LOGINChapter 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 silence Ronan left behind felt worse than the argument itself.I stared at the closed door long after he walked out, my chest tight enough to hurt. Every word he’d said kept replaying in my head over and over again, sharper each time.I don’t know who you are right now.That one refused to leave me alone.I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes hard enough to hurt, but it didn’t stop the tears burning behind them.God, everything felt ruined. Not broken, but fucking ruined, and I had no one else to blame but myself. The room suddenly felt too small to breathe in. The walls pressed inward, heavy and suffocating, and the longer I stayed in that bed, the more trapped I felt.I needed air, even if it hurt, even if I probably shouldn’t have been moving yet.I pushed the blanket aside slowly, wincing immediately as pain ripped through my side. The stitches pulled sharply, forcing a shaky breath out of me, but I ignored it.I deserved worse than pain right now
Vivienne's POV “What do you mean, war?” The question left me before I could stop it.Maverick looked uncomfortable immediately, and somehow that made everything worse.“I'm listening.” Ronan didn’t take his eyes off him. “Explain.”Maverick exhaled slowly before stepping further into the room. He held a folded stack of papers in one hand now, worn from being opened too many times already.“There were names inside,” he said carefully. “Locations, shipment schedules, literally everything you can think of.”“I don’t understand,” A cold feeling spread slowly through my stomach as I whispered.“You weren’t supposed to,” Ronan muttered. The words weren’t loud, but they landed hard anyway.Maverick on the other hand, continued carefully, like he was choosing what to say in front of me.“There were forged signatures too,” he said. “Markings tied to us.”“What?” Ronan went completely still beside the bed. “What kind of markings?”“The kind that makes it look like we authorized something we
Vivienne’s POV His stare was pure challenge, dark and sharp enough to cut, and I hated how much it thrilled me. I'd always known Ronan possessed a kind of dark aura, but today, I could very well say that I got to see it at its maximum level. My pulse was still racing from what he’d just done to me
Vivienne's POVThe first thing I registered was heat.Not the kind that came from the drink burning down my throat, but the kind that wrapped around me in a slow, suffocating wave. It coiled around me, and even though it threatened to suffocate me and knock out all of the air in my lungs, I liked i
Ronan's POV I knew very well that life had a shitty way of playing a god damned trick on you the moment you least expected it. While I didn't exactly believe it, and neither did I let it affect every bad thing that happened to me, I always told myself nothing in this entire world could shock me, o
Vivienne's POV I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My body was humming with so many damn emotions, it was like every inch of me was on fire. No matter how hard I tried to shake it off, or just make it go away, Lana’s smirk was still burned into the back of my mind, and the way she winked at me b







