All Chapters of Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series): Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Chapter 42Maddox POVJordan didn’t flinch when I said it.She didn’t gasp. She didn’t recoil like I’d admitted to something monstrous. She just held my stare with that calm, surgical focus she used in court when someone tried to dodge a question.It was worse than anger.Anger I understood. Anger you could manage. Jordan’s silence was a blade you didn’t see until it was already at your throat.Kane stood beside me, rigid, like he was holding himself together by force. His eyes kept flicking between us, watching for the moment Jordan decided she was done and walked out.I wasn’t worried about her walking out because I thought she was dramatic.I was worried because she had the kind of integrity that didn’t bend when it was inconvenient.And I needed her to bend, just enough, to keep my people alive.Jordan spoke first. “What exactly did you cover up?”Direct. No emotion. No theatrics.Just the question that could end us.I didn’t answer immediately.Not because I didn’t have words.Be

Chapter 44Jordan POVMaddox’s words hung in the air between us like he’d set them there on purpose and dared me to touch them.It wasn’t me who struck.I didn’t react the way he probably expected. No gasp. No dramatic step backward. I just stared at him, letting my brain do what it always did when someone tried to hand me a partial truth like it was the whole story.It was a confession and a deflection in the same breath.Which meant it was useful.And dangerous.“Okay,” I said finally.His eyes narrowed slightly, like he didn’t trust my calm. “Okay?”“Yes,” I said, then set my hand flat on his desk to ground myself. “Because either you’re trying to protect someone, or you’re trying to keep me from turning you into the villain in your own narrative. Either way, you just confirmed there’s a striker—an individual who put hands on Kline. And if Silvia gets a name before I do, we’re all screwed.”Maddox’s jaw flexed. He didn’t like the word screwed. He liked control, order, clean lines.

Chapter 46Jordan POVRoger met me in a place that smelled like day old coffee and questionable decisions.It was technically a diner, but “diner” made it sound charming. This one had sticky menus, a neon beer sign that flickered like it was trying to die, and a server who called everyone “hon” with the flat exhaustion of a woman who’d seen too many men cheat and too many people pretend they didn’t.I slid into the booth across from Roger and set my phone on the table like a weapon.He looked at it, then at me. “You always come armed.”“I’m a defense attorney,” I said. “It’s either this or a handgun and a bottle of ibuprofen.”Roger’s mouth twitched. “You say that like you don’t own both.”I smiled sweetly. “Order. Of. Protection.”He snorted and pushed a folder across the table. “Here.”I didn’t open it immediately. I watched his face first. Roger Teller wasn’t a dramatic man. If his jaw was tight, something had teeth.“What’s the headline?” I asked.“Tip line was scrubbed the way we

Chapter 48Jordan POVElaina’s clinic didn’t look like what people picture when they hear the word clinic.No dingy waiting room. No stack of outdated magazines. No sad little fish tank with one traumatized goldfish circling the same plastic castle until the end of time.This place looked like a private medical suite you’d find inside a gated community—clean, organized, quiet in a way that made you lower your voice without being told. There was real equipment. Modern monitors. A locked cabinet that screamed controlled substances without a single label needing to be read.And there were no patients in sight.Rowan stopped at the door like he’d escorted me to a jury box instead of a doctor’s office. “You going in?”“No,” I said, deadpan. “I’m actually just here for the vibes.”His mouth didn’t move. His eyes did, a fraction, like he was trying to decide if he hated me or respected me.“Don’t wander,” he reminded me, like I’d ever once wandered in my entire adult life without a plan.“Ye

Chapter 50Jordan POVI walked into the common room with a legal pad tucked under my arm and a fresh hatred for breakfast television.The TV was still on—volume low, captions on—because Elias had apparently decided that if we were going to be publicly set on fire, we should at least have the courtesy of reading the match label.RICO TASK FORCE crawled across the bottom of the screen in thick red letters. The anchor’s face looked way too pleased to be reporting something that could put human beings in cages for the rest of their lives.I crossed the room and clicked the TV off. Not because I wanted to pretend it wasn’t happening—because I needed every person in this house looking at me, not at a headline designed to make them panic.The pack was already gathering. They didn’t come in all at once like a normal meeting. Wolves arrived in waves—quiet steps, scanning eyes, bodies that positioned automatically for advantage. Some leaned against walls. Some stayed near exits. A few—mostly yo