Knee For Me, CEO

Chapter 3 - The Blood Alliance

“Leo, run to the car! Now!”

Aria’s scream tore the afternoon wide open. She didn’t bother checking if her son listened, she just launched herself at him, a flash of red silk, shielding him with her own body.

A silenced shot, quiet, almost gentle. But the bench behind them exploded into splinters.

Sebastian didn’t think, he couldn’t. His heart hammered so hard it nearly drowned out the chaos. This wasn’t boardrooms or billion dollar deals anymore. This was survival. He broke from the hedges, lungs on fire.

“Aria! To the left!” he shouted.

He slammed into the first guy in a black suit just as the man raised his gun again. They crashed to the grass. The hitman’s gun butt smashed into Sebastian’s jaw, pain burst behind his eyes, but he held on, teeth gritted.

He twisted the guy’s wrist, desperation and five years of guilt giving him the strength to keep going. The gun went off again, this time sending a bullet harmlessly into the dirt.

“Get your hands off her!” Sebastian bellowed, smashing his forehead into the man’s nose. He heard the sickening crunch.

Close by, Aria wasn’t waiting for help. She snatched a heavy thermos from her bag and swung with everything she had, nailing the second attacker in the head. He staggered, dazed.

“Leo, get in the SUV! Marcus, move!” Aria yelled, her voice raw and wild.

The black SUV screeched across the grass, tires ripping up the park. Marcus leaned out the window, gun drawn.

“Ma’am, in! Now!”

Aria grabbed Leo and practically threw him into the backseat, but she didn’t climb in after him. She turned back. Sebastian was still on the ground, pinned. The first hitman had his hand clamped around Sebastian’s throat.

Aria didn’t pause. She stomped down on the man’s hand with her heel. He howled and let go.

“Get up, you i***t!” Aria snapped, yanking Sebastian by the collar and dragging him toward the SUV.

They dove inside just as a gray sedan came barreling into the park, backup for the attackers.

“Drive!” Sebastian barked.

Marcus floored it. The SUV fishtailed, engine howling as they tore for the exit. Behind them, the two hitmen scrambled for their own car, but they were already too late.

Inside, silence crashed down. Only their ragged breathing filled the space.

Aria huddled in the corner, arms locked around a shaking Leo. Her eyes were huge, wild with adrenaline. Her red suit was smeared with grass and dirt.

Sebastian sat across from them, blood slipping down his chin. Up close, he couldn’t miss it, the stubborn jaw, just like his father’s. Leo was his, through and through.

“Are you hit?” Sebastian asked, voice rough.

Aria looked at him, and for the first time, her usual cool mask was gone. She was just a mother, afraid, furious, barely holding it together.

“Don’t talk to me,” she whispered. “Don’t you dare talk to us.”

“Aria, they had guns. These weren’t just spies.”

“I know what they were!” Her voice shook. Leo burrowed deeper into her shoulder, away from the blood on Sebastian’s face.

“They weren’t after me. They were after the Crowne heir. Your family’s mess followed us, Sebastian.”

All the color drained from Sebastian’s face. “My family? My mother and Isabella are the only ones who…”

He stopped. Isabella.

He remembered Aria’s warning in the boardroom. If Isabella was stealing money, if she thought she was losing her grip, she’d burn everything to the ground before letting go.

“Marcus, take us to the safe house,” Aria ordered.

“No,” Sebastian said. “My security’s already moving. We have a fortified estate ten miles from here. They won’t see it coming.”

Aria laughed, bitter and sharp. “You really think I’ll hide in a Crowne house? After you locked me in a cage? I’d rather face the hitmen.”

Sebastian pointed to Leo, who shook in Aria’s arms. “Look at him. This isn’t about us anymore. They know his face. They know your routine.

My place has a medical wing and a biometric perimeter. If you want him to see tomorrow, you’re coming with me.”

Aria glanced at her son, then at Sebastian. The hatred in her eyes felt heavy enough to touch. Still, behind all that anger, you could see the survivor in her, the practical woman who made it through prison.

“If you try to take him from me,” she said, her voice dropping, turning dangerous, “I’ll finish what I started in that boardroom. I won’t just bankrupt you, Sebastian. I’ll erase you.”

Sebastian barely whispered, “I just want him safe.”

The Crowne Estate at Blackwood looked more like a high-security vault than a home.

The SUV rolled through three sets of gates, and security guards in tactical gear lined the driveway. Sebastian got out first, no waiting for a servant this time. He opened the door for Aria himself.

She stepped out with Leo, gripping his hand tight. The boy stared up at the stone pillars and endless gardens, eyes wide and full of questions.

“Is this a castle, Mama?” Leo asked, barely above a whisper.

Aria squeezed his hand. “It’s a prison with better curtains, Leo. Don’t touch anything.”

Sebastian led the way inside. The place felt cold, all glass and steel, smelling of polished wood and old money. Elias, head of security, waited in the foyer.

“Total lockdown,” Sebastian told him. “No one gets in. Not even my mother. Especially not Isabella. If she shows up, detain her.”

Elias nodded, glancing once at Aria and Leo before disappearing.

Sebastian turned back to Aria. “Guest wing’s through there. It’s self-contained. You’ll have everything you need.”

“I want a phone that isn’t tapped,” Aria shot back. “I need to talk to my lawyers. And if I’m staying, the terms of our ‘merger’ change. You’re signing over control of the shipping division as security for our safety.”

He stared at her, stunned. “You’re using a k********g attempt to negotiate a business deal?”

She didn’t flinch. “I’m making sure if I die in this house, my son owns the ground he stands on. So, do we have a deal, or do I call the police and tell them exactly who tried to kill us?”

Sebastian almost smiled. This was the woman his betrayal had created, sharp, tough, impossible to shake.

“Fine,” he said. “The papers will be in your room in an hour.”

He watched her walk away, head high, dirt still smeared on her suit. When she turned the corner, the house felt twice as empty.

He walked to his study and poured himself a double scotch. His hands finally started to tremble. He sat at his desk, opened a hidden drawer, and looked at a velvet box inside.

He popped it open, just a simple gold ring, the one he’d meant to give Aria the night she was arrested. He’d never been able to throw it out.

A knock at the door snapped him back.

“Sir?” Elias again, looking pale.

“What is it? Did you find the car?”

“We found it. Dumped in a ditch three miles out. Rental, registered to a shell company.” Elias hesitated. “But that’s not why I’m here. We intercepted a courier at the gate. He was bringing this for Miss Isabella.”

He dropped a thick envelope on the desk.

Sebastian opened it. Inside, photos. Not of Aria, these were court documents, five years old. On top, a note in Isabella’s perfect handwriting:

Darling, don’t let a pretty face fool you. She’s still the girl who stole the money. If she stays in that house, I’ll leak the child’s DNA results to the press. Think about the scandal. Think about the empire. Send her away, or I’ll destroy us all.

Sebastian crushed the note in his fist. Isabella wasn’t just skimming off the top anymore, she was holding the Crowne legacy at gunpoint.

Suddenly, a scream rang out from the guest wing.

Sebastian dropped his glass, scotch splashing all over his shoes. He ran, heart thundering, tore down the hall.

He burst into Aria’s suite.

The balcony door was smashed. Aria stood in the center, gripping a shard of glass, her face white with shock.

“He’s gone,” she gasped.

Sebastian stared at the empty bed. Leo had been there just minutes before. On the pillow, a single white lily. Isabella’s favorite.

“She didn’t use the hitmen,” Aria said, her voice breaking. “She used the staff. Sebastian, she took my baby!”

A cold, furious calm settled on him. He walked over, took the glass from her shaking hand. He didn’t care about boardrooms or debts anymore.

“She didn’t just take your baby, Aria,” he said, voice like a blade. “She took a Crowne.”

He turned to the door, eyes burning with something he hadn’t felt in years.

“Get your coat,” he said. “We’re going to find her. And when we do, I’ll show you exactly why they call me a monster.”

Aria looked at him, the hatred in her eyes momentarily replaced by a desperate, flickering hope. She reached out, her fingers brushing his sleeve.

"If he's hurt, Sebastian... if she touches a hair on his head..."

"She won't live long enough to regret it," Sebastian promised.

As they ran toward the garage, the sky

opened up, a torrential rain beginning to wash away the dirt of the afternoon.

The CEO and the Ghost were no longer enemies. They were parents on a warpath