MasukCATHERINE My focus snapped back. I stepped back, hands on my gun. The guards reacted immediately, their weapons cocking and ready, aimed at me. Marcus’s rough growl cut through the tension as he stepped in front of me, his entire frame covering my line of sight, ready to strike.Still, Adrian’s voice filtered through. “There’s no need for violence.” His voice sounded too amused. It made my skin crawl.Then my breath caught as a realization set in.I stepped out from Marcus’s frame. “Where is he?”Adrian’s eyes gleamed. “Safe,” he simply said. “For now. It all depends on you if you and your little friends walk out of here intact or in a body bag.”A shiver ran through my spine, my sweaty palms curled into a fist, fingers digging into them.“What do you want? You’ve been terrorizing me and everyone I love for god knows how long,” my throat tightened. “Why?”His brows furrowed slightly. “The weather today is terrible.”I frowned.“Let’s talk inside.” He said, gesturing to the door. “Yo
CATHERINEThe sun was already dipping, making everything look softer than it actually was. Except the men in front of me. Their eyes moved like predators, sharp, calculating, their bodies were made for battle and I almost wondered what Marcus must have go told them.One of them met my gaze, his eyes narrowing on me.My pulse jumped as I tore my eyes away, clearing my throat. “We need to leave in the next minute.” I said to Marcus who was giving out instructions.He turned to me, his lips turning into a straight line. “Rumor is, that location you gave me, is the home of one of the five families in New York. The Rain family.” My brow furrowed. “I thought they were all dead.”He shrugged. “The property belongs to them. Doesn’t mean they’re the ones occupying it.” His gaze moved past me. “Doesn’t also mean some of them are willing to find out.”My gaze flicked back. A few of the men were staring right at us. Their eyes prickled my skin. I turned back to Marcus.“What does that mean?”“I
CATHERINE I must have forgotten how to breathe, or the air was too thick. Either way, my lungs stopped working, my ears rang, drowning out everything.A muffled sound echoed from above me.My head felt heavy, but I looked up anyway. His lips were moving, talking? No. His brows were knotted, his eyes wide , fear seeping out. The veins in his neck were bulging. Shouting.My gaze flickered to the ground. I was closer to it than it should have been. When did my knees give out?My grandmother’s words refused to stop replaying in my head.Your father isn’t dead.The cold that settled in my bones wasn’t from the harsh crashing of waves or the fact that we were close to the sea. It was from the realization that the worst of them all was still here… lurking in the shadows.A hand clamped down hard on my shoulder.I turned to meet Marcus’s wild eyes dragging over me like he was searching for injuries. His voice broke through the ringing this time, barely. “Catherine,” he barked, shaking me g
CATHERINE “I take it your martyr stunt didn’t work out as well as you thought it would.”I shuffled on my feet, pushing down that feeling that tried so hard to crawl back up. The look in Marcus’s eyes was plain and simple… disappointment. He had every right to.I swallowed heavily, taking a step forward.His gaze faltered, just for half a second before hardening.“Why are you here, Cath?” He said evenly, even as his fingers dug into his arms.“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice muffled by the steady sound of waves crashing into each other. Cold seeped into my bones but the weight in my chest thawed it out. The docks were practically empty, save for the security guard staring us down from the end of the boat. I pretended not to notice.His scoff was lost in the wind as he tilted his head heavenward. “I’ve got crates to offload, Cath.”“Marcus-“He snapped his head back to me, eyes narrowing. “No. You don’t get to run into a fucking death trap even when I begged you not to and now whe
RONALD“Found your little friend.” The man said, his dark gaze flicking to Frankie.For a moment I was certain I was hallucinating. Frankie had been halfway across the country, setting off his own plans against the threat we both faced.Now he was here. Bruised and barely conscious. His once pristine suit was jagged, soaked in crimson, his silver rings stained with blood. The sight of him reduced to something so fragile felt… wrong. Frankie was always untouchable. Until now.“Frankie?” Mason breathed. The disbelief in his voice only sharpened. “Well… that’s unexpected.”Frankie’s unfocused eyes blinked slowly as he struggled to lift his head. “Ronald…” he rasped. “You-.”A slow clap echoed through the chamber, cutting off whatever he was about to say.“Touching,” the man before us drawled, his tone laced with mock amusement. “Truly. Loyalty is such a rare commodity these days.”My gaze hardened on him. “You dragged him into this to make a point?” I asked coldly.His lips curved into
RONALDMason glanced over at me from the hood of the car, his brows furrowed.Me, on the other hand, was slightly confused. Talk.We just stormed into their base, with a hostage who was now dead and they wanted to talk? Why not just kill us?I didn’t let the thought linger.The fact was that we were probably surrounded on all sides. If they wanted to kill us, they would have before we even knew what was coming. And we didn’t have the luxury of declining.I pushed an exhale through my nose and stood slowly. Mason hesitated for half a second before following closely.My eyes scanned the empty road, the shadowed trees. They had gone silent again. Mason and I exchanged a glance.“So,” Mason said tightly. “We just going to wait to get slaughtered? I kind of like my head on my shoulders.”I scowled, leaning on the hood of the car. “Got a better idea?”He opened his mouth. Then shut it. Exactly.The next minute, the low hum of an engine steadily approached us, the headlights cutting through
CATHERINE My breath came in shallow gasps as his hands inched further up my thigh. I pressed my breast flat against his chest, feeling the need to do more than close the distance between us, my hands tangling in his hair.I sighed softly as his lips hovered over the shell of my ear.“You have no i
RONALD“The debate is scheduled on the sixth of February,” Catherine said, flipping through her book. “There will be competition so you-“Her words faded into the hum in my mind. I stared at her, reliving the moment in the bar. I could have blamed the shots for what I had said but I was no coward a
CATHERINE “Do you have your prescription?” I asked, helping Ellie gather her things from the car.She sighed. “Yes, I did.”“And your water? You know you can use the school tap or any fountain, right?”“I know.”I buckled the strap of her bag, one I practically had to bribe her to wear. “What abou
CATHERINE“I understand you have a family emergency and need me to fill in your night shift” I said with an exasperated tone. “What I don’t understand is why I must dress like a 90’s hooker.”Stacey rolled her eyes and flopped onto my bed. “It’s the south side, Cat. You walk in there with your cute







