Beneath the Redwoods: Contracted to The Ruthless CEO

The Predator’s Return

The sun hadn’t yet cleared the Manhattan skyline when Jade began her morning ritual. Her movements were surgical, a silent rebellion against the chaos of the night before. She applied a thicker layer of concealer than usual, carefully masking the faint, yellowish-bruise marks Arthur Ashford’s fingers had left on her jaw. In the mirror, she saw a woman she barely recognized a woman whose body was no longer her own, and whose future was a hostage to a legacy she never asked for.

She had spent the night awake, listening to the muffled sounds of Lucian pacing in the living room. He hadn’t tried to break down the door, but the silence between them had been a physical weight, a live wire vibrating with everything they couldn’t say. At 7:00 AM, she had stepped into the living room to find it empty, the only sign of his presence being the lingering scent of his expensive tobacco and a note that read like a military order: Be at the office by 8:30. Victoria arrives at 9:00. Don’t be late.

The executive floor of the Ashford Group was a hive of frantic energy. Staffers scurried about with floral arrangements and press kits, but Jade sat at her desk like a stone in a river. She was the “Iron Secretary” once more, her spine a rigid line of defiance. Beneath the silk of her blazer, her hand instinctively brushed against her stomach a secret heartbeat in a building made of glass and steel. She felt a wave of nausea, cold and sharp, but she swallowed it down. She couldn’t afford to be weak. Not today.

At exactly 9:00 AM, the elevator chimed with a crisp, authoritative ring.

Victoria Stirling didn’t just enter a room; she colonized it. Dressed in cream-colored wool with a fur collar that screamed of old-world governors’ mansions, she moved with an effortless, terrifying grace. She stopped at Jade’s desk, her eyes the color of cold sea glass scanning Jade with the accuracy of a hawk looking for a break in the brush.

“So, the rumor is true,” Victoria purred, leaning over the desk until her designer perfume something cloying and floral filled Jade’s lungs. “Lucian really does keep a porcelain doll behind the desk. I’m Victoria Stirling. I assume you know who I am.”

“Miss Stirling,” Jade said, standing and inclining her head just enough to be polite. “Welcome back. Mr. Ashford is expecting you. May I take your coat?”

Victoria didn’t answer. She reached out, her gloved hand catching Jade’s chin, tilting it upward just as Arthur had done the night before. It was a gesture of pure ownership. “My father says your father was a hero. He also says heroes usually leave behind a mess. I wonder, Jade... are you the hero’s reward or the mess that needs to be cleaned up?”

“I’m the Chief Secretary, Miss Stirling,” Jade replied, her voice like flat steel. “My job is to ensure the only mess in this office is the one you’re currently making of my schedule. Mr. Ashford has a board meeting in twenty minutes.”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed, a sharp, delighted laugh escaping her. “Oh, you have teeth. I like that. Theodore will enjoy pulling them one by one. My cousin is looking for a wife, Jade. Someone quiet. Someone with a... complicated history... who won’t mind living in a house where the doors are locked from the outside. Lucian and I discussed it over breakfast. We think you’d be a perfect fit once our wedding is finalized. It’s only right that we keep the ‘loyal help’ in the family, don’t you think?”

The bile rose in Jade’s throat. They were already trading her like a piece of livestock, deciding her future over coffee and croissants. Before she could respond, the elevator doors opened a second time.

A man stepped out, his build a mirror image of Lucian’s, but his aura was a dark, still lake of wreckage. This wasn’t the polished CEO. This was the brother the Ashfords kept in the shadows, the one who handled the parts of the empire that didn’t appear in the annual reports.

Sebastian Ashford had returned.

He ignored Victoria entirely, walking straight to Jade’s desk with a predatory gait. He stopped inches from her, leaning down so his face was level with hers. Unlike Lucian, who always held a shred of restraint, Sebastian looked at her with a raw, unsettling hunger. He looked like a man who enjoyed the hunt more than the kill.

“Well, well,” Sebastian whispered, his voice a jagged mirror of his brother’s. “I leave for two years to handle the ‘criminal’ side of the family business, and I come back to find my brother has been hiding the most beautiful thing in New York.”

He reached out, his fingers brushing the stray hair behind Jade’s ear. His touch was cold. “You look pale, Jade. And you’re holding your stomach like there’s something precious inside. Tell me... is it because you’re afraid of my father? Or is it because you’re afraid Lucian will find out what you’re hiding under that expensive blazer?”

Jade’s heart stopped. She felt the blood drain from her face. Sebastian didn’t just suspect; he was an expert in reading fear, and right now, she was screaming it.

The boardroom doors swung open with a violent thud. Lucian stood there, his face paling as he saw his twin brother’s hand on Jade. The air in the hallway seemed to combust.

“Sebastian,” Lucian barked, his voice vibrating with a primal, protective fury that he couldn’t hide quickly enough. “Get your hands off her. Now.”

Sebastian turned slowly, a mocking grin spreading across his face. He didn’t pull his hand away immediately; he let his fingers linger on Jade’s shoulder for one second too long. “Relax, brother. I’m just getting acquainted with the staff. After all... if she’s part of the inheritance, I should get at least half, shouldn’t I? Or perhaps I’ll just take the parts you’ve grown tired of.”

Victoria watched the exchange with a sharpened interest, her eyes darting between the two brothers and the trembling secretary. She realized then that Jade Sinclair wasn’t just a distraction she was the pivot point upon which the entire Ashford family was about to break.

“Jade, into my office. Now,” Lucian commanded, his eyes never leaving Sebastian’s.

Jade didn’t wait. She grabbed her tablet and hurried past them, the heat of the brothers’ mutual hatred prickling the back of her neck. As she closed the heavy oak door of the CEO’s suite, she heard Sebastian’s low, taunting laugh echo through the hallway.

She was in the center of a war, and for the first time, she realized that the “s****l Service Contract” wasn’t the most dangerous thing she had signed. It was her own death warrant.