LOGINI can’t believe she is being this infuriatingly stubborn. Honestly, at this point, I would prefer her curled up under the blankets crying her ass off, because at least a weeping woman isn't actively risking her own life to gain a sliver of control.She turns her back on me and marches into her walk-in closet. I follow her right in, desperate to talk some sense into her, but she simply grabs her purse, brushes past me again, and tosses it onto the bed."Betty, you need to listen to me," I command. "I know you don’t trust me, and I don’t blame you for that. But you need to do exactly as I say. Do not go back into that house, because…""Actually, I do trust you when you say he is a dangerous man," she interrupts, spinning around to face me. "But hear me out, Nathaniel. Just for a second. Right now, I am under a legal contract. He can sue me if I breach it. And abandoning that project is a breach.""I don’t give a shit about the contract!" my voice booms, the raw, unpolished panic finally
NATHANIEL.I stare at the man in the mirror. Clean-shaven jaw. Meticulously trimmed beard. A charcoal suit tailored to absolute perfection.On the outside, I look exactly like the untouchable man I have always been. Nathaniel Blackwell. The machine. The apex predator.But beneath the suit, my chest feels entirely hollow. I look like my old self, but I do not feel like him.I grip the edges of the marble vanity, forcing my hands to remain steady, but my mind ruthlessly drags me back to yesterday.The exact moment I stepped into Rhys’s room and dropped Fausto’s name into the suffocating silence.I can still see the exact, terrifying shade of pale Betty’s face turned. I can still feel the absolute, paralyzing tension that filled the space between the three of us before she finally shook her head."I cannot deal with this right now," she muttered under her breath, before she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.Rhys immediately tried to throw his battered body out of bed to cha
BETTY"Okay," Rhys whispers, gesturing weakly toward the single-seater armchair near his bedside. "You should sit down, then.""I am fine right here.""Please, Betty. Just take a seat. Please," he begs.I look at his bruised face, and I don't know if it’s the desperation in his dark eyes or the terrifying reality that, despite all of this, I still care about him, but my resolve cracks just enough, and I walk over to the armchair and sit down on the edge of the cushion.But the moment I sit near him, the suffocating memory of Nathaniel’s mouth crushing against mine in the elevator flashes violently through my mind, and a wave of guilt washes over me so intensely I actually feel nauseous.I swallow it down, forcing my face into a completely blank mask, because if Rhys ever finds out about that kiss... fuck. I am not ready to go down that road. Not today."Okay," I say, crossing my right ankle over my left knee. "I am seated. Now tell me. Everything."He swallows hard, licking his dry li
BETTYI find my way upstairs to my room and lock the door behind me with a resounding thud.My heart is violently pounding against my chest. My hands are trembling so badly I can barely feel my fingertips, and the edges of my vision are blurring into a dizzying smear of colors.I drop the duffel bag, my knees giving out at the exact same second.I slide down the solid wood of the door, my back scraping against the door until I hit the floor. I pull my knees tightly to my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs, and bury my face against my kneecaps.Breathe, Betty. Just breathe.But there is too much noise in my head.I am trying to process Nathaniel’s voice in the back of that car, raw, entirely stripped of his untouchable arrogance, asking for my forgiveness. I try to comprehend a reality where Nathaniel Blackwell vows to spend the rest of his life making things right. And right alongside it, the bruising, terrifying heat of his mouth in the elevator crashes over me.The second my bra
NATHANIELTen minutes later, we pull up to the gleaming gold-and-glass entrance of The Pendulum.Lucy bids Betty a fierce goodbye and forces her to promise to call her the absolute second she finishes talking to Rhys. As for me, she completely ignores my existence, slipping out of the car without a single backward glance.The moment the door shuts and the car pulls away, the air inside the cabin turns to lead.Betty turns her face entirely toward the tinted window, and from the corner of my eye, I can see the unshed tears glistening on her lower lashes, but I know her pride will never let a single drop fall while I am sitting next to her.The silence is suffocating. I stare at the side of her face, desperate to clear the heavy air between us."Betty," I start, my voice low. "About the elevator... I shouldn't have forced that kiss."She lets out a dry, incredulous scoff, not even bothering to turn her head away from the glass."Do you seriously want to talk to me about that right now,
NATHANIELI press my lips together, violently folding my lower lip between my teeth to stop myself from cursing.I already had this exact conversation with Rhys. I cannot believe I am being forced to endure it again. My plan was seamless: get her safely back to the estate, drag her to the guest wing, and force Rhys to explain his own catastrophic mess. That way, I would be spared the absolute torture of answering rapid-fire questions I don’t want to answer.But clearly, the universe is a cruel mistress."Sit down," I mutter to them both. Neither of them moves an inch.Fine. I stand perfectly still in the center of the cramped, suffocating room, and I lay it all out. Because by now, there is no doubt that Betty has told Lucy every detail of the last few days leading up to the elevator. So, I strip away the remaining secrets.I tell them exactly what happened inside Fausto’s restaurant in New York. I explain Rhys’s dark, tangled connections with the underground network. I explain what t
BETTYWe step out of the car into the cool night air to stretch our legs, both of us needing a moment to recover after that ridiculous make-out session.The sky above us is clear, scattered with stars, and for the first time all evening, the world feels quiet.I stretch myself along the hood of Rhy
NATHANIELThe phone buzzes in my pocket just as I reach the front doors of the mansion.I hesitate, my hand lingering on the handle while the vibration continues against my thigh, steady and insistent.I consider ignoring it entirely because the last thing I want right now is a conversation I don’t
NATHANIELChris chuckles beside me. “Don’t mind him. He’s had a few too many.”Daphne nods in agreement.I take the second shot, and this time I fail entirely at hiding the burn, which earns laughter from all of them. I should have probably just stayed home.“Anyway,” Chris says, settling back, “it’
NATHANIELGlasses meet one another constantly throughout the hall, the sound carrying above polite conversation and carefully measured laughter between guests.Most of the faces surrounding me remain unfamiliar, even though they stand on my family’s estate, their comfort obvious.Amanda’s family an







