LOGINElena's Point Of ViewThe temperature in the room plummeted twenty degrees in a single, freezing second. My fingers tightened around the phone until the cheap plastic casing let out a small, desperate creak. Blood rushed past my ears in a loud, rhythmic thudding that drowned out the low hum of the office air conditioner. "What?" The word came out flat and dangerous as my voice dropped into a register I reserved for courtrooms and confrontations. My eyebrows pulled together, forming a deep frown as I leaned one hand heavily against the edge of my desk. The polished wood felt cool beneath my palm, grounding me in the present moment even as my past threatened to drag me under. A frantic, shaky breath came from the other end, but it wasn't her voice. Instead, I heard an older woman, completely out of breath and thoroughly panicked. "Elena? Oh thank god, you actually answered," the woman stammered. The chaotic sound of rolling hospital gurneys and beeping monitors blared through the ear
Elena's Point Of ViewWeeks had passed since the world watched Sinclair Global's pristine, multi-billion-dollar empire crack down the middle and begin sinking into the Texas dirt. Weeks since frantic news anchors, flashing red banners, and black government SUVs swarming their corporate headquarters dominated every conversation. And honestly? Everything had been so incredibly quiet and peaceful since then. I couldn't begin to describe how grateful I was for that stillness. It felt like emerging from a storm into unexpected sunshine. My days had taken on a rhythm that wasn't complicated, but it was exactly what I needed. Go to work, handle my business, come home, train with Jaxx until my lungs burned and my muscles ached, eat whatever ridiculous feast he'd either ordered or cooked, then sleep without looking over my shoulder. No paranoia. No fear. Just rest. Jaxx had even stubbornly insisted that the two of us do something completely fun every single day… whether it was a midnight dr
Elena's Point Of View I stared up at him, my breath catching as his thumb traced the edge of my jaw with deliberate slowness. The sheer weight of what he was implying made the room tilt beneath me. On the television screen behind him, red banners flashed in frantic succession while a news anchor spoke over live footage of Sinclair Global employees streaming out of the corporate headquarters, clutching cardboard boxes to their chests like life rafts. Some of them looked shell-shocked, faces pale and drawn. Others appeared angry, gesturing wildly as they spoke into their phones. The scene looked like the apocalypse for Graham's world, yet Jaxx sat here with the casual satisfaction of someone who'd just ordered his morning coffee exactly right. "Come on, Jaxx. Don't play with me right now," I said, my voice dropping into a low, breathless plea that I barely recognized as my own. My heart hammered against my ribs, each beat a question I desperately needed answered. I reached up, my
Elena's Point Of View The cool water of the shower had washed away the slick, sticky remnants of our chaotic session on the mahogany table, but my legs still trembled so badly I could barely maintain my balance against the tiled wall. Jaxx hadn't permitted me to do a single thing for myself. He'd carried me into the steam, washed my hair with a slow, almost agonizingly thorough gentleness that stood in complete contrast to the way he'd just ruined me, then carried me right back out. The tenderness felt almost surreal after the intensity we'd just shared. It was as if he'd flipped some internal switch, transforming from the dominant force who'd had me writhing and begging into this careful, attentive caretaker. The duality of him never ceased to catch me off guard. He didn't even let me reach for a towel. He dried my skin himself, his eyes dark and utterly possessive as he tracked the fresh, faint red marks his fingers and the leather straps had left behind. Each touch was rev
Graham's Point Of ViewI stared at the empty doorway long after my mother's perfume had dissolved into the stale, suffocating air of the living room. The scent of her signature Chanel had lingered like an accusation before fading completely, leaving behind only the ghost of her presence. Her heels had stopped clicking down the hall, but the violent edge in her voice kept bouncing around inside my skull, relentless and sharp, each word a fresh wound.Find Elena. Drag her out. Make her talk to that nutjob. "Right. Because finding a girl who vanished off the face of the earth with a lethal, billionaire psychopath is just that easy," I muttered under my breath, my voice thick with a bitter, hollow laugh that tasted like ash in my mouth. The sarcasm felt weak, a pathetic shield against the reality crushing down on me. How on earth was I supposed to get Elena to talk to me? The question gnawed at me, exposing the raw helplessness beneath my anger. I didn't even know what city she was in,
Graham's Point Of View"What do you mean by that, Jaxx? Answer me!" The words tore from my throat as my hand trembled violently. I leaned closer to the phone my father clutched, desperate for answers. The silence on the line felt oppressive, suffocating, broken only by the faint, rhythmic sound of Jaxx's breathing from the other end.Each breath he took seemed deliberate, measured… a predator savoring the moment before the kill. My pulse hammered in my ears as I waited, every second stretching into an eternity. "Don't worry, big brother," Jaxx's voice finally emerged through the speaker, low and agonizingly calm. The endearment dripped with venom. "You'll see it soon enough." It wasn't the voice of an angry man seeking revenge; it was the voice of an executioner who had already pulled the lever and was now watching the condemned drop. The certainty in his tone made my stomach clench, bile rising in my throat. "You dug your own grave the moment you laid your filthy hands on Elena. I
Elena’s Point Of ViewThe water ran over my fingers, cold and relentless, as I scrubbed the last plate clean. The kitchenette was too quiet, the kind of quiet that pressed against my skin, that made my pulse thrum in my ears. The scent of him, lingered in the air, clinging to every surface, every b
Elena’s Point Of ViewThe apartment was too quiet.The kind of quiet that pressed against my skin, that hummed in my ears like a living thing. I stood in the middle of the living room, my suitcases still unopened by the door, my purse slung over my shoulder like an anchor. The walls were a pristine
Elena’s Point Of ViewThe silence in the room was deafening, heavy, suffocating… like the walls themselves were holding their breath, waiting for something to break. My back was pressed against the door, my knuckles raw and bleeding, my breath coming in sharp, uneven gasps. The tears had dried on m
Graham’s Point Of ViewThe thud of Elena’s heels against the marble stairs echoed through the house like a death knell, each step a hammer against my chest, each sound twisting the knife deeper. My fingers clenched around the glass of whiskey, the crystal biting into my palm, the amber liquid slos







