All Chapters of No Escape from the Billionaire’s Contract: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

Three hours in, the sweep had produced exactly nothing, and Zariel had stopped pretending the waiting wasn't wearing her down to something thin and frayed."What did Martha say," she asked Kaelen quietly, catching him alone in the hallway between rooms, "when you found her in the dressing room.""That she was checking the outlets for the electrician, who apparently mentioned a fault last week." Kaelen's expression stayed carefully neutral. "It is a plausible answer. I chose to accept it as one, for now, given everything else currently demanding our attention. I have not stopped thinking about it.""Do you believe her?""I believe she was frightened of something in that room. Whether it was me catching her, or something else entirely, I could not tell you." He rubbed his eyes, the exhaustion of the morning finally showing through. "One crisis at a time. Find the device first.""You're not usually this willing to let a loose thread sit unpulled.""I am aware. I am choosing to trust that

"Julian knows what he needs to know, which is considerably less than you might assume." The Handler's smile thinned slightly, the first genuine crack Martha had seen in it. "Julian likes to believe he's running something. He is, in fact, running an errand. There's a meaningful difference between the two, and it would do him some good to learn it before it's taught to him less gently.""What do you want?""Straight to business. I respect that." He reached into his jacket, produced a small case, and opened it to reveal something considerably more sophisticated than the cable she'd planted three days ago, a small, matte black device no larger than a coin, with a lens so tiny she wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't pointed it out directly. "The last device you placed has gone quiet. We assume mechanical failure, though I suspect, privately, that you had something to do with that. I want you to know I find that rather impressive, actually. Most people in your pos

He understood the full shape of it only after the Handler had already gone, sitting alone in his office with the lamp still burning, the words replaying themselves in a loop he couldn't quiet.Federal material. Not a scandal Zariel could weather with a good publicist and a carefully worded statement. A crime. Something with prosecutors attached to it, potential prison time, the complete and permanent destruction of a woman whose only actual offense, as far as Julian could tell, was falling in love with the wrong Sterling brother at the wrong moment in a fake marriage that had somehow, against every reasonable expectation, become real.He thought about the last time he'd actually spoken to her directly, weeks ago now, at some gala neither of them had wanted to attend, before all of this had curdled into something this ugly. She'd been sharp with him, but not cruel. Funny, even, in a way that had briefly reminded him why Kaelen might have chosen her over every calcul

"That's a very patient way of answering a question I wanted a simple yes to.""I am aware. I have found, lately, that patient answers tend to hold up better than simple ones." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Ask me again after the Summit. I suspect I will have a considerably more confident answer by then."They sat like that a while longer, the sun warm on both of them, the ease of two people who had, against every reasonable expectation, built something worth protecting out of a contract that was never supposed to mean anything at all.It was nearly noon before Zariel realized she hadn't seen Martha all morning.***It wasn't alarming, exactly. Martha had entire wings of the apartment to manage, errands to run, a schedule that didn't always intersect with Zariel's own. But by early afternoon, the absence had started to feel less like coincidence and more like avoidance, though Zariel couldn't have said exactly why the distinct

Martha was found and brought in within minutes, flanked by two security staff, and Zariel understood, the instant she saw her face, exactly how this was going to go.Martha would not meet her eyes. Her hands, clasped tightly in front of her, were visibly trembling, and somewhere just beyond the conference room's glass wall, close enough to be seen, far enough to seem coincidental, stood a man in a grey jacket Zariel had never seen before, watching the proceedings with the mild, patient attention of someone checking on an investment.Zariel looked at Martha and silently begged her, with everything she had left, to find some way through this that didn't require either of them to break."Mrs. Delgado," the lead auditor said, using Martha's surname with a formality Zariel had never once heard applied to her in this house. "You maintain the household study. Have you observed anything unusual regarding Mrs? Sterling's activities there. Files, devices, late-night