Semua Bab THE BILLIONAIRE'S HIDDEN MISSION : Bab 41 - Bab 50

The world narrowed to the sound of the engine and the shallow rise and fall of Kai’s chest.Elara’s fingers clenched around the steering wheel as she drove, eyes flicking between the empty Lumine Bay streets and the rearview mirror where Kai’s reflection slumped in the passenger seat. His head lolled slightly with every bump, his shirt darkened on one side.“Stay with me,” she said, not sure if she’d already said it once or ten times. “Kai, you hear me? We’re almost there.”He didn’t answer, but one of his fingers twitched where it rested against his thigh. She took it as a yes.The city outside should have been beautiful. Glass towers, soft lights over the water, the distant glow of yachts cutting across the bay. Tonight it looked like a painted backdrop. Too far. Too unreal.Her phone, balanced in the cup holder, displayed the route Kai had pulled up before his eyes started to close, a location he’d selected without explanation. A nondescript address near the older docks. No Moretti

Elara didn’t breathe at first. She couldn’t.The reflection behind her on the live feed was subtle, almost a shadow, yet unmistakably human.Someone was in the room with her.She didn’t turn immediately. Instinct told her not to. Instead, she shifted her eyes slowly toward the bookshelf glass where the reflection had appeared.Nothing.No footsteps. No breath. No movement.Her pulse hammered against her ribs.You’re imagining it.But the screen hadn’t imagined anything, the camera caught what her eyes had missed.She rose from the chair, slow and controlled, scanning the corners of the office with a surgeon’s patience. No sound. No sign of another person.Still, every part of her body screamed she was not alone.A soft mechanical click sounded behind her.Elara spun.The cabinet door, the one holding the storage drives, was sliding shut on its own.She hadn’t touched it.She took a step back, her knees threatening to give way. The office suddenly felt smaller, as though the walls had

The office felt colder than when she’d entered earlier.Not physically, not in any way the thermostat could explain, but in the way certain rooms carried memory. As if the walls absorbed secrets and breathed them back into the air when the wrong person stepped inside. As if everything ever spoken here had left a residue.Elara paused just inside the doorway, letting the silence settle around her.The room looked the same. The desk aligned with surgical precision. The shelves, spotless. The faint scent of Damon’s cologne still lingering, irritatingly familiar. Nothing had been disturbed.And yet, everything felt exposed.She crossed the room slowly and sat in Damon’s chair again. The leather was cool beneath her palms. This time, her body didn’t tremble. The shock she’d felt earlier had burned itself out, leaving something sharper behind.Resolve.She took a steady breath, grounding herself.“Alright, Damon,” she murmured into the quiet. “Show me what you never wanted me to see.”The c

Silence shouldn’t exist after an explosion, yet somehow it did.A thick, crushing silence. The kind that followed shock so complete it distorted reality. The kind that pressed against the ears until the world felt distant and unreal.Elara lay flat on the cold concrete, lungs burning as she dragged air into them. Smoke filled her mouth, her nose, her throat. Her ears rang sharply, a high, relentless sound that refused to fade. For a moment, she couldn’t tell if she was screaming or if the sound was only inside her head.Her vision swam, light and shadow bleeding into one another. Shapes blurred, then sharpened, then blurred again.Fire crackled somewhere nearby.Metal groaned overhead.Something collapsed in the distance with a dull, echoing crash.And then memory slammed into her.Kai.Her heart lurched violently.She forced her arms beneath her, pushing herself upright. Pain flared instantly, shooting through her shoulders and down her ribs, but she barely noticed it. Pain was backg

Kai woke to the subtle hum of machinery and the muted echo of footsteps somewhere beyond the room. His eyelids felt heavy, but the sharp sting in his ribs reminded him he didn’t have the luxury of easing back into consciousness.His first thought wasn’t his injuries.It was Elara.The last memory before darkness swallowed everything was her dragging him through smoke and fire, refusing to let go even as the world collapsed around them.He tried to push himself upright, and pain flared hot and immediate. A thin hiss escaped him, but he forced himself to sit.The room came into focus, white walls, soft clinical lighting, stainless steel counters stocked with medical equipment. A private medical wing.Valentina’s domain.GKai scanned the space, searching for Elara.Empty.His pulse quickened, not from fear, but from urgency.He swung his legs off the medical table just as the door opened.Valentina stepped inside.Her posture was as pristine as the room, composed, elegant, untouched by