Chapter 4 4

Devaughn's eyes locked onto the manila envelope in Alistair's hand. A dangerous, predatory storm was brewing in their dark depths.

Alistair, completely unaware, slid the document out and laid it flat on the desk. Jeanie's signature was there, a graceful, flowing script at the bottom of the page.

"As you requested, sir," Alistair said, all business. "Once you've signed, I'll have it filed with the court. It will be effective immediately."

Devaughn's gaze was fixed on her name. But he wasn't seeing the ink. He was seeing her in the darkness, feeling the heat of her skin, the softness of her lips against his throat.

A low, humorless chuckle escaped his lips. It was a sound so devoid of warmth it made the hairs on Alistair's arms stand on end.

Devaughn reached out. Not for the pen.

His fingers closed around the edge of the thick, legal paper.

And with a sudden, violent motion, he ripped the document in two.

RIIIP.

Alistair stared, his mouth agape. Devaughn didn't stop. He folded the two halves together and tore them again. And again. And again, until the legally binding contract was nothing but a pile of useless confetti.

He let the scraps of paper drift from his fingers, scattering over the polished desk.

"The divorce is off," he stated, his voice as cold and final as a death sentence. "The proceedings are frozen. Indefinitely."

"But-but sir," Alistair stammered, "the breach of contract penalties..."

Devaughn's eyes, like shards of ice, sliced into the lawyer. "If one word of this leaves this room," he said, his voice a low whisper, "you will never practice law in New York again. Or anywhere else."

Alistair broke out in a cold sweat. "Yes, sir. Of course, sir." He practically ran from the office.

The door clicked shut, leaving Devaughn alone with Tate, who had been holding his breath the entire time.

Devaughn turned to him, his expression grim. A series of commands left his lips, sharp and precise as a surgeon's scalpel.

"Reinstate the top-tier medical trust for Clara Brooks at Mount Sinai. Immediately."

He paused, his jaw tightening. "Upgrade it. Highest level of care. All bills are to be routed through my personal account."

Tate's fingers flew across his tablet. "Done, sir. And... there's something else you need to hear." He hesitated. "Sir, our security detail stationed outside Mrs. Brooks' apartment reported a severe confrontation earlier today. They managed to record this through the open window."

Tate played an audio file from his device. The tinny recording filled the silent office with Eleanor's venomous voice, threatening to cut off the medical funds. "Furthermore, after you ordered the preliminary probe into Nash Industries," Tate continued, switching to a second file, "we legally subpoenaed their recent corporate communications. We found this voicemail left on her phone." Then, the desperate, pleading voice of Joel Nash, Jeanie's father, demanding she return to the family home.

Hearing his wife-his Jeanie-being backed into a corner, threatened and humiliated by his own mother, made something snap inside Devaughn.

He slammed his fist onto the mahogany desk. The force of the blow sent his coffee cup flying, splattering dark liquid across the pristine investigation report.

He finally understood. He finally saw the hell her life had been for the past year, all while he had remained aloof, imprisoned in his own trauma.

He strode to the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at the river of traffic on the streets of Manhattan. A dark, possessive gleam entered his eyes.

She was his cure. His only one. That meant she belonged to him. And no one else would ever touch her again.

He turned, ripping off the tie that suddenly felt like a noose and tossing it onto the sofa. He shrugged on his suit jacket.

"Tate," he commanded. "Assemble the Blackguard team. Full tactical. Now."

"Destination, sir?" Tate asked, already relaying the orders.

Devaughn's reply was cold and clipped. "Long Island. The Nash estate."

At that exact moment, Jeanie was sitting on a rattling, uncomfortable bus, watching the city lights blur past. She was on her way to Long Island, to face the vampire she called a father. The memory of Eleanor's venomous phone call played on an endless, agonizing loop in her mind. She had seen the furious matriarch make the call; she knew with absolute, terrifying certainty that her mother's life support funds were already frozen. The suffocating weight of despair pressed down on her chest, making it hard to breathe. With her mother's life hanging by a fragile thread, she was out of options. She had no choice but to walk willingly into the trap.

High above the city, the rotors of Devaughn's private helicopter began to spin, the roar tearing through the clouds.

On the ground, a convoy of five black Cadillac Escalades slid out of a private garage, their tinted windows hiding the armed men inside. They merged seamlessly into the traffic, a silent, deadly procession speeding towards Long Island.

A war, waged by a single, determined man for a single, unsuspecting woman, was about to begin.