Zade’s hand slammed against the steering wheel as he pulled out of the police station, tires screeching just a little too loudly for downtown at 4 a.m.
His jaw locked. His veins burned.
He hated this.
He despised it—when things moved without his knowledge, without his permission. It was worse when it involved her.
Alexandra.
She wasn’t just some boardroom headache anymore. Not just the stubborn daughter of a business rival. She was his fiancée. The only person who looked him in the eye like she wasn’t afraid of what she might find.
And now she was locked behind bars like a criminal.
Because someone moved a chess piece without his hand.
A voice cut through his storming thoughts.
“Zade.”
He turned sharply.
Luca Steel stood under the front lights of the precinct, arms crossed over his chest, face carved from ice.
Zade forced his breath to slow. “Mr. Steel.”
“You were the first one to show up tonight.” Luca’s voice was flat. “Even before her own family. Even before her lawyer.”
Zade said nothing.
“Do you know what this is?” Luca asked, stepping closer. “What they’re trying to do?”
Zade’s eyes narrowed. “Not yet.”
He pulled open his car door, voice sharp as a blade. “But I will.”
And then he was gone.
***
The drive home was silent except for the roar of the engine and the storm boiling inside him.
Zade didn’t think. He didn’t pause.
He parked directly in front of the house, keys still in the ignition, and stalked inside without so much as a greeting to the staff.
The marble floors echoed beneath his steps. Curtains billowed as he passed. Somewhere in the distance, a vase trembled on a pedestal when he slammed the front door behind him.
“Father!” he roared, voice echoing through the mansion like thunder.
A maid dropped a tray in the hallway. Another peeked around the corner and immediately vanished again.
Zade didn’t care.
He climbed the grand staircase two steps at a time, heading straight for the east wing. His father’s wing.
He didn’t knock.
He shoved the double doors open with both hands.
Simon Hale looked up from the leather chair by the fireplace, a book still in his hands. His expression didn’t change.
Only his brow twitched slightly.
“Zade,” Simon said smoothly. “Isn’t it a little late for theatrics?”
Zade didn’t give him a chance to continue.
“You locked her up?”
Simon blinked once.
“You locked up Alex?” Zade continued, voice dangerously low. “My fiancée?”
Simon closed the book with a quiet snap.
“I did.”
There was no apology. No attempt to explain.
Zade’s hands clenched into fists at his sides.
“She’s been… busy,” Simon said, standing slowly. “Andrea told me she kept digging. Stealing time with private investigators. Whispering into her father’s ear. This—” he gestured vaguely, “—was a warning.”
“You don’t warn her,” Zade growled. “You don’t touch her.”
Simon arched a brow. “Is that a threat?”
Zade stepped forward. “It’s a demand.”
Simon walked toward him slowly, measured like a man who owned the floor beneath their feet.
“Be careful, son,” he said. “You forget who you’re talking to.”
“No,” Zade hissed. “You forget who you’re talking about. She’s mine. That means what she does, what she says, and what she uncovers—falls under my watch. Not yours. Not Andrea’s. You don’t get to throw her in a cell without telling me.”
Simon stopped, inches away. The fire crackled behind him.
“I didn’t realize we were rewriting the chain of command,” he said coolly.
Zade’s eyes didn’t waver. “This isn’t about command. It’s about control. And what you did tonight wasn’t strategic—it was sloppy. Public. Stupid.”
Simon’s jaw ticked. “And what would you have done, Zade? Let her keep digging? Let her find something real?”
“I am letting her dig,” Zade snapped. “Because I already know how this ends. I’ve planned every step. She’s not going to outmaneuver us. She’s not going to ruin what we built.”
Simon’s gaze sharpened. “So you still intend to follow through?”
“Yes.”
“You’re still working the plan?”
“Yes,” Zade said again, sharper. “You’ll get what you always wanted. The Steel company will fall into our hands.”
Simon’s voice dropped. “And the girl?”
Zade’s mouth tightened.
“She walks,” he said. “She walks now.”
Simon studied him.
The tension between them hung heavy and thick. Two kings in the same castle, but only one throne. And for the first time in years, Zade didn’t look like the obedient son who followed orders.
He looked like a man who’d drawn a line.
“She’s been a nuisance,” Simon said slowly. “An unpredictable one. More dangerous than her father, in some ways.”
“She’s smart,” Zade said. “She sees through things. That’s not a weakness.”
“It’s a liability.”
“I’ll handle her,” Zade said coldly. “I have handled her. And I told you from the beginning—she won’t stop us.”
Simon didn’t respond immediately.
His eyes lingered on his son’s face, searching for cracks, for emotion, for betrayal.
He didn’t find any.
After a long silence, Simon finally stepped aside.
He pressed the intercom button on the wall. “Carla. Come here.”
A few seconds later, a maid hurried in, head bowed.
“Yes, sir?”
“Call my attorney. Have him contact the station immediately. We’ll retract the statement filed against Alexandra Steel. Tell him to claim clerical error.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Make sure it’s done within the hour.”
The maid nodded and rushed off, her heels clicking down the hall.
Simon looked back at Zade.
“She’ll likely stay the night,” he said. “The paperwork won’t clear until morning.”
Zade didn’t answer. He was already walking away.
***
He passed the maids without looking at them. Ignored the butler waiting in the foyer with a cup of late-night tea. The front door slammed behind him just as hard as it had when he entered.
He got into his car, rested his head on the steering wheel for exactly five seconds, then turned on the ignition.
The engine purred.
But Zade didn’t drive.
Not yet.
He sat there, staring through the windshield at nothing.
His hands were still shaking. Not from rage, not anymore. From something deeper. Something worse.
Fear.
He hated that word. Hated the way it sounded in his head.
But it was true.
Alex had become a threat in more ways than one.
She challenged him. Investigated him. She didn’t trust him—and yet, when he walked into that cold station tonight, she looked at him like he was still something to her.
Still someone worth hoping for.
And the worst part?
He wanted to earn it.
Wanted her to believe him, even when she had every reason not to.
Zade closed his eyes, clenched the wheel.
He couldn’t afford to lose control. Not now. Not over her.
But he also couldn’t afford to lose her.
And that made everything more dangerous.
For both of them.