CHAPTER 33 — Shadows & Rivals
The world around Eva blurred the moment she saw the video feed. Her mother's front porch. A man's silhouette. The knock. The stillness. The dread sinking like a stone in her stomach.
"Derek…"
Her voice cracked. "We have to go. Now."
He was already moving.
The calm, controlled CEO was gone. In his place stood a man sharpened by danger, every movement precise and lethal. He grabbed his jacket, his keys, switched off the security grid, and turned to Eva with a single command.
"Stay behind me. Do exactly as I say."
Eva nodded, though fear knotted inside her.
They rushed to the private elevator. The doors closed, sealing them in a metallic box that hummed quietly as it shot downward. Derek didn't touch her, but his presence was a wall of heat and tension beside her, his jaw clenched, his eyes distant—calculating, hunting, planning.
"Do you think it's Kane?" she whispered.
Derek didn't look at her. "Yes."
Her heart hammered. "Why my mother? Why now?"
"Because he saw something in you," Derek said darkly. "Curiosity. Proximity. Influence over me."
"But that's—"
"Exactly what he wants." Derek finally met her gaze. "He's escalating. Making you afraid. Testing how far I'll go."
The elevator chimed and opened into the underground garage. Derek pressed a button on a sleek black vehicle that looked too elegant to be a car and too dangerous to be anything else. He opened the passenger door without looking at her.
"Get in, Eva."
She slid inside, trying to breathe through the panic clawing up her chest. Derek entered the driver's side and started the engine, and the soft purr of power filled the space like a warning.
He drove fast.
Too fast.
But every movement was controlled, mechanical, precise.
Eva's fingers tightened around the seatbelt. "What if he's already gone?"
"Then that's good," Derek said quietly. "Because if he's still there…"
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
Her mother.
Her sweet, gentle mother who still thought Eva was perfectly safe.
Her mother who had never met a man like Derek.
Her mother who had no idea she was caught in the crossfire of something dark.
Eva felt a tremor running through her. "Derek… you said Kane wasn't working alone."
"He's not."
"So who else—"
A sharp vibration cut her off. Derek's phone buzzed on the console. He glanced at the screen—his expression tightening into something harsher, deadlier.
Ethan.
Derek answered. "Talk."
"Blackwell," Ethan's voice crackled. "He's not at the house anymore."
Eva released a shaky breath. Derek didn't.
"Did you get a visual?" Derek asked.
"Yes," Ethan said. "He had someone with him. Small. Hooded. Couldn't get a face. But the posture—defensive. They were arguing."
"Male or female?"
"Female. Younger."
Eva's blood went cold.
Jealousy.
Fear.
Confusion.
A horrible mix spiraled through her.
"Was she willing?" Derek asked, his voice dipping into something darker.
"I don't know. But she wasn't afraid of him. She got into the car willingly."
Eva stared at Derek, her heart twisting. "Who is she?"
His jaw locked. "I don't know."
But he did know something.
She saw it.
In the flicker of his expression.
In the way he gripped the steering wheel.
In the way he didn't look at her.
"Derek," she whispered. "Is she part of your… past?"
He didn't answer.
Which was an answer.
Jealousy seared through Eva before she could stop it—a sharp, unexpected flare that made her stomach tighten.
Someone from Derek's past.
Someone who wasn't afraid of Kane.
Someone who argued with him like she knew him.
Derek noticed her silence. And her rigid posture.
"This isn't jealousy you need to worry about," he said quietly. "It's danger."
But jealousy tightened anyway.
Twisting.
Growing.
Drowning her in the realization that Derek Blackwell's past was darker, deeper, and more intimate than she ever imagined.
"How many women were in your arrangements before me?" The question slipped out before she could stop it.
Derek looked sharply at her. "Not now."
"So there were—"
"Eva." His voice cut the air like a blade. "This is not the moment for insecurity. Kane just stood on your mother's porch."
The words slapped her back to reality.
Still, the image of the hooded woman lingered in Eva's mind like poison.
"Do you know her?" she whispered. "The woman with him?"
Derek didn't answer immediately. He exhaled slowly, a controlled release of tension.
"I know who she might be," he said. "But I'm not giving you that name until I'm certain."
"Why?"
"Because the truth would hurt you."
Her throat tightened. "Then say it."
"No."
He looked at her finally, and the intensity in his gaze nearly broke her.
"I won't hurt you if I can help it."
Silence settled over them again, heavy and suffocating.
The car sped through the last intersection before her mother's street when suddenly a black vehicle cut sharply in front of Derek, forcing him to slam the brakes.
The seatbelt locked.
Eva's breath flew from her chest.
Derek's hand shot out instinctively, gripping her shoulder, steadying her.
The other vehicle didn't move.
It sat idling in the middle of the road, windows dark, glass tinted too deep.
Derek's entire body went still.
"That's not an accident," he said quietly.
A wave of dread washed over Eva. "Is it Kane?"
"No."
Derek reached beneath his seat and pulled out a small black case.
He opened it.
The sight inside made Eva's blood freeze.
A gun.
"Derek—"
"You stay in the car. No matter what."
Fear clawed through her.
"No—Derek—please, don't go alone—"
He cupped her cheek, his touch warm despite the ice in his eyes.
"I will always come back to you, Eva. Do you understand?"
Her breath trembled. "Yes."
He brushed his thumb along her cheekbone—so gentle, so intimate it sent heat spiraling down her body despite the terror.
Then he stepped out.
The night air wrapped around him like a shadow. Rain misted the windshield. Derek walked toward the black vehicle with slow, lethal purpose, the gun hidden at his side.
Eva watched through the glass, heart hammering.
He approached the driver's window.
Knocked once.
Nothing.
He knocked again.
The window slowly lowered.
Eva couldn't see the face inside.
But she saw Derek's reaction.
His body stiffened.
His jaw locked.
His fingers tightened on the gun.
Not in fear.
In recognition.
"Who is it?" Eva whispered inside the car—knowing no one could hear her.
Derek spoke, his voice low enough she couldn't catch the words.
Then the driver said something back.
Derek's head tilted.
His expression changed—from anger to disbelief to a cold, deadly calm.
Eva pressed her hands to the window.
"Derek… please…"
He stepped back from the car slowly.
The window rose.
The black vehicle pulled away, tires slick in the wet street, disappearing into the night as quietly as it had appeared.
Derek walked back toward Eva.
His face was carved from stone.
His eyes unreadable.
His posture tight, furious, shaken.
He opened the door and slid inside.
"Derek?" Eva whispered. "Who was it?"
He stared straight ahead, gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.
"Derek—"
He finally looked at her.
"It was someone I buried years ago."
Her heart stopped.
"And they just crawled out of the grave."
Eva swallowed hard. "What does that mean?"
"It means," Derek said softly—too softly—
"that Kane isn't the only rival we're facing now."
He turned the ignition.
"And the next move they make… will be deadly."