Semua Bab DANGEROUS ADDICTION: The Woman He Couldn't Replace : Bab 11 - Bab 20

The alarm shattered the silence at 2:17 a.m and the entire mansion erupted. Red security lights flashed along the hallway ceiling, washing the walls in an eerie crimson glow. Somewhere downstairs, a siren wailed before cutting off abruptly, replaced by the calm, mechanical voice of the security system."Motion detected. Interior breach. East Wing. Study."Alexander was awake before the announcement ended.Years of sleeping lightly had become instinct. His eyes snapped open, every sense sharpening in an instant.He reached for Regina without looking. His fingers wrapped around her wrist just as she jerked awake."What…""Stay here."His voice was low and calm.That terrified her more than the alarm.He threw the blanket aside and swung his legs over the bed. Within seconds he had pulled on black trousers, leaving his shirt hanging open as he strode toward the nightstand.Regina watched him unlock the drawer with a fingerprint.Inside lay a matte-black pistol.Her breath caught.She had

The warehouse sat abandoned at the edge of the old shipping district, rusted containers leaning against each other, the river breathing damp iron into the night air.Alexander recognized the smell before Adrian cut the engine."This is it," Adrian said. "Rosalie mentioned this address once, after one of Victor's meetings. Said she'd never forget the smell.""You're sure?""Sure enough that I'd rather walk into a trap than spend another day wondering."Alexander checked the pistol at his side, not from fear but instinct. Victor wasn't careless. If he wanted Alexander alone, every detail had already been calculated."Twenty minutes," Adrian said. "If you're not out, I call Nathan. After that, he calls people who don't wait for permission.""And if I need help before then?""You won't have time to ask for it."Alexander stepped out into the cold and walked toward the half-open steel door, Regina's voice from earlier still following him. Bring her home. Not because Regina trusted Victor.

"You're not going alone."Regina said it the moment the sun came up, before Alexander had even finished buttoning his shirt."Regina…""I'm not asking for permission." She crossed the bedroom and stood in front of him, arms folded, refusing to let the conversation end any other way. "You told me the previous time that you can't save one of us by abandoning the other. That applies to you too. If you walk into a cemetery alone to meet a woman who might be walking into a trap of her own, I'm not sitting in this house wondering if you're coming back.""If it is a trap, you being there makes it worse. Not safer.""Then Nathan and Adrian come. Both of them. And I stay in the car, close enough to matter, far enough to keep the baby safe." Her voice didn't waver. "That's not negotiable, Alexander."He studied her for a long moment, and something in his chest loosened at the sheer stubbornness of her. The same quality that had first made him notice her three years ago, back when he'd told hims

The grandfather clock in Alexander’s study chimed six times, its deep notes rolling through the quiet house like a warning neither man needed. Nobody had slept.Nathan stood beside the conference table that had become a temporary command center. The polished wood had disappeared beneath stacks of printed security reports, surveillance photographs, bank transfers, and timelines that stretched from Richard Kingston’s death to the shooting at the cemetery less than twelve hours earlier. Coffee rings overlapped on the margins. Red string connected photos on a corkboard that hadn’t been there yesterday.Alexander hadn’t moved from his chair in nearly an hour. His coffee sat untouched, the surface gone cold. His eyes remained fixed on one page. Not because he couldn’t read it but because he’d already memorized every number, every timestamp, every name that shouldn’t have been there.Nathan broke the silence first. His voice was rough from lack of sleep. “The security logs have bee

At 5:30 a.m, Kingston Manor was dark. The only two lights on were Alexander's office and Regina’s room down the hall. Regina wasn’t asleep. She sat on the edge of her bed in a robe, watching the city through the window. She hadn’t told Alexander she heard him leave at 5:10. She didn’t know why her chest felt tight. For two years she lived in this house like a guest. Now the man who barely spoke to her was moving like her life depended on it and it did. Downstairs, Alexander buttoned his coat. Nathan stood by the door with a tablet. Adrian checked two earpieces. “Final sweep?” Alexander asked. “Clean,” Adrian said. “Four new cameras at the west gate, armed response in the delivery truck and the maintenance van. Regina’s security is on her floor. No one in or out without your code.” Nathan added, “Evelyn’s car left her building 10 minutes ago. She’s heading here.” Alexander nodded once. “Let’s go.” He paused at the stairs. He could see light under Regina’s door. If he kn