Keifer POV
The rain lied.
It said it could wash things clean.
It couldn’t.
Not tonight.
I stood in front of Uncle Kaizer’s private garage.
Six cars.
All black.
All his trophies.
A Lamborghini.
Two Porsches.
A Bentley.
Two Mercedes.
Parked in a perfect line like an army he thought would protect him.
My shirt was soaked through.
Rain ran down my hair and into my collar.
I didn’t feel it.
All I felt was the heat sitting in my chest.
The doctor’s call was still ringing in my ears.
“She’s awake.
She’s asking for you, Keifer.”
Jay.
Pale.
Bruised.
An IV in her hand.
Because of him.
Because he thought he could sign a paper and make her disappear.
My jaw locked.
My fingers found the lighter in my pocket.
It felt heavier than a gun.
“You touched what’s mine,” I said quietly.
The rain swallowed the words.
“Now I’m going to burn what’s yours.”
I flicked the lighter.
The first flame caught the Lamborghini’s tire.
_Whoosh._
Orange light cut through the night and reflected in my eyes.
One by one.
I didn’t run.
I walked.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Let him watch it.
Let the whole city watch.
Heat licked at my face.
The smell of gasoline and smoke filled the air.
For the first time in three days, the rage in my chest went quiet.
Then I heard it.
“KEIFER!!!”
Kaizer.
He stormed out of the office building with four guards behind him.
His suit was perfect.
His face was not.
Red.
Furious.
Humiliated.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he shouted.
“Do you have any idea what those cars are worth?
That’s my legacy!”
I turned to face him.
Water dripped from my hair down my neck.
My white shirt clung to me, transparent across my chest and shoulders.
I didn’t care.
Tonight I wasn’t the cold, controlled heir everyone feared.
Tonight my aura was different.
Dark.
Unhinged.
Predatory.
The kind of man who would burn down an empire for one person and sleep fine afterward.
“Legacy?”
I asked.
I took a step toward him.
The fire behind me threw my shadow long across the wet concrete.
“You want to talk about legacy, Uncle?
Let’s talk about the night your men forced her car off the road .
Let’s talk about her bleeding in the rain while you were inside drinking whiskey and signing the order to make it look like an accident.”
“She was collateral!” he snapped.
“She got in the way of business!
You’re acting like a child over some girl you barely know!”
The word _girl_ did it.
I closed the distance in two strides and grabbed the front of his jacket.
I lifted him until his shoes scraped the ground.
His guards reached for me.
I looked at them once.
They stopped.
Everyone in this city knew the rule.
Don’t touch me when I’m like this.
“Don’t say her name like that,” I said.
My voice was low.
Too calm.
My grip tightened.
His breath hitched.
“You don’t get to call her collateral.
You don’t get to call her a mistake.
Her name is Jay.”
I leaned in.
Close enough that he could see the red in my eyes.
“And she belongs to me.”
The word _belongs_ wasn’t romantic.
It was a claim.
A brand.
A threat.
I shoved him back.
He hit the ground hard and coughed, scrambling to get up.
“You took her health,” I said.
“So I’m taking your pride.
You put your hands on her.
So I’m putting my hands on everything you built.”
He got to his feet, shaking with anger.
“You think this makes you strong?
Burning cars?
You’re just like your father.
Reckless.
You’ll ruin this family!”
I laughed.
It wasn’t a nice sound.
“Family?
You lost the right to say that word the second you decided she was expendable.”
I stepped into his space again.
He flinched.
“Do you know what I saw today?” I asked.
“I saw her in Room 312.
Tubes in her arms.
Machines keeping her alive.
And I saw the report.
The one with your signature on it.
You wanted her gone.
Quietly.”
I pulled a folded paper from my pocket and dropped it into a puddle at his feet.
The ink started to bleed.
“So I’m going to make sure everyone knows exactly what kind of man you are.
Loudly.”
“You can’t do that,” he said, but his voice shook.
“I can,” I replied.
“I can burn your cars.
I can call in every debt you owe.
I can walk into the boardroom tomorrow and tell them about the offshore accounts, the bribes, the people you paid to disappear.
And I can make sure you spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, wondering if I’m behind you.”
He tried to straighten, tried to find some of his old arrogance.
“You wouldn’t dare.
The board needs me.”
“The board needs someone who doesn’t bring police attention to the company,” I said.
“And you just did.”
I tilted my head.
“Tell me, Uncle.
How’s it feel?
To be powerless.
To watch everything you built go up in smoke because you touched the wrong person.”
His face twisted.
“She’s not worth this.”
“Don’t,” I warned.
“She’s not!” he yelled.
“She’s nobody!
You could have any woman in this city!
Why her?”
Something in me went completely still.
I took one step forward.
Then another.
The guards didn’t move.
“You want to know why her?” I asked softly.
“Because she treated me like a normal person.
She didn’t ask anything in return.
She didn’t used me for my money.
She didn’t make me friend due to my status.
She make me friend because I was a person.
She looked at me like I was a person.
Whenever she made a mistake.
In the three seconds it took her to apologize, she did what no one in ten years has done.
She saw me.”
I let that hang in the air.
“So yes.
She’s worth this.
She’s worth the cars.
She’s worth the company.
She’s worth all of it.”
Kaizer’s mouth opened but nothing came out.
“You hurt her once,” I said.
“If you ever breathe in her direction again, I won’t stop at cars, Uncle.
I’ll start with you.
And I won’t be calm about it next time.”
That was the horror of it.
I wasn’t yelling.
I wasn’t losing control.
I was completely in control.
And that terrified him more than anything.
I turned and walked away.
Behind me, the garage burned.
In front of me, the city was dark and waiting.
My hands were shaking.
Not from fear.
From restraint.
From how close I’d come to wrapping my hands around his throat and finishing it.
From how badly I wanted to be at the hospital right now.
I couldn’t go in like this.
Covered in smoke and violence.
She didn’t need that version of me.
She needed the other one.
I drove.
Fast.
Reckless.
I cleaned up in the hospital bathroom.
Washed my face and hands.
My knuckles were raw.
My shirt was still damp.
I stopped at a 24-hour store on the way.
Dark chocolate.
Her favorite.
T he expensive kind with sea salt she liked to pretend was healthy.
2:17 AM.
Third floor.
*Room 312.*
They’d moved her here this afternoon.
More security.
More privacy.
Room 204 was too exposed.
Too easy to get to.
I didn’t go in right away.
I stood outside her window first.
Like I had every night for the last week.
The rain had stopped.
The city was quiet.
Her light was on.
I could see the glow of her phone on her face.
My chest hurt.
Because she was alive.
Because she was here.
Because she was waiting.
I pulled out my phone and typed.
*Are you awake?*
I held the screen up to the glass.
She looked up.
Her eyes went wide.
Then soft.
She shook her head.
No.
God.
All the fire from the garage.
All the rage.
Gone in one second.
Replaced with something heavier.
Need.
*I’m here.*
Thirty seconds later the door opened.
The night nurse looked exhausted but she let me in.
Everyone knew who I was now.
And there was Jay.
Sitting up in bed.
Blanket pulled to her chest.
Hair a mess.
She looked small.
She looked tired.
She looked like mine.
The moment I saw her, my aura shifted.
The darkness didn’t disappear.
It changed shape.
From rage to protection.
From fire to shelter.
This was the side of me only she ever got to see.
“Hey,” I said.
My voice came out rough.
“You’re soaked,” she said, looking me over.
“It rained,” I answered.
“Are you hurt?” she asked immediately.
She noticed my knuckles.
I sat in the chair beside her bed.
Close.
Too close.
I set the chocolate on the table.
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Liar,” she said with a small smile.
It hit me right in the chest.
The room was quiet except for the monitors.
I wanted to touch her.
To check every inch of her and make sure she was okay.
But not yet.
She was still healing.
Instead I reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from her face.
My fingers lingered at her temple.
She didn’t pull away.
“Did Kegan come?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said.
“And Keiran.
He’s nine, right?
He talks so much.”
A soft laugh escaped her.
“He does,” I said.
My thumb brushed her cheekbone.
Just once.
Her breath caught.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner,” I said.
“Where were you?” she asked.
I could lie.
I should.
But not to her.
“Taking care of something,” I said.
“Something that hurt you.”
Her eyes searched mine.
She knew I was holding back.
“Keifer…” she started.
“Shh,” I cut her off gently.
“It’s done.
No one is going to touch you again.
Not while I’m alive.”
It wasn’t sweet.
It wasn’t soft.
It was a vow.
Dark and absolute.
And she heard it that way.
She nodded slowly.
“Okay,” she whispered.
Silence.
But it was good.
The kind that comes after a storm.
I stood up.
She needed to rest.
But as I turned, her small hand caught my wrist.
“Stay,” she said.
“Five more minutes?”
My aura cracked right down the middle.
The man who had just burned six cars and threatened his uncle
“Yeah.
Okay,” I said.
I sat back down.
She shifted, making a little space on the bed.
Not much.
I didn’t get in.
I stayed in the chair.
But I let my hand rest next to hers on the blanket.
Our pinkies brushed.
“Sleep,” I said.
“Will you still be here when I wake up?” she asked.
“Always,” I answered.
No hesitation.
She closed her eyes.
I watched her.
The way her lashes fell against her cheeks.
The way her breathing evened out.
The way the tension finally left her shoulders.
After about ten minutes, the nurse came back in to check her vitals.
She looked at me, then at Jay, then back at me.
“You can stay,” she said quietly.
“But try to keep it down.”
I nodded.
When she left, I shifted the chair closer.
Close enough that if Jay moved in her sleep, her hand would find mine.
I didn’t plan to stay all night.
But at 3:40 AM, I was still there.
At 4:20 AM, my head dropped and I let myself rest for the first time in days.
Not because the threat was gone.
It wasn’t.
Kaizer was still out there.
But because she was here.
And I was here.
And for tonight, that was enough.
Outside, the city was still burning.
Inside, the only fire that mattered was the one she started in me.
And I was going to spend the rest of my life making sure no one ever tried to put it out.
Aftermath
Keifer POV
4:47 AM.
The hospital was quiet.
Too quiet.
Jay was half asleep now.
Finally.
Her hand was still next to mine on the blanket.
Our pinkies had brushed earlier and now her fingers were resting an inch from mine, like she was making sure I didn’t disappear.
I shouldn’t have stayed.
But I couldn’t leave.
Not when the last thing I did tonight was burn a garage and put my uncle’s entire career on a timer.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Then it buzzed again.
I slipped out to the hallway so I wouldn’t wake her.
*Unknown: I see you *
My blood went cold.
I looked down the hall.
Empty.
Looked out the window at the parking lot.
Across the street.
A black SUV.
Tinted windows.
Parked.
Engine off.
And in the driver’s seat…
a shadow.
Kaizer
Of course he would come.
Of course he wouldn’t let it go.
My aura shifted back instantly.
The soft man who just brushed hair from Jay’s face was gone.
The dark one was back.
I texted security.
*”South entrance.
Black SUV.
Don’t approach.
Just watch.”*
Then I walked back into Room 312.
Jay stirred the second I sat down.
“Keifer?” she mumbled, voice all sleepy and rough.
“I’m here,” I said immediately.
She cracked one eye open and looked at me.
Hair everywhere.
Blanket to her chin.
Shirt damp from the rain still.
“You look like you fought a war,” she said.
A small laugh.
It hit me in the chest.
“Something like that,” I said.
“Are you okay?” she asked, studying my face.
“Are you?” I countered.
She rolled her eyes and smiled.
“I’m in a hospital bed and a CEO is glaring at everyone like he owns the place.
I’m fantastic.”
I leaned back in the chair.
Close enough that my knee brushed the bed.
“Don’t get used to it,” I said.
“Too late,” she whispered.
“You’re already terrible at leaving.”
She paused.
Then her gaze dropped to my knuckles.
Raw.
“Did you hurt someone?”
The room went quiet.
I could lie.
“I handled it,” I said instead.
Low.
Her breath caught.
She didn’t look scared.
She looked…
curious.
“You’re dangerous when you’re like this,” she said softly.
“I know,” I answered.
She laughed again.
Quiet.
Tired.
But real.
And God, that sound.
After the fire and the threats, that laugh was the only thing that made me feel human.
“Come closer,” she said suddenly.
I didn’t move.
“Keifer,” she said.
My name on her lips, sleepy.
“Closer.”
I shifted the chair.
Now my arm was resting on the edge of her bed.
Close enough that I could smell her shampoo.
Close enough that if she moved an inch, she’d be touching me.
“Better?” I asked.
She nodded and smiled.
“You’re warm.”
Even though my shirt was still damp.
We talked.
Stupid things.
Quiet things.
About the nurses who kept checking on her every 10 minutes.
About how the chocolate on the table was probably illegal in hospitals.
About anything that wasn’t the garage.
She laughed again.
And then her eyes drifted shut.
But I didn’t.
I watched the window.
I watched the door.
I watched her.
Let him watch from the car.
Let him see that I’m not going anywhere.
That she’s not going anywhere.
*_You touched what’s mine, Uncle.
Now you get to watch me protect what’s mine._*
— hello my cupcakes.
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I am upset will all of u.
I say everytime to comment but u don’t comment and that’s not fair right.
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