All Chapters of OWNED IN THE DARK: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

CIARAThe vibrations of the twin-cylinder engine were still echoing through my bones long after I had cut the ignition of the Ducati in the subterranean executive garage.The seventy-mile sprint from Surrey to the London headquarters of Horizon Holdings had been an absolute necessity for my mental stability. For two months, I had been suffocated by a perimeter of iron, trapped under the hyper-vigilant, suffocating shadow of Mathew’s fear. But the moment the cold air hit my face at ninety miles an hour on the open tarmac, the thick, heavy fog of domestic confinement had finally shattered. I was back in my domain.I stood in the center of the sleek, glass-walled boardroom on the fiftieth floor, my navy silk blouse tucked perfectly into my high-waisted charcoal trousers. My left shoulder ached with a dull, throapy throb beneath the fabric—a lingering reminder of the bullet I had taken—but my posture was entirely rigid, my reading glasses slid firmly onto the bridge of my nose as I watche

CIARAI stepped back from the glass window, my fingers immediately moving to tuck my navy silk blouse back into the waistband of my trousers with mechanical precision. My shoulder throbbed, a sharp, reminder of the price of vulnerability, but I ignored it. I picked up my reading glasses from the mahogany table, slid them over the bridge of my nose, and reached for my digital tablet. The corporate ice was back, thicker and more unyielding than before."Louis," I said, my voice cutting through the high-decibel hum of the boardroom as I tapped into the secure server logs. "Route the data stream from the drive directly to my terminal. Isolate the signal through our secondary Swiss firewall before you execute the decryption sequence.""Their location was locked down, he needs to go now if he wants to catch them." Louis’s voice crackled through the intercom, steady and precise. "The encryption layout is dense. It’s a multi-layered sovereign algorithm. Whoever left this behind wasn't just tr

MATHEWThe moment Louis said those words, every sound inside the warehouse seemed to disappear.The criminals were still zip-tied.Security was still cataloging evidence.Somebody was arguing over a laptop in the corner.But all I heard was Louis."You aren't going to like the answer."Beside me, Ciara went completely still.That was never a good sign.I tightened my grip on her hand."Who?" I asked.Louis didn't answer immediately.Which was somehow worse.The man never hesitated.If Louis was hesitating, then whatever was inside those files was bad."Louis."He rubbed the back of his neck.Then looked directly at Ciara."The money came from one of your dead brother's old accounts."Silence.Ciara blinked once.Then twice."No, that doesn't make sense. His brother has been dead for years. Why is any of his accounts still active?""The account was dormant until now.""No.""The money trail is clean.""No."I looked at her and felt like someone had punched a hole through solid ground b

MATHEWThe heavy iron of the 140-pound dumbbells slammed onto the rubber matting, the impact vibrating straight through the concrete floor of the public gym.I sat back on the bench, my chest heaving as sweat soaked through my black training shirt. I needed the public noise. I needed the mindless, clanking racket of a commercial facility in South London just to drown out the predatory, suffocating paranoia that had been clawing at my throat for the last twenty-four hours. Ever since we brought Adam down to the fortified safe zone in the basement of the estate, my knuckles had been itching for something solid to break."Your resting heart rate is hovering at ninety-eight beats per minute, big guy," Louis said, stepping up to the side of the bench. He wasn't dressed for a workout. He was in a lightweight black windbreaker, his encrypted terminal tucked under his arm, his eyes scanning the crowded weight floor with that permanent, low-level suspicion he carried everywhere. "The physical

MATHEWThe master bedroom was entirely too quiet.Outside, the Surrey estate was wrapped in a suffocating, militarized blackout. Louis had locked down every digital gateway, and my frontline tactical units were patrolling the perimeter under the cover of night, tracking thermal anomalies through the dark rain. Inside, the only illumination came from the faint, green glow of the encrypted security terminal mounted near the door.I sat on the edge of the mattress, my elbows resting on my knees, my hands clasped tightly together as my jaw tightly locked. I was still wearing my tactical trousers and a dark t-shirt, my body completely wired on a lethal cocktail of adrenaline and raw paranoia. My dead brother's signature was live on the network. An intruder had breached my son's nursery wing. Maggie had tried to execute a public liquidation of Ciara's reputation, only for the executioner to completely crush her on a live stream.My brain was a chaotic mess of defensive variables, but right