Ivy shut the door behind her with a soft thud. Then she locked it before turning to Derrick and walking straight to him.Derrick barely had time to register the change in her expression before she sat on his lap, her hands bracing lightly on his shoulders as she settled against him.His brows lifted in obvious surprise.“Weren’t you mad at me just a few moments ago?” he asked quietly, searching her face as though trying to find the version of her that had stormed out in anger not long before.Ivy didn't answer. Instead, she leaned in and kissed him deeply. It was charged with everything that had been tearing through her since the car explosion.Derrick froze for a while, surprised by the suddenness, before his hands instinctively settled at her waist.When she finally pulled back, her forehead hovered quite close to his, her breath uneven."Oh, you know I can never be mad at you forever," she said softly. Then she exhaled and looked away from him briefly. "I was just...pissed off."De

The warehouse room smelled of rust and cold concrete.Moses slowly returned to consciousness, darkness pressing in from every side before his eyes had finished opening.He tried to move and instantly understood what had been done to his arms. The heavy chains pulled taut above him, suspending his wrists at an angle that made his shoulders burn with a deep, grinding ache.He let his head hang.His entire body was in gret pain—ribs, back, and the side of his face. He breathed carefully, testing each breath for the sharp warning of a broken rib.When he coughed, the pain came without permission, ranking up through his chest and out of him in a wet, violent sound.The cough came with blood, and the lights in the room came up the moment he spat.It was blinding after the darkness, a harsh white that drove straight into his skull. Moses squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face downward, gasping painfully.Then he heard footsteps approaching. Voices followed it.When he managed to look up

The night had grown deeper by the time Dominic finally turned into the long driveway leading to his mansion.The city lights had thinned behind him, replaced by silence and manicured hedges stretching beneath pools of warm golden light. The engine hummed softly as he brought the car to a stop in front of the entrance.For several seconds, he remained seated. One hand rested on the steering wheel while the other rubbed across his jaw.The alcohol in his system wasn't enough to cloud his thoughts. If anything, it had done the opposite. The few glasses he'd allowed himself at the bar had stripped away the distractions and left him alone with the one person he'd been trying not to think about all evening.Vivian.The image of her standing right beside his car before he zoomed off that afternoon surfaced for the umpteenth time.He could see hurt and confusion in her eyes. Also the way she had quietly stepped away after he told her to get down.Dominic closed his eyes briefly. It was certai

The night air followed Dominic back through the front entrance as he pulled the door shut behind him.The hallway was quieter, most of the lights dimmed to their evening setting. His footsteps moved across the marble floor, and it was then that he caught sight of her.Vivian was seated in one of the armchairs in the sitting room just off the main hallway, her legs tucked partially beneath her. The warm cup was still in her hands. She looked up when she heard him."You're back," she said.Dominic chuckled. "Well, I guess I am."He crossed the room toward her, and she was already unfolding herself from the chair before he reached her.She set the cup down on the side table as she rose."Are you hungry?" she asked. Her voice carried that quiet practicality she slipped into whenever she wanted to be useful. "I can put something together. It won't take long."Dominic looked at her for a moment. The soft light of the room caught the tiredness at the edges of her eyes, the kind that had not

"What is going on?" Ivy asked quietly.Her eyes remained fixed ahead on the crowd clogging the road before the Lorenzo headquarters.Derrick kept his gaze forward as well. "I've got no idea."The low hum of voices drifted faintly through the windshield. Somewhere ahead, a police officer barked something that was immediately swallowed by the noise of the gathering.Ivy frowned slightly. "Could it be the police investigating the bomb blast?""It couldn't be," Ma Lorenzo answered before Derrick could. Her tone carried the calm certainty of someone who had spent decades watching how power operated. "If they were investigating the bombing, they'd hardly be making a public spectacle out of it."Derrick said nothing. The old woman was right. This certainly looked wrong.He drew a slow breath into his lungs before reaching for the driver's door handle."Derrick," Ivy instantly called.He turned toward her just as she placed a hand gently against his thigh. Her fingers curled slightly against