The message still glowed on Xander's phone.
Dominic: She knows. Handle it. Or I will.
Daisy sat up slowly, clutching the bedsheet to her chest, her eyes darting from the screen to Xander's frozen face.
"Handle it?" she repeated, heart pounding. "What does that mean?"
Xander's jaw tightened. "It means my brother is about to try something stupid."
A slow chill crept over Daisy's skin, replacing the heat of what they had just shared.
"I thought you said you were protecting me," she whispered.
"I am."
"Then why does it feel like I'm about to become a target?"
The first rule Xander ever gave her: No feelings involved. This is just a contract.
That rule shattered the second she stepped into his bed, not as his pet, but as his woman.
Daisy didn't know when the shift happened when his possessive grip started to feel like safety, when his voice in the night became the only one that calmed her storms.
But it had happened.
And now, that emotional entanglement had consequences.
Xander was pacing.
His naked body was a portrait of tension sculpted muscles coiled like springs, fists clenched, every movement dripping with frustration and danger.
"I'm calling Liam," he muttered.
"Who's Liam?"
"My head of security. We're locking this place down."
He grabbed his phone, started dialing, then paused. "Pack a bag."
"What?"
"You're not staying here tonight. Or any night until this is over."
Her heart dropped. "You're sending me away?"
"No." His gaze snapped to hers. "I'm coming with you."
They drove through the city under the cloak of night, in a black bulletproof SUV that smelled of leather, gun oil, and secrets.
Xander's hand never left Daisy's thigh.
His grip wasn't just possessive it was protective. Like he was afraid she'd vanish if he let go.
They arrived at a hidden penthouse one of his private safehouses not even Dominic knew about.
She stepped inside, expecting luxury.
What she found was survival.
Walls reinforced with steel. No windows, just skylights. Monitors showing real-time security feeds. Guns locked in drawers.
"Jesus," Daisy muttered. "What are you? A CEO or a cartel boss?"
Xander half-smirked. "Both, on bad days."
She turned to him. "Why do you even have this place?"
"In case the rules ever broke."
The tension in the safehouse was a live wire.
Danger buzzed outside its walls.
Inside, something more primal simmered.
Xander watched her as she changed into one of his shirts, the hem hitting mid-thigh, her bare legs gleaming in the low light.
"You're not sleeping in a separate room tonight," he said.
She raised a brow. "That wasn't a request?"
"It never is with me."
She crossed the room slowly, arms folded. "You said once that rules keep us from losing control. But every rule we've made we've broken."
He stood from the couch, closing the space between them.
"That's because control was never the point," he growled. "You were."
And then he kissed her.
Not like before this was darker, needier, edged with desperation.
He lifted her, carried her into the bedroom, dropped her on the bed, and pulled off her shirt in one motion.
No foreplay. No teasing.
Just raw, unfiltered want.
She clawed at his shoulders as he entered her, fast and deep, her body arching into his.
The safehouse became their battlefield moans bouncing off steel walls, skin slapping against skin, sweat slicking their limbs.
Every time she screamed his name, it was a declaration of war against every rule they'd ever made.
And when he came inside her, holding her tighter than ever, he whispered, "I'd burn my empire for you."
Daisy lay tangled in sheets, sore and satisfied, but her mind raced.
"What happens now?" she asked softly.
"We don't run," Xander replied. "We hit first."
He opened a drawer, pulled out a black leather folder, and handed it to her.
"What's this?"
"A list of everyone on Dominic's payroll. Judges. Journalists. Federal agents."
Her eyes widened. "You kept all this… why?"
"Because I never fully trusted my family. And because I was waiting for the day I'd finally have a reason to take them down."
She stared at him.
"You really think I'm worth all this?"
He cupped her face. "You're the only thing that's ever made me feel."
Suddenly, the lights flickered.
A deep hum filled the walls.
The monitor screens glitched.
And then static.
Xander's phone buzzed.
A message popped up.
Unknown: You really thought a safehouse could protect her? Cute.
Daisy's breath caught.
Xander's eyes darkened.
Then another message followed.
Unknown: You broke the rules, brother. Now I'll break her.