Chapter 1
Thesensationofmalicelingered in the air like smoke—each act more deliberate, more vicious than the last.The dumpster fire that had started last night was only the beginning.Slashed tires, hateful graffiti scrawled across the sidewalk, and taunting threats painted on the walls of her warehouse.Whoever was behind this wasn’t just trying to scare her.They were trying to break her.
She refused to let them!
“Any ideas?”Ava’s question came out a little shaky as she glanced up at her best friends, Franco and Leone.Her nerves twisted tighter, but she refused to let them know how terrified she was.
Leone’s face was unreadable as usual, but there was a tension in his shoulders that matched her own.Franco, on the other hand, was all too aware of the weight she was trying to hide.
“You need help,” Leone said bluntly, confirming what Ava didn’t want to accept.
Franco’s massive arm wrapped around her shoulders, a comfort and a burden at the same time.“It’s bad, Ava,” he said softly, his deep voice gruff with concern.“Before, the intimidation tactics didn’t impact your business.But this…” He gestured to where two of Ava’s employees, up on ladders, struggled to reattach the overhead plugs for the industrial cutters which had been disconnected.“This is holding up production.”
Ava’s heart raced as she watched the scene unfold—her employees, frustrated and scrambling to make the best of it, while the constant threat of sabotage loomed over them.She clenched her fists, resisting the urge to scream in frustration.The chaos, the unpredictability—it was the kind of mess she’d worked so hard to avoid.In her world, control was everything.If she didn’t have control of this… everything would spiral.
Franco and Leone turned to face her now, their gazes steady but full of concern.“You know what you need to do,” Franco pointed out.
The weight of their words hit her, and for the first time, doubt gnawed at her.Was it time to face the danger head-on?
Ava bit her lip, her gaze firmly locked on the ground, refusing to look into either man’s eyes.Yes, she knew what she needed to do.But that would mean she’d have to face…him.The thought of asking for help from someone likehim—someone who could fix this with the snap of his fingers, someone whose influence stretched across the city like a shadow—made her stomach churn.She refused to let herself become a pawn in his game.
“Want us to drive you over there and hold your hand?”Franco’s voice broke through her thoughts, teasing, but with a sharpness to it.
It worked.Ava would never allow anyone to see her fear.Never.She might be quaking inside at the idea of facing him—the man who could make or break her with a word—but she’d be damned before she showed even the slightest sign of weakness.She steeled herself, pushing the anxiety down deep where no one could see.
But it wasn’t fear, she told herself firmly.It was determination.Determination to not besubjugatedby an arrogant ass who thought he could control everything.
Straightening her shoulders, Ava glared at her best friends, meeting their gazes defiantly.“I can figure this out on my own.”
Leone rolled his eyes, the gesture filled with exaggerated amusement.“Isn’t that what you’ve been trying to do for the past few weeks?”
Ava huffed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.“I’mclose, okay?”she snapped, but even she could hear the note of uncertainty in her voice.
Franco leaned back, giving her a long, knowing look.“Just get it over with,” he grumbled.“You know he can fix this.You’re wasting valuable time.”
Ava’s jaw tightened.The reality of the situation was slowly sinking in: she couldn’t do this on her own, and every minute she waited made the problem worse.But there was no way she could admit it.Not yet.
Leone agreed with Franco, his expression unreadable, but Ava remained stubbornly silent.Surely, there had to be another way to stop these attacks from happening.She had worked tirelessly, thinking through every angle, trying to solve the problem on her own, but nothing had worked.The malicious attacks kept coming.And now, for the first time, they had impacted her business.Every minute she lost—waiting for the industrial cutters to be fixed, losing precious production time—meant lost profits.She could feel the weight of it, like the scorching Nevada sun pressing down on her, even though it was only spring.
The desert heat in Las Vegas was a relentless beast, even in March.The dry air clawed at her skin like sandpaper, and the only respite came from the overworked air conditioner in the warehouse.Ava wiped a hand across her brow, but it wasn’t the temperature that made her pulse race.It was the growing pressure—the knowledge that her business was slipping further out of her control and someone was doing this on purpose.
“Come on,” Franco grumbled, putting his hand on the small of her back, giving her the familiar shove that only these two could get away with.It was the same push he’d given her when they were kids, forcing her to walk across the stage for her high school diploma, then again for her college graduation.Ava could feel the frustration building, the weight of her resistance.She had to fix thisherself.
“Now you’re just being stubborn because you don’t have a choice and you know it,” Franco continued knowingly.
Leone, ever the calm one, echoed him.“She hates not having a choice,” he pointed out, stepping up beside her and nudging her forward.“Remember in third grade, when our music teacher made her play the triangle when everyone else got to play the drums?”
The memory stung as sharply as it had all those years ago.Ava’s chest tightened, and she couldn’t stop the flash of hurt frustration that rushed to her face.The humiliation of being forced to play that tiny, useless triangle—while the rest of her class banged on real instruments—was enough to make her blood boil all over again.
Franco’s chuckle cut through her thoughts.“That music teacher hated Ava from the start,” he said, shaking his head as he opened the back door of his truck.“I still don’t get it.”
Ava stiffened, still trying to stubbornly ignore “the solution” as she walked out of her factory.“He was a jerk to me because he wanted me to sit next to his son, Marvin, during lunch,” Ava muttered, still stung by the memory.“Marvin picked his nose and ate the boogers right there at the table!It was gross, and I refused.So, the teacher made me play the triangle to punish me.”
Franco’s jaw dropped.“That’swhy he made you play the triangle instead of letting you bang on the drums?”He opened the passenger door to his SUV, then waited for her to climb in.
“Yep.”Ava got in and snapped her seatbelt into place, then sat there, her arms crossed tightly.“And both of you made it worse by telling me how much fun it was to play the drums while I had to play the stupidtriangle.”
Leone shuddered, his face twisting in disgust.“Marvin was a disgusting prick,” he muttered, closing the truck door with the safety lock engaged, knowing full well Ava wouldn’t hesitate to jump out if she got the chance.
