Semua Bab FOR HER SAKE: Bab 21 - Bab 30

THIRD PERSON POVAmelia and Ruby returned to the office riding the high of victory. The construction deal with Jharvis was officially in motion, and the satisfaction was written all over their faces.The building looked different now. It was sharper, fresher, more polished than the last time Amelia had stepped in to check it out. Kelvin’s advice had been clear, and she had followed it without hesitation, to buy the building outrightly. That way, Rafael would have no chance to show up with more of his infuriating tactics to derail and frustrate her progress.Now the place had been renovated to her taste. The clean white walls carried a faint scent of fresh paint, the polished wooden floors gleamed under the afternoon light, and sunlight streamed in through wide windows. Though most of the work was done, traces of the remodel lay scattered around. There were small piles of wall chips from drilled walls, stray bits of packaging from new furniture, a ladder still leaning in a corner and

AMELIAThe night split open with gunfire.One moment, the compound was still. The next, headlights blazed at the gates, and shouts tore through the dark.“Ethan’s men!” a guard yelled, rushing past with his weapon raised.Ruby drew her pistol with a grin that didn’t match the tension in the air. “About time he showed his teeth.”I stood rooted for a breath, my ankle throbbing, my pulse racing. Kelvin was already in front of me, his body a wall of muscle and intent.“You stay behind me,” he ordered.“No,” I said, too sharp, too fast. “I’m not hiding.”His eyes narrowed, but there wasn’t time to argue. Another crack of bullets rattled the gates, sparks flying.The courtyard smelled of gasoline and smoke. Shadows darted across the walls. Ruby crouched low, firing warning shots through the ironwork. Guards scrambled for cover, shouting to one another.It wasn’t an all-out attack, not yet. Ethan’s men weren’t storming the gates. They were taunting, pressing, testing.Kelvin barked orders i

RUBYRicardo’s knock was loud enough to rattle the damn door. The guy had never learned subtlety. “You need to see this,” he barked, like we hadn’t all just survived a drive-by hit at the gates.He looked tired though, possibly beating himself up that the incident happened while he was in charge of security.I'd tell him later to breathe it out, and maybe take a nap tooAmelia and Kelvin moved in unison, which I clocked immediately. She was limping but pretending not to, he was hovering but pretending he wasn’t. Cute, really. They thought they were fooling people. Me? I lived off other people’s tells.“Move,” I muttered, slipping past them to open the door myself. If Ricardo was going to ruin my morning, I wanted to be first in line and not in the middle of these two people..The north wall looked worse in daylight. The smoke had cleared, but the scars were fresh, bullet pocks on iron, gravel dark with blood, guards pretending they weren’t shaken. I’d seen worse, plenty of times, but

AMELIAI woke to the steady rhythm of breathing against my hair and the heavy weight of an arm across my waist.For a second, my mind lurched back to the nightmare, to Rafael's hands crushing my throat and to smoke and glass and the screech of tires. But the chest that pressed against my back was warm, solid, alive. The scent was familiar, clean soap and leather, and the hand resting against me was far from a threat. It was Kelvin.I lay still, staring at the faint strip of morning light slipping past the curtains. It would have been easy to panic, to shove him away and armor up, tell him it was a mistake, but I don't. Maybe it was exhaustion, or madness, or need, but I let myself relax into the heat of him.The truth was, I hadn’t felt this safe in years.Carefully, I shifted and turned, just enough to see his face. He looked younger in sleep, less tough. The sharp lines of his jaw were softened, his mouth no longer pressed into the permanent half-frown he wore awake. He’d stayed be

RICARDO “Stop!” I roared.He didn’t.Kelvin’s footsteps thundered beside me, then angled off, cutting across the path with surprising speed. For a man who belonged in boardrooms, not ambushes, he moved like someone who had trained for this moment.Carlos glanced back, panic in his eyes. He stops as if realizing that he wouldn't make it to the fence before we tore him down and pulled a knife from his jacket. Dick move.Kelvin slammed into him from the side, sending them both into the dirt. I was on them a second later, wrestling the knife from Carlos’s hand, twisting his arm until it popped.“Got you, you bastard,” I growled, pressing his face into the ground.Kelvin pinned him hard, his knee kneading on Carlos’s chest. “He’s done. I'm taking him out.” His pistol was already out, pressed to Carlos’s temple.Carlos froze, panting, wide-eyed with his gaze moving frantically between the both of us. “Please, don’t…”“You don’t get to beg now,” Kelvin snapped, slapping him with the pistol,