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Chapter 9: The Ghost of the Docks
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2026-01-18 02:58:14The drive to the coast was a blur of high-speed turns and the smell of burning rubber. Malakai drove like a demon possessed, his eyes constantly checking the rearview mirror for the tell-tale strobe of Council sirens. I sat beside him, the cold weight of the pistol resting in my lap. I wasn't shaking anymore. The "no joke" reality of the library had changed me.
"We’re almost there," Malakai muttered, his voice tight. "My boat, The Sinful Queen, is fueled and waiting at Pier 4. Once we hit open water, the Council’s jurisdiction ends. They can’t touch us in international waters." "And Betty?" I asked, watching the salt spray hit the windshield. "You think she’ll just let us sail away with her 'retirement fund'?" Malakai’s jaw tightened. "Betty is a scavenger. She only bites when she thinks her prey is weak. She’s about to find out I’m the strongest I’ve ever been because I have you." We screeched into the industrial shipyard, the towering cranes looking like skeletons against the moonlight. The fog was rolling in thick, tasting of salt and oil. Malakai killed the lights and rolled the SUV behind a stack of shipping containers. "Stay low," he commanded, grabbing the duffel bag. We moved through the shadows, the silence of the docks only broken by the distant clanking of metal and the lapping of the dark tide. But as we reached the ramp to Pier 4, the fog parted to reveal a nightmare. Standing at the foot of the pier, surrounded by four heavily armed guards, was my mother. Betty stood there in her expensive fur coat, looking entirely out of place among the rusted steel and grime. She held a cigarette in one hand and a detonator in the other. Behind her, The Sinful Queen sat bobbing in the water—but I could see the glow of red lights wired to the hull. "Going somewhere, Leona?" Betty called out, her voice echoing with a "bitch ass" smugness that made my blood boil. "I told you, you were worth a fortune. I’m not letting you go to waste on a monster like Malakai just because you’ve got a little crush." Malakai stepped in front of me, his hand hovering over his holster. "Move, Betty. You’ve been paid. Take your black envelope and disappear while you still have a head to put a hat on." "The Council offered me triple," she laughed, a dry, rattling sound. "All I have to do is push this button, blow the boat, and wait for the 'Cleaning Crew' to pick up the pieces. Of course, I’d prefer to take Leona back alive. There’s a buyer in the Mediterranean who doesn't mind a 'second-hand' Princess." The "furious" energy radiating off Malakai was almost physical. He looked at me, a silent question in his eyes. He was waiting for my lead. I stepped out from behind him, raising the pistol he had given me. I didn't care about the guards. I didn't care about the explosives. I only cared about the woman who had spent nineteen years trying to break me. "You always said I was a pawn, Betty," I said, my voice cutting through the fog like a blade. "But you forgot one thing about the game of chess. If a pawn makes it to the other side of the board, it becomes a Queen." "You don't have the heart for this, Leona," Betty sneered, her finger hovering over the detonator. "You’re just a girl." "No," I replied, the "spark" of my new life burning bright. "I'm a sin you’re never going to wake up from." Malakai didn't wait for her to react. He moved with a "no joke" speed, his weapon drawn and firing before the guards could even raise their rifles. The docks erupted into a "bloodbath" of gunfire and screams. "The boat, Leona! Go!" Malakai roared over the chaos. I didn't run for the boat. I ran straight for Betty.
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Waking up to my sin Chapter 14: Echoes of the Hunt
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Waking up to my sin Chapter 13: The Iron Lesson
The island smelled of wild rosemary and gun oil. It was a jagged tooth of rock jutting out of the Mediterranean, a fortress of solitude that felt a thousand miles away from the "bitch ass" politics of Newtown.Malakai led me up a narrow, winding path toward a stone villa that looked like it had been carved directly into the cliffside. He didn't look back to see if I was keeping up; he knew I was. He had a way of commanding the space around him, a raw, sovereign energy that made the local wildlife go silent as he passed.Once we reached a flat plateau overlooking the sea, he stopped. He pulled two crates from a hidden cache beneath a tarp. One contained water; the other was filled with enough hardware to start a small revolution."The Council is going to send their best 'Cleaning Crews' after us, Leona," he said, his voice as cold as the steel he was handling. "They think you're a weak link. They think I’m distracted by my obsession. We’re going to prove them wrong."He handed me t
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Waking up to my sin Chapter 11: Salt and Sin
The roar of the yacht’s engines was the only thing drowning out the frantic thudding of my heart. Newtown was nothing more than a faint, glowing orange smudge on the horizon, a tombstone for the girl I used to be. I stood at the stern, my fingers white-knuckled as I gripped the cold railing. My red silk dress was ruined—torn at the hem and stained with a mixture of salt spray and the blood of men who had tried to keep me in a cage. I looked down at my hands; they were shaking. "The wind is picking up. Get inside, Leona." The voice was low, vibrating through the floorboards and straight into my heels. I didn't have to turn around to know it was Malakai. I could feel the "furious" heat radiating off him, a silent storm that followed him everywhere. "I can't," I whispered, my voice cracking. "If I go inside, it becomes real. If I go inside, I’m not just running away... I’m yours." I felt him move. He didn't walk; he prowled. Suddenly, he was directly behind me, his massive fram
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