Celeste’s POV

"Pick up. Come on, pick up the phone," I whispered, my voice shaking.

I pressed the glowing screen so hard against my ear that it really hurt. I was walking fast, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Dad, please. You have to answer me," I muttered, looking around the campus courtyard. "You cannot just call me out of nowhere, tell me there is a fake accident, tell me not to come home, and then just totally vanish. You are driving me fucking crazy. Answer the goddamn phone!"

I waited, holding my breath. But there was no ringing. Just a cold, mechanical voice cutting into my ear.

"We are sorry. The line you are trying to reach is dead. Please hang up and try again later."

"Damn it!" I screamed to the empty air.

I shoved the phone into my bag, my hands trembling. I took a deep, shaky breath, trying to act like a normal college student. It was the middle of the afternoon. The sun was bright, and hundreds of kids were walking around me. They were laughing. They were talking about midterms. They looked so happy and safe.

But inside my head, everything was totally spinning. I could not stop thinking about the scary photo from the roof. I could not forget the loud sirens at the greenhouse last night. And my dad's voice—it had sounded so broken and panicked.

"Adrian said it was fine," I whispered to myself, pulling my sweater tighter around my body. "He said it was just some stupid tabloid scare. He told me to calm down. But he is wrong. I know he is wrong. My gut is screaming at me."

"Hey! Watch where the hell you are going, you total idiot!"

A loud, angry shout broke through my thoughts. I stopped dead in my tracks near the edge of the stone path.

Right in front of me, a massive black BMW cut right off a guy on a sleek sports motorcycle. The bike made a horrible, loud sound as the tires skidded across the road. They left thick, black streaks on the gray pavement.

The door of the BMW slammed open. A guy in an expensive suit stepped out into the sunlight. His face was completely red with rage.

"Are you fucking blind, motherfucker?" the driver screamed, slamming his hand on the hood of his car. "You almost crashed straight into my door!"

The motorcyclist did not back down at all. He kicked his kickstand down and ripped his black helmet off. His face was totally pale, and he was dripping with sweat.

"You cut me off on purpose, you piece of shit!" the biker yelled back, his voice cracking. "Do you know how close you came to killing me? Back the hell off me right now!"

"I don't give a fuck about your bike, man!" the driver screamed. He took a big step forward, his hands turning into tight fists. "You have been following me for three whole blocks! I know exactly who sent you!"

"You are completely losing your goddamn mind, old man!" the biker shouted. He looked frantic. He looked totally desperate. "I don't know you! I don't owe you anything! Get the fuck out of my face before I make you regret it!"

"Oh, you think you are tough?" the driver sneered. His voice went low and dark. It was a scary sound that made all the hairs on my arms stand up. "You are a dead man walking if you don't hand over what belongs to the company right now. I know what you took from the main office. Give it to me!"

"I don't have shit for you!" the biker yelled, shaking his head. "Get away from me!"

"Give it to me now!" the driver roared.

"Fuck you!" the biker screamed.

The biker stumbled backward. His heavy boot caught on the edge of the concrete curb right where I was standing.

"Whoa!" he gasped, his arms flying wild in the air.

He lost his balance completely and crashed heavily into a row of green bushes right next to me. As he hit the ground, a small, heavy black thing flew out of his open jacket pocket. It skidded across the hard concrete and stopped right at the toes of my boots.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" I asked, stepping forward. I reached my hand out to help him up.

"Get the fuck away from me, lady!" the biker snapped. He scrambled to his feet, his eyes wide with absolute terror. "Mind your own damn business if you want to stay alive!"

"I was just trying to help—" I started to say.

"Shut up and stay back!" he yelled.

Without even looking down at the ground, the biker jumped back onto his motorcycle. He kicked the engine into a loud roar and sped away. He wove dangerously through the big campus gates, almost hitting a tree.

The driver of the black car let out a loud curse. "Fuck! No!"

He ran back to his car, slammed the door shut, and mashed his foot on the gas pedal. The tires screeched loudly against the asphalt as he chased after the bike, disappearing into the heavy city traffic.

I stood there for a second, my heart thumping hard against my ribs.

"What the hell was that?" I whispered to myself.

I looked down at my feet. The small black object was still sitting there on the gray stone. Without thinking, I reached down and picked it up. It felt so cold in my hand. It was heavy and made of metal. It was a rugged, military-grade flash drive.

"Hey, mister! You forgot your—" I called out, turning toward the street.

But they were completely gone.

I stood in the center of the path, holding the cold metal.

"Great. Just great," I sighed, throwing the drive into the bottom of my leather bag. "A threat from some anonymous freak, a dad who won't answer me, and now I am picking up literal trash off the street. This day is perfect."

...

Hours went by. I completely forgot about the crazy fight on campus. It was not until later that night, when I finally got back to my penthouse apartment, that I remembered it.

The apartment was dead quiet. The heavy silence made me feel so totally alone.

I dropped my bag onto the kitchen island. The heavy thud made a loud echo in the dark room.

"I hate this," I muttered, looking around. "I hate being so scared."

I reached into my bag to grab my keys, but my fingers brushed against the cold metal edges of the flash drive. I pulled it out, holding it up to the dim kitchen light.

"What even are you?" I murmured, my stomach twisting with sudden curiosity.

The drive had no labels. No logos. Nothing but a heavy lock seal on the cap. It looked important. It looked really dangerous.

"Those men today," I said out loud. "They were not fighting about a traffic accident. They were fighting about this. They were fighting about what is inside this drive."

I walked over to the living room couch and grabbed my laptop from the table. I sat down, my hands shaking a little bit as I flipped the screen open.

"This is a terrible idea," I told the empty room. "A completely, totally terrible idea, Celeste."

But I was so desperate for answers. I needed to know what was happening to my life. I pushed the flash drive into the side port of my laptop.

A bright blue loading bar flashed across the screen. Then, a dark window popped up with a single text box.

PASSWORD REQUIRED. DECRYPTION ATTEMPT 1 OF 3.

"A password. Of course it needs a password," I groaned, leaning my head back against the cushions. "Because my life could never be simple for five minutes. Screw this."

I stared at the blinking line.

"What would a corporate thief use?" I muttered, typing fast. "Let's try the basic stuff. A-D-M-I-N."

I hit enter. The screen flashed a bright, angry red.

INCORRECT. 2 ATTEMPTS REMAINING.

"Okay, okay, think, Celeste," I whispered to myself. My breath was getting short. My chest felt tight. "What about the car? B-M-W? No, that is stupid. Think harder."

I closed my eyes. Suddenly, my mind went straight to Adrian. I missed him so much it hurt. I wished he was here right now, holding me tight, telling me everything was going to be fine. I thought about the way he looked at me in the greenhouse. I thought about his hazel eyes, and how they always had that sad, dark shadow. He talked about his mom sometimes. His voice always carried so much deep pain when he did.

"It makes no sense," I whispered, my fingers moving across the keyboard. "It makes absolutely no sense, but I am doing it anyway."

I typed out his mother's maiden name in big letters. L-A-U-R-E-N-T.

I hit enter.

The screen did not flash red. Instead, the black window broke apart. A bunch of green loading bars filled the monitor.

"Holy shit," I gasped, my eyes going totally wide. I sat up straight, my heart racing. "It actually unlocked. Why the hell would a random biker's drive unlock with Adrian's mom's name? This cannot be a coincidence. No way."

I moved the mouse over the main folder. The title at the top of the screen made all the blood run straight out of my face.

THE BLACK LEDGER.

"What the fuck is a black ledger?" I whispered into the quiet penthouse.

I clicked the folder open. Hundreds of files showed up on the screen. They had dates, names, and big numbers. I clicked the first document, my eyes scanning the simple, scary headers.

"Political corruption," I read out loud, my voice shaking. "Multi-million-dollar money laundering. Fake companies."

Then, I saw a folder with a dark, heavy title.

ASSASSINATIONS.

My stomach twisted into a painful knot. I felt like I was going to throw up.

"This isn't a joke," I whispered, tears burning my eyes. "These are real papers. Real bank accounts. Real body counts."

I scrolled down more. My fingers were shaking so badly I could barely control the trackpad. Suddenly, a specific file name caught my eye. My breath stopped completely in my throat. It was a date from eleven years ago. The exact date of the car accident that killed Adrian's parents.

Right next to the file name, a big digital stamp glowed in bright, bleeding red letters.

SUPPRESSED.

"No, no, no," I whimpered, a cold sweat breaking out across my forehead. "Please, God, no. Don't let it be this. Please."

I clicked the file. A copy of an old police report popped up. But it was not the clean version Adrian had shown me. This one was covered in handwritten notes and secret corporate emails.

I read the words out loud, my voice breaking in the quiet room.

"The... the Laurent vehicle," I stuttered, tears of pure horror blurring my blue eyes. "Brake line failure suspected to be intentional. Someone cut the fluid lines. Case closed by executive privilege... funded by the Lindstrom Group."

The screen became a total blur. A loud, heavy sob tore out of my throat. I pressed my hands over my mouth, my chest heaving as the horrible truth crashed through my brain.

"Adrian's parents did not die in a tragic accident," I choked out, the emotional weight completely crushing me. "They were murdered. They were executed. And my family... my father's company... we paid for it. We killed them."

I sat there, crying, my mind spinning in pure agony. The betrayal was too much to bear.

"Adrian," I sobbed into the empty room. "Oh god, Adrian, I-I didn't know. We didn't know. I swear we didn't know."

I was still crying, my mind screaming in pain, when a sudden, violent sound broke the silence of my apartment.

A heavy, wood-splintering crash came from the front hallway.

I flinched hard, slamming my laptop shut. I ripped the black flash drive out of the port and held it tightly in my fist.

"Who is out there?" I shrieked, scrambling off the couch. "Stay back! I-I have a gun!"

I lied, my voice trembling so much it was entirely unconvincing.

Another massive, loud blow hit the front door. The expensive wood split completely, cracking right down the center. Through the broken panel, a large hand in a black glove punched through the wood. It fumbled around frantically, trying to find the lock from the inside.

"Open the fucking door!" a loud, angry voice yelled from the hallway. "Open it now, bitch! I know you are in there!"

"Oh god, please no! Help! Somebody help me!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I backed away toward the large balcony windows. I was totally trapped. The penthouse was on the top floor. There was nowhere left to run.

"Give us the drive or you are dead!" the voice shouted, the wood splitting more.

"Go away! The police are coming!" I screamed back, tears streaming down my face. "Leave me alone!"

Suddenly, a second, massive crash happened right behind me.

The heavy glass of the balcony window shattered into a million tiny pieces. It rained down onto the floor like a deadly silver waterfall.

I spun around, let out a sharp scream, and fell backward onto the hard floor. A tall, dark silhouette dropped down from the stone railing straight into my living room. He stepped effortlessly through the piles of broken glass.

"Miss Lindstrom, get behind me. Now," a calm, deep voice commanded.

I scrambled backward on my hands and knees, my nails scratching the wood. I wanted to keep my body as far away from this stranger as possible. I held the tiny black flash drive against my chest like a shield, my eyes wide with pure terror.

"Who the fuck are you?" I screamed, my voice cracking. "Don't touch me! Get the hell away from me!"

"I said get behind me," the man repeated. His voice was cold as ice.

The massive figure did not move toward me. Instead, he stood up to his full height. He placed his powerful body right between me and the splintering front door. In the dim light of the room, I could not see his face perfectly, but I could see the intense glimmer of two piercing, ice-blue eyes staring out into the dark. A thin, white scar went from behind his right ear all the way down to his collarbone, standing out sharply against his dark clothes.

"Are you going to help me or kill me?" I choked out, my chest heaving as I looked at him.

"If I wanted you dead, you would be dead already," he said softly, his eyes never leaving the front door. "Now shut up and stay down."

He moved with a terrifying, predator-like precision, completely blocking the danger, waiting for the front door to burst open.

Celeste’s POV

The air in my living room was freezing. The wind rushed through the shattered balcony window, carrying the cold scent of rain. My breath came in short, ragged gasps. I stared up at the massive shadow standing right in front of me. The broken glass on the floor looked like shiny diamonds in the dim light, but I could only look at his eyes. They were a piercing, bright ice-blue. He did not look scared at all. He just watched the splitting front door like a wolf waiting to hunt.

"Wh-who are you?" I stammered. My voice cracked completely. I tried to push my body deeper into the hard floor. "What do you want from me? Get away!"

"I told you to get behind me," the stranger said. His voice was a low, heavy rumble. It sent a strange, hot shiver straight down my spine. "Do it right now if you want to keep breathing, Celeste."

"How do you know my name?" I cried out, my hands shaking against the floor. "Tell me who you are!"

"Shut up," he whispered, his eyes never moving from the hallway. "They are here."

Before I could even try to stand up, the front door gave out completely. The heavy wood tore off its hinges with a horrible, loud groan. Two huge men dressed in dark tactical gear lunged into my apartment. I let out a loud, terrified scream. I covered my face with my arms, waiting to get hurt.

But the giant with the ice-blue eyes did not even flinch. He stepped forward with a terrifying, smooth speed. His broad shoulders completely blocked the bad men from my sight.

I did not see the whole fight. The stranger moved way too fast. He was just a blur of dark clothes and deadly power. I heard the heavy, dull thuds of his fists hitting their faces. I heard the desperate, choked groans of the two men as they got slammed hard against the wall. The drywall cracked. Then came the sudden, heavy thud of two bodies hitting the floor.

Within seconds, the loud noise stopped completely.

I peeked through my fingers, my heart hammering violently against my ribs. The two big men were crumpled on the floor of my hallway. They were completely knocked out, not moving at all. The stranger stood right over them. His big chest rose and fell in a slow, perfectly calm rhythm. He did not have a single scratch on his face. He casually fixed the collar of his dark leather jacket. His face was completely blank. He looked like he had just taken out the trash instead of beating up two armed killers.

Far below the penthouse, the distant, echoing wail of police sirens started to fill the night air.

The stranger turned his head toward the broken balcony. His sharp jawline tightened up. He did not look at me. He did not say a single word. He did not even offer to help me off the floor. He just walked back to the shattered window, grabbed the stone railing with his bare hands, and vanished over the edge into the dark night. He was gone before I could even open my mouth to speak.

"Wait!" I yelled, scrambling to my feet. My legs felt like absolute water. "Come back! Who are you?"

But there was no answer. He was just a ghost in the night.

...

It felt like hours before my apartment was finally quiet again. The police had come and gone. They took my statements, put up yellow tape in the ruined hallway, and left my beautiful home looking like a total war zone.

I was sitting on the edge of the kitchen island, wrapping a thick white blanket tightly around my shoulders. I was shivering, even though the wind had stopped. Then, I heard heavy, familiar footsteps echoing from the hallway.

My father rushed into the room. He was leaning heavily on his silver cane. His thin gray hair was a complete mess. His face was totally pale, covered in a scary mix of guilt and pure exhaustion.

"Celeste! Oh my god, Celeste!" he cried out. His tired blue eyes scanned my face frantically as he hurried toward me. "Are you hurt? Did they touch you? Tell me they didn't touch you!"

"Don't touch me, Dad," I snapped fiercely. I flinched away from his hand before he could reach me.

The raw, heavy weight of the secret I found on the flash drive was burning a hole right through my chest. I reached into my sweater pocket. My fingers tightly gripped the cold metal of the drive.

"Just stay right there," I whispered, my voice shaking. "Do not come any closer to me."

Victor froze in his tracks. His face fell completely. He dropped his cane a little bit, looking at me with broken eyes. "Sweetie, please. I was so worried about you. The police called me and I thought—"

"Did you kill them?" I interrupted him. My voice dropped into a harsh, broken whisper. Tears of pure rage and betrayal blurred my sight. "Tell me the truth, Dad. Adrian’s parents. The car accident eleven years ago. Did you have them murdered to save your fucking company?"

My father looked like he had just been struck by lightning. He staggered back a step. His mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. Every single drop of color drained straight from his skin.

"C-Celeste..." he stuttered, his hands shaking violently. "Where did you... how do you know about that? Who told you that?"

"I found the Black Ledger, Dad!" I screamed. The high-drama energy of the whole night finally exploded out of me. I stood up from the stool, letting the blanket fall. "I unlocked the flash drive! It was all right there on the screen! The secret police reports, the altered garage files, the big money wires from the Lindstrom Group! You paid to cover up the execution of his mother and father! Tell me it's a lie! Look me in the eyes right now and tell me it's a fucking lie!"

Victor buried his pale face in his trembling hands. A broken, pathetic sobbing sound escaped his throat.

"I didn't order it, Celeste," he wept, shaking his head back and forth. "I swear to you, I didn't want them dead. I loved them. But I found out about it after it happened. The syndicate did it. And I... I made a deal with them to save the family empire. I covered it up. I was weak. I was so goddamn weak."

"You are a monster," I whispered. The emotional tension in the room crushed the air right out of my lungs. I felt like I couldn't breathe. "You raised Adrian under your own roof. You let him call you family. You did all of that while knowing your hands were covered in his family's blood! And now those horrible people are trying to kill me because of your secret!"

"They are a powerful criminal syndicate, Celeste," Victor pleaded. He took a step closer to me, his eyes begging for a forgiveness I could never give him. "They will kill absolutely anyone to get that flash drive back. I have known about their shadow network for years. But I swear to you, I never believed they would come after my own daughter. I thought you were safe from my sins. Now, everything has changed. You are in so much danger."

"I am not safe!" I shouted, gesturing wildly to the shattered glass and the ruined front door. "They almost got me tonight, Dad! If it wasn't for that stranger, I would be dead right now!"

"Which is why you are going to be protected by the absolute best from now on," Victor said. His voice suddenly shifted, becoming very serious and desperate. He turned toward the dark hallway and called out, "You can come in now."

From the dark shadows of the corridor, a tall, powerfully built man walked into the bright light of the living room.

My jaw dropped completely. My heart gave a violent, painful thud against my ribs.

It was him. The balcony intruder.

In the full light of the apartment, he looked completely striking. He had jet-black hair cut short and sharp. His broad shoulders and lean, muscular frame filled out his tight black shirt perfectly. His face was a collection of hard, beautiful planes. He had high cheekbones, a strong square jaw, and those same piercing ice-blue eyes that seemed to look right through my soul. The thin white scar running down his neck looked stark and scary against his tanned skin.

But the most shocking part was his face. He looked incredibly young.

"Celeste," my father said softly, his voice trembling. "This is Nikolai Moretti. He is a twenty-two-year-old executive protection specialist from Sentinel International. He is the one who saved your life tonight."

I stared at Nikolai, completely stunned. The man who had moved like a lethal shadow and fought off two armed killers barely looked any older than I was.

"Are you freaking kidding me, Dad?" I hissed, looking from Nikolai to my father. "Him? He is just a kid! He belongs in a college dorm, not acting like a soldier!"

Nikolai did not flinch at my words at all. He stood perfectly straight, crossing his massive arms over his chest. His expression was cold, disciplined, and entirely unimpressed by my angry outburst or my prestigious family name. His total lack of emotion immediately set my nerves on edge.

"I am twenty-two, Miss Lindstrom," Nikolai said. His voice was smooth, flat, and completely devoid of any warmth. "And my age has absolutely nothing to do with my ability to keep you alive. If I had not been on your balcony tonight, you would currently be in the back of a dark van. Or worse. You would be a corpse."

"I don't care who the hell you are!" I yelled at him. I stepped closer, glaring up at him. I wrapped my arms around myself like armor. "I don't want a babysitter! Especially not a creepy one who breaks into my house through the window!"

"Your opinion on this matter is completely irrelevant," Nikolai replied smoothly. He took a step forward, completely invading my personal space. He was so tall that I had to tilt my head way back just to look him in the eye. The scent of fresh rain and expensive leather rolled off his body, making me feel suffocated. "Starting tomorrow morning, your life is no longer your own. I am posing as a transfer student at your university. I will be within arm's reach of you at all times."

My eyes widened in absolute fury. "What? No! Absolutely not! You are not following me to my classes! You cannot do that!"

"I will be exactly where I need to be to keep you breathing," Nikolai continued. His ice-blue eyes locked onto mine with a rigid, unyielding intensity that made my heart race for a completely different reason. "You will not be told my daily schedule. You will not know which rows I am sitting in. You will not know where I am watching you from. You will have exactly zero privacy from this moment on, Celeste."

"Dad, tell him he can't do this!" I screamed, turning to my father in a total panic. "This is insane! I have a life! I have a boyfriend! I cannot have some random, cold-eyed guy shadowing my every single move!"

Victor looked down at the floor, refusing to meet my gaze. "He is right, Celeste. Sentinel International is the only firm capable of handling a syndicate threat of this size. You have to do exactly what Nikolai says. Your life depends on it."

I turned back to Nikolai, my fists clenching so hard that my fingernails bit painfully into my palms. "Why do I have to be babysat by someone my own age anyway? You don't know anything about me! You don't know what I am dealing with!"

Nikolai took another single step closer. His massive shadow completely engulfed my small frame. The hard planes of his handsome face tightened up, his jaw setting into a dangerous, unforgiving line.

"I know exactly what you are dealing with, Miss Lindstrom," Nikolai said flatly. His voice carried a chilling, heavy weight that froze the blood in my veins. "Because the people who want that flash drive sent two professional hitmen to your door tonight. Next time, they will send five. They will not hesitate to put a cold bullet through your pretty head to get what they want. Your opinion of me does not matter at all. Your survival does."

The room fell into a dead, suffocating silence. I stared up at him, my throat completely dry. I was utterly unable to find a single comeback for the brutal, simple reality of his words.

...

An hour later, the apartment was finally empty again. My father had left to arrange for a contractor to fix the broken doors and windows first thing in the morning. Nikolai had vanished back into whatever dark shadow he crawled out of, leaving me completely alone in the wreckage of my home.

I sat on the edge of my unmade bed, staring at the wall. The cold metal of the flash drive felt incredibly heavy in my palm. My entire world was spinning out of control. My father was a criminal accomplice, my life was in imminent danger, and a terrifying, cold-eyed boy was about to take over my entire existence.

But amidst all the high-drama chaos, there was only one person I wanted. There was only one person whose deep voice could make me feel safe and loved.

Adrian.

I realized with a sudden jolt of pure anxiety that I had not been able to reach him all night. He had not answered my desperate texts from the morning, and he had not called after the news of the attack surely started spreading through the city.

My fingers trembled violently as I grabbed my cell phone from the nightstand. I quickly dialed his number, pressing the glowing screen hard against my ear, praying to hear his deep, comforting voice.

"Please answer," I whispered into the dark, quiet room. My heart started to race again, pounding against my ribs. "Please be okay, Adrian. Please."

It rang once. Twice. Three times. The silence between the rings felt like torture.

On the fifth ring, the line suddenly clicked open.

"Adrian?" I gasped out, a massive wave of pure relief washing over my body. "A-Adrian, thank God you picked up! Something completely terrible happened at my apartment tonight and I am so scared, I really need you to come over—"

"He is a little tied up right now, darling," a smooth, unfamiliar woman's voice answered from the other end of the line.

The voice was cold, dripping with a strange, mocking amusement that made my stomach drop.

"Can I take a message for him?" she asked, letting out a cruel little laugh.

Before I could even process the words, a sharp, loud disconnect tone echoed through the speaker. The line went completely dead.

I slowly pulled the phone away from my ear, staring at the dark screen in absolute horror. The room felt entirely freezing again. The first cold finger of doubt traced a slow, terrifying path straight down my spine. Who was she? And where the hell was Adrian?