Chapter 13: The Spark Before The Fire
JULIAN’S POV
The office was too quiet. Morning light filtered in slow and gray, stroking the windows like a caress. But the air… still. Too still.
And then I saw it.
A silver picture frame rested on my desk, set like a trap. Ava. Caleb.
Moonlight washed over them. Her hand on his chest. His hand on her hip. Casual. Intimate. Like a secret captured on film.
After last night? After I shattered the last shielded pieces of myself, being on that balcony and explaining to her that I needed her?
This was the reward I got?
A rage heat struck hard
. My chest burned as though something sharp had erupted within it.
The note under the picture was short. Tight. Like a knife: "Fix this or I take it to the press."
My fingers gripped the frame hard. Glass dug into my skin. I didn't feel it, not until blood was wetting my fingers, oozing down over the wood.
The pain in my chest transformed into something else… something dark.
Who dared touch her? Who came this close to me... to her? Who felt like they could put this venom in my face and live?
The voice in my head was not soothing. Not composed. It was raw. Enraged.
Mine.
She was mine.
But that picture? Her soft smile, the easy way she leaned into him? That cut worse than the threat.
I took a tight breath. Tried to cool the fire burning in my veins. I needed to think. Had to act.
This ends now.
Whoever had done this would get a first-hand lesson in what it was like to wage war with Julian Sterling.
Security Control was cold with the whine of low hums. Equipment blinked, lights flashed blue from wall to wall like a beacon of warning.
Samuel, our security chief, stood at my side. His jaw was clenched. His body tense. He smelled of cheap tension and sweat.
"Show me everything," I told him, my voice icy. No room for argument. "Lobby. Elevators. Halls. My Office door. All feeds since 2 AM."
He didn't argue. Just started pulling footage.
We let it roll. Frame by frame. Slowly.
3:00 AM. Lobby is deserted.
3:15. Nothing. Still a hallway. Still. Quiet.
3:30. Right in front of my office. Nothing.
Then we saw it.
A gap. A clean break in the feed.
Where the footage should be… it was just black.
An empty space. No bug. No flaw. Gone.
Samuel went pale. Sweat streamed down his face.
"Sir… the gap's not natural," he whispered. "The feed was cut off locally. From the inside."
His voice broke on that last word.
I stared at the dead screen.
An insider.
Someone close. Someone who breathed the same air. Walked the same halls. Smiled in our faces.
But they were the threat. The one trying to break her. To take me apart.
Fear slid in icy and cutting, the taste metallic on my lips.
Save her. That was all that mattered now.
In my office once more. Alone.
The photo still on the desk.
Ava's smile. That little tilt toward Caleb.
I stared at it like it could bleed.
Not a photo. A kick in the gut.
Jealousy twisted in my chest, hot and raw.
If this leaked out? If the media blew it up?
She'd be ruined.
The career she'd so painstakingly established… finished.
Sterling's reputation… tarnished by mud.
And my weakness? The secret craving I had for her? Flayed open for the world to feast upon.
I gripped the lip of my desk. White knuckles. Clenched jaw.
That evening on the balcony came back.
The touch of her skin on mine. Her breath. The scent of her hair.
The expression in her eyes when I asked her if it had ever meant anything.
And this.
Caleb was the connection. The threat. The thing pulling her away.
He had to be cut out.
I didn't care what the price would be.
She could not be exposed to him. Not again.
Even if it killed the last bits of trust that remained between us.
Even if it killed whatever we were turning into.
I'd do it. I'd keep her safe. Keep her mine.
Sunlight later streamed through blinds, casting the office in stripes of gold and shadow.
I stood with my back against the room, gazing out over the city.
Tall buildings. Shining glass.
Worthless.
If she was hurt…
None of it mattered.
I pressed my thumb down on the intercom button. Pressure built in my chest. As though I was being squeezed out from the inside.
Saying their names together was like putting salt in an open wound.
But I did it anyway.
"Flinch," I told her. My voice was hard.
"Call Caleb and Ava to my office. Immediately."
I hung up before she could respond.
Their names were echoing in my head.
Ava.
Caleb.
A blow to the gut.
I could still see the image, his arm draped across her waist. Her soft smile.
The cut in my hand pulsed with every beat of my heart.
Who did this?
Who betrayed me?
I pressed my forehead against the cold of the glass. Closed my eyes.
Saw her again. The balcony. How she looked when I said I asked her.
And now. I was going to put her in a corner.
Cut Caleb out like a tumor.
There was no other choice.
Mine.
The word thudded in my mind. Loud. Bloody. Real.
Even if I had to burn it all to the ground to keep her.
The face staring back in the mirror.
Darker eyes than I was accustomed to with my Jaw clenched like a fighter getting ready for a fight.
The door creaked open behind me.
I didn't turn yet.
But I knew.
She was here.
Drawn to me like a magnet.
And God keep me despite the terror, the fire, the devastation…'d still keep her in my arms.
Possession. Protection.
Everything a tangled, crazed ball now.
This was it.
The moment before the storm.
And I craved it.
No, I needed it.
Burn everything to ashes.
As long as I still possessed her.