The Heiress Gambit-Chapter 48- "But first, the dentist.”

PAIGE

It was just a couple, laughing and stumbling out of the restrooms, their eyes glazed with champagne. They glanced at us, saw a man and a woman in a heated discussion, and looked away.

No help. No one ever wants to get involved.

His head snapped back to me, his eyes glinting with a new, dangerous light now that we were alone again. He still didn’t let go. His grip just got tighter, his fingers like steel bands around my wrist. The bones ached.

"Let go of me," I said, my voice low and shaking. I tried to pull back, planting my heels into the plush carpet.

"Or what?" he sneered, his voice a low, ugly whisper. He leaned in, his face too close to mine. The smell of stale champagne on his breath made my stomach turn. "You’ll make a scene? Go ahead. Scream. See who they believe. The disgraced Rimestone girl, or me?"

"This isn’t about believing anyone. This is about you getting your hands off me." I shoved at his chest with my free hand, but it was like pushing a wall. Panic, cold and sharp, started to prickle at the edges of my vision. "Get off!"

"You need to learn some manners," he hissed, his patience clearly gone. His other hand shot out and clamped onto my upper arm. "All that fire for Daki? Let’s see some for me."

With a brutal yank, he spun me around and slammed me back against the wall. The impact knocked the air from my lungs in a sharp gasp. A framed abstract print rattled beside my head.

"Stop it," I choked out, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. I struggled, trying to knee him, to twist away, but he was too heavy, too strong. He used his body to pin me, his weight crushing me against the cold wallpaper.

"Feisty little thing, aren’t you?" he grunted, his face buried in my hair. He started dragging me, my heels scraping uselessly against the carpet, away from the main hallway and toward a darker, recessed alcove where a single potted palm tree offered a pathetic semblance of privacy.

Terror, pure and absolute, flooded my system. This was no longer just a gross pass. This was something else. Something violent.

"No! Don’t you dare!" I cried out, my voice rising in pitch. I thrashed harder, my elbow connecting with his ribs.

He let out a pained grunt and his grip loosened for a fraction of a second—just enough for me to wrench one arm partially free. I didn’t think. I just acted. I swung my hand, my nails aiming for his face.

I caught his cheek, a shallow, red scratch.

He froze. His eyes widened, then narrowed into slits of pure, unadulterated rage. The civilized veneer shattered completely.

"You bitch," he spat, the words dripping with venom.

He backhanded me.

The crack was loud in the muffled hallway. My head snapped to the side, a starburst of pain exploding across my cheekbone. The taste of copper filled my mouth. I saw spots, my ears ringing. The world tilted.

He grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back, forcing me to look at him. His face was a mask of twisted fury.

"You’re going to regret that," he snarled, his breath hot on my face. "I’m going to teach you a lesson you won’t for—"

The sentence died in his throat.

It wasn’t a sound that stopped him. It was a presence. A shift in the air, a sudden, absolute drop in temperature.

His head turned, just an inch, his eyes widening in a different kind of shock.

I followed his gaze.

Reomen stood at the entrance to the alcove.

He wasn’t running. He wasn’t shouting. He was just... there. A statue carved from ice and fury. His face was utterly, terrifyingly blank. But his eyes... his eyes were black pits of promised violence.

He didn’t look at me. His entire, terrifying focus was on the man holding me.

"Take your fucking hands off her," Reomen said.

His voice was quiet. A soft, dead calm that was a thousand times more frightening than any scream.

It was the last thing you heard before the world ended.

– – –

REOMEN

The world narrowed to a single, red point. The sight of his hands on her. The terror in her eyes. The fucking mark on her cheek.

Every lesson in control, every shred of civilized composure I’d ever learned, evaporated. There was only the fire.

I didn’t think. I moved.

The secluded alcove was a gift. My suit was a meaningless costume. I was on him before he could even drop his hands from her.

My first hit was a closed fist to his jaw. I felt the bone crunch under my knuckles. A satisfying, wet crack.

He staggered back, a garbled cry escaping him. "Daki, wait—!"

I didn’t wait. I grabbed him by his lapels and slammed him into the wall, right next to where he’d held her. The potted palm tree shuddered.

"You put your hands on her," I growled, my voice not my own. It was a low, animal thing. I drove my knee into his gut. He folded with a whoosh of air, choking.

"I didn’t— she—"

I yanked him upright and hit him again. A hook to the ribs. I felt one give way. "You touched what’s mine."

He was a babbling wreck now, trying to shield his face. "Please! I’m sorry! I didn’t know!"

"You don’t get to be sorry." I threw him to the floor. He landed in a heap, groaning. I stood over him, my chest heaving, my knuckles raw and bleeding. The red haze was only just beginning to clear.

I turned away from him. He was nothing.

Paige.

She was pressed against the wall, one hand to her reddening cheek. Her eyes were huge, glassy with shock. She was shaking.

I went to her. I didn’t ask if she was okay. The question was an insult. I could see she wasn’t. I could see the violation etched into her face.

I reached for her, my hands, which had just been instruments of violence, suddenly gentle. I pulled her into my arms, holding her tight against my chest. Her body was rigid.

"I’m sorry," I breathed into her hair, the words rough, torn from me. "I’m so sorry I let him get close to you. I’m sorry he hurt you."

I felt her shudder. A small, broken sound escaped her throat. Then another. She was holding her breath, trying to lock it down, trying to be the defiant Black Cat. But the dam broke.

A sob racked her frame. Then another. Silent, desperate tears soaked into my shirt.

I froze.

I have seen her angry. I have seen her sarcastic. I have seen her burning with cold fire. I have never, ever seen Paige Rimestone cry.

It was a new kind of horror. It unraveled something in my chest I didn’t know could be touched. It made the rage I’d just unleashed feel small and useless.

I just held her tighter, one hand cradling the back of her head, my own throat so tight I couldn’t speak.

Over her shoulder, I looked at the man groaning on the floor. The cold, calculating part of my brain, the part that built an empire, clicked back into place. The violence was just the opening act.

"Listen to me," I said, my voice quiet and deadly calm. He flinched, trying to look up at me. "The physical pain you’re feeling right now? That’s a courtesy. A preview."

I let my words hang in the air, letting them sink into his pain-addled brain.

"By tomorrow morning," I continued, "every fund, every bank, every partner you have will get a call from me. I will personally guarantee that your company is toxic. I will bury you so deep in litigation and debt that your grandchildren will be filing for bankruptcy."

He stared up at me, his one good eye wide with a terror that was far greater than any fear of a beating.

"You don’t just recover from a broken rib," I told him, my voice flat. "You won’t recover from this. Not in this decade. Not in the next. You are finished."

I looked down at Paige, still trembling in my arms. I smoothed her hair.

"Now get the hell out of my sight before I decide the financial ruin of your bloodline isn’t enough."

I led her away from that cursed alcove, my arm a tight band around her shoulders. The elevator lobby was swarming with people, their laughter like shards of glass in my ears.

No. Not there.

I guided her to the heavy, silent door of the stairwell.

The click of the door shutting behind us echoed in the concrete cavern. Our footsteps were the only sound, a hollow rhythm in the oppressive quiet. She was trembling, a fine, constant shake I could feel through my whole body. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"I’m sorry," I said again, the words ash in my mouth. "I never should have let you walk away alone. I saw him looking, I knew—"

"I’t’s finr," she whispered, her voice small and thick.

Finr.

The mispronunciation, the slurred sound of it, hit me like a physical blow. I stopped on the landing, turning her to face me under the harsh fluorescent light. Her eyes were dazed, her beautiful cheek swollen and blooming into a vicious purple.

"Paige," I said, my voice tight.

She blinked slowly, then brought her hand to her mouth. She spat, delicately, into her own palm.

There, in the center of her white glove, lay a small, perfect tooth with a root of blood.

The world went silent. The hum of the lights, the distant party—everything vanished. There was only that tiny, bloody piece of her in her hand. A part of her, broken. Because of him. Because I wasn’t fast enough.

My horror didn’t just skyrocket. It detonated.

A cold, silent fury, colder and deadlier than the hot rage from before, locked my joints. I saw the man’s face in my mind, and I didn’t just want to ruin him. I wanted to erase him.

"I’m going to kill him," I heard myself say, the voice flat, certain. It wasn’t a threat. It was a plan. "I’m going to find that fucking bastard and I am going to kill him."

Her wide, shocked eyes found mine. She didn’t speak. She just stared, the truth of my words settling between us.

I took a sharp, ragged breath, forcing the murderous static in my head to clear. I cupped her unhurt cheek, my thumb stroking her skin.

"But first," I said, my voice softening into something firm, something she could cling to. "First, the dentist."