Chapter 5
1091 Words
The phone vibrated on the leather seat between them like a live wire.
Isabella Reyes
The name glowed on the screen. Alex caught her breath. She moved back, pressing herself into the seat. Her eyes, wide and scared, jumped to Jayden’s face. In that moment, he could see she believed this was a trick: that he had set her up.
The phone buzzed again. A hard, insistent sound.
Once.
Twice.
The name glowed in the dim car. Alexandra’s breath hitched. She pulled back from the phone, her back pressing into the car seat. Her wide, terrified eyes shot to Jayden’s, and in that single, fractured second, he saw it: the complete and utter certainty that this was a trap: that he had led her right into it.
The vibration was a physical sound. Bzzz. Bzzz.
Once.
Twice.
Jayden stayed perfectly still, his focus entirely on her, on the terror that had stripped away all her sharp edges. The part of him that was always running calculations screamed to answer it, to seize control.
But the part of him that had just seen the bleeding hurt in her eyes—that part was frozen.
On the third buzz, the call went to voicemail. The screen went dark. The silence it left behind was deafening, heavier than before.
“She knows.” Alex’s whisper was ragged, choked with a fresh wave of panic. “Oh God, she knows. That was her checking on her asset, right? Was someone watching us? Is that the real reason you came here?” Her voice pitched higher than before. Her hand fumbled blindly, searching for the door handle. “I’m done. The deal is off. Jayden!”
“Alexandra, stop.” His voice was a low command that sliced through her panic. He didn’t touch her, but his intensity pinned her in place. “If she knew, she wouldn’t be calling me. She’d be calling a journalist or her lawyer. That was a shot in the dark. She’s just testing the waters.”
He watched the logic try to battle its way through the sheer wall of her fear. She was shaking, pulling his oversized coat tighter around her as if it were a suit of armor.
“You don’t know that,” she fired back.
“I know her,” he said with a coldness in his voice that surprised him. “I know how she works. This changes nothing.”
“It changes everything!” The words burst out of her. “This isn’t a business deal anymore! This is… This is some kind of corporate thriller, and I’m the i***t who signed up to be the expendable pawn! You said a month of parties and pretending to laugh at your jokes. You didn’t say anything about leaks and spies and…” She gestured wildly at the phone. “…her!”
He let her rage fill the car. He didn’t interrupt. She was right, and the truth of it stirred something in his gut.
When she finally ran out of breath, he spoke, his voice cold and calm. “Are you done?”
She just stared at him, her eyes filling up with unshed tears of fury and fear.
“Good,” he said. “Now listen. The only way out is through. You back out now, and you lose. You lose the gallery. You lose your revenge. You go back to being the ‘mistake’ your family writes off. Isabella wins. Your family wins.”
He saw the words land, each one a striking blow to her pride. He was playing dirty, and he knew it. He was using her deepest wound as leverage, and the taste of it was sour in his mouth.
“And if I go through with it?” she asked.
“Then you win.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his face closer to hers. “You get everything you want. And you get to watch me destroy the woman who just tried to threaten you.”
The car was silent again. The rain had softened to a gentle tap on the roof. He could see the war raging behind her eyes. Fear vs. pride. Survival vs. ambition.
Finally, she swallowed hard and gave one sharp, jerky nod. “Okay.”
No more arguing. Just a stark, terrified acceptance.
“Okay,” he echoed.
Her gallery. Hers. The deed. The grant. The words resounded in her mind, so powerful they almost drowned out the screaming in her gut.
“Excellent,” he said, the word clear and final. He slid the paper into a folder compartment in the car, his movements efficient. “Teni will be in touch with the schedule for tomorrow. She’ll handle your… aesthetics.”
“My aesthetics?” Alex blinked, the reality of the performance crashing down. “What’s wrong with what I wear?”
A single glance flicked over her jeans and jacket. “Nothing, if you’re auditioning for a garage band, but now you’re playing the part of the woman who captivated me. Our aesthetics need to… align.”
“So we’re really doing this?”
“Yes. I’ll have you driven home. I’m placing extra security around your building as a precaution.”
He leaned forward and pressed the intercom. “Liam, let's take Ms. Vance home.”
“I prefer to be called Alex instead,” she corrected him.
The engine hummed to life. As the car pulled away from the curb and away from the crumbling remains of her dream, Alex turned her face to the window, watching her old life disappear into the rain.
Jayden watched her. The stubborn lift of her chin, even as a single tear escaped and traced a clean path down her cheek. Perhaps she’s thinking about her family again.
He wanted to ask about her family again, to understand the hurt he’d seen, but he wouldn’t push her. Not after all that had happened today.
He had his weapon. He had his revenge bait. But a new objective was forming, cold and hard: he would make every single person who had ever made her feel small pay for it.
He didn't understand why he felt this drive to protect her suddenly. Or maybe he did, and that was the most dangerous part of all.
His phone buzzed again and a voicemail notification from Isabella appeared on the screen. He needed to hear it, but he wouldn't do it with her in the car. He wouldn't let Isabella's voice poison her emotional state.
- Writer
