KILLIANJosie hadn't picked up her phone. A moment later, I called Hugo with the same result. In any other circumstances, it wouldn't have triggered my worst fears, but this situation had already screamed danger long before I made the calls. Drawing a deep breath, I forced myself to calm down before picking Josie's friend's number, Ashley's. Only when the friend didn't answer did my anxieties explode.Cursing, I stepped on the gas, frantically maneuvering through the traffic. It might have been long after the rush hour, but it didn't make the streets of Manhattan any less crowded. I was about to call Gunner, but before I managed to do so, his caller ID appeared on my phone screen.“We might have a situation,” he said, his tense voice booming through the car speakers."Well, no shit,” I snapped. “Is your man protecting Josie doing his job?”“About that…” He blew out a breath. “I lost contact with him.”“Fuck,” I growled, tightening my grip on the wheel.“Twenty minutes ago, he reported
JOSIEI struggled to keep my nerves on the leash, but my composure was cracking more with every shallow breath I took. I was sitting in the backseat of a van with two men dressed in dark combat clothes on either side of me. My hands were tied with a nylon strap, but they put no restraints on my feet, nor did they blindfold me. Not that I could see a lot through the tinted windows in the middle of the night, but still, the not-blindfolding me part triggered all kinds of anxieties. They either didn't think I could recreate the road we were driving or they didn't plan to keep me alive to tell anyone about it…The one good thing was that no one had checked me. I didn't carry any weapons on me, and none of them suspected I could stand a threat. Surely, they had taken away my purse, but they'd missed the fact that I'd managed to hide my phone elsewhere. The only true “weapon” I possessed was currently stuffed inside my jacket's inner pocket. The problem was that I would be able to use it on
My heart pounded against my ribcage as I stared at the closed door of my prison cell. I had less than an hour to come up with a magical idea of how to get out of this situation. Signing any kind of confession while being threatened was an act of extortion. Did Ricardson seriously think I would repeat those lies later in the courtroom? There had to be a solution that didn't include me surviving gruesome torture. I had to focus…My eyes instantly drifted to the small window with bars right by the ceiling. My cell was on the basement level, so I assumed the window should be right above the ground. It was small, but I should be able to slip through if I managed to open it. The bars securing it looked a little rusty. What was the chance they could be removed? Unfortunately, I would have to climb to the damn window just to check my theory.Drawing a deep breath, I scanned the wall below the window and noticed a few dips and bumps. An idea appeared in an instant. Perhaps I could use the uneve
KILLIANNormally, I wouldn't have willingly dragged my ass to a place that could easily become a raging battlefield. I would have left it all for Gunner and his team to solve, but this was different. This was too personal to be left for someone else to handle.“Are you sure you're coming with us?” Gunner had asked while gathering his team. “I mean, I know you can shoot and fight as well as any of my men, but...”“They took her from me. I will watch them pay for it,” I'd told him then, and from that moment on, the determination to make it happen kept growing.The red dot pointed at an abandoned factory in the middle of nowhere—a perfect place for doing despicable things without being seen or heard. Knowing that Josie had been taken there was enough for my guts to twist. My fears and rage formed a feral mixture, and I already felt sorry for the asshole who would do something to push me off the edge.I wanted blood. Never in my entire life had I felt such a need for violence. Looking at
JOSIEFrom that night on, Killian turned from acting like a caring boyfriend to an overprotective parent. He asked me how I felt at least a hundred times a day and forbade me from going to work. Thankfully, there was nearly nothing left for me to do before the app's official launch, and I could fix the few remaining issues remotely while sitting in Killian's bedroom. And yes, I said KILLIAN's bedroom.He wanted me close until I fully recovered. Certainly, repeating over and over again that I was fine had zero effect on him. I cursed him and called him overbearing, but a part of me enjoyed his unreasonable protectiveness. Something had changed between us. I had seen it in his eyes that night. I'd seen all the fears tensing his muscles and the soothing relief when he'd realized I hadn't been seriously harmed.Later, he kept repeating that he should have done more to protect me. I had told him again and again that none of that had been his fault, but even after a few days, I still saw a f
KILLIANHappy App's popularity exceeded my expectations tenfold. It had over one million downloads on the day of the official launch, and that number kept growing. Mia Sunshine's followers helped a lot in that department. Even though the night Josie had done that livestream with Mia was certainly the night I would gladly erase from my memory, nothing could change the fact that this was the factor that made the news about the Happy App go viral.Two days after the official launch, our Sales Department received hundreds of phone calls from companies more than willing to join the Happy Club and place special offers for the Happy App's users. Everyone seemed ecstatic about it—well, everyone except for Michael Kearn. From what I heard, he had tried to cause trouble before, but Josie had somehow managed to put him back in his place. Now he was infuriated enough to demand an immediate meeting with me. I happily obliged.“Director Kearn,” I greeted him, smiling. “What brings you to my office
JOSIEA dumb smile stretched my lips, and I couldn't get rid of it no matter how hard I tried. People actually fell in love with our Happy App. I had never dared hope for such a reaction, but now this was our reality. Certainly, that gave us an insane amount of work, but no one complained. Especially not when we all received a special bonus for our work, courtesy of the CEO...“Wow…” Ashley blew out a slow breath as she opened her bank app to check her account. “I've never seen that many zeros here. I'm not sure I know how to pronounce it right.”“I can help you with that,” Mancy offered. “It's pronounced ‘fabulous shopping and a vacation on an exotic island’.”“Mine is called ‘house renovation’,” Kei interjected. “My apartment is almost falling apart, but with this money... Damn. I will finally have a place where I can invite girls with no shame.”“How about you, Martin?” Mancy grinned, walking over to his desk.Martin's cheeks blushed. “I will buy my wife a wedding ring she deserves
The door slowly opened, revealing another, larger, and more luxurious hall. I stepped on the black, glittering marble floor and slowly looked around at the walls ornamented with silver and golden patterns and crystal chandeliers. Then my eyes drifted to the black and white leather sofas where the VIP guests of the restaurant were, mainly drinking, smoking cigars, and discussing all kinds of things I surely didn't want to know about.“Mr. Aslanov sits in the right corner of the room,” said the concierge, who suddenly materialized next to me. He pointed at the two sofas on the right and the gray-haired man in the black suit. The man looked like he could be in his late sixties, but the dark aura around him screamed not to underestimate him.I swallowed and slowly walked across the hall toward him. My heart hammered, threatening to burst through my ribcage, but I refused to show fear. I raised my chin and focused on my steps. My heels clanged each time I hit the marble with every step I t