All Chapters of BENEATH THE COLD CONTRACT : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Chapter 81:Reynolds' POV“The girl’s corpse was confirmed an hour ago.”I didn’t blink.The soldier in the passenger seat held out a tablet showing a still image. Diane Ross. Pale. Blood slicked across her collarbone. Eyes wide open, but unseeing.“Time of death?” I asked.“3:42 a.m.”I leaned back against the leather seat and let my fingers tap the cane resting across my lap.“Such a shame,” I murmured.He hesitated. “You don’t seem surprised, sir.”“I’m not.” I glanced out the window as the van curved down the silent industrial road. “Diane knew the game she was playing. She just forgot the rules once the pawn started pretending to be king.”The soldier exchanged a glance with the driver. “Sir, with all due respect—Raymond did warn you she might become a liability.”I smiled faintly.“Oh, Raymond warned me of many things. But never about his own ambition.”The rain began to fall harder, streaking across the windshield as we neared the entrance to Diane’s lair. The building loomed l

Chapter 83Caroline’s POVFor the first time in weeks, the world was silent.No gunshots. No whispers in the dark. No threat hanging over our heads like a loaded weapon.Just silence and Kane’s hand holding mine as we stood beneath the gray sky.Smoke still rose in the distance where the safehouse had once stood. Raymond was gone. One less monster in a world full of them. But I wasn’t cheering. I wasn’t even smiling.I was… tired.Tired in a way that sleep wouldn’t fix.“Are you okay?” Kane asked, voice low, rough with exhaustion.I looked up at him. His shirt was torn at the sleeve, smeared with dust and blood that wasn’t his. His jaw was clenched like it always was when he was trying not to feel something too deeply.“No,” I said honestly. “But I will be.”He nodded once. That was all I needed.We got into the car, Kane driving, me staring out the window as the city unfolded around us like nothing had changed.But everything had.As the streets gave way to familiar neighborhoods, I

Chapter 85:The room was quiet.Not silent — just waiting.Caroline sat across from me at the table, legs curled beneath her, a blueprint spread across the surface between us. She wore one of my shirts again, oversized and soft on her frame, sleeves pushed up past her elbows.A gun lay beside her left hand.She looked like a contradiction — gentle and dangerous in the same breath.“How long do you think we have?” she asked softly, not looking up.“Not long.” I moved one of the red markers across the safehouse schematic. “Raymond was a piece. A very loud, flashy piece. But Reynolds… he’s the real endgame.”She nodded slowly, chewing the inside of her cheek. “He’ll come for you.”“He’ll come for us.”Caroline met my gaze across the table, and there was no flinch in her. No fear. Just the same fire I’d seen in her eyes the day she chose to run instead of die in that warehouse.She was no one’s damsel.And she damn sure wasn’t mine.“We reinforce here and here,” she said, tapping two weak

Chapter 87Gina’s POV"You smell like regret," I muttered, tugging my shirt back down as I leaned against the stone wall of the lair’s hallway.Kelly smirked beside me, not bothering to button up his shirt completely. “That’s funny. I was going to say you smell like second chances.”I rolled my eyes and shoved him lightly. “Don’t get cocky, Kane Junior.”His smile faltered, just for a second. He hated being compared to his brother, even in jest. And I understood why. Kane was legend. Kelly was shadow. But somehow, I trusted him more now… because shadows know what it’s like to be forgotten.He ran a hand through his hair. “We need to talk.”“About us?” I asked, half teasing, half serious.He shook his head. “No. About him.”My chest tightened. “Reynolds?”Kelly nodded grimly. “Something’s wrong. He’s quiet.”I frowned. “That man doesn’t do quiet.”“Exactly.” He turned toward the hallway’s end, the glow of the lair’s central screens flickering against his face. “I think he’s moving. And

Chapter 89:Reynolds’ POV“They broke quicker than I thought,” I said, watching the screen as Kane led them silently down the corridor, their silence louder than screams.A technician beside me tapped a button, replaying the scene of Kelly’s confession. Then Caroline’s. Then Gina’s.“I told you,” I murmured. “You don’t need bullets to kill loyalty. Just a mirror and the right lighting.”I leaned back in the leather chair. The surveillance chamber around me pulsed with low lights, each wall a living screen tracking their every step. Cameras blinked from the vents. Mics embedded in the floor. They had no idea they were still inside my simulation.“Sir,” one of the guards spoke cautiously. “Should we initiate the next phase?”“Not yet,” I said, swirling the amber liquid in my glass. “Let them breathe. Let the cracks widen on their own.”The screen zoomed in on Gina as she trailed behind the others, her eyes flicking to Kelly every few seconds, uncertain, unreadable.Poor girl.She wanted