All Chapters of THE FURY: TRIPLETS: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"Get in the SUV."Lucian's voice cut through the sidewalk noise like a blade. No room for argument.I tried to stand. My knees had other plans.The concrete tilted and I grabbed at air. Gavin caught me before I hit the ground, one arm sweeping under my legs, the other locking around my back."Put me down," I said."No." He did not even look at me."I have a shift tomorrow morning. If I miss it, I don't get paid. If I don't get paid, I lose my apartment." My voice cracked on the last word. "So I need you to put me down.""You're not walking."My landlord did not care about my medical emergencies. He cared about the fifteenth of the month.Zane pulled the SUV door open. Gavin ducked inside with me still in his arms. I had no choice but to let him.Lucian was already in the driver's seat, jaw locked, eyes on the mirror. The doors sealed shut. Cold air conditioning hit my face like a wall and I felt my nausea flatten just slightly.The silence lasted four seconds."Explain," Lucian said.

"You sent it?" My voice came out wrong. Too high. "Are you insane?"Lucian set the tablet down like I had asked about the weather. "No.""You just destroyed your careers. On purpose." I looked at all three of them. "Do you understand what an internal investigation means? They will pull every record, every access log, every security badge swipe. My name is on a mascot contract. They will find me in twenty minutes."Nobody answered.And when they find me, I am not just fired. I am the woman who slept with the head coach and two of his players. Every outlet that blacklisted me in Ohio will have a reason to bury me permanently. No editor touches a journalist wrapped in a scandal like this. I have no lawyer. I have no savings. I have nothing.The panic cracked open something cold in my chest.I grabbed my bag off the floor and walked straight for the door.Gavin was already there.He didn't grab me. He didn't have to. He just stood in front of the door with his arms crossed, six foot four

"You bought a franchise." I stopped walking the second the boardroom doors closed behind us. "You bought an entire professional hockey franchise. Overnight.""It was a sound investment," Lucian said. He adjusted his cuff without looking up."It was insane.""Those are not mutually exclusive."I pressed my fingers to my forehead. The hallway stretched long and marble-floored around us, the kind of building where everything echoed. My reflection stared back at me from the glass wall opposite, a woman in a borrowed dress with a diamond ring that cost more than my entire journalism career.Two hundred and twelve dollars. That was my real number. Not the ring. Not the dress. Not the franchise they had just purchased like it was a weekend decision.Two hundred and twelve dollars against their infinite, immovable wealth.I had no leverage here. I never had."Let's go," Gavin said. Not unkindly. But final.The SUV pulled away from the stadium. I sat between Zane and the window, watching the p

My back hit the wall before I realized I was moving.Derek's name on that screen did something to my nervous system that no near-death taxi and no billionaire predator had managed. My lungs stopped working. My vision tunneled.All three of them moved at once.Lucian stepped directly in front of me. Gavin closed off my left. Zane came around my right side and took the tablet out of my hands without a word, setting it face down on the desk like it had personally offended him."Look at me," Lucian said.I looked at him."Tell me what he did," he said."It is a long story.""Condense it."I pressed my palms flat against the wall behind me. The cool surface helped. Barely."Derek did not just steal my column," I said. "When I found out about him and my editor and threatened to go public, he got ahead of it. He fabricated an expense fraud trail through my journalism accounts. Receipts, invoices, wire records. All fake. All pointing at me." I stopped. Steadied. "He filed a complaint with the

Nobody breathed.The question hung in the air of that atrium like smoke, and every camera in the room swung toward Lucian's back.Say no, I thought. Deny it. Save yourself. Save all of this.It is what any rational person would do. Deny the rumor, discredit the source, protect the billion-dollar acquisition they had spent one night buying. I was already building the script in my head, the polished non-answer that would let them walk away clean.Lucian stepped forward.He turned to face the cameras directly, all of them, every lens in the room, and he did not look like a man about to deny anything.The silence stretched one more second."She is carrying our children," he said.His voice was flat and absolute and carried to every corner of the atrium without effort."Any person, any outlet, or any individual who targets her, approaches her without consent, or attempts to use this family as leverage will face the full legal and financial weight of this organization." He looked down the b