In Love With The Dangerous Professor のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 20

Caelum's POVKent slammed the file down on my desk incautiously."The men last night were novices," he said and disgust was in his voice. “Street muscle from some gang Nikolai has working for him. They weren't even armed properly.”I flipped through the file. Pictures of the two men. Background checks. A mile long rap sheet but nothing cunning. That such inertia would fall to thugs willing to take any job if paid enough.“He was experimenting,” I muttered."Testing what?""How far I'd go for her. How compromised I am." I closed the folder. "He got his answer."Kent joined me, and sat across from me looking grim. "This is bad, boss. Nikolai knows about the girl. He knows she matters to you. That makes her a target.""I'm aware.""Are you? From my vantage point, you’re thinking with your dick instead of your brain.”I looked at him sharply. Kent had been with me for 15 years. Owned the privilege of speaking without a filter. But there were limits."Careful," I warned.He didn't back dow

Caelum's POVI stood stock-still and I didn’t even know what to do with myself for a minute.Celine kissed me, lips crushing mine in an embrace that wasn’t really such and only a clawing embrace at that. No thoughts filled my head except for one screaming command: more.Then I kissed her like I was drowning and she was air.My hands reached for her waist and I drew her close. She gave a soft little sound into the back of her throat that nearly ruined me. Her fingers tightened in my hair again, but now she was tugging it hard enough to sting.Good. I wanted the pain. Wanted proof this was real.We fell back in a sprawl against the wall. I pulled her up and her legs locked around my hips without urging. She nipped at my lower lip, and I moaned her name like worship, like a curse, like the only word I’d ever learned."Celine." It came out rough, desperate.She kissed me fiercely, angrily, as if she were attempting to make me pay for every lie, every secret, and every time I sent her away

Caelum's POVThe club burned beautifully.I stood on the other side of the street, and watched as orange flames leaped up from the walls of Nikolai's most profitable venue. I felt the heat even from where I was standing; it made my face hot in the night chill. Sirens screamed in the distance, but I would be gone long before they arrived.Kent led the way and joined me, his features lit by the dancing light of the fire. A play of shadows passing over his face made him appear almost faustian. "That's the third one tonight. He's going to retaliate hard.""Good." I dropped my eye off of the fire and walked toward the car in the dark. "Let him come."This would be the fourth day that war had been declared upon me by Nikolai and his attack on my weapons shipment. A precisely orchestrated four days of strikes, burning his operations to the ground and keeping civilian casualties at zero. Four long days where nobody was sleeping, no one eating and barely anyone talking about anything other tha

Caelum's POV“Let her go,” I said in an even advanced degree voice. "Your fight is with me. She didn’t do it.”"Innocent?" Nikolai chuckled, the sound bouncing from metal walls. There's no innocent one in your life, Caelum. They're all complicit. All assets to be leveraged against you." He tilted his head and regarded Celine as if she were a curious specimen. “And she’s so much more effective than a bullet, don’t you agree? To watch you lose one more woman that you love, to watch her die because you couldn’t save her - well, that’s poetry. That's justice."I pulled my finger on the trigger, all my instincts screaming for me to fire. I could feel Celine’s trembling fingers clutch the back of my shirt behind me.“Don’t,” she whispered, so softly that I was the only one who could hear. "Please don't."She was telling me to yield. To value my own life over my pride, over the bloodlust I was feeling.But she didn't understand. If I gave up, Nikolai would kill us both eventually. Slowly. Pa

Caelum's POVAn icy-hot current of fury surged through me, clean and focused.Nikolai had crossed a line. Civilians were always a no-no in our world. Always. You didn’t touch family, you didn’t touch innocents who weren’t involved in the business.But he had stolen Celine’s best friend. A college student who had nothing to do with any of this except bad luck and loyalty to the wrong person.“Play it again,” I commanded Kent.He called up the video on his tablet. I stared at Maddie in terror, listened to her wails and gazed at the bruises already appearing on her skin.Celine was at my side, pale and scared. Her hand was hard on mine; she hurt me.“We are getting her back,” I said, firmly. "Whatever it takes.""How?" Celine's voice shook. "He wants me. That's the trade."“Then we let him have it. I turned to face her. "But on our terms. With our rules."Kent cleared his throat. "Boss, you're still recovering. You can barely lift your arm. Perhaps we should hesitate, plan this out—”"We