All Chapters of The Cross Family: Chapter 91 - Chapter 97

The lights in Alexander’s office had been dimmed to a low, amber glow—the kind meant for long nights when clarity mattered more than presentation. Floor-to-ceiling windows framed the city in scattered constellations of light, traffic far below moving like veins under skin. It was well past midnight. Too late for rational decisions. Late enough for truths to loosen.Eva sat across from him at the conference table, jacket draped over the back of her chair, hair pulled into a messy knot that spoke of hours spent thinking harder than her body wanted to allow. Her laptop was open but forgotten, a legal pad beside it filled with sharp, slanted handwriting—names, arrows, circled questions.Alexander stood near the window, phone in hand, scanning a report for the third time even though he already knew it by heart.“Say it again,” he said quietly. “Walk me through the timeline.”Eva rubbed her temples, then straightened. “The subcontractor flagged irregular shipments six months ago. Not weapon

The warning didn’t come as a threat.That was what made it worse.Alexander sat at the head of the boardroom table, hands folded neatly in front of him, posture relaxed in the way that unsettled people who thought they were delivering hard news. The room was glass and steel and carefully neutral art—nothing here was accidental, least of all the silence that stretched a beat too long before anyone spoke.It was the oldest member of the board who finally cleared his throat.“You need to distance yourself from the journalist.”The words landed softly. Practiced. Polite.Alexander didn’t look up from the tablet in front of him. “That’s not a recommendation,” he said. “That’s an instruction.”A ripple of discomfort moved around the table.“It’s a precaution,” another board member said. “Your association with her is becoming… visible.”Alexander lifted his eyes then, gaze cool. “She’s investigating corruption tied to our vendors.”“And while we appreciate your commitment to transparency,” t

Alexander lost her in under four minutes.That was the number that replayed in his head as the city blurred past the SUV’s windows, traffic lights streaking red and gold like accusations. Four minutes from the café sidewalk to the private clinic he’d diverted to—four minutes where Eva had been conscious enough to grip his sleeve, to whisper about the flash drive, to trust him to keep moving.And then she was gone.Not unconscious—missing.They’d made it inside. He’d handed her over to a doctor he trusted, a woman who’d worked discreetly for the Cross family before. Eva had been slurring, pupils blown, skin flushed in a way Alexander recognized too well now. A fast-acting sedative, probably injected. Not lethal. Designed to disorient. To take.Alexander had stepped out for one phone call.One.When he came back, the room was empty.The bed stripped. The IV line cut cleanly. No signs of struggle beyond a single overturned chair and a smear of blood on the tile where the needle had been

Eva woke to the smell of concrete and stale air.Not the sharp antiseptic of a hospital, not the familiar citrus-clean of Cross offices—this was older. Damp. The kind of place that held secrets in its walls because it had no windows to betray them.Her eyes fluttered open and immediately met darkness—not complete, but dim enough to disorient. A single overhead bulb glowed somewhere above her, buzzing faintly, inconsistent like it was deciding whether to stay alive.Her wrists were bound.Not painfully tight. Just tight enough to remind her that if she fought blindly, she’d lose skin before she gained leverage.Her ankles were bound too, a looped restraint attached to the legs of the metal chair she sat in. The chair was bolted to the floor. Whoever did this had no interest in improvisation.Eva tested the bonds once, gently. The zip ties were industrial. The kind used in shipping, not cheap plastic.She forced her breathing steady.Panic was a luxury. Panic made people sloppy.Her hea