All Chapters of Our Dirty Little Secret : Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

153 Chapters

Chapter One Hundred Thirty

I kept my eye pressed to the peephole. The hallway beyond stayed dark and still.“Ryder?” I asked again while my free hand stayed braced against the doorframe. The word came out quieter than the first time, almost like a plea.His voice answered through the wood. Rough and familiar. The sound of it slid under my skin and loosened something tight in my chest.“It’s me, Dal.”I looked back at Hazel. She had pushed herself up against the headboard with one hand pressed firmly over the bandage on her stomach. Her eyes were wide and her breathing came shallow. Fear still sat clear on her face but something else moved behind it now. Hope, maybe. Or the start of it. “Is it really him?” she whispered while watching me carefully.“I think so,” I said as I turned back to the door. My fingers trembled once against the lock. I unlocked it one careful click at a time. The deadbolt slid free. My hand stayed on the handle for a long second while I listened to the quiet on the other side. Then I pul

Chapter One Hundred Thirty- one

Ryder I held her wrists between us and stared into her eyes. The soft city light caught the wet shine in them, her eyes softened with uncertainty of what I was doing. I regretted putting her in my mess, I wished I had protected her more instead of pushing her to a mess. Every emotion I had been holding back since the moment I found that motel door rose hard and sudden in my chest. The nights spent wondering if she was still breathing. The way her body had melted against mine the second she opened the door, I could not wait another second, but there’s a lot I wanted to apologize for. I pulled her forward and crashed my mouth onto hers.Her lips parted under the pressure and a soft sound slipped from her throat straight into me. I kissed her deeper, tasting the sweetness I had been starving for. My hands left her wrists and slid up into her hair. I tilted her head and claimed more of her mouth. She pressed closer until every line of her body lined up against mine. Her fingers curled

Chapter One Hundred Thirty- two

Dallas The door clicked shut and the sound hit me harder than it should have. I stood in the middle of the living room with my arms hanging useless at my sides and the silence pressing in from every direction. The suite felt too big all of a sudden. My chest tightened until each breath had to fight its way out. Heat still lived on my skin where his hands had held me and where his mouth had been only minutes before. The ghost of the kiss refused to fade and the absence of him already felt like a bruise.I lifted my fingers to my lips and pressed them there hard. For a second I tried to keep the feeling from disappearing. Then I dropped my hand.“Goddamn it.” I muttered under my breath. The word came out low and rough and did nothing to ease the ache spreading under my ribs.I started pacing because standing still hurt worse. My arms stayed wrapped tight around my middle as I walked the length of the living room and back again. The memory of the couch rose clear and unwanted. The soli

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-three

I stayed frozen at the peephole with my pulse hammering so hard in my throat that every beat seemed to bruise the soft tissue from the inside. The tall man on the other side of the door did not move. He simply stood there filling the narrow view with that strong face and those broad shoulders, looking straight at the wood as if he had all the time in the world. The hallway light caught the hard line of his jaw and threw a faint shadow beneath his cheekbones. He did not knock again, he waited with the quiet certainty of someone who already knew how this would end.My hands trembled so violently that the phone nearly slipped from my fingers as I dragged it from my pocket. The glass felt colder than it had any right to be against the damp heat of my palm, and for a moment I could only stare at the screen while my breath came in short useless pulls that refused to fill my lungs. I forced my thumb across the glass and selected Ryder’s name, pressing harder than necessary because the urgenc

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-four

Ryder I ended the call and the screen went black. For a second I only stared at my own reflection in the dark glass, the hard lines of my face staring back like a stranger I barely recognized. Fury sat hot and heavy in my chest, pressing against my ribs until my hands started to shake. The thought of Dallas standing that close to Don Vitale made my grip tighten until the phone creaked in my hand, the plastic threatening to give under the pressure.I forced myself to set it down on the nearest surface before I crushed it completely. I dragged in a slow breath through my nose, held it until my lungs burned, then let it out through my teeth until the worst of the shaking left my fingers. There was no room for losing control. Not now. I rolled my shoulders once, straightened my jacket with a sharp tug at the cuffs, and walked out of the room with my jaw locked so tight it ached all the way up into my temples.I called Jax while I was still moving. The line rang once and then went straigh

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-five

Carlos’s words still hung in the dim air between us.I ignored him and kept my eyes fixed on Nick’s lowered head, on the slow rise and fall of his bruised chest, but my mind had already left the room. Give him what he wants, but I just can't give up Bruce without having my own backup plan. The phrase settled like lead behind my ribs. I didn't know how long Nick had been working for Don, but I was sure he had already given Don plenty to hold against me. I had to tread carefully. Trust was a luxury I couldn’t afford anymore.Handing Bruce over without knowing the true heir was a dangerous move that couldn’t be undone. My fingers curled into fists at my sides, nails biting into my palms until the sting grounded me.I turned away from the chair and started walking. Slow circles around the metal table, boots scuffing lightly against the concrete. Each step was measured, controlled, the only thing keeping the rest of me from fracturing. The question kept looping, tight and relentless.What

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-six

Bruce came down the stairs already dressed. He stopped at the last step and smiled at the housekeeper. Carlos stayed by the door with his arms folded. I waited by the table with my hands in my pockets so I would not reach too soon.“Where am I going?” Bruce asked the housekeeper, still smiling as he held the rail.She looked at Carlos, then looked at me. Her fingers twisted in her apron slightly.“You have been saying you want to go outside for ice cream,” she whispered, eyes dropping to the floor.“An old friend,” I cut in, stepping closer until I stood between them. “We are going to see an old friend.”Bruce brightened at her words, not mine. He touched her shoulder before reaching for his jacket and I took it from him before he could fumble the sleeves.“Come here,” I murmured, easing his arm through the first sleeve and then the other.He let me help him. I put a hand at his back and walked him only as far as the open front door. He turned his head toward her while we were still o

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-seven

DallasThe call dropped and the screen went black. The man looked at the phone, then at me, and the look held just long enough for my breath to snag. He turned and walked down the hall without another word. I stood in the open doorway with my hand still on the frame, unable to take it off, and watched him go until he reached the bend, every step stretching the hall behind him. When he disappeared, the quiet that followed felt like it had weight. My fingers were cold, colder than the wood. I pulled the door shut and locked it, and the click sounded too loud in the quiet, like it had come from inside my chest instead of the lock.Ryder’s face stayed in my head anyway, the way he had looked at me through that screen. I rested my forehead against the wood for a second, the grain pressing a thin line into my skin, and breathed slowly, the air catching halfway before I turned back into the room.Hazel was behind me with a knife in her hand, her grip shaking until she locked her wrist again

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-eight

RyderThe villa driveway curved in toward the house like a mouth that had already decided to swallow us. I parked and cut the engine. Bruce sat still for a second with his hands on his knees. Then his eyes moved over the stone, the windows, the men at the steps. Something flickered there. Recognition. It came and went so fast I almost missed it.He touched the door handle and froze.“I know this place,” he whispered, fingers tightening on the handle.Then the flicker died. His face slackened. He looked at me like I had brought him to the wrong shop.“Where is the ice cream?” he asked, turning his head toward the house as if the answer might be waiting on the porch.I got out, walked around, and opened his door.“Walk,” I told him, taking his elbow.He came with me. His steps were slow and careful, the sickness settling in as we crossed the stones. Two of Don’s men met us at the bottom of the steps. One of them tipped his chin toward the open doors.“This way,” the bodyguard ordered,

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-nine

Dallas We did not wait for the man on the street to reach us. I took Hazel’s arm and we cut through the shop door, noodles still warm in the bag. Inside, the light was hard and yellow. I watched the glass until the cheerful face passed and did not come back in. Only then did I let my shoulders drop.Hazel was already on her phone.“Look at this,” she told me, turning the screen. “His name is Don Vitale Trajan. Chairman of Aurelius Pacific Holdings.”His picture stared back in a suit that made him look so gentle just like the way he was when he came to the front door before his face twisted to what I couldn’t describe, he was listed as chairman of Aurelius Pacific Holdings. The page was full of ports and warehouses and dinners where he smiled over a glass of wine. I kept scrolling until Northline Logistics came up. Hazel took the phone back so fast the bag almost slipped from my other hand.“I worked in this company in Tacoma," she muttered, staring at the logo like it had teeth. “Ne

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