Semua Bab The Billionaire's Bargain: Bab 131 - Bab 140

CHRISTIAN“You went too far last night.” Liam stood across from me, scolding me, his arms folded, and his brow furrowed as though I was one of his incompetent detectives, not his closest friend.I leaned back in my chair, perfectly calm, letting him get it out of his system.“Too far?” I repeated lazily, arching a brow.“Don’t play dumb with me,” he snapped. “You beat that guy to death in front of her, Christian. In a fucking supermarket. She’s right to be mad at you. You could’ve just… I don’t know, stabilized him, dragged him somewhere nobody would find him. But you broke his nose and let him choke on his own blood with her standing right there. And then—” his jaw tightened— “you ordered the boys to burn the damn salesperson too, didn’t you?”I didn’t even flinch. Just shrugged, staring at the ceiling like his little speech bored me.“You never can tell, Liam. Wallace could get to her. Someone could’ve bribed her already.”“Oh, for fuck’s sake—” Liam’s hands raked through his hair.

CHRISTIAN I hadn’t left her room. Not once.The nurses had come in and out at intervals, checking her vitals, adjusting her medication, whispering to each other when they thought I couldn’t hear. Then that morning, a pair of them wheeled in a cart and told me they were ready to take the tube out of her mouth.“She should come around soon,” one of them said with a polite smile.I only nodded, watching as they carefully removed the tube and taped fresh oxygen lines at her nose. The faint rasp of her breath was more even now. More human.I’d just sat back down with my laptop when my phone buzzed. Liam.I answered instantly. “Talk.”“I just got the report from our guy,” Liam said on the other end, but there was an edge to it. “It was something she took.”I leaned back. “What do you mean?”“They swabbed all the plates and glasses from your kitchen. Particles of the same toxin were on the rim of her glass. It was the juice she drank. Green juice, specifically.”I closed my eyes briefly. Of

CHRISTIANI gripped the wheel harder, Jess’s voice still playing in my head. “I hate even saying it. She’s been nothing but sweet to you. But… doesn’t it seem… off? Like. You drank one glass and your body went haywire. Doesn’t that say something?”The knot in my chest tightened with every word, every replay of that damn conversation. The dashboard beeped when I crossed eighty, but I didn’t slow down. My phone rang. I pressed the speaker.“Yeah.”“You’re gonna want to hear this,” Liam’s voice said. “I’ve got a lead. You wouldn’t believe it.”“Yeah? I’ve got something to tell you too. But before I get to the office, I’ve got to make a quick stop.”I ended the call without waiting for his answer and swung the car into the next exit.I walked straight past the receptionist at Kerr Industries. She tried to stop me, but I didn’t hear a word she said. I threw open the doors of the conference room.Damian looked up mid-sentence, his executives turning with wide eyes. I didn’t stop. I grabbed

CHRISTIANThe smell of sweat and blood was already filling the air when Liam opened the door for me.Renji stood in the middle of the warehouse, sleeves rolled to his elbows, with his arms crossed, watching her as if she were some pathetic little mouse squirming under a cat’s paw.Maria was strapped to a chair, her wrists bound to the armrests with leather straps. Her face was a mess, her hair plastered to her damp cheeks, mascara streaking under her eyes, and blood running from her nose where I'm sure Renji had already introduced her to his fists.Her eyes widened when she saw me, “Oh my God, Christian. Help me please.” She whined.I laughed. I actually laughed because her performance was crazy. She stared at me in disbelief.“You’re here because of me.” I said sitting on the couch, and crossing my legs.“What?” She looked confused. “Why?”“I know you poisoned my wife. The green juice you specifically made for her that morning before your flight.”“I didn’t do any–“ she was cut up wi

CHRISTIANAs we stepped off the plane, Liam fell into stride beside me and slid his phone into my hand without a word.“It’s your father,” he muttered.I blinked at him, my brow furrowing. My first instinct was to pull my own phone from my pocket—except there wasn’t one. There hadn’t been since the night I swung that bat at Maria’s hand and heard it shatter as it hit the floor. I hadn’t thought twice about it then. My entire focus had been on making her scream, and getting the truth out of her. I hadn’t had time to replace it.Now, holding Liam’s phone felt foreign. I pressed it to my ear. “Hello—”“We can’t find Penelope.”Those four words stopped everything.I froze in the middle of the jetway, my chest constricting as if someone had shoved a fist into it.“What do you mean you can’t find her?” My voice came out sharper than I intended.“I employed guards for her,” his voice came slowly through the receiver. “It was your brother’s idea ever since I announced her pregnancy at the par