THE ICE CAPTAIN’S RETRIBUTION

Chapter Two

Chloe's POV

I looked at Brandon’s furious face, then at Ava’s smirking one, and felt a cold, mocking smile spread across my own lips. The fear I had felt in the bedroom was completely gone, replaced by pure ice.

"I was actually stupid to think you were worth a single shed of my tears, Brandon," I said, my voice cutting through the air like a knife.

I twisted my arm out of his grip with a sharp, disgusted jerk, stepping back just enough to let the entire room see the red, mounting shape of his fingers on my skin. "A slut? That’s rich coming from the man who couldn't even keep his pants zipped in the Royal Suite while his guests were downstairs drinking his cheap champagne."

Brandon’s face flushed a violent, mottled purple. "Shut your mouth, Chloe! You don't talk to me like that! You're nothing without the Houston name, and you're damn sure nothing now that you've publicly humiliated my family!"

"Humiliated you?" I let out a sharp, mocking laugh that echoed off the high ceilings. "You did that all on your own. You and your little parasite here."

I leveled a freezing glare at Ava, whose smug expression instantly faltered under the weight of my contempt. "Did you really think you were being clever, Ava? Creeping into my fiancé’s bed, playing the sweet, innocent childhood best friend while acting like a desperate stray looking for scraps? You wanted my leftovers so badly that you forgot to check if the plate was contaminated. Well, congratulations. You won a cheating, bankrupt fraud."

"Chloe, you're just jealous!" Ava hissed, her voice rising in a desperate attempt to regain her high-and-mighty footing. "Brandon loves me. He's marrying me because I can give him a real family, not a cold, barren tech-freak who cares more about coding than her own man!"

"He's marrying you because he's a coward who needs an easy ego-boost, and you're pathetic enough to provide it," I replied, my tone dangerously calm. "

Brandon blinked, taken aback by the complete lack of fear in my eyes as I stepped closer to him.

"And as for that core project you and your pathetic family are relying on to save your company?" I chuckled darkly, looking between him and Ava. "My father designed the encryption so that it requires my voice approval and biometric signature in order to ever be launched and produced.”

Brandon's face drained of color instantly, his aggressive posture collapsing into absolute panic. Ava’s smug expression shattered, her jaw dropping as the financial reality of my words hit them like a physical blow.

"Chloe, wait—baby, I'm so sorry," Brandon stammered hurriedly, his tone shifting into a desperate, groveling plea. He grabbed my hands, his fingers trembling. "I was out of my mind, it was a mistake. Ava, get over here and apologize to her right now!"

Ava looked horrified, moving forward to beg, but the sight of them acting like pathetic beggars made me sick. I violently pushed Brandon’s hands away from me, leaving him stumbling backward into the rain.

"Get out of my way pathetic fools," I commanded angrily. “And don't forget to check how you both look in the mirror” I added about storming out…

"Shut your mouth, you psycho!" Brandon screamed, charging up the stage steps with his fist raised, completely blinded by rage.

I braced myself for the impact, refusing to back down, but Brandon never reached me.

A massive, imposing figure stepped out of the crowd, intercepting Brandon mid-stride and grabbing him by the throat with terrifying speed. Dominic stood like an unmovable wall of solid muscle, shielding me completely from Brandon's violence.

The entire ballroom went completely silent, a collective gasp catching in the throats of hundreds of guests. Dominic slowly turned his head back to look at me, his original silver eyes turned golden glowing with a feral, dangerous intensity.

"Touch her again, Brandon," Dominic whispered, his deep voice carrying a terrifying vibration that made the glass chandeliers shake. "And I will personally ensure you don't live to see the launch of your next project.”

Dominic slammed Brandon into the polished stage floor with a sickening thud, treating the golden boy of Houston Logistics like an insignificant piece of trash. Before the crowd could even process the violence, Dominic turned fluidly and grabbed my cold, trembling hand in his iron grip.

He didn't say a single word as he stripped off his heavy, custom-tailored suit jacket and draped it over my soaked shoulders. The fabric was incredibly warm, carrying a faint scent of dark cedar and something metallic that instantly cut through the freezing chill in my bones.

He pulled me sharply through the sea of gasping high-society guests, his massive frame parting the crowd like the Red Sea. I could barely keep up with his long, predatory strides, my mind completely scrambled by the chaotic sequence of events.

As we crossed the threshold of the grand ballroom doors, I looked up at his face, trying to find a trace of the playboy the tabloids always gossiped about. For a split second, the bright crystal chandeliers caught his face, and my breath hitched violently in my chest.

I thought my mind was completely fracturing from the trauma, because his piercing silver eyes had distinctly flashed a vibrant, predatory gold right before he struck Brandon. It wasn't a trick of the light; it looked like a literal fire burning behind his retinas.

Dominic suddenly looked down, catching me staring up at him with wide, terrified eyes as we reached the private elevator bay. A slow, dangerous smirk stretched across his perfect lips, breaking his icy composure.

"Admiring the view, Chloe?" he murmured, his deep voice carrying a low vibration that seemed to rattle right through my ribs. "I know I’m good-looking, but we should probably get out of the firing zone first.”

“I—I wasn't doing anything of the sort," I stammered, my voice cracking as I frantically searched for proper words to defend my pride.