All Chapters of Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series): Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Chapter 51Jordan POVI didn’t realize how much Rowan’s little… endorsement rattled me until I was alone again.Not because I needed his approval. I don’t collect validation like it’s reward points. But Rowan Blackwood didn’t do anything “quietly” unless it mattered. He was the kind of man who would rather take a bullet than say something kind in a room full of witnesses.And he’d backed me.Not because he liked me. I’m not delusional.Because he’d decided I was useful.Which was both flattering and—if I was being honest—slightly terrifying.I shut myself in the library office after the meeting, mostly so I could breathe without fifteen pairs of eyes tasting the air like it had secrets. The packhouse was too quiet in the way it got after a storm: everything looked normal, but you could still feel the damage under the surface.I dropped into the chair at the desk and stared at the file folder in front of meCARTER, DANIEL— DECEASED.My father’s name in black ink never got easier to see

Chapter 53Jordan POVThe email showed up at 7:12 a.m., which felt intentional.Not because the bar association had a personal vendetta against my caffeine intake—though I wouldn’t put it past them—but because the universe has a mean little sense of timing. You don’t get to be a defense attorney without developing a working theory that chaos has an intern assigned specifically to you.NOTICE OF GRIEVANCE — REQUEST FOR RESPONSEOffice of Disciplinary CounselI stared at the subject line long enough that my coffee went from “hot” to “regret.”On the counter beside my mug, my phone buzzed with another headline notification: “Carter Under Fire: Ethics Questions Swirl Amid Mercer Case.” Like it was a weather update.I didn’t open the article. I didn’t need to.I opened the grievance.The complaint was… enthusiastic.Allegations of compromised judgment. Conflict of interest. “Improper personal involvement.” “Undue influence.” The phrase living with client showed up three separate times in u

Chapter 55Jordan POVI learned a long time ago that the most dangerous person in a room is the one who makes you feel safe.Not because safety is bad—because false safety makes you sloppy. And sloppiness is how you get blindsided.So when I walked back into my suite and everything looked exactly the way I’d left it, but it felt wrong, my first thought wasn’t that I was overthinking it.It was: Someone’s gotten better at lying.I shut the door behind me and didn’t move for a full three seconds. No dramatic reason. Just… listening. The house had its own rhythm—distant footsteps, soft voices, pipes settling. Wolves moved differently than humans. Even in human form, there was a weight to them, a quiet surety in the way they existed.Right now, it was too quiet.I slipped my phone into my palm and crossed to the sitting area like I was just a woman returning to her coffee and emails. Normal. Boring. Fine.Except my eyes were scanning everything.The chair by the window was angled slightl

Chapter 57Jordan POVRowan Blackwood didn’t do casual.He didn’t do friendly either, but I’d stopped expecting friendly from anyone who looked like they’d been carved out of bad weather and stubbornness. Rowan lived in a permanent state of “I don’t trust you” and wore it like a uniform.Which, to be fair, made him predictable.Predictable men were easier to handle than charming ones.He had me in the training yard, near the tree line, his arms crossed like he was personally offended by daylight. A few of the pack were scattered across the field doing what looked like drills. I had just finished my lessons and started toward him. The second he spotted me, the energy shifted. Eyes flicked. Bodies adjusted. A silent recalibration of the environment that reminded me I wasn’t in a courthouse.I was in a place where hierarchy lived in muscle memory.I wore leggings and a sweatshirt because I’d learned the hard way that silk pajamas and blankets did absolutely nothing for my ability to act

Chapter 59Jordan POVI’d been in rooms where powerful men tested each other like dogs.Boardrooms. Courtrooms. Back hallways outside judge’s chambers where the air smelled like coffee and ego and quiet threats.This wasn’t that.This was older.Cleaner.More organized.And if you didn’t know the rules, you’d never even see the knife until it was already in you.Kane told me the council rep was coming an hour before he arrived.He didn’t knock on my door. He didn’t hover. He simply appeared in the hallway outside my suite like he’d been assigned by gravity itself.“Counsel,” he said, voice low. “You’re needed at the south drive.”I blinked up at him. “Is this another ‘you’re being watched’ situation or a ‘smile and behave’ situation.”Kane’s mouth twitched, almost a smile. Almost. “Both.”That was… comforting in a way I didn’t want to acknowledge.I grabbed my legal pad, my phone, and the folder I’d labeled COUNCIL / OVERSIGHT even though I didn’t actually know what the council was be