Collateral Desire

Chapter 2 Hidden Betrayal

The titanium blade sliced through the back of my designer silk dress before I could scream.

Ethan didn't give me room to process the cold metal against my spine. Kneeling over me on the settee, he used his free hand to rip the split fabric down to my waist, exposing my bare skin to the freezing air of the penthouse.

"What are you doing?" I choked out, trying to twist away.

"Shut up, Ava," he growled, his voice a low, rough rasp. He tossed the penknife onto the table and dragged his palms aggressively over my ribcage. His broad hands traced the curve of my ribs, sliding down to my hips and digging into my skin with brutal precision as he searched every inch of me for hidden listening devices or tracking wires.

"Get your hands off me!" I shouted.

My cell phone sat buzzing on the glass table barely two feet away. I lunged for it, needing to reach someone before Ethan completely stripped away what was left of my control.

Before my fingers could touch the glass, Ethan grabbed my waist and hauled me backward onto the leather cushion. I kicked backward with everything I had, driving my heel hard toward his chest to force him off.

Ethan caught my ankles mid-air. Without breaking eye contact, he shoved my knees apart, pinning my legs open as he brought his full weight down between my thighs.

"You don't touch that phone until I know who you brought into my building," he said, his chest heavy against mine.

I thrashed against him, reaching up to claw at his throat, but he snatched my right wrist out of the air. A sharp metallic click echoed through the room as he locked a cold, heavy biometric steel cuff around my arm. The other end of the steel chain was anchored directly into the concrete floor beneath the settee.

I yanked against the metal, but the heavy link didn't yield an inch. The cold steel bit deep into my skin, locking me to the floor like an animal.

"You're insane," I breathed, my heart hammering wildly against my exposed chest.

"I'm thorough," Ethan corrected, leaning down until his shadow completely swallowed me. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a slim digital lease tablet, holding the glowing screen inches from my face.

The glowing tablet screen filled my vision, displaying lines of tiny black text flashing under a bold header.

"Read clause four out loud," Ethan ordered, his thumb tapping the cold glass. "Every word."

I locked my jaw, glaring into his dark eyes without saying a single word. The clause sitting before me clearly outlined the complete surrender of my full bodily sovereignty to him for ninety days. It was an absolute dynamic of total ownership, turning me into his personal property.

"I asked you to read it, Ava," Ethan murmured, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous tone.

He slid his large, warm hand past my torn dress, resting his palm flat against my knee. Slowly, deliberately, his fingers dragged higher up my inner thigh, his knuckles brushing against my bare skin with an intense, threatening heat. The touch sent a sharp, electric jolt through my stomach, making my breath hitch in my throat.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my lips together, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing my voice.

Ethan leaned down, his broad chest crushing my bare torso against the leather settee. He dipped his head low, bypassing my lips, and sank his teeth sharp and hard into the soft, sensitive skin of my upper inner thigh.

Pain and heat spiked through my body at once. The sudden sharp bite shattered my resolve, and a ragged gasp broke past my teeth.

"Ethan!" I cried out, my hands clawing helplessly against his shoulders as the name tore from my throat.

The moment my voice spoke his name, a sharp chime rang from the tablet. The tablet's high-tech voice-activation system registered the pitch of my voice, instantly verifying the verbal consent protocol.

A dark, satisfied smile spread across Ethan's face as he lifted his mouth from my skin. On the tablet screen, the digital document flashed bright green, locking the lease contract into place.

Before I could recover my breath, a loud double-beep echoed from his phone on the table. The screen lit up with a massive banking notification. The system had automatically executed the contract's financial trigger, instantly transferring fifty million pounds directly out of Ethan's corporate bank account.

The digital receipt flashed bright green on the phone screen, but the destination bank details froze the blood inside my veins.

My eyes widened as I stared at the series of numbers. The fifty million pounds hadn't gone to an escrow account or a neutral corporate hold. Ethan reached down, his heavy hand clamping around my wrist chain and hauling me upward. He dragged my body off the leather settee until my bare, trembling back was pressed flat against his hot chest. His broad arm wrapped tightly around my waist, holding me pinned against him so I had no choice but to look at the glass terminal mounted on the wall.

"Look closely, Ava," Ethan murmured, his breath hot against my neck.

On the wall display, the financial network was rapidly decoding the complex routing sequence, peeling back layer after layer of fake offshore banks and shell companies. My heart hammered like a trapped bird against my ribs as the final destination opened up on the glass terminal.

My thumb dragged across the glowing terminal screen, tracing the IP address back to its origin.

The routing numbers didn't lie. The money was landing directly in a private, encrypted account held in the Cayman Islands, an account I knew better than my own.

Ethan’s hand cupped the back of my neck, tilting my face until his breath scorched my ear while his other hand slid back between my legs, reasserting total control.

"Your brother was never kidnapped, Ava," he whispered as the screen revealed the account owner. "He used your body as leverage to pay off his own syndicate debt."