Chapter 3 The Billionaire Who Was Never Meant to Find Me

The world tilted sideways.

Aria wasn't sure if it was the pain, the shock, or the blood sliding warm and sticky down her arm, but everything looked slightly blurred at the edges, like she was no longer inside her body, just watching it shake and stumble.

Damian's hand closed around her waist before she could fall again. "Stay with me," he said, quiet, controlled, but carrying something dangerous underneath.

Not anger.

Panic.

He guided her toward the open door of the black SUV he'd pulled up in the chaos. His grip was firm but careful, as if she were something breakable. The neon streetlights flickered over them, painting his chiseled jaw in hard flashes of white and shadow.

"I'm fine," she whispered, even as she stumbled.

"You're not." Damian opened the passenger door, ushering her inside. "And don't lie to me again."

She winced as she slid into the leather seat, the pressure against her shoulder making the wound throb. The moment she was inside, Damian circled to the driver's side, slammed the door, and the locks sealed with an ominous click.

Engine on.

City lights streaking.

Speed climbing fast.

Aria's breath shook. "You shouldn't help me. You don't know what..."

"I know enough." His voice was steel. "Someone shot you."

"They weren't after me," she said quickly. "They were just thugs"

Damian's eyes flicked toward her, ice-blue and razor-sharp. "Street thugs don't use suppressed pistols. And they don't shoot clean, center-mass, on a moving target."

Her stomach dropped.

Of course he noticed.

Damian Blackwell noticed everything.

She squeezed her eyes shut. "Please. Just drop me anywhere. I'll manage."

"You think I'm leaving you alone after what I saw?" His hand tightened around the steering wheel. "Aria, you're bleeding."

She didn't answer.

Because she felt it now, the warm trickle sliding over her ribs, soaking into her clothes. The pain was sharp, but not unbearable. A clean shot that tore through soft flesh, not deep enough to hit bone.

Lucky.

If she believed in luck.

The car turned sharply into an underground parking structure, descending levels below street noise. Damian parked fast, hopped out, and reached her door before she even thought to move.

"I can walk," she murmured.

His jaw flexed. "Then walk with me."

He kept a steadying hand at her back as they moved into a private elevator lined with steel walls that reflected their distorted silhouettes. Aria leaned against the wall, trying to hide the tremor in her fingers.

Damian watched her.

Not the way men looked at women.

But the way hunters watched prey.

Except... he wasn't hunting her.

He was trying to understand her.

When the elevator opened, she found herself inside a vast, minimalist penthouse-glass walls, low lighting, the city glittering like a fallen galaxy around them.

Aria froze.

She did not belong in spaces like this.

"Sit." Damian pointed to a leather chaise.

"I can treat this myself," she said. "You don't have to"

"Aria." His voice softened. "Let me help."

That softness disarmed her more than any commanding tone could have.

She sat.

Damian moved with swift, controlled precision. He retrieved a sleek black medical kit, removed his jacket, and rolled up his sleeves. The white shirt beneath strained over broad shoulders, the veins on his forearms visible as he unscrewed a vial and prepared gauze.

He wasn't panicking.

But he wasn't calm either.

She saw it in the tight lines around his eyes.

"Tell me if you feel dizzy," he said.

"I'm okay."

He raised a brow.

"I am," she added, though it sounded unconvincing even to her.

He knelt beside her, close enough that she could feel the warmth of his breath as he gently cut the fabric around the wound.

When his fingers brushed her skin, Aria flinched.

Damian stopped. "Does it hurt?"

"Everything hurts."

He nodded once, then resumed, slowly now, attentive to every twitch of her body. When he pressed gauze to her shoulder, she sucked in a breath.

"It's not too deep," he murmured. "But you lost more blood than I'd like."

"You're surprisingly good at this," she said weakly.

He didn't look up. "I learned years ago that money isn't useful if you can't stop someone from dying in front of you."

Aria blinked.

"What-what does that mean?"

Damian didn't answer immediately. His hand paused for a fraction of a second-a barely perceptible lapse in his controlled movements. Then he resumed.

"It means I know what a bullet wound looks like."

Aria swallowed hard.

He finished cleaning the wound, applied a compress, wrapped a bandage with firm, confident hands. He was close enough that she could smell him, subtle cedar, crisp smoke, something expensive and masculine.

"Aria," he said quietly. "Who shot you?"

She looked away. "I don't know."

"Don't lie to me."

Her breath trembled. "Damian, you barely know me"

"I know enough to see fear," he said. "The kind you don't get from random violence."

Aria shook her head. "I can't involve you."

"You already did."

His voice was low. Rough around the edges. Not angry, concerned.

That was worse.

"You think I'm helping you because I feel responsible?" he asked.

"You should stay out of this."

He huffed a short, humorless breath. "You really think I can walk away now?"

"You have a life," she said desperately. "A company. A reputation. Men like you"

"What about men like me?"

"You don't risk anything for people like me."

Something in his expression cracked, just for a second.

"Aria..." he said softly. "You have no idea what I risked today."

She frowned. "What are you talking about?"

He didn't elaborate.

Instead, he stood, walked to the bar, poured water into a glass, and returned. He held it out to her.

When she didn't take it, he crouched again, lifting it to her lips himself.

"Drink."

She obeyed, swallowing slowly.

When he pulled the glass away, she whispered, "Why are you doing this?"

Damian's gaze locked with hers, blue, intense, dangerous.

"Because I saw the look in your eyes," he said quietly. "The moment before the gunshot. You weren't afraid of dying."

Aria's breath hitched.

She wasn't.

She was afraid of being found.

Damian leaned closer. "You were afraid of being seen."

Something inside her twisted painfully. "You don't understand."

"I will," he said. "You're going to tell me."

She stiffened. "I can't."

"You can."

"No, Damian. You don't know what you're asking."

His jaw tightened. "Then start with something small." He brushed a strand of hair from her face, a gesture so gentle it froze her breath. "Tell me why you changed your name."

Her heart stopped.

Because you know.

Because you found the cracks.

Because this is how everything falls apart.

She forced a smile she didn't feel. "Maybe I just liked the sound of Aria."

"Aria," he murmured, "I've spent my life finding people who don't want to be found. I know when someone's hiding."

Her pulse skittered. "Please stop. I..."

A sudden buzz sliced through the tension.

Damian's phone.

He stood slowly, eyes still locked on hers before he answered.

"Blackwell."

Silence.

His entire body went still. A quiet, lethal stillness.

Aria watched his expression harden-cold, fire-bound steel.

"Where?" he asked.

Another silence.

Then Damian's eyes flicked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

Aria's blood ran cold.

Because reflected in the glass, tiny, distant, but unmistakable, red sniper dots danced across the opposite building.

Her voice trembled. "Damian..."

He ended the call.

And for the first time since she met him, she saw something like fear flash in his eyes.

"Aria," he said quietly, "get on the floor."

She froze. "Why"

"Now."

His voice cracked like a whip.

She dropped instantly.

The next second, the window SHATTERED as a bullet sliced through the glass, tearing into the room exactly where her head had been.

Damian lunged, tackling her to the ground, shielding her with his body as shards rained down around them.

She gasped, breath knocked out of her. "Damian"

"Don't move."

He reached under the couch and pulled out a black weapon case-fast, decisive, terrifyingly practiced. A sleek firearm slid into his hand.

"Damian, what's happening?" Aria whispered.

He positioned himself between her and the broken window, eyes scanning the darkness with inhuman focus.

Then he said words that froze her blood.

"They weren't after you."

"What?"

His chest rose and fell with a single, steady breath.

"They were after both of us."

A chill exploded down her spine. "Why would they"

Damian looked at her, really looked at her.

And for the first time, there was no coldness, no distance, no mystery in his expression.

Only the truth.

"Because someone knows I found you."

Aria's heart stopped.

"What does that even mean?" she whispered.

Damian stepped closer, lowering his voice to a dark, intimate whisper.

"It means your past isn't the only dangerous thing in this room."

He reached for her hand.

"Aria... you're not the only one being hunted."

Her breath shattered.

"Damian, what did you do?"

His answer was quiet, deadly.

"Something I can't take back."

Aria stared at him, pulse roaring in her ears.

"Damian... what are you hiding?"

He opened his mouth to speak, But the lights went out.

All of them.

The city below.

The penthouse around them.

Every single light source swallowed in an unnatural, suffocating blackout.

And in the darkness, a voice she had prayed never to hear again whispered from the shadows:

"Found you."