MasukJaxx's Point Of View"What the fuck is going on?" I roared into the empty room, my chair slamming back against the glass window as I surged to my feet. The absolute fury coursing through my blood turned the world entirely red, my vision narrowing to a single, terrible point of focus. The tracking chip I had secretly embedded into Elena's hair was screaming at me from thirty thousand feet in the air. Thirty thousand feet. She was on a plane… a plane I hadn't authorized, hadn't arranged, hadn't even known about. My mind flashed violently back to just last night, when she'd told me she was going to see her mother at that rundown hospital. She had looked at me with those wide, haunted eyes, trying to defend the indefensible, wanting so desperately to give that wicked woman the benefit of the doubt. I had seen the fragile hope fracturing her usual stubbornness, watched her armor crack just enough to let that poisonous vulnerability seep through, and it had made my chest ache with a prot
Jaxx's Point Of ViewThe mahogany table stretched out like polished bone beneath the low, ambient lights of the penthouse boardroom. Around it sat seven men who controlled the flow of every piece of unregistered cargo, every offshore shell company, and every major under-the-table transaction from Dallas to the border.These were dangerous men, the kind who usually took orders from no one. The kind who'd built empires on broken bones and buried secrets, who'd survived wars both literal and economic through sheer ruthlessness. But right now, none of them dared look at each other. They were looking at me. Or rather, they watched the way my thumb lazily tracked the rim of my lighter, the small flame clicking open, hiss-flickering, then snapping shut in the heavy silence. Each click echoed in the tension-thick air like a countdown to something inevitable. I wasn't listening to them. Victor, the head of the east-side distribution channels, was currently sweating through his silk tie, stu
Elena's Pont Of View"Yes, I am gullible! I am completely stupid for believing a single word that came out of her mouth!" The words tore from my chest, raw and jagged, slicing through the heavy drone of the jet's engine. My voice fractured under the weight of it all, hot tears finally spilling over and carving slow, burning paths down my bruised cheeks. Each breath felt like swallowing glass. I leaned forward against the biting pressure of the zip-ties, my glare cutting into Graham's pristine, aristocratic face. Even now, even here, he looked immaculate… not a hair out of place, his suit pressed to perfection. The sight of his composure made my rage burn hotter, a white-hot fury that threatened to consume me from the inside out. "But you will never understand it," I said, shaking my head as my lips twisted into a bitter, trembling line. The words came out thick with emotion, each syllable weighted with years of buried pain. "No one would ever understand it unless they were forced to
Elena's Point Of ViewThe sharp, chemical-sweet stench of chloroform still clung to the back of my throat when consciousness finally knitted itself back together, piece by fractured piece. My eyelids felt weighted with lead. I blinked heavily, my vision swimming in a blurry mess of bright white light that seemed to pierce straight through to my skull. A low, persistent thrumming vibrated through the soles of my shoes and up into my bones, setting my teeth on edge.The air felt thin. Dry. Wrong. It tasted recycled, artificial… nothing like the musty hospital smell I'd expected. I tried to raise my hand to press against my throbbing temples, but my wrist refused to move. A sharp, heavy snap of metal ground against metal, the sound cutting through my disorientation like a knife. My eyes flew wide open, the fog of confusion instantly melting into cold, spiking panic. I looked down, my breath catching in my chest. This wasn't a hospital room. I wasn't even on solid ground. I sat in a pl
Elena's Point Of ViewMy eyes widened as the full weight of the situation finally settled into my brain like a stone sinking to the bottom of a dark lake. The sheer horror of it made my stomach drop into a bottomless pit. God, I had been such a complete, utter fool. I had walked straight into the slaughterhouse because I thought, for one single second, that a piece of her might still be human.That somewhere beneath the greed and selfishness, there might be a mother who actually cared about her daughter's wellbeing. She wasn't. She was just a broker, and I was the merchandise. She was selling me out... again. Just like she'd done when she'd pushed me toward Graham in the first place, dazzled by his money and status. "You're a monster," I whispered, the words coming out cold and hollow as I looked at her. I wanted them to hurt, wanted them to cut, but her expression didn't even flicker. There was nothing there to wound… no conscience, no maternal instinct, no love. "I'm a realist, sw
Elena's Point Of ViewI turned my back on her before she could even open her mouth to scream, walking toward the heavy door without a single backward glance. My fingers clamped around the silver handle, cold metal biting into my palm. I pulled. It didn't budge. A sharp spike of irritation pierced my chest as I frowned. I jerked the handle harder, the metal clinking loudly against the frame, but the mechanism remained entirely dead. Someone had locked it from the outside. The realization sent a cold trickle of unease down my spine. "What the hell..." I muttered, my fingers straining against the unyielding handle. The metal bit into my skin as I rattled it again, my heels pivoting on the linoleum as a cold, prickling sensation began to climb up the back of my neck. Nothing. The door might as well have been solid stone. My pulse quickened, a warning bell starting to chime in the back of my mind. I spun around, my eyes flashing as I locked them onto the woman in the bed. Heat flooded
Two days.That was how long I had been inside Jaxx’s suite.Two whole days.If someone had told me that a week ago, I would have laughed straight in their face and asked them what kind of nonsense they were smoking.Yet here I was.Still here.Still breathing the same air as him.Still walking arou
Elena's Point Of ViewMy fingers trembled as I braced myself against the sink, trying to breathe, trying to think… trying not to remember how it felt when his mouth was on me, when my body gave in, when I whimpered his name like a prayer I swore I’d never say again.The bathroom echoed with silence
Elena's Point Of ViewI didn’t even think.It was like my body acted before my brain could catch up. One second I was glaring hard at something Jaxx said… something ridiculous and shallow, and the next, out of the corner of my eye, I felt him.Graham.Tall. Brooding. Furious.That same furious glar
Elena's Point Of ViewA sharp, splitting pain thundered in my skull like drums from hell.“Mmmgh,” I groaned sharply, my voice hoarse, dry, like sandpaper scraping against wood. The light from the window sliced across my face with cruel sharpness, forcing my eyes shut.“Graham,” I mumbled in protes







