Chapter 4

• The silence in the VIP room was suffocating. I stared at Joaquin de Cadejaz through the blurred slits of my black lace mask. Tears still burned like liquid fire on my cheeks, tracing paths of raw humiliation down my jaw.
• Every single word he had uttered echoed in the caverns of my mind like a final death sentence. I had no choice. No cards left to play. No hidden escape routes. If I stayed here, if I allowed my stubborn pride to dictate my next move, he would destroy the only sanctuary I had left on this miserable earth. He would annihilate the Midnight Eclipse before dawn.
• “Fine,” I whispered, the word tearing from my throat, cracking under the weight of my broken spirit. “I’ll go with you.”
• Joaquin’s lips curved into a slow, satisfied, and terrifyingly victorious smile. “Smart girl.”
• He stepped back, finally giving me just enough physical space to draw air into my starved lungs.
• “I need to say goodbye,” I said. I forced myself to stand tall, lifting my chin to look him dead in the eye. “To the manager. To the girls. Just… just give me ten minutes to collect my things.”
• He tilted his head, consulting the heavy platinum watch on his wrist before looking back up. “Five. My car is already waiting by the back exit. Don’t make the mistake of making me come down there to fetch you, Roxanne. You won't like the consequences.”
• I didn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer. I turned on my heel, my bare feet slipping slightly on the plush carpet, and walked out of Room 9. Downstairs, the main floor of the club was still pulsing with the decadent roar of heavy electronic music and the thick, suffocating scent of lust. I navigated the familiar maze of the floor, feeling completely detached from my own skin, until I found Marlo standing near the VIP bar, the moment Marlo caught sight of my face his sleazy smirk vanished, replaced by an expression of genuine alarm.
• “Rox? What the hell happened up there? Did that VIP guy cross a line? Do I need to get the boys to—”
• “I’m leaving, marlo,” I cut him off, my voice hoarse, stripped of all its usual stage allure. “Tonight. For good.”
• Marlo’s eyes widened . “What? Rox, are you out of your mind? You can’t just walk out in the middle of the night! You’re our top draw, you have a contract—”
• “I have to.” My voice cracked, I quickly looked past his shoulder, scanning the dressing room door where the other dancers were resting between sets. “Tell the others… tell them thank you. For everything.”
• Before he could protest further, I reached into the deep pocket of my silk robe and pulled out the thick wad of cash I had earned from tonight's tips, I took his hand and forcefully pressed the crumpled bills into his palm.
• “Take care of them, Marlo. Please,” I whispered,
• Marlo looked down at the money, then backed up at my shattered expression. “Be safe, Rox. Don't let the dark catch you.”
• I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. I turned away from him before the tears could spill over again, rushing through the backstage corridors until I reached the heavy, reinforced steel door of the back exit. When I pushed it open, the freezing night air hit my exposed skin like a physical blow, shocking my system.
• The alleyway was dark, save for the sleek, looming silhouette of a matte-black Rolls-Royce idling silently in the shadows. Standing beside the open rear door was Joaquin's driver, a towering man in a dark suit who stood like a statue. Joaquin was already seated inside the vehicle.
• I swallowed the lump of pride in my throat, climbed into the back seat, and slid as far away from him as humanly possible.
• “Why me?” I choked out, my voice shaking with a volatile mix of barely contained rage and absolute agony. I turned my head, glaring at him through the darkness of the cabin. “Why are you doing this? What the hell do you actually want from me, Mr. De Cadejaz?!”
• He didn’t look up immediately. He sat with one hand resting casually on his tailored thigh, his posture completely relaxed, as if this entire kidnapping was just another routine board meeting.
• “I already told you, Roxanne,” he said, his baritone voice quiet, smooth, and infuriatingly steady. “I want you.”
• “That’s not a fucking answer!” I shouted. Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks, but I didn’t even bother wiping them away. My hands clutched my robe until my knuckles turned white. “I am nothing to you! I am just the broken, ruined daughter of a man you absolutely despised in life! So why go through all this trouble? Why use your billions to systematically destroy my life just to keep me as your personal toy?!” My voice cracked, the raw pain of the past three months finally rushing out of me like an open wound.
• “You think you can just buy a human soul?!” I continued, my chest heaving as a sob tore from my throat. “Like I’m some expensive, rare whore you can just lock away in your vault to show off? I lost everything that night, Joaquin! I watched my father bleed out on the marble! I lost my home! My name! My entire future! And now you want to strip away the absolute last ounce of dignity I have left?!”
• Joaquin’s jaw visibly tightened, the muscles ticking beneath his flawless skin. His gray eyes darkened into something fiercely intense, holding me captive in the small space between us.
• “You are not a whore,” he said, each word dropping like a heavy stone, his voice low but completely unyielding. “You are mine. There is a distinct difference.”
• “Mine?!” I let out a harsh, hysterical laugh through my tears, “I am not an object, Joaquin! I am a person! I have my own choices, my own path! I have a mission—I need to find the monsters who executed my father! I need to make them bleed for what they did! But instead of doing that, I am being dragged away in the dead of night by another monster who just wants to own my breath!”
• Unable to look at his victorious face for another second, I covered my face with my trembling hands, my shoulders shaking violently as the full weight of my helplessness crushed me.
• “I hate you,” I whispered through my fingers. “I hate you so much. You’re no better than the Syndicate men who held the guns. At least they had the decency to want me dead. But you? You just want to keep me alive so you can break me piece by piece.”
• Gently he took my wrists and pulled my hands away from my face, forcing me to look at him. I tried to pull away, but his grip was steel wrapped in velvet. Slowly, the rough skin of his thumb came up, gently wiping away a stray, hot tear from my cheek.
• “You can cry all you want, Roxanne. You can scream, you can fight, and you can hate me with every single breath in your body,” he murmured. “But you are coming home with me tonight. And you will stay by my side until I decide otherwise.”
• His thumb lingering against my jaw, his voice dropped into a dark, intoxicating whisper. “Fight me all you want, little heiress. It only makes the hunt that much more satisfying.”
• I violently yanked my face away from his touch, turning my back to him completely as I pressed myself against the cold glass of the window.
• “I will never forgive you for this,” I whispered, my voice hoarse, hollow, and bleeding with pain. “Never.”
• Joaquin slowly leaned back into his seat, his eyes never leaving my silhouette, watching me with that same unyielding, dark intensity.
• “We’ll see about that, Roxanne.”
• The car continued to slice through the midnight rain, carrying me deeper into the dark, heading toward the grand prison that awaited me. And no matter how hard I cried, no matter how much fury burned in my veins… I knew the truth.
• There was no escaping the devil tonight.