Page 18 of The Final Contract (The Black Ledger Billionaires #5)

A woman like Candi? She’s a fucking joke for a man like me.

She thinks she wants it hard. Thinks she knows rough. She doesn’t. What she really wants is some guy who eats her out for a few minutes, tugs her hair a little while he fucks her, then pats her on the ass and tells her she’s wild.

A man like me? I’d run through her in seconds and feel nothing. Like starving for days and settling for crumbs. Doesn’t touch the hunger. Doesn’t satisfy a damn thing.

But Seraphina doesn’t need to know that.

What she does need to know—what I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy—is the fire in her eyes when Candi came up to me. The way her jaw tightened, her smile faltered imagining what she wanted with me. To know why I hadn’t texted her yet. Why I wasn’t back at the gym. When I’d make time for her.

Then my phone buzzed.

A text from Finn, the stubborn bastard. Always watching too close.

FINN: Stop trying to make your mark jealous. I’ve got someone out here to talk to you.

It made me laugh. Finn would never say shit like that out loud where anyone could hear. Professional to the end. But he knows me in a way no one else does. Knows the blood I come from. Knows what I am, and what I’ve walked away from.

And he was right. It was worth it just to watch Seraphina practically combust across the room. She probably thinks Candi slipped me her number again. She was trying to—batting lashes, leaning in, playing with her straw like it was practice for her throat.

I brushed her off. Told her I was on assignment. No personal matters during assignments. That line alone damn near made her squirm, eyes lighting up at the idea I might actually be interested.

She touched my arm on the way out, lingering like she thought she’d left a mark. But I saw her friends waiting just past the doorway. She wasn’t hunting me—she was hunting an ego stroke.

No matter.

Because Seraphina showed her cards tonight.

And they’re jealous as fuck.

Finn leans in close, his mouth almost to my ear, Irish brogue rough against the bass pounding through the club.

“There’s a lass from back home,” he says. “Owes me a favor. Still got a foot in both worlds. She can pull strings that might be useful.”

I cut him a look. “I already told you no. I’m not draggin’ the Irish into this.”

“You’re a stubborn bastard, Kill,” he fires back, steady as stone. “You always were. But you don’t have to go runnin’ back to your brother. This isn’t that. This is a woman who knows people, knows things we can’t touch. And if it helps keep Seraphina breathin’—”

I grind my jaw. He knows exactly where to stick the knife.

Finn’s eyes don’t flinch. “You can hate me for sayin’ it, but you’re not thinkin’ clear when it comes to her. Let someone else play a part.”

I blow out a slow breath. “Fine. A few minutes. That’s all.” I jab a finger toward the dance floor where she’s wrapped around Barrett fucking Hall. “Get a few of our boys in here. Eyes on her every second. I don’t want dick-wad making a single move I don’t know about.”

Finn nods once. “Done.”

I don’t look back. Can’t. If I turn around and see her playing seductress for some pro cock-wipe, I’ll end up storming that floor and breaking Barrett’s fucking hand for touching her.

So I keep walking. Toward the exit. Toward the dark. Away from the very thing I can’t admit I want.

I recognize Nora from half a block away.

An old friend of my mother’s—the kind she could lean on when the family name turned everything else toxic. I haven’t seen her in years. And if memory serves, she was more than “close” to Finn a time or two. The way her eyes find him right away tells me I’m right.

Finn thanks her for coming, kisses her cheek. Supposed to be friendly, but the way his hand lingers on her arm says otherwise.

“Thanks for coming, Nor.”

“Good to see you, Killian.” I can see the age around her eyes from the woman I remember, but the intensity is no less present. She’ll cut you down just as quick as she’ll invite you to sit at her table.

“He tell you what this is about?” I nod to Finn, but Nora shakes her head.

So I give her the rundown. The stalker. The five years. The photos. The near misses. How every time we try to pin him, he slips. Best theory we’ve got is a former client—or some asshole who wanted in the system and got shut out.

Nora shakes her head, slow. “You’re lookin’ too high, Killian. Look lower. More common. He’s stayed invisible this long because he isn’t anyone you’d normally look at.”

That sticks. My teeth grind as I turn it over.

“And what sort of things are you into these days that you think you can help?” I ask.

Her mouth curves, sharp and knowing. “Because I still know the gutters you and Finn crawled out of. I’ve got ears in kitchens, janitors in buildings, doormen who see more than they should.

The ones nobody notices. The ones nobody asks.

You think this bastard’s a ghost, but ghosts leave footprints—and the overlooked are the ones who see them first.”

She leans in a little. “Let me stir that pot. Get word out in the circles that don’t make it onto your security feeds. Somebody’s seen him. They just don’t know what they were lookin’ at.”

I study her, weighing it. Jaxon can scrape every feed in the city. But Nora? Nora’s the kind who can slip through the cracks and make the nobodies talk.

And she’s right—if this stalker hides in plain sight, it’s the people no one sees who’ll find him.

I’m nodding before I’ve even made the decision. Already know I’m going to agree. I pull my phone out. “I’ll drop you what we’ve got so far.”

Nora slips hers from her pocket, but my screen stays stubbornly blank. No service down here. I roll my eyes.

“Here,” she says, taking my phone straight out of my hand and plugging her number in.

I take it back, tuck it away. “I’ll send it in a few. Would’ve liked this done yesterday.”

She chuckles—warm but edged. “Finn explained your… need for urgency.”

The way she says it makes my head snap toward him. Like he gave her more than he should’ve. He just shrugs, innocent as a saint.

Nora lays a hand on my arm before she goes. “Say hi to your mother for me, Killian. Tell her she doesn’t need to be a stranger anymore.”

I nod once because I don’t trust my voice.

Her eyes linger on Finn, longer than they should. “Good to hear from you, Finn.”

“Thanks, Nora,” he says, softer than I’ve heard him in years.

She turns the corner and disappears.

I don’t wait a beat before I turn on him.

He lifts a hand. “Don’t start with me, boy.” No heat in it.

“You and Nora?” I push, half-grinning.

He shakes his head. “Nothin’. Silly summer affair when we were younger.”

We’re walking back toward the mouth of the alley when I mutter, “Maybe think about givin’ her a call one day when you’re off work.”

Finn smirks, but before he can answer my phone buzzes. Jaxon’s tag flashes on the screen—file incoming. I swipe it open and it’s a video.

From Seraphina’s phone.

My jaw tightens as I realize Jaxon intercepted it, rerouted it to me before it ever touched her screen.

Grainy footage. Inside the club, and I know instantly it’s from the stalker. But it isn’t her the lens is on.

It’s me.

The bastard zooms in, closer and closer, until it’s clear: I’m standing across the room, eyes locked on her. Watching her every move.

My chest goes tight. This isn’t just about catching her anymore. This is a message. A warning. I’m the obstacle. I’m the threat.

“Finn,” I growl, shoving the phone toward him. “He’s in the club.”

But before Finn can respond, pounding feet slap the pavement.

My hand goes straight to the handle of my knife—always my first instinct before the gun.

It’s one of ours. One of the men who’s supposed to be with Seraphina.

“Why the fuck are you out here?” I bark, grabbing him by his collar.

He’s bent, breath ragged. “Neither of you answered your phones.”

My stomach drops. “What happened?”

“Seraphina left?—”

The world stills. “What?”

“With her date. She left in his car. Told us to follow behind. We couldn’t reach you, so the second man’s tailin’ her now. I came to find you.”

Everything in me goes cold. Then hot.

She left. With him.

I bite down on the fury threatening to tear me apart and step in close enough the guard flinches.

“You don’t run to me,” I snarl. “You don’t leave her.

You stop the fucking car. Throw yourself under it if you have to.

Put a bullet in the bastard’s skull if he doesn’t stop driving.

He can’t take her anywhere if his brains are on the pavement, can he? ”

He goes pale, but I don’t ease up.

We break out of the alley, my phone vibrating as soon as the signal returns. I pull up the Ledger app, her tracker blazing bright.

This isn’t jealousy. It’s not want. Not the ache burning through my veins every time I think about her. This is duty. The job. That’s the story I’ll keep telling myself as I move, tracker searing into my palm like a brand.

Because one way or another, Seraphina’s coming back with me.

And when she does, I’ll make damn sure she understands—bad girls who don’t listen learn fast. The only safe place for her is right where I fucking put her.