Chapter 90

Chapter 90:

She was on her feet, pacing the room, her voice dangerously low. “She’s playing him. She failed to secure the Hydes, so she aimed for a king. This is a power play — for our money, our name p>

She grabbed her bag. “I need to see this for myself. Where is he p>

A café near Hyde Manor. Evening.

Dallas sat in the back of his Maybach, parked in the shadows of an alleyway across from a pharmacy. He shouldn’t be here. He had promised to let her handle it. But the tracking dot on his phone had been stationary for twenty minutes.

He watched through the tinted window.

Eliza walked out of the pharmacy clutching a white paper bag. She looked tired.

Then a figure stepped out from the shadows. Anson.

Dallas’s hand went to the door handle. His entire body coiled like a predator spotting a rival near his mate. The sound that rose in his chest was barely human.

Anson stepped forward and grabbed Eliza by the shoulders. From Dallas’s angle — through the rain-streaked glass and the distance — it didn’t read as an attack. It looked like an embrace. It looked like Anson was pulling her in, and Eliza was simply standing there, letting him.

“Sir.” Weston’s voice came from the front seat, tight and controlled. “Ms. Koch’s car is approaching. Red convertible. Three o’clock p>

𝘓𝗮𝗍𝗲st chaрt𝘦r𝘀 оո 𝘨a𝗹ո𝗼𝘃е𝗅𝘀.c𝘰𝗺

Dallas froze. He looked in the rearview mirror.

Augustina’s bright red vintage Mercedes was rounding the corner, moving fast.

If she saw Dallas here — intervening in a street confrontation with Anson Hyde — the secret marriage would detonate tonight. His aunt would go after Eliza publicly. She would destroy Eliza’s position at S&D before Eliza had any chance to prove herself.

He had to choose: save Eliza now and expose her to the full force of the Koch family’s wrath, or wait.

His gaze snapped back to the street. He watched Eliza’s body shift — a subtle transfer of weight he recognized from their sessions together. Her right foot lifted and came down hard on Anson’s instep.

Anson flinched. His grip loosened. Eliza shoved him back a step, her face a mask of cold fury.

She was fighting. She didn’t need saving in this particular moment — she needed him to win the war. He could protect her better by remaining a ghost. For now.

But the image of Anson’s hands on her shoulders burned into his retinas like acid.

“Drive. Now,” Dallas ordered, his voice hollowed out and deadly.

“But, sir p>

“Drive p>

The Maybach slid into traffic just as Augustina’s car sped past, missing them by seconds.

Dallas stared straight ahead. His chest heaved with suppressed violence. He had left her there. He’d had to. But it felt like severing his own arm.

“Anson Hyde,” he muttered to the dark interior of the car. “You have a death wish p>

“Don’t touch me p>

Eliza shoved Anson away with both hands. The force of it surprised him and he stumbled back.

“I am here for Victoria. Not you,” she said.

Anson rubbed his foot where she had stomped — again. “You’re feisty now. I like it. Did Dallas teach you that p>