LOGINMiguel's POV The steam from the shower was still thick in the guest wing bathroom, clinging to my skin like a humid shroud. I didn't turn on the light. I didn't want to see my own face in the mirror, the face of a man who was supposed to be a professional, a ghost, a soldier for a dead man.I sat on the closed toilet lid, my breath hitching as I pulled up the photo on my phone. It was a photo of Rose. She was wearing that red dress, a deep blood crimson silk that looked like it had been poured over her porcelain skin. Her dark hair was a spill of midnight across her shoulders, and those light brown eyes... they looked straight through the lens, straight into the dark, rotted parts of my soul.My hand went down to my sweatpants, my fingers trembling as I freed myself. I was already rock hard, a painful, throbbing ache that had been building since the moment I woke up. I closed my eyes, picturing her in her room, the way her lips felt under mine, soft, hesitant, tasting like desperatio
Derek’s POVThe steam in my private suite had long since evaporated, leaving the air heavy and damp, smelling of the Romanov woman’s aggressive perfume. It was past 9pm already. I had been trapped with this ugly python the whole day.I was standing by the windows, my back to the room, watching the jagged silhouette of the treeline against a moon that looked like a curved, white blade. Behind me, the rustle of silk made the hair on the back of my neck stand up."It’s been all day, Derek," Vanessa’s voice was sharp, vibrating with a humiliation she wasn’t used to feeling. She was sitting on the edge of the king sized bed, wrapped in a robe that cost more than most people made in a year. Her face was flushed, her eyes wide with a manic kind of disbelief. "You have barely looked at me. You haven't touched me. Not even a graze."I didn’t turn around. I didn’t want to see the hunger in her eyes. It was a hollow thing, born of ego and power, not the soft, desperate need I saw when I looked a
Rose’s POVThe blue light from the television screen was the only thing keeping the room from falling into total darkness. It flickered across the walls like a pulse, rhythmic and cold. I was curled in the oversized velvet armchair by the window, my knees pulled up to my chest, my fingers digging so hard into my stomach that I could feel the individual bones of my ribs. I have been sitting like this for maybe fourteen hours now, Michelle was forced back to her dad's mansion for family meeting.On the screen, a news anchor with a face as frozen as Derek’s was repeating the same grisly details for the tenth time."...found unresponsive in her cell. Struck repeatedly with a dagger... multiple puncture wounds... a violent end for the convicted murderer."I couldn't stop touching my own skin. Right there, just above my hip. In my past life, that was where the steel had first gone in. I could still remember the way the air had left my lungs, the way the world had tilted until the floor was
Derek’s POVThe private hangar smelled of jet fuel and the kind of heavy, humid heat that only precedes a storm. I stood on the asphalt, my hands shoved deep into the pockets of my charcoal trousers, watching the Gulfstream G650 taxi toward the terminal. The silver Rolls Royces behind me idled like a pack of metal sharks, their exhausts puffing white plumes into the morning air.I adjusted my tie, the silk feeling like a garrote. My cold mask was locked so tight my jaw ached.The stairs lowered, and there she was. Vanessa Romanov didn’t just walk, she colonized the space around her. She was draped in a cream colored power suit that screamed of old money and new blood. Her platinum hair was pulled back into a bun so tight it looked painful, highlighting the predatory sharpness of her cheekbones.She was the daughter of the Prime Minister, the man currently clawing his way toward a governorship. The man who had used a single phone call to pull Richard out of prison once, before he met h
Rose’s POVThe morning sun hit the library windows with a brightness that felt like an insult. I stood there, clutching a cold cup of coffee, staring down at that blindingly white gravel driveway. Eight days. Eight days of being a prisoner in a house that was supposed to be mine.I touched my eyes. They were dry, gritty, and heavy. I had spent the entire night curled into a ball on the floor behind my bedroom door, listening to the silence of the hallway after Derek left. I had cried until my throat was raw and my chest felt like a hollowed-out tree. But as the sun crawled over the horizon, something shifted inside me. The well was dry. I had no more tears left to shed for Derek Hamilton.The door clicked open behind me. I didn't flinch. In this house, someone was always watching."Rose?"I turned. Michelle was standing there, her usual vibrant energy dampened. Her makeup was minimal, and her eyes were soft with a pity that made me want to scream and hug her at the same time. She walk
Derek’s POVThe wood of the door was cold against my forehead, a bitter contrast to the heat radiating from the room behind it. I stood in the darkened hallway of Rose’s mansion, my eyes closed, my hand hovering inches from the handle. I didn't turn it. I couldn't.On the other side, the sound of her sobbing was a jagged blade, flaying me open inch by inch. Every hiccup, every muffled gasp into her pillow, felt like a physical blow to my chest. I wanted to kick the door down. I wanted to gather her into my arms and tell her the whole truth. I wanted to tell her that I loved her so much it felt like my ribs were cracking under the weight of it.But if I opened that door, I was signing her death warrant.“Stop giving me hope,” she had screamed at me. “Leave me alone!”I stood there for what felt like hours, a ghost in a tailored suit, listening to the woman I would die for break into a thousand pieces because of me. I had to let her hate me. If she hated me, she might stay away. If she
Derek's POV"Derek, stop! You are going to kill him, let him talk!"A woman slid into the room, her sneakers squeaking against the floorboard. She looked tacky, wearing an oversized hoodie with a fading NASA logo and thick dorky glasses pushed up into her messy ponytail.Michelle.Of course, that w
Rose's POV "How did you get that?" My voice was a ghost of a whisper, my eyes glued to the massive LED screen in Derek's living room.On the screen, the news was playing a looped video that had set the entire country on fire within one day. It was Richard and Katherine. They weren't just talking,
Derek's POV "If this video isn't off every social media platform in ten minutes, I will hold every single one of you accountable," I roared into my phone, slamming my hand down on my mahogany table.I sat in the center of my glass walled office, the view of city lights doing nothing to soften the
Rose's Pov The shadows in my father's bedroom grew long as the sun began to set. I have been wide awake all night, closed my eyes not even once, staring at nothingness in my father's room. I remained on the floor, my back against the heavy wooden door I had locked. My face felt so tight from the







