NATHAN CROSS STRIKE BACK..

Chapter 16

Claire froze.

She stared at Nathan, her mouth hanging open slightly in shock.

Not just because he had told her to shut up.

Not just because he had spoken to her — the secretary to Vivienne Sterling, a woman with more power in this city than most people would ever have in their entire lives — like she was an annoying child interrupting important work.

But because of the way he had said it.

Calm.

Unbothered.

Like her opinion did not matter at all.

Like her threats did not matter at all.

Like nothing she said or did could possibly make him stop what he was doing.

And more than that — there was something in his voice that Claire had not expected.

An edge.

Not harsh, exactly. Not cruel.

But firm. Unyielding. The voice of someone who did not take nonsense from anyone, regardless of who they were or what authority they thought they had.

The voice of someone who looked like they could be calm and collected one moment, and absolutely ruthless the next.

Claire's jaw tightened even further.

She could not believe it.

Not just that he was calm — she had already seen that.

Not just that he was not looking afraid — she had already noted that too.

But now, hearing the way he spoke to her, seeing the way he dismissed her concerns without even bothering to look at her, she realized something that made her stomach twist with unease.

Nathan Cross looked like somebody who did not take nonsense.

He looked like somebody who was very, very harsh when pushed.

He looked like somebody who could be dangerous if provoked.

And that realization — unwelcome as it was — sent a cold shiver down Claire's spine.

*Well, that is not even the problem,* Claire thought bitterly, her hands still clenched at her sides.

The problem was what would happen if anything went wrong.

The problem was that she herself would be at the receiving end.

The Mistress's family would never forgive her.

Never.

If they found out that she had allowed a scumbag — a nobody, a disgraced con artist with a criminal file — to touch Vivienne in her moment of vulnerability, they would punish her severely.

They would not care about Vivienne's orders.

They would not care that Vivienne had been dying.

They would only care that Claire had failed in her most fundamental duty: to protect Vivienne Sterling from harm.

And they would make her pay for that failure in ways that made Claire's blood run cold just thinking about them.

She needed to do her job.

She needed to watch Nathan like a hawk, to be ready to stop him the moment anything went wrong, to document everything so that if this went south she could at least prove she had done everything in her power to minimize the damage.

But at the same time, she could not anger Vivienne any more than she already had.

Vivienne had given an order, Vivienne had made her decision.

And if Claire kept pushing, kept arguing, kept trying to override Vivienne's explicit wishes while Vivienne was lying there in agony...

The consequences of that would be severe too.

Claire stood frozen, caught between two equally terrible outcomes, her jaw so tight it ached, her entire body tense with barely controlled fury and fear and helpless frustration.

She watched Nathan's hands move carefully over Vivienne's body, watched the way Vivienne's breathing seemed to be slowly — impossibly beginning to stabilize, and felt her grip on certainty slipping with every passing second.

And she hated it.

She hated all of it.

But she had no choice now except to watch.

And pray that whatever Nathan Cross was doing, it would not destroy them all.