."Do you remember that promise, Adrian? You had made that promise in the rain a year ago. Back when your mother had insisted you'd not marry from my family, you had made it clear to me that you'd never think of being with another woman."A tear rolled down her cheeks, and she brushed it forcefully. "I've been patient, Adrian. All these
Adrian POV"We need to talk about Evelyn."Isabella said the name the way a jeweller sets a diamond on velvet, then proceeds to say the price.She was still standing near the window, silhouetted against the Crescent Harbour skyline, and the afternoon light turned her white dress translucent at the edges. She looked beautiful. She'd always looked beautiful. That had never been the issue. The issue was what lived behind the beauty, and right now, for the first time in eight years, she wasn't bothering to hide it."Sit down, Isabella," I said.She nodded, flashed me a smile before crossing the room to sit and crossing her legs. She set her clutch on the arm of the chair. Her hands were still, her posture relaxed, and her eyes were fixed on mine with a focused calm that worried me."How long have we known each other, Adrian?" she asked."You know the answer to that.""Since we were sixteen. Twelve years. I've known you longer than most people you employ. I've known you through three corpo
Evelyn POVThree days.It had been three days since I woke up in the hospital with no memory of how I got there. Three days since I learned about the video. Three days of damage control and media spin, and trying to piece together what had actually happened to Belle and me.Now I sat in my office w
Gabriel POVI parked at the hotel and led Evelyn inside. The restaurant was visible from the entrance, and I could see Rowan sitting at a table near the window, eating lunch alone.I guided Evelyn to a position where she could see him clearly without being obvious about it. I kept my hand on the sm
Gabriel POVI arrived at my compound and immediately began preparingRowan was part of the top 10 hit men in Bangria. If he showed up at my house, then I would take it as a sign that he wanted to do two things. Number one: kill me and take over. Number two: make peace, and things would go back to n
Adrian POVMy mind was working through the pieces of this puzzle, and the picture that was forming was alarming.As a businessman, one of the things my father taught me, earlier in life and while he was still here, was: ‘Get to know whoever you’re dealing with, it’ll help you know what they’re capa







