THE MIDNIGHT PACT

Chapter 5: The Midnight Pact

The wind at the top of the Valerius Spire was a howling beast, tugging at the 30-inch silk of Elena’s hair as she stepped onto the helipad. The city of Aethelgard stretched out beneath her like a map of glowing veins, but her eyes were fixed on the man leaning against the railing.

Dante Blackwood looked like he belonged to the night. His coat fluttered in the gale, and the glowing tip of a cigar moved as he turned to face her.

"You’re three minutes early,"

Dante noted, checking his watch. "Punctuality is a rare trait for a woman who just spent nearly a billion dollars on a whim."

"It wasn't a whim," Elena countered, walking toward him. Her heels clicked sharply against the metal deck.

 

"It was an investment in silence. Grant won't have the resources to scream for a long time."

Dante chucked the cigar into the abyss. He moved toward her, his presence closing the distance until she had to tilt her head back to meet his grey eyes.

"Silence is expensive," he murmured. "But I didn't bring you up here to talk about your ex-husband’s bankruptcy. I brought you here to discuss the real enemy."

Elena stilled. "The real enemy? You mean Lady Beatrice?"

Dante let out a dark, cynical laugh. "Beatrice Thorne is a vulture. She picks at carcasses. But she didn't have the genius to frame a Valerius for a car accident and keep it hidden for four years. She had help."

He pulled a small, silver flash drive from his pocket and held it out. Elena reached for it, but his fingers closed around hers, pulling her hand and her body closer to his.

"Before I give you this," Dante whispered, his voice dropping into a dangerous register, "you need to know that once you see what’s on it, there is no going back to your 'Ice Queen' throne. You’ll be in the trenches with me."

Elena’s heart hammered against her ribs, but she didn't pull away. 

"I’ve spent four years in the trenches of a dead marriage, Dante. I’m not afraid of the dark."

"Good." He released her hand, leaving the drive in her palm. "That drive contains the offshore wire transfers. Beatrice paid the mechanic, yes. But the money didn't come from the Thorne accounts."

Elena frowned, her mind racing. 

"Then where did it come from?"

"The Valerius Trust,"

Dante said, his eyes turning as sharp as flint. "Your own family fund, Elena. Someone inside your house wanted you gone just as much as the Thornes did."

The air felt colder than the wind. Elena’s hand tightened around the drive. Marcus? No, her brother had been the one to find her. But the Valerius board was a nest of vipers.

"Why tell me this?" Elena asked, searching his face. "You’re a shark, Dante. You don't give away secrets for free."

Dante stepped into her personal space, his hand coming up to graze the line of her jaw. His touch was a contrast rough skin against her velvet-smooth face.

"Because I want the seat next to yours," he said, his voice a low vibration. "I don't want to just watch you burn the city down. I want to be the one who hands you the matches."

He leaned in, his lips a breath away from her ear.

"Partner with me, Elena. Combine the Blackwood steel with the Valerius gold. We’ll hunt the person who tried to kill you, and when we find them, we won't just ruin them. We’ll erase them."

Elena looked at the city lights, then back at the man who was supposed to be her greatest rival. She knew he was a wolf. She knew he likely had a motive she couldn't see yet.

"And if I refuse?" she challenged.

Dante’s thumb traced the curve of her lower lip, his gaze dropping for a lingering, heavy second.

"Then you’ll be hunting alone in a forest full of wolves," he whispered. "And I’d hate to see such a beautiful serpent get caught in a trap twice."

A sudden flash of light cut through the darkness. The helipad’s floodlights swung toward the elevator doors.

Marcus burst through, his face pale, his phone held out like a weapon. "Elena! Get away from him!"

Elena stepped back, her hair whipping around her face.

"Marcus? What’s wrong?"

"The audit," Marcus gasped, his voice shaking with a mix of fear and betrayal. "I followed the money, Elena. The wire transfers Dante just gave you... they’re a diversion."

Dante didn't move. He simply stuffed his hands into his pockets, his expression unreadable.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked, her blood turning to ice.

"The money didn't come from the Valerius board," Marcus shouted over the wind. "The account that paid the mechanic four years ago... it’s an encrypted sub-account in the Blackwood conglomerate."

Elena froze. She looked at the flash drive in her hand, then at Dante.

The man who had just offered to help her find her attempted murderer was the one whose name was on the check.

Dante didn't deny it. He didn't even flinch. He just looked at Elena with those cold, grey eyes and smiled a slow, terrifying tilt of the lips.

"I told you, Little Serpent," Dante said, his voice calm as the eye of a hurricane. "I’ve been waiting for you to wake up for a long time."

He stepped toward the ledge of the helipad as the sound of a second helicopter approached.

"Check the drive, Elena," 

Dante called out over the roar of the rotors. 

"The signature isn't mine. But the motive? That’s something you’re going to have to figure out for yourself."

Before Marcus could reach him, Dante stepped off the edge, disappearing into the darkness just as his private chopper rose to meet him.

Elena stood paralyzed, the drive biting into her palm. She had spent the day destroying her husband, only to realize she was standing in the middle of a web that spanned her entire life.

She looked at Marcus, then at the sky where Dante’s silhouette was vanishing.

She didn't know who to trust. She didn't know who had tried to kill her. But as she gripped the railing, Elena realized one thing.

The game hadn't even started yet.