All Chapters of Hidden Hearts: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The butler’s glance lingered longer than it should have, and Cass felt the ripple it left behind. In Leo’s mansion—his carefully guarded fortress—someone like that didn’t just look without reason. It was a message, a subtle shift in a game Cass wasn’t supposed to see.Her mind replayed the evening’s fragments: the dinner filled with quiet moves, the careful banter, the warning Leo had given her like a gift wrapped in barbed wire—If you keep looking too closely, you’ll find things you can’t put back. She knew he wasn’t wrong. Yet curiosity was a habit she’d never been able to kill.Hours later, after she returned to her suite, the unease hadn’t left. She lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling’s intricate molding. The mansion was too still, the kind of silence that held its breath. Something was wrong.Cass slid out from under the covers, moving like a shadow. Her steps carried her down a side hallway, following a faint noise—muted, like a struggle pressed into velvet. It grew clea

The city stretched out below, all glass and neon, a restless pulse that never quieted. From the rooftop balcony of the Knight Tower, Leo’s penthouse loomed like an island above the chaos. Cass leaned against the railing, the cold wind whipping at her hair, pretending the noise of the city could drown out the echo of a single sentence.Your mother would be proud.She inhaled sharply, pushing the memory down. No. Not now.Behind her, Leo poured two glasses of bourbon, the amber liquid catching the dim light. His movements were measured, precise—as though pouring a drink were just another kind of control. He handed one to her without a word.Cass accepted it, her fingers brushing his briefly, and she hated how the smallest touch made her chest tighten. Leo was an enigma she couldn’t afford to solve, but in this quiet, he felt dangerously close to unraveling her.“You did well tonight,” Leo said finally, his voice steady, unreadable. He didn’t ask about the knife, didn’t press about the w

Cass’s wrist burned where the man’s grip locked her in place, the pressure threatening to snap a bone. Her other hand clawed instinctively at his arm, but it was like trying to fight stone. The pipe hovered above her, ready to swing again, its weight promising nothing but ruin. Leo was already moving, cutting through the last guard with brutal efficiency. His eyes locked on hers, sharp and unyielding—silent calculation in the chaos. But the distance stretched between them, just wide enough to be dangerous. Cass kicked upward, heel connecting with the man’s shin, but he barely flinched. His lips curled into a grin, teeth glinting as if he relished the struggle. He tightened his grip, forcing her arm down toward the floor. Cass’s pulse thundered in her ears, her knife just out of reach. And then— The scene snapped elsewhere. Outside, the night was decepti

The city was quiet again, at least on the surface. Sirens wailed somewhere in the distance, a reminder that chaos still bled through the streets, but up on the rooftop, the world seemed strangely still.Cass leaned against the low wall, the night air brushing cold against her damp skin. Her fingers wouldn’t stop twitching, the phantom press of the knife handle still etched into her grip. Every time she blinked, she saw his face—the calm, taunting smile, and the way his words had dug under her skin.“You’re exactly like her.”She didn’t know who he meant. She didn’t know why it rattled her so badly. But she did know this: she couldn’t let Leo see the way her mind was unraveling. Not now.Leo stood a few steps away, phone pressed to his ear, his voice sharp as he relayed clipped instructions. Backup, extraction points, and a sweep of the surrounding blocks. He looked unshakable, the very definition o

The rider was gone. Cass’s breath caught sharply, eyes raking the empty street as though he might simply step back into the light. But there was nothing—no sound of retreating boots, no hum of an engine, not even the whisper of a shadow moving away. “Leo,” she hissed, already turning from the window. “I see it.” His voice was clipped, steady, but his hand was back on the pistol before she’d even finished speaking. They moved in unison. Cass killed the lamp, plunging the apartment into darkness, while Leo shifted to cover the doorway. The air was suddenly too close, the silence stretched taut. Every creak of the old floorboards beneath her felt like a scream. “He didn’t leave,” Cass said under her breath. “Men like that don’t vanish.” “No,” Leo agreed. “They reposition.” The sound came then—barel