Chapter 131
-Hailey-
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I woke up slowly, stretching one limb at a time and enjoying the deep, post–sex achiness of my muscles. My eyes snapped open when I noticed Logan wasn’t in bed beside me.
Then I heard him talking.
I pushed myself up on my elbows and the comforter pooled around my waist. And there he was, standing just inside the bathroom doorway.
He was already fully dressed – black jeans, scuffed boots, and his cut. The phone was pressed to his ear, his head was tilted down, and his free hand was braced against the doorframe.
He was yelling, but he was trying to do it quietly.
“I don’t give a shit what time it is, River.” A pause. His shoulders went stiff. “No. Shut the fuck up and do it.”
He saw me move in his peripheral and his head snapped up. He didn’t turn fully, but his eyes cut sideways toward me.
The man from last night — the one who held me down and fucked me senseless
was gone. This was the VP.
His gaze held mine for a beat. A silent acknowledgment that I was awake and now under his direct observation, before he turned his attention back to the phone. “Just handle it,” he growled, and ended the call.
My own gaze was dragged, almost against my will, out the bedroom door and down the hallway.
I couldn’t see it from here, but I could feel it. A prickle on the back of my neck. A cold spot in the room. He was watching. He was always watching.
A sudden jolt of energy had me scrambling. I slid out of bed and dropped to my knees beside the heap of yesterday’s clothes. My jeans were a tangled mess. I dug into the back pocket and pulled my phone out.
Nothing. No new messages. No unknown number.
Just the time – 7:13 AM – and my wallpaper. A picture of Logan and me that he’d let me take one drunken night.
The relief was a physical sensation. A weight off my shoulders. But it was followed immediately by dread. Where was the response? Why wasn’t he reacting?
What fresh horrors would today bring?
Logan slid his phone into his pocket and turned fully to face me, leaning a shoulder against the doorframe. His eyes did a quick scan of me – bare ass naked, disheveled hair, the phone clutched in my hand- and his expression didn’t change at all. It was all cool assessment.
“Get dressed,” he said. The words were clinical. Void of any warmth. “Got shit to do.”
I watched him instead of immediately moving. I saw the way he held himself, straighter than usual. Like he was bracing for impact.
The set of his jaw was so tight I could see the muscles twitching under his beard. He was overcompensating. He was building another wall, brick by brick, and locking himself behind it.
He probably thought he was protecting me by shutting me out. By becoming this unfeeling machine. He thought the blunt
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10:41 am PP
Chapter 131
instrument was the only tool he had.
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A weird sense of calm settled over me. I was done chasing that part of him. Done trying to pry the lid off the box where he stuffed everything that scared him.
If he needed a fortress, fine. I’d build one of my own. He wasn’t the only one going to war.
I gave him a single nod. No smile. No reassurance. Just acknowledgment. I pushed myself up from the floor, ignoring the way his eyes were glued to me.
I turned my back to him as I got dressed. I could feel his gaze on the back of my neck, but I didn’t turn around. I sat on the edge of the bed to tug my socks and boots on, lacing them up tightly.
When I stood and finally faced him again, I’d forced my expression into something neutral. Guarded. I met his eyes and held them for a second, and I saw a flicker of something – confusion? – before the shutters came down again and he ushered me out the door.
I started on his heels through the living room, but my steps slowed in the middle. I came to a full stop.
Logan let out a soft, impatient sigh, holding the apartment door open. “Ace: C’mon.”
I ignored him. Tilted my head back, lifting my eyes to the rafters.
I didn’t have to search for it. I knew exactly where it was. I let my gaze land on that specific beam. On that tiny black speck that held all my terror.
But the terror was buried now.
This wasn’t his game anymore. It was ours. And I was done just playing defense.
I straightened my spine, pulling my shoulders back. I didn’t blink, didn’t smile. I just stared, pouring every ounce of my new resolve into that look. A silent message, reiterating the one from last night: I see you. And I’m not afraid of you.
I held the stare for a few seconds. Then I turned my back on it and walked toward the door where Logan waited.
His brow was furrowed, and his eyes jumped from my face to the ceiling and back again. But he didn’t say anything. He just pushed the door wider and followed me out, pulling it shut behind us with a solid thud.
Downstairs, Viktor’s men were everywhere. Their presence was a silent overlay of efficiency on the familiar chaos.
Logan snagged two mugs of coffee from the pot and set one down in front of me on the bar. Then he turned his head away from me to talk to Ledger, who was gesturing at his laptop screen.
This was it. My window. It might be the only one I’d get all day.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, slowly. I didn’t let my fingers shake. I typed out a message. Just one sentence.
Hope you enjoyed the show.
I hit send before I could second–guess the sheer, suicidal audacity of it. A cold thrill shot down my spine that was part terror and part exhilaration.
I slid the phone back into my pocket and took a long sip of my coffee.
As if I’d tugged on an invisible string tied to him, Logan turned his head back toward me. His conversation with Ledger seemed to pause. His eyes found mine, and something in them softened the tiniest fraction.
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Chapter 131
The VP took a step back, and the man
–
1
my man looked out at me.
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He reached out and gently ran his thumb along my jaw.
It was a soothing gesture. For him, not me. He was touching base. Reassuring himself that I was still here. Solid and real and
his.
He didn’t know that my skin was buzzing. He didn’t know that the quiet girl sipping her coffee had just tossed a lit match into a powder keg and was waiting to see how big the explosion would be.
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