Xavier didn't tell Seraphina about the blood on his knuckles. He cleaned them in the garden sink, the cold water stinging the broken skin where he'd struck the car window. He knew that if she saw him like this, she would try to handle the threat with lawyers and restraining orders. But the men in that black sedan didn't care about the law. They only cared about how much they could squeeze out of a "distracted" CEO.
"Arthur," Xavier said, stepping into the dimly lit security room. "I need the footage from the perimeter. Every angle. And I need the keys to the silver sedan—the one without the Vane family crest on the door."
Arthur looked at him, his aged eyes narrowing behind his spectacles. He didn't ask questions; he had seen enough "security incidents" in his forty years at the estate to know when a man was hunting. "The keys are in the cabinet, Mr. Xavier. And the cameras... they seem to have suffered a 'glitch' in the North Sector. Conveniently, it was the only angle that saw the license plate."
"Thank you, Arthur," Xavier said, his voice a low, dangerous hum.
He drove toward the old shipping district—a place where the "Silas-loyalists" and the city's underbelly usually gathered. It was a world of rust, salt, and shadows, a mirror of the life Xavier thought he'd left behind when he signed the contract.
He pulled up to a warehouse that looked abandoned, but the flickering blue light in the upper window told a different story. Inside, he found a group of men sitting around a makeshift card table. In the corner, a younger man was hunched over a laptop, the drone from the garden sitting on the desk beside him like a trophy.
"I believe you lost something in my garden," Xavier said, his voice echoing through the hollow, metallic space.
The men jumped to their feet, chairs scraping harshly against the concrete. The man at the laptop turned around, his face turning ghostly pale. It wasn't a professional assassin or a rival CEO. It was Leo Vane, Silas's youngest son and Seraphina's cousin.
"Xavier," Leo gasped, his hands trembling as he tried to hide the remote control. "You... you shouldn't be here. This is private property."
"And the Vane Estate is my home, Leo," Xavier said, stepping into the light. He didn't look like a husband in a tailored suit anymore; he looked like a predator who had spent his youth learning how to survive in much tougher places than this. "Silas is out. The board has spoken. If you keep poking the Ice Queen, you're going to get burned. Or worse... you're going to have to deal with me."
Xavier picked up the drone and crushed it in one hand, the plastic snapping like dry bone. He tossed the wreckage onto the card table, scattering the poker chips.
"The next time I see one of these near her window, I won't come alone," Xavier warned, leaning in until he was inches from Leo's terrified face. "Tell your father that the Vane Empire has a new guard. And I don't sleep. I don't negotiate. And I certainly don't miss."
Xavier walked back to the car, his heart still thumping with a cold, focused energy. His phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text from Seraphina: 'Where are you? The house feels too big without you. Come back to the East Wing.'
He smiled, a real, warm smile that reached his eyes for the first time all day. 'On my way home, Seraphina. The shadows are gone.'
As he drove back toward the mansion, he realized that the "Ice Queen's Contract" was no longer just a way to pay off his debts. It was a war for a woman he was actually starting to love. And in his world, you never let the enemy see you coming.