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?