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All Chapters of Between You and the Bullet: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

54 Chapters

Chapter 1: The End of a Perfect Night

Seen through the glass from fifty floors above Manhattan, the city at night hardly looked real.Countless lights glittered far below against the black, and even the streams of traffic moving through the streets seemed like veins of polished jewels.That evening, the top floor of a hotel owned by Sterling Group was hosting a charity gala organized by the family foundation.More than three hundred guests had been invited—leaders from finance, law, real estate, the arts, and politics. Nearly every name belonged to someone who had appeared at least once in the business pages or the society columns.Audrey Sterling stood at the center of it all.Her deep navy gown left her shoulders bare without looking ostentatious. The jewels at her throat were elegant rather than excessive. Even so, whenever she crossed the ballroom, heads turned almost without thought.The only daughter of the Sterling family.And the woman widely expected to inherit one of the country’s most powerful business empires.

Last Updated : 2026-09-11

Chapter 2: The Man Who Doesn’t Look at Her

The next morning, when Audrey came down the stairs, a man she had never seen before was already standing in the entrance hall.Men came and went through the Sterling residence all the time because of the family’s business. Bankers, lawyers, politicians, investors. Audrey was accustomed to men in tailored suits and expensive watches who wanted everyone in the room to understand who they were before they even opened their mouths.This man was different.His suit was charcoal, nearly black. White shirt. Dark tie. Nothing about him seemed designed to attract attention. Even his height—six-foot-two at least—and the breadth of his shoulders did not create the kind of presence that demanded a room make space for him.Audrey understood why almost immediately.He was not standing there to be seen.His gaze kept moving.The front door. The staircase to the second floor. The windows to the east. The hallway beyond the foyer. The French doors opening toward the garden. Even when he looked at some

Last Updated : 2026-09-11

Chapter 3: Anything That Comes Near You

Nathan asked surprisingly little of Audrey before they left.Her usual sedan disappeared from the morning plan. The front entrance was no longer being used. Two members of the household security team were reassigned, and a second vehicle would leave several minutes before hers.None of those decisions were presented to Audrey one by one.By the time she returned upstairs, changed into a cream blouse and dark tailored trousers, and gathered the documents for the board meeting, the arrangements had already been made around her. Staff moved with greater purpose than usual, but no one crowded her with explanations. Nathan had apparently decided that protecting her did not require making her participate in every conversation about how it would be done.She found that unexpectedly tolerable.At nine ten, Claire Bennett met her outside the study with a tablet in one hand and concern she was trying unsuccessfully to hide.Claire had worked with Audrey long enough to know better than to ask wh

Last Updated : 2026-09-11

Chapter 4: A Safe Place

Just before the SUV entered the underground parking garage beneath Sterling Group headquarters, it slowed.To Audrey, the security checkpoint looked completely ordinary.Nathan did not seem to see it that way.His attention moved from the guard beside the gate to the surveillance cameras overhead, then to a delivery van stopped farther ahead and the shadowed section beside the ramp leading down to the second basement level.Every few seconds, something else became the focus of his attention.A brief voice came through his earpiece. Nathan answered once.That was enough.Instead of stopping in the usual executive parking area, the SUV continued deeper into the garage.“We’re using this entrance today?”Nathan kept his eyes forward.“Too many people have access to the executive elevators. Until we understand what happened last night, I don’t want your entry route becoming predictable.”The vehicle stopped near a service elevator Audrey rarely used.One of the security officers who had a

Last Updated : 2026-09-11

Chapter 5: The Perfect Fiancé

Julian Ashford arrived at Sterling Group headquarters a little after one in the afternoon.Audrey had called him almost immediately after the board meeting ended.She wanted him to hear two things from her before the formal request reached Ashford Global: Sterling would be asking for additional financial records, and she wanted the guarantee terms on their joint project reviewed.Julian had not sounded surprised.“I understand. I’m nearby anyway. Have you eaten?”When she admitted she had not, the conversation had ended there.Less than an hour later, he appeared in Audrey’s office carrying a paper bag from one of the restaurants she used regularly.“I assumed you’d forget to eat after the board meeting.”“I didn’t forget. I postponed it.”“In most civilized parts of the world, that still counts as forgetting.”Julian smiled as he set the bag on the table.He looked exactly as he had the night before.Calm voice. Immaculate clothes. The kind of effortless presence that never seemed to

Last Updated : 2026-09-11

Chapter 6: Someone Who Knows the Inside

By the time Audrey’s final meeting ended, evening had begun to settle over Manhattan beyond the windows of Sterling headquarters.While she signed the last of the day’s documents, Nathan was in a separate room reviewing reports gathered since morning.The hotel from the night before.The white roses delivered to Sterling headquarters.There was still no direct evidence connecting the two incidents.There were, however, too many similarities to dismiss them as coincidence.“What about the dressing room?”Nathan looked across the table at Daniel Cross.Thirty-five, experienced, and one of the few men Nathan had worked with often enough not to waste words explaining basic procedure. Daniel had joined the protection detail that afternoon.“No damage to the door,” Daniel said. “Nothing unusual in the electronic lock logs, either. The problem is that a legitimate event-access card was used.”“Whose?”“Floor manager for the company handling setup. He was on the third-floor loading dock at th

Last Updated : 2026-09-11

Chapter 7: The Man Who Stays Awake

It was after seven in the evening by the time they returned to the Sterling residence.The house looked exactly as it had that morning.The lights beside the entrance, the paintings lining the vast foyer, the staircase rising to the second floor—nothing had changed.What had changed was the number of people standing inside it.The west service gate had been closed. Additional surveillance equipment had been installed near the gardens. More security officers had been posted in places where they normally would have gone unnoticed, and Audrey counted three before she even reached the front door.When Nathan stepped out of the SUV, he did not immediately follow her inside.Instead, he stopped to speak briefly with the head of household security.Tonight’s positions. Shift changes. The latest perimeter checks.None of it was a conversation Audrey needed to be part of.So she kept walking.“Audrey.”Her mother’s voice came from beside the staircase.Eleanor Sterling had apparently just retu

Last Updated : 2026-09-12

Chapter 8: One Step Closer

The next morning, Audrey left the house as scheduled.In the end, she had fallen asleep not long after returning to her room the night before.She chose not to think too deeply about the fact that the last image in her mind before closing her eyes had been Nathan standing beside the upstairs window.A little before nine, Audrey sat in the back of the SUV reviewing the day’s schedule as they headed toward Manhattan.Two meetings at headquarters. After that, she was expected at a presentation for a new wing at a children’s medical center supported by the Sterling Foundation.Richard had argued until late the night before that the hospital appearance should be canceled.Nathan had not approved it without conditions either.But he had never told her not to go.Daniel had been sent ahead to inspect the building the previous evening—the entrances, underground parking, emergency exits, and surrounding streets. After re

Last Updated : 2026-09-24

Chapter 9: Fifteen Missing Minutes

The plan to return to the Sterling residence changed immediately.Audrey’s SUV never left the hospital’s underground parking structure. Instead, it was moved deeper into a secured service area.Nathan was not willing to assume the person who had taken the photograph had already left the building.They stopped in a windowless section near the loading bays, completely separated from the public areas of the hospital. Daniel went back inside alone.Audrey remained in the rear seat.Nathan stayed with her.The engine continued to run.The only sounds outside were the distant movement of metal shutters and the occasional tires of service vehicles passing through the garage.“We’re waiting here?”“Until we review the surveillance footage.”“How long?”“I don’t know.”As usual, he did not offer an answer simply because it would make her feel better.Audrey looked again at the

Last Updated : 2026-09-25

Chapter 10: The Car Behind Them

The convoy that left the Sterling residence the following morning did not take Audrey’s usual route into Manhattan.She did not notice at first.Normally, they would have continued south along one of the major avenues, but the SUV turned west instead and, at the next intersection, made no attempt to return to the main road. It continued through the narrower streets behind the office district, following a route that made little sense if their only goal was reaching Sterling headquarters.Audrey briefly wondered whether they were avoiding construction or traffic.The driver, however, showed no sign of uncertainty. He never checked the navigation system and never hesitated before a turn.Nathan had also been unusually quiet since they left the house.More than usual, his attention seemed fixed on what was happening behind them.He never stared into the side mirror for long. Instead, he used reflections in the windows, the m

Last Updated : 2026-09-25

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