All Chapters of Dirty Games Off Ice: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

Alex The second explosion hit harder than the first one. The whole tunnel shook and dust poured down from the ceiling like someone had kicked a bag of flour over our heads. Pieces of concrete broke off and smacked the floor around our feet. The emergency lights flickered once, twice, then half of them died completely. The ones that stayed on turned a weak yellow and made everything look sick.I did not wait for anyone to tell me what to do. I just started moving. My legs still felt like they belonged to someone else after everything that had just come out of their mouths, but standing still was not an option. Jax pushed past me without a word and took the lead like he always did. I kept my eyes locked on the back of his head the entire time. I was not letting him get more than three steps ahead of me. Not after what I had just heard. Not after what he had admitted.Damien stayed close on my right side. He was quieter than I had ever heard him. His face looked empty, like someone ha

Alex “Anything. Tell me how many times you wanted to run after that night and didn’t.”He was quiet for a few seconds. “Every day for the first year. Then I stopped counting because running would have meant never seeing you again and I couldn’t do that.”“That’s not a good reason.”“I know. It’s just the true one.”Jax spoke without looking at me. “I stayed because I thought if I controlled enough of your life I could make up for the part I broke. Turns out that just broke more of it.”“Yeah. It did.”Another long shake. This one brought water higher. It reached our boots. The cold climbed my legs. I shifted closer without meaning to. Damien’s arm was right there and I grabbed the sleeve of his shirt instead of his skin. He let me. Did not move. Did not comment.The air was bad enough now that talking took more effort. My words came slower. “If this is it, I need you both to hear something.”“We’re listening,” Jax said.“I meant what I said earlier. No more secrets. No more deciding

Alex The beam of a flashlight cut straight through the dust and hit us dead on. I froze with my hands still on them and theirs still on me. Jax's face was flushed dark under the sudden light. Damien's eyes were wide and locked on mine like he could not look anywhere else. My shirt was half off. Their jackets were on the wet floor. Everything that had felt private and mine in the dark was right there in the open for whoever held that light to see. More lights flooded in. Voices shouted. It was not one person. It was a whole team tearing the sealed entrance apart. Lila stepped through first. Lily was right behind her. Lila's flashlight beam stayed fixed on the three of us for a long second that felt like it lasted a year. Her face went blank, then twisted into pure horror mixed with disgust. She looked at me, then at Jax, then at Damien, then back at me again. "What the hell did I just walk in on?" Her voice was sharp and loud enough that the rest of the team stopped moving

Alex Agent Chen came back. "We have everything we need. The federal team is moving in on Victor's remaining properties as we speak. By the end of the day, he'll have nothing."I nodded. "Good.""What about the inheritance?" Damien asked. "Victor's assets. They're tied to the Rivera name, right?"Agent Chen looked at me. "Legally, Alex is the sole heir to the Rivera trust. That includes everything Victor built using Rivera money. But you don't have to keep it. You can donate it. Dissolve it. Whatever you want."I thought about the letter in my pocket. My mother giving up everything to protect me. The fortune that had destroyed my family. The money that Victor had used to hurt so many people."I'm not keeping it," I said. "I'm going to use it to help people. Like my mother would have wanted."We left the vault with boxes of evidence. Agent Chen promised to keep us updated on the federal case. She also promised that Victor would not see the outside of a cell for a very long time.We dro

Lila’s POVThe gala was over. The Rivera Foundation had officially launched. Everyone was celebrating. Everyone except me.I stood in the corner of the ballroom as I watched the crowd. Alex was surrounded by reporters and asked him many questions. He smiled and answered them all. Damien was talking to some lawyers. They looked serious. Jax was laughing with Nancy. They seemed happy together. Everyone looked happy. Everyone looked like they belonged here.I did not belong.I had spent years trying to control everyone around me. I had blackmailed Alex, I had threatened Damien. I had used people like they were tools and I had lied. I had hurt people. And now I was trying to be better. But it was hard. Every day was hard. I woke up and told myself to be good. I went to bed and still felt like the old me. The old me was always there. She whispered in my ear. She told me I was not good enough. She told me I would fail.I looked at the people around me. They all had friends. They all had fa