Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

The Brother's Story"I need you to hear all of it before you decide how angry to be," Bas said, his voice shaking through the phone. "Please. Just let me explain. Damian's jaw was tight, his knuckles white around the phone. "Talk."Four years ago, before I'd fully cut ties with the family business, I got into serious debt, Bas said, the words tumbling out fast, like a confession he'd rehearsed a hundred times and still couldn't say smoothly. "Gambling. It's embarrassing, it's not who I want to be, but it's the truth. I owed more than I could ever pay back on an artist's income, and I was too proud and too scared to come to you or Grandmother for help. Trevor found out somehow. I still don't know how, and he offered to quietly cover the debt. No interest, no pressure, he made it sound like a kindness between two people who ran in overlapping circles.""And in exchange?" Damian's voice was flat, controlled, but Vivienne could hear the effort it cost him to keep it that way."Nothing, fo

A Quiet Kind of Forever"We're going away for the weekend," Damian announced Friday morning, setting a cup of coffee down in front of Vivienne before she'd even fully opened her eyes. "No phones. No lawyers. No press. Just us."Vivienne blinked up at him from the kitchen table, still half-asleep, hair a mess, wrapped in one of his old sweaters. "Damian, there's a board meeting in three days. Trevor's legal team is..""Will still be there Monday, he said firmly, sitting down across from her. "Vivienne, we've been running on fear and adrenaline for two weeks straight. I nearly lost you. You nearly lost me. I think we've earned forty-eight hours where the biggest decision either of us has to make is what to have for dinner." Something in his voice quiet, certain, a little pleading, made the last of her resistance melt away."Okay," she said softly. "Where are we going?""Como," he said. The lake house. My grandmother's been asking when we'd finally see it properly, instead of in the midd

Too Close to the TruthWeston Hale looked smaller in the hospital bed than he had in his glass office, tubes and monitors tangled around him, his face pale and drawn but his eyes still sharp when Damian and Vivienne slipped past the guard stationed outside his room."You came," he rasped, managing a faint, tired smile. "I wondered if you would.""You saved my life," Vivienne said softly. "Of course we came.""How are you feeling?" Damian asked, and Vivienne noticed, with quiet surprise, that the question sounded genuine. Like a man who's spent a great deal of time reconsidering his choices, Weston admitted. "The doctors say I was lucky. I'm not entirely sure I agree. Lucky men don't usually end up shot on a warehouse floor because their own plans finally spiraled past their control.""We need to ask you something," Damian said, pulling a chair close to the bed. "My brother visited you today, before we landed. He didn't tell us."Something flickered across Weston's tired face careful,

When the Truth Goes MissingThey reached Bas's apartment eleven minutes later, Reyes's team already stationed outside, the front door standing ajar in a way that made Vivienne's stomach drop before anyone said a single word."Clear," one of Reyes's men called from inside, though his voice carried none of the relief the word usually implied.Damian pushed past him into the apartment, and Vivienne followed close behind, both of them stopping short at the sight waiting for them in the living room.The place had been torn apart, drawers pulled out and overturned, couch cushions slashed open, Bas's easel knocked to the floor, a half-finished canvas trampled beneath scattered papers. And in the center of it all, no sign of Bas anywhere."Bas!" Damian's voice cracked as he moved through the wreckage, checking the bedroom, the bathroom, every corner of the small apartment with rising, frantic urgency. "Bas!"Nothing. Silence, except for the soft creak of the front door swinging slightly on it

Running on EmptyNobody spoke for a long moment after Vivienne read Ms. Adler's message aloud."He knows," Reyes finally said, dragging a hand down his face. "He knows about the sting before it's even happened. Which means walking into that boardroom tomorrow with a wire is worse than useless. It's a death sentence for whoever he decides to punish for our getting caught.""So we call it off," Damian said, his voice hollow. "We do exactly what he wants. I stand up in front of the board tomorrow and hand him the company.""And then what?" Vivienne said sharply. "You think he lets Bas walk free the second you comply? Men like Trevor don't release leverage, Damian. They use it until there's nothing left to squeeze out of it.""Then what do you want me to do?" Damian's voice cracked, exhaustion and fear finally breaking through twelve years of careful control all at once. "Tell me, Vivienne. Tell me the plan, because I have spent the last six hours trying to find one, and I keep hitting th