Chapter 5 No.5

Adelaide POV

The door of the silver Aston Martin thudded shut, sealing us inside a capsule of hand-stitched leather and bulletproof silence. The chaos of Fifth Avenue-the honking cabs, the shouting pedestrians, the ghost of Andrew's screams-vanished instantly.

I sank into the passenger seat, my hands trembling in my lap. The massive diamond on my finger caught the ambient light, glittering like a cold, hard star. It felt heavy, alien, a shackle disguised as a promise.

Gracelyn didn't start the car immediately. She sat gripping the steering wheel, her knuckles white, staring straight ahead through the reinforced glass. The air between us was so thick it felt pressurized.

"So," she said finally. Her voice lacked its usual bubbly cadence; it was sharp, precise, a tone I recognized from her father. She turned her head slowly to look at me, her eyes narrowing. "Mrs. Maddox. Are you going to explain why my best friend is suddenly my stepmother, or do I have to drag it out of you?"

I swallowed the lump in my throat, twisting the signet ring Damien had forced onto me earlier. "Gracelyn, I didn't know how to tell you. It happened... fast."

"Fast?" She let out a dry, humorless scoff. "People buy shoes fast, Adelaide. They don't marry the *Capo dei Capi* on a whim. My father doesn't do whims." Her gaze dropped to the ring, then back to my face, searching for a crack. "What did you trade him?"

The question hung in the air, brutal and direct. There was no point in lying. Not to her. She was a Maddox; she could smell a lie like a shark smells blood.

"My life," I whispered. "Andrew... at the engagement party, he was going to sell me to a creditor to cover his gambling debts. I had nowhere to go. No money, no family. Your father was the only one powerful enough to stop them." I looked down at my hands. "It's a deal, Gracelyn. A transaction. I get protection, and he gets... a wife."

I braced myself for her anger. I expected her to scream, to call me a gold digger, to kick me out of the car.

Instead, a strange sound filled the cabin.

Gracelyn was laughing.

It wasn't a polite giggle; it was a full-throated, incredulous laugh that bounced off the leather interior. She threw her head back, wiping a tear from her eye.

"You..." She gasped for air, shaking her head. "You married the Devil to escape a rat. Oh my God, Adelaide. That is... that is absolutely brilliant."

I blinked, stunned. "You aren't mad?"

"Mad?" She turned to me, her eyes dancing with a terrifying, electric delight. "Adelaide, do you realize what you've done? Andrew Hebert just publicly assaulted the wife of the most dangerous man on the East Coast. He didn't just embarrass himself; he signed his own death warrant."

She reached over and grabbed my hand, squeezing it tight. "Andrew and that plastic witch Fawn Garrett have been looking down on you for years. They treated you like a *Hostage*, like collateral damage. But now?" She grinned, a feral expression that was all Maddox. "Now you have the nuclear codes. We are going to crush them. We are going to grind Fawn and her pathetic fiancé into dust."

"A *Vendetta*," I murmured, the word tasting like ash and iron.

"Exactly," she vowed. "You're family now, Addie. And nobody touches family."

The drive back to the penthouse passed in a blur of adrenaline and Gracelyn's vindictive planning. But as the elevator opened directly into the sprawling, cold expanse of Damien's apartment, the reality of my situation settled back onto my shoulders like a lead cloak.

This wasn't a victory lap. It was a transfer from one cage to another.

We had just walked into the living room when a sound cut through the silence-a sharp, demanding ringtone.

I froze. It was the black, encrypted phone Damien had given me. The one that couldn't be tracked, couldn't be tapped, and only had one number saved.

My heart hammered against my ribs as I pulled it from my purse. The screen displayed a single name: *Damien*.

Gracelyn stopped pouring herself a drink, her eyes widening. "Answer it."

I pressed the phone to my ear, my hand shaking. "Hello?"

"Hebert."

The voice was low, a deep baritone that vibrated through the speaker and straight down my spine. It was devoid of warmth, devoid of humanity. It was the voice of a man who decided who lived and who died before breakfast.

"He touched you?"

The question was flat. A statement of fact awaiting confirmation.

I wrapped my free arm around my waist, suddenly feeling very cold. "He grabbed my arm. It's... it's fine. The guards handled it."

"Did he mark you?"

I looked down at the faint red impressions of Andrew's fingers fading on my bicep. "No," I lied, my voice barely a whisper. "I'm fine."

There was a pause on the other end. A silence so heavy it felt like he was in the room with me, assessing the damage.

"Stay inside," he commanded. "Do not leave the penthouse until I return."

The line went dead.

I lowered the phone, staring at the black screen.

"Well?" Gracelyn asked, leaning against the marble counter, a knowing smirk on her lips. "He sounded intense. He was worried about you, wasn't he?"

I looked at her, seeing the romanticized filter through which she viewed her father. She saw a knight defending his lady.

"No, Gracelyn," I said softly, placing the phone on the cold stone table. "He wasn't worried."

I rubbed the spot on my arm where Andrew had grabbed me.

"He was checking his assets for scratches."