Chapter Thirty-Three
LUKE
The past few days had stripped everything down to its bones. The days after Darren Langley’s body surfaced moved faster than anything I’d ever seen in Blackwood.
Investigations inside corporations our size usually crawled through years of procedure and legal maneuvering before anything visible happened.
This one didn’t.
Federal agents had a body now. They had Darren’s documents from the storage unit. And suddenly, the quiet war that had lived beneath the surface of both King Enterprises and Dunn Industries was spilling into daylight.
For several minutes, neither Mila nor I spoke as we sat together on the arena’s roof beneath the stars. Mila’s silver star pendant blinked in the moonlight, a quiet reminder of the promise I’d made to her in what felt like another lifetime.
Her eyes held mine a second longer than usual, long enough that I knew she felt that thread that tied us together.
The air on the roof had gone still, the ocean somewhere beyond the arena breathing in the distance. The stars stretched wide above us, cold and bright against the black sky.
My attention dropped to her mouth. Then back to her eyes. I gave her the space to stop it if she wanted. Space, in case she needed it—even from me.
She didn’t. So I kissed her.
The moment our mouths met, something inside my chest snapped tight. It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t careful. The need for her locked in just as hard. My hand threaded into her thick, long hair, holding her there as she grabbed the front of my hoodie and pulled me closer.
That single movement lit every nerve I had.
Her breath caught against my mouth, and the sound went straight through me. Desire tangled with something heavier—relief, maybe. Or the realization that after everything we’d torn apart around us, she was still here. Still choosing this. Still choosing me.
I kissed her harder before I could stop myself.
Her body pressed into mine, warm through the cool night air, and the familiar rush flashed through me. The same pull I’d been fighting since the moment she came back to Blackwood. The one I’d never actually stood a chance against.
When I finally drew back, our foreheads stayed together, both of us breathing harder than we should have been.
I kissed her again. Slower this time. My hand cupped the back of her neck as her fingers gripped my hoodie again, pulling me down until there wasn’t an inch of space left between us.
The world beyond the roof disappeared for a while. No school. No families. No history clawing at both of us.
Just her.
Then my phone vibrated in my pocket, and the moment snapped apart. We broke away reluctantly. Mila leaned back slightly, her lips flushed, breathing uneven as she looked up at me.
Mila sighed then asked, “Do you need to get that?”
I pulled the phone from my pocket, the screen lit with Marcus’s name, which locked in my focus.
Mila shifted slightly beside me, noticing the change in my posture. “You should answer.”
I swiped across the screen. “King.”
Marcus didn’t waste time with greetings. “Investigators finished processing the documents from the storage unit.”
“Already?”
“They moved faster than expected once the body was identified.”
I glanced at Mila. She watched me closely, tension already tightening the line of her shoulders. I tapped the screen and switched the call to speaker.
“You’re on speaker. Mila’s here with me,” I told him.
A brief pause followed. “Good,” Marcus replied. “You both need to hear this. They’ve verified financial records. Encrypted files. Internal communications.”
My jaw clenched. “Connected to King Enterprises?”
“Yes,” Marcus confirmed. “And Dunn Industries.”
Mila’s hand slid instinctively into mine. I closed my fingers around hers.
A shooting star blazed across the midnight sky.
Marcus continued. “Darren wasn’t simply an executive who stumbled into something he shouldn’t have seen. Years ago, he was placed inside King Enterprises deliberately.”
“Placed by who?” Mila asked.
“Victor Langley.”
The name hung between us.
Marcus continued before either of us could respond. “Victor Langley operates as one of Dunn’s primary strategists. Most of his influence sits behind the scenes, but his network extends through several corporate structures tied to Dunn Industries.”
“So Darren was planted as a spy,” I concluded.
“Originally,” Marcus confirmed.
The wind shifted, bringing with it the briny scent of the ocean.
“But something changed.”
Not something. Someone. Adriana. I knew how powerful a woman was to make even the darkest soul want to be better. My bet was Adriana had been that to Darren.
“How?” Mila asked.
“Darren dug deeper than Langley expected. The records he accessed didn’t just expose financial manipulation inside King Enterprises. They revealed the same activity happening across Dunn’s offshore accounts.”
Mila’s grip tightened around my hand.
This wasn’t news to me, but to Darren, maybe it was. “He realized both sides were dirty.”
“Yes.” Marcus’s voice remained steady.
“At some point, Darren stopped collecting information for Dunn. Instead, he began documenting everything.”
“Everything?” I asked.
“Shell companies. Offshore transfers. Internal communications. Laundered funds moving between both corporations.”
The scope of it clicked into place. “He built a case,” I muttered.
“That appears to be exactly what he was doing,” Marcus replied.
Mila stared out across the horizon toward the dark ocean. “He was trying to expose them.”
“Correct.”
The quiet around us deepened. “And that’s why he was killed,” she continued softly.
Marcus didn’t answer immediately. “That is the conclusion investigators are reaching.”
My jaw flexed. “What about Lorne?”
“They have enough financial records tying him directly to the laundering operation Darren uncovered.”
Mila turned toward me slightly.
Marcus continued. “With Darren’s body recovered and the documents verified, prosecutors now have leverage.”
“What kind of leverage?” I asked.
“Enough to formally charge Lorne in connection with Darren’s murder.”
The words landed heavily. The ocean rolled quietly beneath the dark horizon.
“And Dunn?” I asked.
“That investigation is expanding,” Marcus answered. “The financial trail runs directly through several offshore structures tied to Dunn Industries.”
“What about Victor Langley?”
“He’s now very much on the federal radar. But he may have slipped the country.”
The implications stretched farther than either of us expected when this started.
“How soon does this move forward?” I asked.
Marcus exhaled slowly. “Sooner than anyone inside those companies would prefer.”
Silence followed.
Then Marcus’s voice softened slightly. “You two should be careful.”
“This investigation is about to make a lot of powerful people nervous.”
“I’m aware.” That wasn’t anything new for us.
“I figured you would be.”
The line briefly went quiet. “Keep me updated if anything changes on your side.”
“I will.”
The call ended.
For a while, neither Mila nor I spoke. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer, pressing a kiss lightly into her hair.
“We’ve dealt with enough of their mess. It’s time we build something that’s ours.”
She peered up at me. The wind lifted strands of her hair across her cheek. I brushed them away from her cheek.
Her gaze softened slightly. “I love that. It’s our time—finally.”
Later that evening, I pulled into the driveway at home.
The house stood quiet against the dark sky. Inside, the tension that had lived here for weeks still hung in the air.
I crossed the foyer and moved toward my father’s office. That was when I noticed Drew standing near the study door. He leaned casually against the wall, arms folded, his expression unreadable.
His gaze lifted when he saw me. Several seconds passed as he studied my expression. “You heard.”
It wasn’t a question. “Marcus confirmed it tonight,” I replied.
Drew said nothing.
“You expected this?” I asked.
His attention shifted briefly toward the dark hallway. “It was always going to end this way.” The tone carried no surprise, only quiet acceptance.
I studied him carefully. “You’re not angry.”
Drew’s mouth curved slightly. “Anger doesn’t change outcomes.”
The calm in his voice felt strange against the chaos unfolding around the company.
Drew shrugged lightly, the movement small. “Dad’s furious, obviously. The board’s nervous. There have been a lot of arguments over the last few days.” His gaze flicked toward the study door. “Mom’s stepped in more than once to keep those conversations from turning into something worse.”
That I could picture. “What happens now?”
Drew exhaled slowly. “Now we rebuild.”
The words landed quietly between us.
“Lorne’s mess doesn’t define the company unless we let it.
There’s a lot to clean up. Internal audits.
New oversight. A few people who won’t be staying once everything settles.
” He leaned back slightly against the wall.
“This time around,” he added, almost to himself, “I want to build something better out of it. Something the family name doesn’t have to hide behind. ”
His eyes met mine again. “Something worth being proud of.”
Neither of us spoke. Then Drew tilted his head slightly. “You and Mila okay?” he asked.
The question was unexpected. “Yes.”
A faint nod. “Good.” Silence hung between us. Then Drew pushed away from the wall. “Some wars end long after the first shot.”
Before I could respond, he turned and walked toward the staircase. I watched him disappear down the corridor, something about the conversation sitting oddly in the back of my mind. Not wrong. Just… incomplete.
Later that night, after Mila and I’d messaged back and forth, neither of us able to sleep, I picked her up, and we spread our blanket in the sand.
The waves rolled back and forth against the shoreline in a steady rhythm, the sky stretching wide overhead.
She shifted closer as the tide rolled in.
I tightened my hold without looking down. Some things in my life had always been complicated. My need for Mila was the only thing that never changed.
I eased back onto the blanket and drew her down with me. She rested against my chest, her head resting lightly against my shoulder.
For the first time since this entire investigation began, the truth had started surfacing. Darren hadn’t died for nothing. The system he tried to expose was finally cracking open.
But that fight didn’t belong to us anymore.
My fingers threaded slowly through Mila’s as I looked out over the dark water. The fallout inside those companies would keep unfolding long after we left for college. Lawyers, investigators, boards of directors—all of them would spend years sorting through the wreckage.
None of that was our life. Michigan was. The future waiting beyond Blackwood was.
And now, with Mila back in my life, I could finally see a path forward that didn’t involve looking over our shoulders.
The rest of them could deal with the ruins. We were leaving after graduation.
The thought lingered quietly in my chest as I glanced at her.
Somewhere between the chaos and the secrets and the war our families had built around us, Mila had become the one thing that made any of it worth surviving.
I brushed my thumb across the back of her hand, grounding myself in the warmth of her fingers threaded through mine.
Above us, the stars burned quietly across the sky. A thousand silent witnesses.
With Mila beside me, the ground beneath my life felt steady, and the future didn’t feel like something waiting to collapse. It felt like something we were finally allowed to build. Together.