Chapter 1

My fiancé staged his own kidnapping as a sick loyalty test, betting I'd risk our unborn child to save him. The shock of his betrayal cost me our baby. When I confronted him, he protected his mistress and burned our son's ashes right in front of me.

He sneered that I was just his "loyal little soldier" and that only death would end us.

He was right. He just never realized he was talking about his own death, at the hands of the queen who owns his entire army.

Chapter 1

The life I knew ended with a text message. It wasn't a confession or a goodbye. It was a single, grainy photo.

Easton, my fiancé, the father of the child growing inside me, was bound to a steel chair. His handsome face was bruised, a crimson bead of blood crept from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were wide with a terror I recognized from the battlefield.

A wave of nausea, sharp and acidic, surged up my throat. This wasn't the familiar, dull ache of the morning sickness that had plagued my last eight months; this was the metallic taste of fear. A searing pain shot through my lower abdomen, a violent protest from my body at the sudden flood of adrenaline. My hand flew to my belly, a protective instinct warring with the soldier's impulse to act.

"Team Alpha, assemble. Now," I barked into my comms, my voice a blade of ice that betrayed none of the terror gripping my insides. "Hostage situation. Target is Easton Price."

Within minutes, I was geared up. My tactical vest, usually a second skin, dug into the unfamiliar curve of my pregnancy-a constant, heavy reminder of what was at stake. My second-in-command, a stoic man named Marcus, eyed the cumbersome bump with undisguised concern.

"Adria, maybe you should sit this one out. Let me lead."

"Negative," I snapped, checking the magazine of my SIG Sauer. "It's Easton. I'm going in."

The ride in the armored vehicle was a jarring percussion of rain-slicked streets and screaming sirens. Every bump sent a jolt through me, and I braced one hand against my belly, whispering silent apologies to the tiny life within. I was risking everything. For him. It was the core of our code. Always.

We pulled up to a derelict warehouse on the industrial outskirts of the city. The rain hammered against the corrugated metal roof, a frantic drumbeat matching the thudding of my heart. My team fanned out, securing the perimeter with silent, lethal efficiency. I took point, my pistol held steady in a two-handed grip, and approached the rusted steel door that was the only entrance.

My boot was inches from the door, ready to breach, when I heard it.

Laughter.

It was faint, muffled by the thick steel and the storm, but it was unmistakable. A woman's light, musical laugh, followed by the deeper rumble of several men.

My blood ran cold. Laughter. The sound was obscene in a hostage situation. It didn't belong.

I pressed my ear to the cold, damp metal, straining to hear over the pounding rain. The voices became clearer.

"...can't believe you actually set this whole thing up, Price. A full-scale tactical wargame? Just to see if she'd come?" The voice was unfamiliar, laced with amusement and a touch of awe.

"I told you, Sterling," another voice replied. It was Easton-my Easton-his voice casual, confident, completely devoid of the terror from the photo. "Adria's devotion is absolute. It's her greatest strength. And my greatest asset."

A woman giggled. "But is it wise? With her condition? The risk to the... you know... the cargo?"

The word landed like a physical blow. The cargo. My baby.

My breath hitched. The pistol in my hands suddenly felt impossibly heavy.

"Don't worry about Gisele," Easton's voice was smooth as silk, a soothing balm that now felt like acid. "Adria is a professional. She knows how to manage risk. Besides, this little test is necessary. Sterling needed to see the kind of loyalty that built our firm. The kind of loyalty his money will be buying."

Sterling, the CEO of a rival firm we were trying to acquire. Gisele Golden, our brilliant new analyst, the one Easton had been mentoring so closely. It was all clicking into place, each piece a shard of glass driving into my heart.

This wasn't a rescue. It was a performance. A cruel, high-stakes piece of theater, and I was the unwitting star.

"Still, putting your pregnant fiancée in the line of fire for a bet... that's cold, Easton," Sterling said, a hint of something unreadable in his tone.

"She's not just my fiancée," Easton's voice dropped, taking on that intimate, protective tone he always used with me, the one that made me feel like the only woman in the world. "She is everything. The pillar of my life, the mother of my child. I would never let any real harm come to her. I trust her skills implicitly, and she trusts me with her life. She'll be here. Any minute now."

He was so certain. So damnably, arrogantly certain.

He had placed a bet. On me. On my love. On whether I would risk my life, and our child's life, to save him from a danger that didn't even exist.

The edifice of our love, an unshakeable structure built over ten years, imploded in that single, gut-wrenching moment. The foundation of our life together-a lie. Our partnership-a transaction. Our child... just cargo. Collateral in his sick game.

In the wreckage, something new and cold began to form. Not grief. Rage. A sharp cramp seized my belly, a painful reminder of the life I was carrying. The life he had so carelessly gambled away. I leaned against the cold wall, the metal biting into my cheek, and forced myself to breathe. In, out. Control.

Slowly, deliberately, I lowered my weapon. The tactical part of my brain, the strategist he had helped hone, took over. Vengeance wasn't a frontal assault. It was a war of attrition.

I pulled out my secure phone and typed a message to a number I hadn't contacted in a decade. A number that was my last resort, my secret lifeline.

Activate them. All of them. I want full control. Now.

A moment later, my phone buzzed. A new photo appeared on the screen. It was an aerial shot from a surveillance drone positioned above the warehouse. It showed Easton, Gisele, and Sterling standing around a table, champagne glasses in hand, laughing. Easton had his arm draped casually around Gisele's shoulders.

Inside, the laughter continued. "Twenty seconds on the clock, Price! If she's not through that door, you owe me that merger."

"Don't be ridiculous, Sterling," Easton chuckled. "She wouldn't be late. She would crawl through broken glass for me. She would die for me."

The sound of applause echoed faintly through the door. A slow, mocking clap.

Tears streamed down my face, hot and silent, mixing with the cold rain. I remembered ten years ago, a real fire, not a game-an arson attack meant to destroy his fledgling company. He had pushed me out of a third-story window to safety just before the roof collapsed, earning him the thin, heroic-looking scar above his eyebrow. "I'll always protect you, Adria," he had whispered, his face smudged with soot as he held me. "You and me against the world."

We built our empire on that promise. I had been his shield, his strategist, his partner. I had given him my body, my loyalty, my entire soul.

I wondered, with a chilling clarity, when love like that expires.

"Ten," a voice from inside counted down.

My love expired today.

"Nine."

It was over.

"Eight."

I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my tactical glove.

The countdown reached one.

As the sound of a triumphant cheer began to rise from within, I kicked open the door.

The laughter died instantly. Three pairs of eyes swiveled to face me, wide with shock. Easton's smile froze, his champagne glass halfway to his lips. Gisele gasped, her hand flying to her chest.

I ignored them all. My gaze locked onto Gisele Golden, the brilliant, doe-eyed analyst.

I walked past Easton as if he were a ghost, my steps measured and silent. My team fanned in behind me, weapons lowered but ready.

I stopped a foot from Gisele, my voice dangerously calm. "Report, Ms. Golden."

She stared at me, bewildered. "What?"

"Your report," I repeated, my voice dropping to an icy whisper that cut through the cavernous space. "You were on comms and surveillance. You were supposed to be our eyes and ears for this... wargame. Yet you failed to detect a six-man tactical team, fully armed, establishing a perimeter and approaching your position. You let us get to within breaching distance, completely undetected."

I turned my gaze to Sterling, whose amused expression had vanished, replaced by a look of keen, professional assessment. "This was a test of our firm's loyalty, Mr. Sterling. But it seems it has inadvertently become a test of our competence. And our lead analyst," I said, my eyes flicking back to a now-pale Gisele, "has failed spectacularly."