All Chapters of OWNED IN THE DARK: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

CIARA"I don't give a rats ass what uncle Ray thinks. I pay your salary so you listen to me. This is the last time I'm having this conversation...if I have to repeat myself then consider yourself fired." I slammed my phone down in irritation. "The Q3 distribution audits for the Horizon project are finalized, Ms. Ciara," my junior secretary, said as she stepped into my office. Her voice was steady, but I caught the slight tremor in her fingers as she set the leather-bound folder on my desk."Thank you, I said without looking up from my tablet. "Did you ensure the encryption keys for the digital masters were rotated this morning?""Yes, ma'am. First thing at eight o'clock.""Excellent. You can go."The door clicked shut behind her. I waited exactly thirty seconds. Then, I slid my reading glasses down my nose, closed the audit folder without looking at it, and turned on the secondary monitor hidden beneath the recess of my desk.On the screen, a real-time digital mirror of Liana's desk

MATHEW"Are you sure she's on her way to me?"The private elevator chime cut through the silence—a single, clean electronic note.The doors slid open directly into the loft. A sharp, rhythmic clicking echoed across the polished concrete floor—the unmistakable, lethal strike of high heels. I didn't drop the strip of linen tape I was unwrapping from my knuckles. I just watched her move past the minimalist kitchen, her silhouette cutting through the low ambient light.Ciara looked like a specter of vengeance in a dripping wet silk trench coat, her dark hair plastered to her neck by the storm. Her skin was pale, almost transparent, but her eyes were fixed on me with an intensity that made the hair on my arms stand up."You didn't answer your phone," she said, her voice a low, dangerous vibration."I was cleaning up," I replied, my voice gravelly. I stood up slowly, my eyes dropping to her hands. She wasn't carrying a weapon, but her fingers were clenched into white-knuckled fists. "Louis

MATHEWThe safehouse in Richmond didn’t look like a fortress from the outside. It was a low, Victorian cottage wrapped in thick ivy, hidden at the end of a long, private lane that bled into the dark expanses of Richmond Park. But beneath the brick and the slate, Louis’s security team had turned it into a digital cage. The perimeter was lined with high-frequency infrared sensors, and the windows were reinforced with ballistic laminate that rattled softly against the relentless onslaught of the midnight storm.Upstairs, Adam was fast asleep, tucked into a small bedroom with a security guard stationed right outside his door.Downstairs, the silence was suffocating.I sat on the worn leather sofa in front of the brick fireplace, a glass of neat Scotch resting between my thighs. Patient Two.The ghost in our heads wasn't a corporate spy. It wasn't a disgruntled uncle or a bitter ex. It was someone who knew our blood types, our medical histories, and the exact coordinates of our lives befo

MATHEW"Take Adam now."I didn't look back to see if Ciara heard me over the deafening scream of the perimeter alarm. I kept my shoulder pressed hard against the doorframe of the master bedroom, the cold steel of the Glock solid against my palm. Another high- round punched through the upstairs hallway window, showering the hardwood floor in a lethal spray of crystalline shards."Mathew, the glass—" Her voice was too high, tight with a panic that didn't belong to the Ciara I knew."I said take him!" I roared, checking the sightline through the cracked oak door. "Bathroom. Now. It’s the only room with reinforced brick backing. Move, Ciara!"A heavy thud sounded from the staircase, the unmistakable sound of tactical boots moving fast, overriding the sirens. They weren't using silencers anymore. They didn't need to. They knew where we were here.I didn't wait for her to process it. I grabbed her by the arm, dragging her and the crying three-year-old into the tiled master bathroom. I slamm

MATHEWWe were now on air yet the tension was so high "He's finally asleep," Louis said, stepping up from the galley toward the front of the cabin. He slid a ruggedized military tablet onto the mahogany table between us. His face looked gray under the recessed LED lights of the jet. "My team in Richmond took the server arrays out of the walls before the local authorities could seal the perimeter. I ran the dashcam footage through a deep-packet frame analysis."I didn't touch my drink. I kept my eyes on the tablet. "And?""The black SUV—the one registered to Legacy Medical that you were driving," Louis said, his voice dropping into a tight, cautious register as he glanced toward Ciara. She didn't turn around, but the tremor in her hand stopped instantly. She was listening. "It didn't just appear from the blind spot. It was idling on the shoulder of the M4 for forty-two minutes before Ciara’s sedan passed the bridge.""Waiting," I muttered, my jaw tightening until a sharp ache flared in