His Invisible Architects Revenge

CHAPTER 10

Natalie POV

I have the answers you have been seeking for, I know what happened tonight, get in let us talk.

My breath caught in my throat.

My hand instinctively flew to my chest, my fingers pressing against the shape of the hidden beneath my shirt. Panic and curiosity warred inside my mind. How could anyone know about the pendant? How could they know what I found in Adrian's files just an hour ago?

I stared at the black car. Whoever was sitting behind those dark windows possessed the missing pieces of my life. I knew it was dangerous, but I had to know the truth. I took a deep breath, clutching my box of belongings, and walked slowly toward the car.

As I got closer, the passenger door unlocked. I reached out, pulled the door open, and slid into the back seat. I pulled the door shut behind me. Sitting next to me was an older man. He wore a perfectly tailored charcoal suit, and his silver hair was combed back neatly. He held a glass of liquid in his hand. I recognized him immediately, it was Lord Vance, a wealthy supernatural investor and one of Adrian's biggest corporate rivals.

"Good evening, Natalia," Lord Vance said. His voice was calm, "You look cold. Please, make yourself comfortable."

"What do you know that I am seeking?" I demanded, skipping the polite greetings.

Lord Vance chuckled softly, taking a slow sip of his drink. "I have spies everywhere, my dear," he replied casually. "The Blackwood pack is not as secure as Adrian thinks it is."

I gripped the edges of my cardboard box. "Then tell me. What do you know?"

"Straight to business. I like that," Vance smiled, turning his body to face me fully. "I will give you all the answers you want, Natalia. I have a dossier on every answer you seek but first, let us talk about your future."

I frowned. "My future?"

"I have been watching you for years," Vance said, leaning forward. "I saw the financial models you built and you are brilliant, Natalia." He reached over to a small bucket sitting between the seats, pulled out a fresh bottle of champagne, and began to pour a glass.

"Adrian is going to crash tonight," he continued, an ugly, mocking smirk spreading across his face. "By next week, Blackwood Group will be begging for bankruptcy. He is a failure."

He handed the glass of champagne toward me, I did not take it. Vance did not seem to care. He set the glass down and looked at me with eager, hungry eyes. "He messed up because he did not respect you, but I am different. Come work for my firm, Natalia. Be my chief strategist, build my portfolio the way you built his. Make my company the richest in the territory, and I promise you, I will hand you every single file I have on what you seek."

I stared at him.

The warm air inside the car suddenly felt suffocating. As I listened to him badmouth Adrian and praise my intelligence, a wave of disgust washed over me. He thought insulting Adrian would win me over. He thought I was just a bitter, angry Omega looking for a new master who would pat me on the head and tell me I was a good girl.

They were all the same, Vance did not care about me, he just wanted to blackmail me into building his empire. He was just another powerful Alpha trying to put me in a new cage and paint the bars a different color.

I am done building castles for men who will not let me sit on the throne, I thought to myself. I forced my face to soften, I made sure my expression looked tired and overwhelmed instead of angry. I knew better than to pick a fight with a powerful Alpha while locked inside his moving vehicle.

"I appreciate the offer, Lord Vance," I said quietly, keeping my voice very polite. "And I appreciate that you recognize my hard work but I am not interested in starting any work right now. I just left Blackwood, I am exhausted. I really just want to rest."

Vance's smile faltered slightly. "Natalia, opportunities like this do not wait," Vance pressed,"You have no pack. The supernatural world is dangerous for someone like you to walk through alone."

"I understand," I replied, keeping my eyes lowered. "But my mind is clouded tonight, I cannot think about corporate strategy. I just need to sleep."

Vance stared at me for a long moment, he evaluated my tired face and the wet clothes sticking to my skin. Finally, he sighed, his arrogant smile returning. "Very well," he said smoothly.

He reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a business card. "Take this," Vance insisted. "Take a few days to get Adrian out of your system and when you are ready to take over the corporate world, you call me."

I looked down at the business card in my hand, every instinct in my body screamed at me to throw the card right back at his arrogant face but I was sitting in the back of his car. The doors were locked. If I insulted him now, he could easily drive me away and lock me in his own compound.

So, I swallowed my pride. I looked up at him and gave him a soft, grateful smile. "Thank you, Lord Vance. I will take some time to rest."

"See that you do," Vance said, clearly pleased with himself. He pressed a button on the armrest, and the locks on the car doors clicked open. I did not waste a single second. I pushed the door open, grabbed my cardboard box, and stepped out into the rain. I pushed the door shut behind me and started walking down the wet sidewalk without looking back.

I heard the powerful engine of the black car rev up, and the tires splashed through the puddles as Vance drove away into the night. I kept walking for another six blocks, making sure no one was following me. The rain soaked my hair, but I did not care. I felt lighter with every step I took.

Eventually, I found a decent, anonymous hotel on the edge of the district. It was clean, quiet, and far away. I walked up to the front desk. The clerk looked at my dripping wet coat and my cardboard box with a raised eyebrow, but he did not ask any questions. I pulled a stack of cash from my pocket and paid for the room upfront.

I took the keycard and rode the elevator up to the fourth floor. I found my room, stepped inside, and pushed the door shut. I engaged the deadbolt and flipped the security latch into place.

I was alone and safe.

I stood in the entryway of the hotel room, I looked down at my left hand. I was still gripping the business card Lord Vance had forced upon me. I walked over to the dustbin sitting next to the desk.

Without a single second of hesitation, I opened my hand and let the card fall. I dropped my cardboard box onto the desk. I peeled off my wet, freezing winter coat and tossed it over a chair. My muscles ached, and my eyes burned from exhaustion, but a strange, warm energy was bubbling up inside my chest.

I walked over to the bed and slumped backward onto the mattress. I stared up at the plain white ceiling. The silence in the room was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. There was no Adrian giving me orders. No Thomas was sneering at me in the hallways. There was no one expecting me to fix their problems.

A genuine, bright smile slowly spread across my face, and a soft laugh bubbled up from my throat, filling the quiet room.

I closed my eyes, letting the joy of freedom wash over my tired body. "New season," I whispered to the empty room. "New me."