f it mattered. Not the weather. Not the mess outside. I had one thing on my mind: Alex. My thoughts kept drifting, though. They kept pulling me back to Chloe. The way her eyes flickered when I asked

, the trial, the reason I had to leave everything behind... all of it would come crashing down, and I would be nothing more than a target. I turned over in bed, the weight of my own fear pressing down on me. I had been so careful. So meticulous. But now? Now that I had met him-now that I had seen the way his eyes lingered on me, the way he seemed to see straight through my carefully constructed façade-I couldn't help but wonder if it was all for nothing. What if he knew? What if he was just biding his time, waiting for the right moment to strike? He was dangerous. He had to be. No one got as far as he had without being ruthless, without being willing to do anything to protect their secrets. I sat up in bed, staring at the phone on my nightstand. The message from him still burned in my mind: "Goodnight, Chloe. – N." How did he get my number so quickly? He must have had someone on the inside, someone who could find anything with a snap of their fingers. But why the message? It wasn't like him to be casual, to offer something as... normal as a goodnight. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to stop thinking about it. But deep down, the fear lingered. The knowledge that my past could catch up with me at any moment, and with someone like Nicholas Romanov on my trail? There was no escape. Nicholas's POV The task was complete. Alex was dealt with. But even as I climbed into the back of my car, the adrenaline of the interrogation still coursing through my veins, my mind refused to quiet. His screams might have echoed in my mind, but they didn't matter. I had long learned to compartmentalize those moments. It was part of the world I lived in-my world-and in this life, weakness could only be shown in death. As the car rolled away from the warehouse, I leaned back against the leather seats, my eyes trained on the blurred outlines of the city passing by. The rain had not let up, and its rhythmic drumming against the windows seemed to only amplify the noise in my head. But my thoughts weren't on the work I had just completed, or even the other matters waiting for my attention back at the estate. No, they were with her. Chloe. I had never met someone like her before. Most women who crossed my path were predictable. They were after something-money, status, power-and that was easy to manage. I could control them. I knew the game. But Chloe? She was different. There was an elusive quality about her, something almost intangible that made her stand apart from the rest. The way she reacted to me had thrown me off guard. It wasn't fear in the typical sense. No, she wasn't trembling or fidgeting in a way that screamed intimidation. It was something deeper. More primal. It was as if she knew exactly what I was capable of, and yet there was something else, something buried beneath that guarded exterior that made her... vulnerable. But only just. Her walls were thick, stronger than I had expected. I'd seen it when I drove her home. When our eyes met, there had been a flicker-an unmistakable flash of recognition in her gaze, followed by a split-second hesitation that told me everything I needed to know. She wasn't who she said she was. I could sense the lies beneath her words. And it wasn't just the way she answered my questions that gave her away. It was the way she tried to distance herself from me, the way her hand trembled ever so slightly when she touched the door handle. The small, almost imperceptible signs that screamed she was hiding someth