LOGINDaisy I didn't look back until we were several streets away from the café and even then, I only glanced through the cracked side mirror.The road behind us was empty. There were no black SUVs, no dark coats and no familiar face standing beneath a streetlamp.Nothing.Just the town disappearing behind us beneath the pale afternoon sun.I tightened my grip around my purse and forced myself to breathe slowly.In.Out.Again.We were leaving and that was all that mattered.My car had been sabotaged, so there had been no point wasting precious minutes trying to fix it. I had gone to the little grocery store two streets over and begged Mrs. Calloway to help me find someone willing to drive us to the neighboring town.She had found Mr. Ellis.An older local man with a battered pickup truck, a permanently squashed cap, and absolutely no interest in asking questions.I had offered him more money than he wanted. He had grumbled about it, then he had loaded our bags into the back and now he
Daisy I packed faster than I'd ever packed in my life.Clothes went into the suitcase without being folded and the twins' shoes were thrown into a separate bag.I grabbed their medicines, birth certificates, a few changes of clothes, some cash and anything else I could think of that we couldn't replace.“Mama, where are we going?” Thane asked. “Somewhere safe.” the answer slid past my lips without thinking. “Where?” Thane stood beside my bed, watching me with those dark, observant eyes.“I don't know yet.” A part of me hated admitting that, but I knew better than to not be honest with him. “Then how do you know it's safe?” he asked, and this time, I stopped.Of course he'd ask that.“Thane.’ I forced myself to continue packing. “Because it won't be here.”Rissa, on the other hand, sat quietly on the edge of her bed, hugging her little stuffed rabbit against her chest.She hadn't said much since I'd told them we were leaving and that worried me more than Thane's questions.Rissa
Daisy The window was shattered and I stopped so abruptly that the keys nearly slipped from my hand.For several seconds, I simply stood outside the café, staring.The early morning air was cold against my skin, carrying the salty scent of the sea and the faint cry of gulls overhead.Everything looked normal and that made it all the more worse. The street was empty, the neighboring shops were still closed and the ocean beyond the road was calm, but my café wasn't.One of the large front windows had been destroyed and glass covered the pavement.“No.” My heart slammed against my ribs as I rushed forward.My hands shook as I unlocked the door and pushed it open. The bell above it gave its usual cheerful little chime and the sound was so horribly normal that it made my stomach twist.I stepped inside, but saw nothing wrong. The tables were still where I'd left them, the chairs hadn't been overturned, the coffee machine was untouched and the register was still sitting beneath the coun
Daisy I didn't sleep.Not really.I closed my eyes sometime after midnight, but sleep never came properly. Every time I drifted off, I saw the photograph again.Thane and Rissa standing outside the café and beneath them, written in dark ink:FOUND YOU.I had turned the photograph over so many times during the night that the edges had started to soften beneath my fingers.I had stared at the words until they blurred, then I had convinced myself there had to be another explanation.Someone wanted to scare me, someone connected to the harbor acquisition had taken it. Or maybe one of Caspian's people had followed me, maybe someone had recognized me, maybe…..I had run out of maybes sometime around four in the morning, because none of them explained the one thing that terrified me most.The photograph hadn't been of me. It had been of my children.I stared at the ceiling until dawn began to seep through the curtains, and one thought kept circling through my head.Someone had been watch
Caspian By the time I returned to the temporary Montenegro residence, I was irritated.I couldn't have said exactly why.The acquisition was proceeding exactly as planned. The council meeting had been postponed for now. The revised offer was ready, and the harbor property was still within reach.Everything was under control. Everything except my thoughts.I walked into my office, loosened my tie, and dropped the folder containing Kaitlyn Stones' information onto my desk.I stared at it, then I looked away. Three seconds later though, I looked back again. I hated that woman already, but not because she'd refused to sell.People refused offers all the time. It was the way she'd looked at me.The fear in her eyes, the anger that had followed, the way she'd reacted to my name before I'd even properly introduced myself, and then there were the children.I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. Thane's stare came back to me immediately.I saw his dark eyes that were too steady for
Daisy By the time I unlocked the café the next morning, the sun had barely risen above the horizon.I hadn't slept much and honestly, that wasn't unusual anymore.Five years had taught me how to function on little sleep, how to wake at every unfamiliar sound, how to check the locks twice before going to bed and how to pretend I wasn't afraid when every instinct in my body told me to run.But last night had been different, because Caspian was here.He was alive, had walked into my café, stood three feet away from my children and looked at me without knowing who I was.I still hadn't decided whether that was a blessing or a curse.I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The familiar scent of coffee beans and freshly baked bread greeted me, and for a moment, I simply stood there with my hand resting against the door.This place had become my sanctuary,maybe because I built more than I was willing to admit. I'd done that from almost nothing, with two newborn babies and a level of d
Daisy The palace was in controlled chaos, and for the life of me, I didn't know what to think of it. Servants rushed through the corridors with bolts of black silk and silver threaded veils draped over their arms, while guards stood straighter when I passed, bowing low enough that their forehea
FourDaisy The clearing had gone so quiet I could hear my own pulse in my ears.“I want her.” Even in a million years,I never thought I'd hear those words,not from Nathan, and definitely not from the Greek god in human form; Caspian.His voice didn’t need to be loud. It carried anyway, low, contr
Daisy's PovThe morning sun felt like a spotlight on my guilt. I woke up tangled in dark silk sheets. The heavy weight of an arm was draped across my waist. Caspian was still asleep, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. In the daylight, the black ink creeping up his neck looked even mor
Caspian The second I stepped into the kitchen, the bond turned vicious. It wasn't angry as usual, this one was worse. It felt desperate. It hit me all at once, sharp enough to make my chest tighten painfully as my gaze landed on Daisy standing beside Octavian with a mug cradled between her han







