Chapter 1: The man who hates me
The bomb didn’t kill me.
But the man standing in my office doorway might.
I didn’t flinch when the explosion shattered the windows three floors below. I didn’t scream when security dragged me into the panic room, my silk blouse torn, my heartbeat steady as a metronome. Fear was a luxury I’d outgrown at sixteen, the night my father taught me that weakness gets you buried.
But now I felt it. Cold. Sharp. Coiling in my ribs like a blade.
Because the man walking toward me wasn’t just any bodyguard.
He was him.
Tall, broad-shouldered, with a jaw set like granite and eyes the color of storm clouds over a battlefield. A jagged scar cut through his left eyebrow I remember that scar. And the way he looked at me… like I was something rotten he’d scraped off his boot.
“Ms. Voss,” he said, voice low, rough as gravel. “I’m your new head of security.”
I crossed my arms, nails digging into my sleeves. “You’re late. And I don’t recall approving you.”
A ghost of a smirk touched his lips. “You wouldn’t have.”
He stepped closer. The scent of rain, gun oil, and something darkly masculine filled the space between us. My pulse betrayed me just once thudding hard against my ribs.
“Name,” I demanded, though I already knew it. Kai Mercer. The name had haunted my nightmares for five years.
“Kai Mercer.” He held my gaze without blinking. “Former Special Forces. Twelve years clean record. And the only man in this city who knows exactly what you did.”
My breath hitched. Just slightly. But he saw it.
“Relax,” he said, almost gently. “I’m not here to drag you to court. I’m here because someone wants you dead.” He pulled a folded note from his jacket and dropped it on my desk. “And they’re getting bolder.”
I unfolded it with steady hands. The message was typed in plain black font:
“You lied once. Now the whole world will know.”
Beneath it a single red rose petal, dried and brittle.
My stomach dropped. He knows about the trial. He knows about Daniel.
Kai watched me, arms crossed, expression unreadable. “So. Still think you don’t need me?”
I lifted my chin. “I don’t need anyone.”
“Good,” he said, turning toward the door. “Because I don’t work for people I like.”
He paused, hand on the knob. “Pack a bag. We’re leaving the city tonight. Your father’s estate on Blackwater Cove is the only safe place left.”
“Blackwater?” I scoffed. “That place is a tomb.”
“Then it suits you,” he said without looking back. “Cold. Beautiful. Full of ghosts.”
The door clicked shut behind him.
I stared at the note in my hand, the rose petal crumbling between my fingers.
He’s right, I thought. I am full of ghosts.
But as I reached for my phone to call my assistant, a new message lit up the screen from an unknown number.
“Tell Mercer to watch his six. Or he’ll be the next one buried.”
My blood turned to ice.
Because Kai Mercer wasn’t just my enemy.
He was my only shield.
And someone wanted him dead too.
