Chapter 3
1306 Words
Chapter 3: Leverage
The barrel of the suppressed pistol pressed hard against Nora’s chest. The masked assassin’s eyes glinted with cold malice.
“Jump,” he hissed over the howling wind, eighty floors above the city. “Jump, or I put a bullet between your eyes.”
Nora’s fingers stayed locked onto the freezing stone railing. Her mind raced frantically, searching for a way out. She had ten seconds left to live.
Thud.
The heavy glass balcony doors violently shattered inward.
Before the assassin could react, a massive, imposing figure charged out of the darkness of the master bedroom. Adrian Voss didn’t yell. He didn't hesitate. With terrifying, predatory speed, his large hand clamped around the assassin's wrist, twisting it until a sickening crack echoed over the terrace.
The gun clattered to the floor. Adrian threw a brutal, bone-shattering punch into the intruder's jaw, sending the masked man stumbling backward.
“Ryker!” Adrian roared.
Within two seconds, the head of security and three armed guards swarmed the balcony, pinning the groaning assassin to the concrete.
Adrian didn’t even look at the attacker. He turned his flat, assessing stare entirely onto Nora. His tuxedo shirt was slightly torn, his chest heaving as he stared at her through the dark.
“I just came out to get some fresh air,” Nora stammered, her voice shaking violently as the adrenaline crashed through her system. “I—I didn't poison your drink. I won't jump. I'm not stupid.”
Adrian stepped closer, his shadow completely engulfing her. He didn’t touch her, but he smelled like rich whiskey and something cold, like metal.
“Inside,” he commanded, nodding toward the shattered room.
Nora didn’t argue. Her knees were weak, and she stepped away from the ledge, refusing to let him see her collapse.
As Ryker dragged the assassin away, Adrian followed her inside, pulling the heavy curtains shut over the broken glass. The room fell into a tense, suffocating silence.
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Adrian moved to the bar cart, unhurried, as if he hadn't just saved her life. He poured two glasses of whiskey and set one on the mahogany desk in front of her. He didn’t push it toward her.
“I don’t drug my assets,” he said coldly, taking a slow sip from his own glass. “I prefer them alert. Especially when they are being targeted by my enemies.”
Nora remained standing, crossing her arms tightly. “What do you want from me, Adrian? Who was that man?”
“A minor inconvenience,” Adrian dismissed smoothly. “You read page one of your contract. Now, read page eight.”
The leather file was still lying on the desk. Nora stepped forward, her fingers trembling slightly before she forced herself to regain control. She flipped through the heavy pages until her eyes caught Clause 8.4.
Consummation of the marriage must occur within thirty days, or the agreement is null and void.
The air completely left Nora’s lungs. Her head snapped up, her eyes wide with fury. “You can’t force me to—”
“Can’t what?” Adrian sets his glass down, his dark eyes drilling into hers. “Touch you? I won’t. Not until you ask me to.” A humorless, razor-sharp smile touched his lips. “But if this marriage isn't legally validated within thirty days, the funding to your brother's hospital stops. The private security outside his room walks away. Choose, Nora.”
Nora’s fingernails bit into her palms so hard they nearly drew blood. “You’re an absolute monster.”
“I’m a businessman,” he corrected calmly, sliding a new document across the table. It bore the official Voss Industries letterhead, detailing the upcoming corporate merger terms. “You want leverage? Earn it.”
Nora scanned the corporate document. Her eyes instantly locked onto Clause 12.3: Marriage must occur before Q3 to validate the billion-dollar merger. The bride may not be substituted under penalty of fraud, immediate contract dissolution, and a federal SEC investigation.
Her pulse kicked into overdrive. She slowly looked up at the billionaire standing before her.
Adrian was watching her the way a grandmaster watches a chess piece move entirely on its own.
“You committed fraud,” Nora said quietly, a sudden wave of realization washing over her. “The exact second I said ‘I do’ at that altar. If your board of directors finds out I am an impostor and not the real Valentina Laurent, you lose Voss Industries.”
A beat of pure silence hung in the air. Adrian’s jaw ticked. Once.
It was the very first genuine, uncalculated reaction she had ever managed to force out of him.
“You’re learning,” he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
“No,” Nora countered, her voice growing steady, matching his intensity. “I’m listening. You told me never to ask about the real bride. Fine. I won’t. I’ll just ask the SEC instead when they investigate your fraudulent merger.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. He didn't raise his voice, but the sheer aura of authority radiating from him made the room feel ice-cold. “Ryker.”
The head of security stepped into the room instantly. “Sir.”
“Her phone.”
Ryker placed her cracked burner phone onto the desk. Adrian didn't touch it. He just looked at Nora.
“Any messages you need to send to your handlers before we continue this conversation?” Adrian asked.
Nora looked at the screen. The last text message from the unknown number—I'M WATCHING—was still staring back at her. She realized now that whoever sent it had sent that assassin to the balcony. If she didn't cooperate with Adrian, she was dead anyway.
She pushed the phone back toward him. “No.”
Adrian nodded once. “Good.”
Nora swallowed hard, taking a desperate leap. “Why me? There are thousands of desperate women in debt. Why force me into this nightmare?”
Adrian finally sat down in the leather chair across from her, leaning forward until he was entirely in her space.
“Because when my men came to collect your debt, you didn’t beg for your life,” he murmured, his gaze intensely fixed on her face. “You negotiated. You sold your own freedom to keep your brother alive. I don’t want a fragile wife who breaks under pressure, Nora. I want one who calculates.”
“That’s not a compliment.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.” He stood up, smoothing his shirt. “Sleep. Tomorrow morning, you meet the board of directors as my doting wife. If you speak out of turn, your brother’s doctor gets a new job off the grid in Alaska. Unreachable.”
He walked to the heavy bedroom door. He paused, keeping his back to her.
“You asked what ruthless means, Nora. This is me being merciful. Don’t make me stop.”
Without another word, Adrian turned on his heel and walked out of the suite, closing the heavy doors behind him and leaving her alone in the massive master bedroom.
Nora stood alone in the center of the room, her heart hammering against her ribs. She looked at the door Adrian had just exited. Then, her eyes drifted to the far corner of the master suite.
The third door. The heavy, pitch-black door he had strictly forbidden her from opening.
Driven by pure survival instinct, Nora crept across the room. She placed her trembling palm against the cold black wood.
From the other side, she didn't hear a voice. Instead, a rhythmic, rhythmic sound echoed through the keyhole.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
It sounded exactly like a hospital heart monitor, keeping someone—or something—alive right inside Adrian's private quarters.
- Writer
