All Chapters of A private deal with the billionaire ceo: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

I should have left when I said I would. I should have turned for the door and carried my exhaustion back to my own quarters. But when Damon looked at me with that sultry gaze, my determination seized.I don’t remember who leaned in first. And I don't care to know. What mattered was the warmth, the sudden closeness, the unspoken understanding that neither of us wanted to part ways just yet.He held me like he always did, being ever so gentle when he made love to me. I don't know how he managed to be fierce yet steady in his movements, taking me high in the sky and bringing me down on soft clouds. It was always a dream when I was with him like this. We moved in sync, matching each other's rhythm until we shuddered at the same time, finding our release.When I woke again, morning light had crawled between the blinds, painting faint lines across the floor. My body felt heavy but my mind wasn’t still. For a fleeting second, I allowed myself the dangerous thought that the world outside Damo

The night’s storm hadn’t fully settled in me.Even after Damon’s arms held me together in that car, even after his voice steadied the quake inside me, I couldn’t shake the shadow of that phone call.Back at headquarters, I told myself to let it go. Damon was always himself. He was protective, intense, always carrying more than he admitted. But when he answered the phone earlier, his reaction had been different. He seemed guarded. Almost… nervous.It wasn’t like him.I turned the thought over in my mind as we stepped into Halstrom’s office the next morning. The air was taut as usual, thick with authority and expectation. Agents filed out one by one, leaving just Damon and me waiting in the corner while Halstrom rifled through his notes.Then Halstrom looked up. His eyes narrowed briefly at Damon before his lips quirked into the faintest smirk.“I trust your call last night with Selena Veyra was productive?”The name hit me like ice water.Selena. I didn’t know who she was, but I hated

The note still burned in my pocket as I urged the taxi driver to tear through the streets. He kept looking at me like I was mad but I didn't care. It was either my reputation or the lives of my friends.The words chased me, clawing at the back of my skull, pushing me faster and harder. My boots slammed against the pavement in a frantic rhythm. The city blurred, the sound muffled by the roar of blood in my ears.I had fallen for the trap the enemy had set.And Damon—“No, no, no,” I panted, rounding the final corner.My heart stopped.Smoke curled into the sky like a grotesque ribbon. The metal gate of headquarters hung crooked, half-busted off its hinges. Shouts and cries carried into the street.I sprinted the rest of the way, barreling through the open entrance.The common room was chaos. Tables overturned, shards of glass crunching under my boots. Scorch marks painted the walls where explosives had gone off. Agents staggered, bruised and bloodied, some being patched up by the medic

The air in headquarters was heavy, thick with something unspoken. Even though no alarms blared and no shots rang out, silence pressed down on us harder than any battlefield ever had.We were in mourning.Three agents were gone. Their names, Carter, Inez and Malik were etched into the silence, echoing in the spaces where their voices should have been. I sat in the briefing room with the others, the dim light washing everyone in a pale, unnatural glow. No one wanted to speak first.Halstrom finally broke the silence. His voice was gravel, low but firm. “We’ll prepare calls to their next of kin.”I blinked, shifting uneasily. The phrase sounded so clinical, as though grief itself was just another item on the agenda. “Next of kin,” I repeated softly, more to myself than to him. “They all have families?”Halstrom hesitated. His jaw tightened. Before he could answer, Alice spoke.“Not many,” she said quietly, her voice carrying a raw edge I hadn’t heard before.I turned to her. “What do yo

The air in the corridor felt heavier than before, thick with unease. It clung to my skin like humidity, but colder, dense with something unseen, like static before a storm. The group walked together, but the usual rhythm of our footsteps was broken, uneven, echoing off the sterile walls with a hollow sound. Even Abel, usually steady and grounded, the one who never flinched, kept glancing at the walls as though expecting them to sprout shadows. Every creak, every sigh of the vents, made us tighten as if bracing for an attack.We moved like ghosts through the hallways, unspoken tension hanging between us. The lights overhead flickered occasionally, casting thin stutters of darkness across our path. Damon was ahead, his shoulders squared, stride clipped, each movement coiled with barely contained fury. Alice stayed near the back, her hand close to the small of her back where her weapon rested, eyes darting like a predator’s. Halstrom’s jaw flexed, his expression unreadable, but his fists