2025-08-18 15:30:19A slow, syrupy tune hummed from the cab’s radio as Charles and August rode toward the hospital where Dario’s doctor worked.
The driver didn’t bother with small talk, his grim expression fixed on the road. The kind of face that made you want to tip a man triple, just in case life had been that unkind to him.Charles glanced at August. The man’s posture was stiff, his eyes fixed ahead. Not ridiculous, exactly — but close enough that Charles had to bite back a smirk.“Hey,” Charles murmured. “You’re supposed to be pretending to be dumb, not dead.”August shot him a warning glare and tapped his lips — zip it.Charles shook his head. August’s commitment to the act was unsettling. The bad kind of feeling, like when you were a kid and drank too much water before bed.The cab pulled up to a squat, unimpressive building. Charles exhaled in disappointment. He’d expected something more dramatic — a place that looked expensive, powerful… dan
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It was late in the night, almost early in the morning. Charles had just started drifting off when a voice outside snapped him awake.“Break down the door!”Charles sat up. The voice was familiar.“I’ll show her she messed with the wrong person!” the voice barked again.Charles groaned. Of course. Stella’s idiot ex. Some people’s brains weren’t tools—they were just decorative ornaments they never bothered to use.The pounding started.Charles swung out of bed, crossed the room, and opened the door.Four men stood there, clutching rods. In the middle of them: Stella’s ex, puffed up like a bantam rooster.“You brought those to beat us?” Charles asked, eyebrow raised.“Deal with this idiot first!” Stella’s ex snapped.Charles shut the door behind him, nice and slow. No reason to drag Stella and August into this circus.Two men stepped forward, rods raised. Before they could swing, Charles caught both by their collars and smacked their heads together like coconuts. They collapsed with a sa
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Roger sat across from Cox, swirling his wine with the calm of a man who already owned the room. Cox, on the other hand, sat stiff, eyes glued to the check on the table.Half a billion dollars. Enough to scramble any man’s brain.“So,” Cox finally croaked, “you’re saying… if I do this, I get all that money?” He tapped the check like it might vanish if he didn’t.Roger set his glass down, leaning forward just enough to make his voice feel heavier. “You marry Sadie tomorrow. Show up, smile, let the cameras get a good look at you. Two minutes before the vows, my men pull you out. They’ll take you straight to the docks—boat waiting. After that, you disappear. Whatever life you want is yours.”Cox swallowed hard. The luckiest man alive—that was him. Ever since meeting Sadie, life had spun him through a circus of chaos. Sleeping with Lauren, cash from her father… and now Roger, offering him half a billion just to walk away?Roger tapped the pen against the check. “Answer quickly.”Cox puffed
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“I ruined her life, sir,” Ramiro said, eyes red and swollen.“Get up first.”“Her life is ruined because of me, and there’s nothing we can do about it. She’s just nineteen, we—”Charles extended his hand. “I said get up.”“Sir…”“Shut it. If you haven’t got something useful to say, keep your damn mouth closed and get up.”Slowly, Ramiro took his hand and rose to his feet.They moved to a cracked wooden bench nearby, probably once used by people waiting for rides. The road was empty now—quiet, abandoned. Not a single car had passed since they arrived.“Listen,” Charles said at last. His tone dropped into that clipped, don’t-make-me-repeat-myself rhythm. “I’m only going to say this once.”Ramiro nodded quickly.“I’m not here to tell you it was a mistake. It was both of your choices. Nobody forced you. You two just ended up with responsibilities earlier than most. That’s the reality.”Charles paused, something tight flickering in his chest. For a second his brother’s face surfaced in his
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Charles cussed under his breath. That bastard.“I’m sorry, sir,” Ramiro said, voice cracking. “I don’t know what else to say to express how stupid I feel for doing this to you.”“Good,” Charles said flatly. “At least you know you acted stupid.”Ramiro lifted his head slowly, shame painted all over his young face. “There was nothing else I could’ve done, sir. They caught me on the road… beat the hell out of me for keeping you hidden—”“You could’ve at least given me a heads-up.” Charles’s voice sharpened. “That’s how you handle shit. You warn me.”Ramiro swallowed hard. “I thought… you’d have gone off. I thought even if I didn’t tell you, you’d still figure a way out yourself and… there…” His voice trailed into silence.Charles’s eyes narrowed. “When you’re dealing with men like Dario, it only takes a few choices before you end up like him. You want to become that in five years?”Ramiro’s head snapped in a violent shake. The horror on his face was raw and real, and for the first time C
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It was late, maybe 9 p.m.—though Charles couldn’t be sure. The clock on the wall had died weeks ago, its battery long gone, and he hadn’t had the luxury to change it.August and Stella had gone out on their so-called “date.” Not that Charles understood why they needed to be prancing around the city when they could have just sat in the damn house and saved themselves the risk of being spotted by Dario’s men. He’d made them promise, though—if trouble came, his name wasn’t to be dragged into it. And, being the gentleman he was, he was already planning to disappear into the back of the house to give them space when they returned.“Perfect,” he muttered under his breath, eyes locked on the device before him. After hours of frustration, the damn thing finally clicked—he’d managed to sync to one of the spy cams hidden in Ramiro’s place.Static. A shaky signal. At first, nothing but dead silence. Two minutes passed, and Charles was about ready to curse the wasted effort when a sound bled thr
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Hardin’s fist clenched as he stood stiff behind the sofa, jaw locked, eyes fixed on the large plasma TV dominating the wall. Thomas, his wife, and Sadie sat in the room with him, every one of them silent except for the sound of the livestream blaring from the speakers.Barely two minutes ago, one of Sadie’s friends had called—breathless, panicked—and told them to switch channels. Some rookie influencer, a girl with barely five hundred followers on her page, had somehow pulled in over two million live viewers. The numbers were ticking upward by the second.And the man she was interviewing… was none other than Cox.Sadie’s ex. Her nightmare in flesh and bone.The influencer’s giddy voice filled the room. “So, you were Sadie’s boyfriend for two years?”Cox, sitting comfortably in his pajamas inside his room, smirked like he was doing the world a favor. “If you put it like that, you’ll make Sadie sound like a bad person. We only dated six months. The other year and a half… well, that was
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