Chapter 142: Someone Has A Death Wish
Nat stepped even closer, his large frame completely stealing the warmth from the night breeze. "When you said you needed to see me with that desperate little tone over the line, I felt a tingle and dropped everything I was doing just to run to you."
April’s heart gave another uneven, heavy thud against her ribs. She stared up at him, her mind completely short-circuiting as she tried to understand his response. But she couldn’t understand it. She couldn’t understand the premise of his actions or why he behaved like this.
Wasn’t he supposed to be a selfish, calculating mafia lord? In her past life, the rumors painted him as a ruthless tyrant who cared about absolutely nothing and no one, a monster who viewed people as mere tools.
The only people he brought himself to care about were the loyal dogs under him. Even now, in this timeline, he had proven that to her time and time again. But he never actually deeply cared, so as not to her drawn into despair at any of their betrayal.
It was like having a box of dolls, playing with them, caring for them, but not so hard to discard once you find something better to do.
April tried to tell herself that his behavior right now was just because of his investment in her ability as a seer, that he was simply protecting a high-value asset for his future dark-net pipeline.
But looking at the raw, volatile intensity in his face right now, that data didn’t seem very logical. No egoistical businessman abandoned everything just because of a vague phone call.
There was a big missing piece of the puzzle here, a blind spot in her data, and a deep part of her desperately wanted to find it—even while the rest of her survivalist instincts were screaming at her to remain deadpan, nonchalant, and just be on her way.
"Why?" The word left her lips, small, fragile, and entirely harmless.
Nat didn’t hesitate. He leaned down, gently resting his forehead against the top of her head. The contrast was striking—his skin was warm, his cheeks slightly flushed from the adrenaline, and his eyes danced with a manic, unhinged obsession that burned right through her usual defenses.
"Why, sweetheart?" he whispered, his deep voice vibrating right through her skull as his hands remained tucked in his pockets, keeping him perfectly anchored to her space. "I’d also like to know."
That was not the response she was waiting to hear. She had expected a direct answer, a glimpse into his intentions, but she realized with a hollow jolt that he didn’t understand it either.
His volatile, impaired neural system simply ran on pure instinct—and right now, his instinct was tethered entirely to her.
Before she could process the weight of his forehead resting against hers, a sharp, deafening screech of burning rubber tore through the desolate concrete garage.
Headlights violently cut through the shadows. A sleek, high-end sports car drifted recklessly around a massive concrete pillar, the chassis sliding completely out of control.
It didn’t slow down. It fishtailed directly toward the open space where they stood, threatening to crush them against the G-Wagon.
Nat didn’t hesitate. His arms snapped around April’s waist, lifting her smaller frame entirely off the ground as he spun his body around in a fluid, heavy sweep.
The sports car missed his back by mere inches, the wind of its momentum rattling the leather of his jacket. But despite the sudden turmoil, Nat planted his boots firmly onto the concrete, keeping his balance perfectly absolute as he held her to his body.
"Careful," Nat murmured. There was something terrifyingly hard about his tone. He didn’t let go of her waist immediately, his head snapping toward the vehicle.
A wide, manic grin split his face, but it was not a happy grin. His wild eyes danced with a lethal, pulsing excitement. "Someone has a death wish tonight."
The driver’s door popped open, and from the passenger side, a young woman scrambled out. She had a gentle, striking face, her small voice screaming across the hood in a panicked, trembling pitch.
"Why are you like this?! You could have killed someone!"
"But I didn’t. Relax, babe," the guy who stepped out of the driver’s seat remarked flippantly.
He acted as though he hadn’t just driven a sports car like an absolute lunatic. He raised his hands, casually shoving them through his unnaturally bright blonde hair to slick it back.
April flinched, her entire body freezing solid.
That voice...
She lifted her head from Nat’s embrace to take a look.
"I am not your babe!" Liora exclaimed, tears of pure panic welling in her eyes. "I just knew you were going to be like this! I should have never agreed to be engaged to you in the first place!"
"Well, it’s too bad for you, because this union is your family’s only hope now that they’ve pissed off the Reeds, the Greels, and the maniac of the Collins line," the blonde man sneered, his tone dripping with a vicious, aristocratic arrogance. He walked around the hood, tossing his keys in the air. "You’re done without me. Your family assets are entirely on the line."
"Cai, you bastard!" Liora sobbed, trembling like a fragile, helpless damsel against the passenger door.
April stood completely paralyzed, the air leaving her lungs in a cold, ragged gasp. She knew exactly who that was. She knew that face, that voice, that infuriatingly smooth sneer.
She sure as hell hadn’t expected to see him here. Especially not with Liora.
He is her fiancé now? April’s mind spun through a rapid calculation error. She didn’t recall a single mention of an engagement when they were surviving in the mud of her past life.
Did the timeline change again? She just heard him imply that his family had become a desperate shield to the Morgans because they had pissed off Xavier, Alexander, and Nat.
She realized with a sudden, icy clarity that after the chaos at the auction, several heavy corporate undercurrents had crushed the Morgans’ standing without her knowledge.
If that was the case, the rapid shift in this engagement made sense. But a far deeper, more toxic realization began to burn through her veins.
When did he ever plan to mention the part where he was born with a silver spoon?