Page 111 of Damián

This morning, Knox picked me up, locked me in the trunk of his black RAM, and smuggled me into Harknett’s HQ through a hidden tunnel connected to a secure warehouse ten blocks away. A tunnel we built in case of a raid.

…At Leif’s request, of course.

Now, for the last six hours, I’ve been sitting with Alexios, Tae, and Leif, working our way through the color-coded files Oliver gave us… And wow!

The sheer volume of information and the level of organization in these files is insane. Even Law, whose perfectionism is legendary, is impressed with Oliver’s work.

I’m halfway through my section of the list when an annoying little ping sounds across the room. Alexios glances at his screen, then immediately slams his laptop shut, scaring the bejesus out of me.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Nothing…”

Tae reaches over, pops the laptop back open, takes a peek at the screen, and his eyes go wide. “Yes, something… But I’m not sure you’re going to like seeing it.”

“I don’t understand. What does that sound have to do with me?”

“Not you,” Tae leans back to his seat, “Your fake boyfriend.”

“Alexios, give me the laptop,” I demand, and he takes the laptop, holding it against his chest.

“It’s really not that bad. I’m sure the mission will go exactly as planned,” he says, which only annoys me more. “You could just say you are in an open relationship.”

Open relationship?

The fuck is he talking about?

My heart starts beating faster, and a sickening wave of dread crashes over me. The room starts to spin, I feel like I can’t breathe, and my chest aches.

No… he can’t be.

We agreed to be exclusive, and it’s not like one stupid fight changed that… right?

Right?…

“Alexios, give me the fucking laptop,” I demand, but Alexios shakes his head.

I pull out my gun, chamber a round, and aim it directly at his external hard drive.

“Give it. Now.”

“You wouldn’t!” he gasps in horror.

“Try me.” I dare.

“Nej, nej!” Leif intervenes, holding his hand out. “How about we exchange the laptop for the gun? Trust me, you don’t want to be holding that when you see this.”

I drop the magazine, clear the chamber, and hand the gun over to Leif.

Leif nods toward Alexios, and the asshole finally passes me his stupid laptop.

I take a deep breath, open the screen, see what they were talking about… and it’s worse than I thought.

What the…

Anger, sadness, confusion, and betrayal burn in my throat. I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach, the face, and the balls all at the exact same time.

On the screen, there is a new post on Zara’s socials showing a picture of Oliver at a nightclub with a ridiculously handsome man… and new, as in it was posted four minutes ago.