Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 81 - Chapitre 90

Nirvana’s POVMy fingers locked around the canvas strap of my bag, turning completely white as I stared down at the restricted file.My brain stalled. The ten-digit number highlighted in bright yellow marker burned into my retinas. ‘504’. It was the exact same New Orleans area code that had flashed across my phone screen last night in the manor’s kitchen.I didn't know what Adrian was investigating. He kept his club business entirely locked away from me. But I knew he was stressed. I knew he had tightened my security detail, and now, staring at the heading ‘Suspected Associate Pings’, a terrifying reality set in.The men Katerina owed money to were somehow on Adrian’s radar.My mother’s toxic past hadn't just stayed in Louisiana. It had followed me to New York, and now it was sitting on the desk of a ruthless syndicate boss. If Adrian dug deep enough into that phone number and figured out those men were hunting me to collect a drug debt, he wouldn't ask questions. He would unleash

Adrian’s POVMy knuckles collided with the man’s jaw with a heavy crack that echoed loudly against the walls.The force of the blow sent him tipping backward. His wooden chair hit the cement floor hard, taking him down with it. He groaned, rolling onto his side, his hands still bound tightly behind his back with thick plastic zip-ties.I stood over him, my chest heaving as I tried to control the violent, feral adrenaline rushing through my veins."I swear!" the man coughed, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the dusty floor. He squeezed his eyes shut, his entire body trembling in a pathetic display of fear. "I swear to God, I don't know anything about your trucks!"I took a slow, heavy step forward, the toe of my leather boot stopping just inches from his face."You were caught taking pictures of my south warehouse at two in the morning," I stated, my voice dangerously calm, completely devoid of the rage I was physically exerting. "My security detail watched you linger by the loading d

Nirvana’s POVI scraped the palette knife aggressively against the wooden board, mashing a thick glob of crimson oil paint into a streak of pure white.I needed the exact shade of pale rose for the background of my midterm piece. The frantic, repetitive motion of mixing the heavy oils was the only thing keeping me grounded. I was desperately trying to push the memory of the New Orleans voicemail and the terrifying, tattooed thug at the campus gates entirely out of my head. If I stopped moving, if I let my brain idle for even a second, the sheer panic of being hunted would completely paralyze me."If I have to paint one more bowl of rotting fruit, I am going to officially change my major to accounting," Chloe groaned loudly from the easel next to mine.She wiped a smudge of yellow ochre off her forehead with the back of her wrist, unintentionally leaving a bright, mustard-colored streak across her skin. She dropped her shoulders, glaring at the still-life setup in the center of the r

Nirvana’s POVI pressed my pen so hard against the thin paper of my notebook that the tip actually tore right through the page. I cursed under my breath, flipping to a fresh sheet, but I didn't write anything down. I couldn't focus. My afternoon literature class had started twenty minutes ago, but my brain was still stuck in the art studio. I couldn't stop thinking about the cup of paint water hovering in the air. I couldn't stop thinking about Davis.The quiet, weirdly intense guy in the back of the room had stepped in to help me, but nothing about it felt like a favor. The blank, dead look in his eyes when he grabbed Sienna's wrist kept flashing in my mind, merging with the terrifying voicemail from the New Orleans thugs. My entire life felt like it was actively crumbling at the edges, and I was just sitting in a hard plastic chair, pretending everything was perfectly normal."The tragedy isn't that he becomes a monster," Professor Evelyn Miller said, her voice cutting sharply thr

Nirvana’s POVA scream ripped through my throat, completely shattering the quiet silence of the dark bedroom.My hands clawed frantically at the comforter, twisting the fabric into thick knots as I kicked out violently against the mattress. The suffocating weight of the nightmare clung to my chest, stealing all the oxygen from the room. I could still see the tattooed thug from the campus gates, standing in the shadows, tapping his watch. His rough face morphed into Professor Miller’s mocking smile, whispering into my ear that I was just a liability waiting to be discarded."Nirvana! Hey, look at me."Large, warm hands grabbed my shoulders, pinning me firmly against the mattress to stop my thrashing.I gasped, my eyes snapping open to the dark ceiling of the master suite. My chest heaved as I dragged air into my burning lungs. The shadows in the corners of the room slowly stopped spinning, settling back into the familiar shapes of Adrian’s heavy oak furniture.Adrian pulled me straigh