Chapter 187
Chapter 187:
“Everything is property if you have enough debt.” He reached out, his hand massive, fingers weighted with a gaudy gold ring that caught what little light filtered through the grimy window. “You look like your mother. I saw photographs. She looked proud.” His hand hovered inches from Eliza’s face. “You look scared. I like scared p>
Eliza stopped breathing. She calculated the distance. If she swung the jar now, she might break his nose. She might buy herself three seconds.
BZZZZZT.
The intercom at the main garden gate screamed through the silence — a harsh, electric sound loud enough to wake the dead, reverberating off the stone walls of the estate and straight into the studio.
Dante’s hand froze in the air. His head snapped toward the window.
𝘓𝘢𝘁𝘦𝗌t 𝗰𝗁𝖺𝗽𝘵е𝗿𝘀 𝗼ո
“Dad! Dad, pick up!” Sienna’s voice shrieked over the ancient speaker system, distorted by static but unmistakable in its panic. “Anson Hyde is here! He’s at the gate! He’s driving through! Open it p>
The name landed in the room like a physical blow.
Dante’s eyes narrowed to slits. He pulled his hand back as if something had burned him. He looked toward the main house, visible as a dim shape through the grime of the window.
“Hyde?” He spat the name like something foul. “Why is he here p>
The studio door rattled again — frantic knocking, from outside this time. Buck’s voice came through the wood, high and breathless.
“Dante! We have to move,” Buck hissed through the crack. “Anson’s buzzing the gate. If he sees you here — with her — if he sees your car — the deal with Hyde Corp is finished. He’ll bury us in litigation. He’s unhinged, Dante. He’s obsessed with her p>
Dante looked at Eliza. He looked at the defiance in her eyes, then at the shape of something she was hiding behind her back. He weighed it. He was a predator, but he was also a businessman. Anson Hyde was an unstable man with deep pockets and a legal team capable of tying Luna Enterprises up for decades.
The greasy smirk returned — slow, terrifying, a promise rather than a conclusion.
“You got lucky, princess.” He straightened his jacket and smoothed the lapels with practiced calm. “But the debt stands. You belong to the deal. One way or another.” He leaned in close, his breath hot against her face. “Tell your uncle to fix this. Or I take the payment in blood p>
He turned and slipped out of the studio, disappearing into the shadows of the garden, moving toward the back service road just as the sound of the iron gates grinding open echoed from the far end of the property.
Eliza didn’t release the jar until his heavy footsteps had faded entirely into the grass.
Then her legs gave out.
She slid down the wall slowly, the Mason jar clattering to the floor, turpentine splashing cold against her jeans. She pulled her knees to her chest and pressed her face into her arms, her whole body shaking with the aftershock of adrenaline.
She was safe from Dante — for now. But Anson was somewhere on the other side of those gates.
In the dark of the studio, she couldn’t decide whether that was a rescue or a different kind of trap.