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Todos os capítulos de Sold to the Devil: His Ruthless Vow: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

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CHAPTER 31 : Caught in the Act

The service elevator hummed as it climbed the forty floors to the penthouse.I pulled the hood of the oversized sweatshirt down, trying to smooth my messy hair. My heart was hammering against my ribs."He is going to be asleep," I whispered to myself. "He took the painkillers. He won't know I was gone."Marcus stood next to me. He looked like a man marching to the gallows."He wakes up every two hours, Mrs. Thorne," Marcus said grimly. "If he rang the bell and I wasn't there...""Then we say I was hungry," I said. "We went to the kitchen. Or the pharmacy."The elevator dinged. The doors slid open.The penthouse was dark.I stepped out into the hallway, tiptoeing across the marble floor. I held my breath, listening for any sound.Silence."Clear," I mouthed to Marcus.He let out a sigh of relief and moved toward his security station.I crept toward the master bedroom. The door was cracked open, just as I had left it. I pushed it gently, slipping inside.The room was pitch black. The cu

CHAPTER 32 : Smoke and Mirrors

The gas hit us like a physical blow.It wasn't just smoke. It was tear gas. Chemical. Acrid. It burned my eyes and clawed at my throat.I coughed, doubling over. My lungs felt like they were on fire."Vivian!" Julian choked out.He fired two more shots into the hallway, but his hand was wavering. The recoil sent him stumbling backward. He hit the wall and slid down, clutching his bleeding side.The gas was too thick. We were trapped."Closet," Julian wheezed. "Get... inside."I didn't argue. I grabbed his arm. He tried to push me away."Leave me," he gasped. "Hide.""Shut up," I managed to say. Tears streamed down my face, blinding me. "Get up!"I pulled him with everything I had. He groaned, a sound of pure agony, but he forced himself to stand. He leaned his heavy weight on me.We stumbled backward into the walk-in closet.I kicked the door shut. It wouldn't stop the gas, but it bought us seconds."The safe," Julian rasped. He pointed to the back wall, behind a row of hanging suits.

CHAPTER 33 : The Librarian’s Sanctuary

I parked the black sedan three blocks away from my old building.It was raining harder now. The streetlights flickered against the wet pavement. My old neighborhood in Brooklyn looked exactly the same: gray, tired, and ignored by the rest of the world.Perfect."Julian," I whispered, shaking his shoulder. "We have to move."He groaned. His eyes cracked open, glassy and unfocused."Silas..." he mumbled, his hand instinctively reaching for a gun that wasn't there."Silas isn't here," I said. "Come on."I got out and ran to his side. I hauled him out of the passenger seat. He was heavy, a wall of muscle and dead weight. He draped his arm over my shoulder, his feet dragging on the asphalt.We looked like two drunks stumbling home. No one gave us a second glance.We reached the building. The front door lock was still broken, just like it was six months ago. I kicked it open."Stairs," I warned him. "Fourth floor."It was a nightmare.Every step was a battle. Julian hissed in pain with ever

CHAPTER 34 : Cash and Carry

I woke up with a stiff neck and the taste of dust in my mouth.Sunlight was streaming through the dirty blinds, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air. I was still curled on the rug, my hand cramping around the handle of the sewing scissors.I sat up quickly, my heart pounding.The bed was empty.Panic seized me. "Julian?""I’m here."He was in the doorway of the tiny kitchen, leaning heavily against the frame. He had found an old gray t-shirt of mine—an oversized sleep shirt with a faded university logo—and pulled it on. It was painfully tight across his chest and shoulders.He looked terrible. Pale, unshaven, his eyes ringed with dark shadows. But he was standing."You slept on the floor," he said, his voice gravelly."Someone had to watch the door." I stood up, stretching my aching back. "How is the side?""It feels like I was kicked by a horse that was on fire." He limped into the living room and eyed the lumpy beige sofa with undisguised disgust. "Where are we, Vivian?""My o

CHAPTER 35 : Street Level

"You walk too confident."I stood by the door of the apartment, watching Julian pace. He was wearing my old sweatpants (which were too short) and the tight gray t-shirt.He stopped and glared at me. "I walk how I walk.""You walk like you own the pavement," I corrected. "People look at you. If we are going out there, you need to slouch. Keep your head down. Look tired.""I am tired," he grumbled, rubbing his side."Then show it. Stop fighting the pain. Let it make you small."He hesitated. It went against every instinct he had. But he slowly let his shoulders drop. He hunched forward slightly, favoring his injured side. The arrogance vanished, replaced by the look of a man who had worked a double shift at a construction site."Better?" he asked."Much better. Put this on."I handed him a baseball cap I found in the closet. It was an old promotional hat for a tire company.He put it on and pulled the brim low."I look ridiculous," he muttered."You look invisible," I said. "Let's go."

CHAPTER 36 : Gone in Sixty Seconds

The parking lot was quiet. It was midday, people were at work.We walked between the rows of cars. Julian scanned them with a critical eye, ignoring the newer models with complex alarms."That one," he said, nodding toward a gray, rusted Ford Taurus parked near a dumpster. It was at least fifteen years old. "Simple ignition. Easy to bypass."We walked up to the driver's side. Julian leaned against the car, using his body to block the view from the street. He was breathing hard. The walk from the store had drained him.He pulled out the new pocketknife. He jammed the blade into the keyhole. He twisted it violently.Crunch.The lock cylinder broke."Open the door," he whispered, stepping back, clutching his side.I pulled the handle. The door creaked open.The inside of the car smelled like stale coffee and cigarettes."Get in the passenger seat," Julian ordered.I climbed over the center console. Julian slid into the driver's seat. He didn't close the door all the way, just in case we

CHAPTER 37 : Where It Began

We drove for four hours.The city lights faded into the rearview mirror, replaced by the dark, looming shapes of the Catskill Mountains. The paved road turned into gravel, then into dirt.The gray Ford Taurus groaned as it climbed the steep, winding path deep into the woods."Here," Julian said.I stopped the car.We were in a clearing surrounded by dense pine trees. In the center stood a structure that looked more like a tomb than a house. It was a two-story brick building, blackened by years of soot and neglect. The windows were boarded up. The roof sagged.Behind it, the rusted skeleton of an old ironworks factory rose against the moonlit sky."The Foundry," I whispered."My father bought it in the eighties," Julian said, staring at the dark house. "He said he needed a place where the neighbors couldn't hear the screaming."A chill went down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold."Come on."We got out. The air smelled of pine needles and wet iron.Julian walked to the front

CHAPTER 38 : The Dead Line

Morning came like a bruise, slow, purple, and cold.I woke up shivering. The fire had burned down to embers. Beside me, Julian was already awake. He was sitting on the wooden chair, staring at the boarded-up window.He had found a heavy iron poker and was turning it over in his hands."How is the side?" I asked, sitting up and pulling the moth-eaten blanket around me."Stiff," he said. He didn't look at me. His mind was miles away, calculating, strategizing. "But manageable."He stood up. He looked less like a billionaire now and more like a soldier who had lost his army."Silas has the network," Julian said, his voice echoing in the empty room. "He has the servers. He has the GPS grid. If we turn on those burner phones, he will have a drone over this roof in ten minutes.""So we are cut off," I said."Digitally, yes."Julian walked to the far wall, where a massive, rusted safe stood. It wasn't a modern safe with a keypad. It was an antique, made of cast iron, with a dial the size of

CHAPTER 39: The Crossroads

The fog rolled off the mountain like a white tide. It swallowed the trees, the road, and the stolen Ford Taurus.I gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles white."Kill the lights," Julian ordered.I flipped the switch. The world went pitch black, save for the gray swirl of mist outside the windows.We were parked on the shoulder of an old logging road, right where it intersected with the main highway. The crossroads."He's late," I whispered."The Broker isn't late," Julian murmured, his eyes scanning the darkness. "He's cautious. If he smells a trap, he won't show."Julian was sitting in the passenger seat, the gun resting on his thigh. He had cleaned the rust off the slide, but it was still a gamble if the weapon would fire without jamming. He looked pale. The adrenaline was fading, leaving him running on fumes and pain."If this goes bad," Julian said quietly, "you drive. You don't wait for me. You take the book and you go to the press.""I am not leaving you," I said, staring stra

CHAPTER 40 : Into the Woods

I slammed the brake pedal to the floor.The tires locked. The heavy Ford Taurus skidded, smoke screaming from the rubber.The SUV behind us didn't have time to react. I saw the driver’s eyes widen in the rearview mirror a split second before impact.CRASH.The world exploded.Metal screamed against metal. The SUV smashed into our rear bumper with the force of a freight train. My head snapped back against the headrest, stars exploding in my vision.The impact sent the SUV swerving violently to the left. It clipped our quarter panel, lost traction on the wet asphalt, and rolled. It tumbled off the road, crashing down the embankment in a shower of glass and metal.Our car spun. Once. Twice.We slammed backward into a guardrail. The trunk crunched like a soda can. The engine stalled. Silence rushed back in, broken only by the hiss of steam and the ringing in my ears."Vivian?" Julian’s voice was a wet cough.I shook my head, trying to clear the fog. "I’m... I’m okay.""Get out," he rasped

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