Novels by Mimi's pen

Author POV The rock was cold in Alex’s hand. Jagged edge pressed against his palm. Seraph felt it hover behind her head, close enough that her hair moved when his fingers trembled.Sloane’s gun stayed level. “Alex. Put it down. Now.”Alex didn’t move. His arm stayed locked around Seraph’s waist. His breathing was fast, uneven, against the back of her neck. Not calm. Not cruel. Terrified.“I can’t,” he whispered in her ear. “If I don’t, Maya gets arrested tomorrow. Elena has files. Her signature. Forged, but it won’t matter. She’s twelve, Seraph. She thinks I’m the one who keeps the monsters away.”Seraph’s heart hammered. She didn’t struggle. She didn’t scream. She listened. “Then let me help you,” she said, voice low. “There’s another way. We have the drive. We take Elena down. No one has to die.”Alex laughed. It hurt to hear. “You think Elena doesn’t know that? She sent me the photo of Maya because she knew I’d choose her. She wants you to watch me become him. She wants me to prov

The car smelled like rain and Alex’s jacket. Seraph slept with her head against the window, flash drive clutched in her palm. Data that could end Tradefare. Data that made her a target. Alex drove. Quiet. Too quiet. She woke when the streetlights disappeared. No city glow. No other cars. Just trees crowding the road and the sound of tires on gravel. The GPS showed nothing but black. Seraph sat up slow, rubbing her eyes. “Where are we?” “Taking the back way,” Alex said. He didn’t look at her. Both hands on the wheel. Knuckles white. “Less traffic. Less eyes.” Seraph frowned. “Back way to where? The safehouse is on the other side of the city.” Alex didn’t answer. He reached forward and turned off the GPS. The screen went dark. The car went darker. Seraph’s stomach tightened. “Alex.” “Yeah?” His voice was still Alex. Still low, still tired. But there was something under it. Something she’d never heard before. “Why’d you turn off the GPS?” she asked. She kept her voice even. Sh

Author POV Darkness swallowed the warehouse whole. The nightlight died. The single bulb above the door went out. Even Elena’s gun made no sound.For three seconds there was only breathing. Seraph’s. Maya’s. Elena’s sharp inhale.Then Alex’s voice again, closer this time: “Hands off the gun, Elena.”A scuffle. Metal clattered on concrete. The gun skidded across the floor and hit Seraph’s foot. She didn’t pick it up.A lighter flared. Alex stood ten feet away, one wrist still cuffed to a piece of broken chain. Sloane’s cuffs, probably snapped off with a pipe somewhere between the precinct and Pier 17. His face was pale, sweat at his temples, but his eyes were clear. No flatness. No knife.“Alex,” Elena said. She didn’t sound surprised. She sounded annoyed. “You were supposed to be in a cell.”“I was,” Alex said. He didn’t look at her. He looked at Seraph. “Then I remembered you count to twenty when you’re lying. You only

Author POV The apartment didn’t feel empty. It felt hollow. Like Alex took the air with him when Sloane dragged him out. Seraph stayed on the floor for a long time. The phone buzzed again in her hand. She didn’t look. She knew what it would say. More photos. More threats. Elena’s way of saying *you’re next*. Her palm hurt. She opened her fist. The flash drive was still there. Warm from her sweat. Data that could end Tradefare. Data that got Alex cuffed. The knife lay ten feet away, blade sunk into the floorboard from where Alex drove it down. He chose not to. He chose her. And Elena punished him for it. Seraph stood. Her legs shook. She crossed the room and pulled the knife from the wood. It came free with a sound like tearing. She set it on the table. Didn’t touch the blade. Didn’t want to know if her hands would shake too. Her

Author POV Sloane didn’t lower the gun. “Alex. Last chance. Drop the knife.” Alex didn’t blink. He didn’t turn. The knife stayed an inch above his leg, blade catching light from the kitchen. Three feet between him and Seraph. Two feet between him and Sloane behind him. Seraph’s heart was so loud she couldn’t hear herself think. The flash drive bit into her palm. The phone in her other hand buzzed again. Elena. Always Elena. “Alex,” Seraph whispered. His name felt wrong in her mouth now. Like saying it might break something. “Don’t.” “I’m not,” he said. But he didn’t drop the knife either. His eyes stayed locked on hers. “I’m not making you choose, Seraph. I’m making myself.” Sloane shifted her weight in the doorway. “Alex, she has backup outside. If you hurt her, you don

Author POV The apartment was quiet after Amplified. Too quiet. Seraph sat on Alex’s couch, the flash drive warm in her palm. Data that could burn Tradefare. Data that made her a target.Alex was in the kitchen. Water ran in the sink. The sound of a knife scraping against a cutting board. Slow. He’d been quiet since they got back. Quieter than usual.Seraph’s phone buzzed on the coffee table. Unknown number. She almost ignored it. Ronan used unknown numbers. But something made her pick it up.The message had no text. Just a photo. Alex. Two hours ago. Standing across the street from her building. Hood up, hands in pockets. Watching her window. The timestamp glowed in the corner: 11:47 PM. Right after the warehouse. Right before he knocked on her door.Under the photo, three words: *She has the drive. Finalize it tonight or I will send the photos of your sister to the police.*Seraph’s

KaylaPRESENT The compass chain felt hot in my palm. Like it was burning through my skin.“What??” The word left me broken. Almost airless. I stared at the guy who I've always nagged insulted and called names but he still wasn't ready to let me be.The room tilted so fast that I sat down heavily on the close chair I could lean on.Ryder crouched in front of me. His knees on my rug. His hands didn’t touch me yet. Like he was afraid I’d shatter if he did.“I gave that neckchain to you that day,” he said again. His voice was low and rough. He was also finding it hard to believe “ Fourteen years ago. At Victoria beach. London. You saved me.”Memories slammed into me.A crowded charity event. I wasn’t supposed to be at the back beach. I’d run there to cry after my mother’s funeral three days earlier. The sound of music felt wrong when she was in the ground.Then I heard splashing. Gasping. A boy. A few years older than me. Dark hair plastered to his forehead. He was thrashing in the wate

Author POV London, 14 years ago. Victoria Beach. 4:37 PM. The charity event was chaotic. White tents, loud music, people in suits sweating under the sun. “Brooks Foundation Annual Children’s Gala” banners flapped in the hot wind. Cameras flashed every few seconds. Thirteen-year-old Ryder Brooks hated every second of it. He wasn’t supposed to be near the water. His bodyguards had said it three times. “Stay where we can see you, young master.” But the tide was low and the waves looked harmless. And he was bored of rich men talking about donations. So he slipped away. He ran past the tents, past waiters carrying trays of juice, past his mother calling his name. He didn’t stop until his bare feet hit wet sand. The backside of the beach. Quieter. No one here. Just rocks, seaweed, and the sound of waves hitting stone. The water was cold when he waded in up to his knees. Then his waist. Then his chest. He thought he could touch the bottom. He was wrong. One step. The sand gave way

Kayla POVThe next day.Denying yourself also means looking away from the person who makes your heart flutter. I… I… I can’t be attached to this guy. Not really. No matter how hard my heart throbs for him every time he walks into the house.We’re in two completely different worlds. He’s in a world where no one gets to touch him or take him for granted. Where people bow. Where his name opens doors and closes throats. Ryder Brooks. CEO. Power. Fear.I’m in a world where my father is at the verge of fighting life and death, alone in a hospital bed without his daughters beside him. I’m in a world where my sister had her first real taste of sex and now acts nonchalant about it. I’m in a world where more people hate me to the core than love me.I can’t be with a man who grins like the devil in front of me, then turns cold as ice in front of everyone else. A man who would burn everywhere for me, but won’t let anyone see him care.I suddenly felt stupid for pushing him away all this while.

Kayla Two weeks later.I was given a month off work. A full month to recuperate and get myself back. Back to breathing without pain. Back to walking without limping. Back to being Kayla, not “the girl who survived.”Riley had been sorting things out for me all this while. Bills, calls, press releases, the rumors. She handled everything so I didn’t have to.I heard the news too. The secret. Everything I didn’t get to know before.Flora. Or whatever name she’d been using that week. She was my ex-husband’s sister. Jaden never told me he had a sister. Not once in two years of marriage. All those years I thought he was an only son. I’d only seen his parents twice. The first time was at our wedding ceremony, where his mother cried more than I did. The second time was at a charity event they invited us to,where I was first introduced to Ryder. Even then, his parents never associated themselves with me. I tried. God knows I tried to be upright. Perfect. The daughter-in-law they could brag a

Author POVLiana stared at the scattered money on the floor of the unfinished apartment. The bills looked pathetic now. Worthless. Seven million naira and Flora had stepped over it like it was dust.Her chest rose and fell too fast. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps. She kicked the concrete block again, then again, until her designer heel snapped off. Pain shot up her ankle but she didn’t care. She didn’t feel it. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" The word tore out of her throat, raw and desperate.Flora knew. Flora knew about Jaden. Flora knew about the pills. Flora knew Liana was the one who told her brother where Kayla would be that night. Flora knew Liana wanted her sister dead.And now Flora was walking away. Free. With all the information Ryder Brooks would pay in blood to have.Liana’s hands shook as she dug into her designer bag. Her fingers fumbled past lipstick, keys, and a compact mirror. She found her phone. The screen was cracked from when she’d thrown it against the wall earlier.

Author POVThe door to an unfinished apartment burst open with a crack that echoed down the bare hallway.Flora was shoved inside. Hard."Ouch!" Flora screamed in agony when her hair caught on a piece of exposed iron rod jutting from the doorframe. The metal tangled in her strands and ripped a few out by the root. Tears sprang to her eyes."Why the fuck did you drag me here with all my things, Liana!" Flora shouted, yanking her hair free. She untangled it with shaking fingers, strands coming loose around her face. Liana closed the door behind them. The sound was heavy. Final. She leaned against it and crossed her arms."Now listen, and listen very carefully, Flora….or whatever name you're using this week. I don't want you spilling my name in whatever you and your brother did to Kayla. Because you both didn't do it properly."Flora flinched. She turned slowly, eyes narrowing. "Am I dreaming, or is this really an eighteen-year-old girl talking to me with zero respect?"Liana let out a