AUTHOR POV
Four days had passed, but the air between us was still thick with the scent of old blood and fresh lies. Keifer hadn't just cooled off; he had fermented in his own paranoia. He didn't just see me as a traitor anymore; he saw me as a ticking time bomb waiting to finish off what I'd "started" with Keigan.
I was just pulling my keys from my pocket when a shadow loomed over me, blocking the dim hallway light of my apartment building. I didn't need to look up to know the weight of that presence.
Jay Jay's POV
"Four days," Keifer's voice was a jagged blade, cutting through the silence. "Four days of watching Keigan struggle to breathe while you walk free. I've spent every minute wondering when you're going to come back for the rest of us."
I pressed my back against my door, my heart hammering against my ribs. "I'm not coming for anyone, Keifer. I'm just trying to survive."
"Survive?" He stepped into my space, his chest nearly brushing mine. He was vibrating with a restrained, terrifying energy. "You're a parasite. You survive by draining people until they have nothing left. Sienna is jumping at shadows, Keiren won't leave his room... and I'm sitting there, watching them, wondering what I have to do to make you vanish."
He reached out, his fingers hooking into the collar of my jacket, pulling me forward until I was on my toes. His face was a mask of cold, unblinking fury.
"I'm reaching a point where my own morals are starting to feel like a liability," he whispered, his breath hot against my skin. "I might do something that I'm not even about to think through. I might make you disappear in a way that doesn't involve the police or a courtroom. Do you understand me? I will erase you from the face of this earth if it means my brothers sleep safely."
"Then do it!" I shouted, the words fueled by four days of agony. "If you hate me this much, if you truly believe I'm the monster Sienna says I am, then end it! Because I can't keep living like this, Keifer! I can't see that love of my life, a man who can't breathe without me ,looks at me and sees a murderer!"
The air vanished from the hallway. His grip on my collar tightened, his knuckles turning white. His eyes searched mine, looking for the lie, but all he found was the raw, bleeding truth of my heartbreak.
The threats died on his lips. His gaze dropped, landing on my mouth—the only part of me that wasn't shaking. He was so close I could see the golden flecks in his eyes drowning in shadows.
"You're a poison," he groaned, the words sounding like a confession. "And I'm already infected."
Suddenly, his hand moved from my collar to the back of my neck, his fingers tangling in my hair with a violent desperation. He crashed his lips against mine, the kiss wasn't soft—it was a collision of hate, grief, and a hunger he clearly despised himself for feeling.
It tasted like salt and iron, a brutal, intimate claim that felt more like a battle than a reconciliation.
He pulled away just as quickly, his chest heaving, his eyes wide with a sudden, flickering horror at what he'd just done.
"Stay away from us," he rasped, his voice breaking for the first time. "Before I lose what's left of myself."
He turned and vanished into the shadows of the stairwell, leaving me leaning against my door, my lips burning and my soul completely destroyed.
At king's ground.
Tiger was admiring his reflection in a gilded mirror, adjusting his hair for the tenth time, when I limped into the VIP lounge of King's Ground.
"Oh, look who it is! little disaster," Tiger chirped, not even turning around. "You look like you crawled out of a blender, Jay Jay. Still playing the tomboy hero? You know, if you wore a dress once in a while, maybe people wouldn't try to stab you so often."
"Leo," she said, leaning over his mahogany desk, "I need information. And don't you dare call Angelo. If he finds out I'm here, I'll tell everyone that your 'perfect' hair is actually a high-end hairpiece."Tiger let out a dramatic, offended gasp, smoothing his perfectly coiffed hair.
"What do you want to know about that keifer's lovely secretary?
"Shut up, Tiger," I groaned, dropping into a chair. "I'm not in the mood. I need your help, and if you tell Kuya Angelo,or tell that fucking women keifer's ,I'll shave your head in your sleep."
Tiger gasped, clutching his chest. "You wouldn't dare! My hair is a national treasure. Fine, fine. What's the problem? Besides your lack of fashion sense?"
"It's Sienna," I said, my voice dropping. "I already knew Kaizer Watson hated his own son—Keifer told me enough to know his father would kill for that inheritance. But Sienna isn't just a secretary. She's the bridge between Kaizer and Marco Valerius. They're teaming up to erase Keifer from the industry and the family tree."
Tiger stopped preening and leaned in, his eyes narrowing. "Marco Valerius? That man is a shark. If Sienna is his plant, then Keifer is basically living with a live grenade. And he thinks you're the villain? That boy is as blind as he is handsome."
"He's completely brainwashed," I whispered, thinking of the kiss—the desperate, angry way he'd reached for me before pushing me away. "He thinks she's his protector. I need to expose her, Tiger. I need him to see the snake in his house before she finishes the job Kaizer started."
Tiger smirked, a wicked glint in his eye. "Well, if we're going to take down a queen bee, we need a sting. Here's the plan, Tomboy."
He pulled out a slim, high-tech device.
"Sienna is careful, but she's arrogant. She has a secondary phone she uses to report to Kaizer. She keeps it in her designer bag—the one she never lets out of her sight. We need to mirror that phone. If we get the logs of her conversations with Keifer's father, he won't be able to deny the truth."
"How do I get close enough to her?" I asked. "Keifer told me he'd kill me if I came near them."
"That's the fun part," Tiger chuckled, leaning back. "We're going to throw a 'charity' gala right here at King's Ground. Marco Valerius never misses an opening, and he'll bring his favorite 'assistant' with him. You'll be my 'security detail'—hidden in plain sight. While she's busy flirting with the elite, you're going to clone that phone."
I looked at my bruised hands. "And Keifer?"
"He'll be there," Tiger said, his voice unusually soft. "Watching his world fall apart. Are you ready to see the look on his face when he realizes he threatened the only person actually saving his life?"
I nodded, the pain in my stomach hardening into resolve. "Let's do it."
But not now when right time comes.