LOGINVivienne's POV The drive back felt longer than it should have, maybe because neither of us spoke or maybe because there was nothing left to say.I sat quietly in the passenger seat, one hand resting carefully over the fresh bandage beneath my shirt while the other twisted nervously in my lap.Ronan drove with both hands on the wheel, his expression unreadable.The silence wasn't uncomfortable, it was fragile, like one wrong word would shatter everything we'd managed to rebuild over the last hour.Call me crazy or whatever, but I couldn't shake off the fact that the reason we were making this drive back to the clubhouse was all because of me. I wasn't sure of their plan when they'd left the clubhouse earlier, but I was sure they hadn't achieved it. Ronan didn't say anything, but I knew for a fact I'd heard him delegating the responsibility to someone else. A part of me felt relief at it though. Perhaps it meant he wanted to spend more time with me, on a turf I was familiar with, o
Vivienne's POV Hours crawled by slowly enough to feel deliberate. At first, I counted the minutes, then I counted the footsteps outside the door.Eventually, I stopped counting altogether because every sound made my mind race somewhere darker.Voices drifted through the hallway in uneven bursts. Doors opened, doors slammed and someone hurried past, boots striking the floor in quick succession before fading away again.Every noise convinced me something had happened and every silence convinced me it was worse.I paced the room despite knowing I shouldn't.One lap first, then another and it didn't help that each step tugged painfully against the stitches in my side, but standing still felt impossible. Every time I tried, another horrible possibility forced me back into motion.What if Grant had done something else?What if Ronan had walked straight into another trap?What if...I squeezed my eyes shut.Stop. Just stop.I pressed both hands against my temples, trying to slow the thou
Chapter 121Vivienne's POV The walk was worse than I expected and not because Ronan was rough. God, if that was the case then believe me that it would have been easier.It would have been easier if he had been angry enough to hurt me with his words, to yell, to tell me exactly how much of a disaster I was.Instead, he was careful, painfully and cruelly careful. His arm remained secure beneath my knees while the other supported my back, keeping me lifted against his chest as though I weighed nothing.Every time his footsteps hit an uneven patch of ground, his hold adjusted automatically.Every single time, like his body remembered how to protect me even when everything else between us had fallen apart, but he never looked at me.Not once and that hurt more than I was willing to admit.The ride had been hot and miserable, my stitches screamed every time I moved, and my body was exhausted enough that I should have been grateful to be in his arms.Instead, all I could think was that I
Vivienne's POV This was officially the worst idea I had ever had and considering my recent life choices, that was saying something.The SUV bounced over another pothole and pain shot through my side so hard I nearly bit through my tongue.A muffled whimper escaped before I could stop it."God," I whispered through gritted teeth. Everything hurt, my side hurt, my back hurt, my neck hurt and even my pride hurt.The cramped space in the back of the vehicle had seemed manageable when I'd climbed inside, but now? Now it felt like a punishment specifically designed for me.A crate dug into my shoulder every time the SUV turned. A metal latch kept jabbing my knee, and the heat was becoming unbearable.Sweat stuck my shirt to my skin and my mouth felt dry enough to crack, but first of all, nobody had found me.At first, I'd been terrified of getting caught, now I was beginning to wonder if I was simply going to die back here from dehydration and stupidity.Another bump rattled the vehicle
Vivienne's POV The clubhouse hadn’t been quiet once in the last two days.Not once.Even from inside the room, I could hear it constantly. I heard boots against floors, doors slamming and raised voices drifting through the walls at all hours of the night.If all those signs pointed to one thing and one thing only, it was the fact that tension lived here now.Heavy, restless, waiting, and somehow, I’d become the center of it.I sat carefully against the headboard, wincing as another dull ache spread through my side. The stitches still pulled every time I moved too fast, and standing for longer than a few minutes made dizziness creep in almost immediately.I hated it.I hated being stuck here while everyone else ran around trying to fix the mess I helped create.Another burst of voices echoed faintly downstairs and I actually flinched. “…shipment routes changed…”“…they’re watching us now…”“…move the trucks before nightfall…”I closed my eyes briefly.God.Every conversation soun
Vivienne's POV The second Maverick said “We may already be too late,” the entire atmosphere changed.Ronan went still beside me, but not in shock or panic. This was worse. He became focused, that terrifying kind of focus that meant decisions were already being made in his head faster than anyone else could keep up with.“What happened?” he asked immediately.“It's not good news.” Maverick glanced toward me briefly before lowering his voice further, almost as if he was asking for permission before he spoke. “A shipment disappeared an hour ago.”“What shipment?” My stomach tightened as Ronan asked.“We don’t know yet.” Maverick scrubbed a hand down his face roughly. “But calls started coming in right after those papers surfaced.”“From who?”“Everyone.”A wave of silence followed next, and from how it echoed, it was all shades of heavy, wrong and dangerous. Then Maverick added quietly. “They think we sanctioned it.”Ice flooded my veins instantly while Ronan’s expression hardened
Vivienne's POV The last few days didn't pass as a blur like I would have preferred. Instead, it dragged on. They were mostly uneventful but I couldn't deny the fact that the peace that came with it was quite nice, when I wasn't thinking about something else, that is. I tried my level best to not
Ronan's POV I knew something was off the moment I walked back in. I could feel it in my bones, and in the way the air in the room shifted. It wasn't something you could see, hold and intertwine in-between your fingers, but it was there. Simmering just at the top of it all and almost pressing into
Vivienne's POV The morning light was the first thing my eyes caught the moment I peeled them open. It filtered in through the half drawn curtains, pale gold and feather soft, and catching dust motes as they danced lazily in the air. I stirred underneath the thick gray duvet, and something caught m
Vivienne's POV I couldn't believe my ears. No matter how many times the words rang in my ears, they almost didn't make sense to me, but that wasn't the worst part. No matter how dazed I was thanks to his words, it couldn't reduce the fact that a part of me wanted it. My body thrummed, and I praye







