All Chapters of MY RUDE NEIGHBOUR IS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Adrian's penthouse occupied the entire top floor of a building three blocks from the office, all clean lines and floor-to-ceiling glass, nothing at all like the gritty studio I'd once known him in. I stood in the entryway for a long moment after security cleared us through, taking in a life I hadn't known existed underneath six weeks of hoodies and broken elevators."You can take the guest room," he said, setting his keys down on a marble counter. "It has its own lock, its own bathroom. You don't have to see me again tonight if you don't want to.""I don't know what I want tonight." I meant it honestly, exhaustion and fear and something else entirely tangled together until I couldn't separate one feeling from the next. "Adrian, I need to ask you something, and I need you to answer honestly, not carefully.""Ask.""Freya. The other women. From the apartment." I crossed my arms, needing something to hold onto. "What actually happened, all of it, not the version you gave me in the office

"You need to bring him in," I said, already pulling on my shoes, adrenaline burning through whatever exhaustion had settled over me minutes earlier. "Now. Tonight. Not tomorrow, not after we've built a stronger case. Someone was in that room with a camera pointed at your bedroom, Adrian, and it traces back to his department.""I know." Adrian was already dressed, jaw set, moving through the penthouse with a controlled, focused urgency that reminded me of the man who'd traced a data packet through six shell servers months ago. "I've called building security to hold him if he tries to leave. I'm not handling this alone. I'm calling the police the second we have him in a room.""What if it's not actually him? What if he's being framed the same way Priya said Cole was being framed?""Then he'll have an explanation, and we'll listen to it." Adrian grabbed his keys, glancing at me. "But I'm done giving him the benefit of every doubt while you're the one who keeps ending up in danger because

"Marcus." Cole's voice stayed even, though I saw his hand shift subtly toward his jacket, some old instinct for danger clearly still intact despite his age. "This doesn't need to happen out here, in front of her.""It needs to happen exactly here." Marcus stepped further onto the terrace, pulling the door shut behind him with a soft, deliberate click that suddenly made the space feel a great deal smaller. "You were about to hand her my name like a gift, and I've spent two years making sure nobody got to do that before I was ready."My stomach dropped, the last fragile thread of doubt finally snapping clean. "It's you. It's been you this whole time.""Give the woman a round of applause." Marcus's voice had shed every trace of warmth I'd once found so easy to lean on, replaced by something flat, almost bored, like a performance he was relieved to finally set down. "Though, to be fair, it took you considerably longer than I expected. I built the ghost account to trace back to my start d

The hour crawled by in a way that made every minute feel like ten. Adrian sat beside me on his couch, phone in hand, refreshing my inbox almost as often as I did, both of us too wound up from the terrace to even consider sleep. Somewhere down the hall, security had doubled the usual overnight detail, and every so often I caught the low murmur of a radio check drifting through the closed door, a reminder that tonight's danger hadn't actually ended just because Marcus had been driven away in handcuffs."Maybe it's nothing," I said, not believing it even as I said it. "Maybe it's an empty threat. Marcus is in custody. Whatever contingency he had, he's not exactly in a position to execute it from a holding cell.""He might not need to be there personally to execute it." Adrian's jaw was tight, his eyes fixed on his own phone, scrolling through something with a focus that told me he wasn't just waiting alongside me. "I had IT pull every financial transaction connected to his known accoun

"Absolutely not," Adrian said, the moment the officers left. "You are not going anywhere near that building.""I didn't say I was going." I sat down heavily on the couch, my hands still shaking from the last hour's revelations. "I said we need a plan that doesn't involve just waiting here for Julian to decide his next move for us.""The plan is protective custody. The plan is a security detail that doesn't leave your side until this man is caught." Adrian paced in front of the window, phone still in hand, coordinating with a team that had apparently expanded twice in the last twenty minutes. "I am not putting you anywhere near a building where he's already proven he can access at will.""He wrote that message for me specifically. He wants me there." I met his eyes, some reckless, exhausted clarity settling over the panic finally. "If I don't go, he escalates somewhere else, somewhere we're not prepared for. At least if it's that building, we know the layout. I lived there, I know ever