Chapter 605: Those Men Are for You

Naomi’s body stiffened instinctively, every muscle locking tight as the harsh vibrations of the encrypted handset hummed against her ribs.

The lingering shadow of her marriage, the suffocating weight of the Mercer family, and the ghost of her former life threatened to drag her back into paralyzing dread.

Yet Alex’s grip on the curve of her hip only tightened, his fingers pressing into her flesh with quiet, absolute possession that anchored her firmly against his lap.

"Answer it," Alex ordered softly. His voice was a low, velvet murmur against the shell of her ear, laced with an edge of dangerous amusement.

"Put it on speaker, Naomi. Let us hear what your devoted husband has to say."

Swallowing the parched dryness in her throat, Naomi reached into the inner pocket of her blazer with trembling fingers.

Her knuckles brushed against the cold casing of the handset before she slid it into the open air.

The harsh screen flared to life, its cold glow briefly illuminating their intertwined frames against the muted backdrop of the otherwise quiet executive office.

A single name flashed with relentless urgency: KARL.

Taking a shuddering breath, Naomi tapped the green icon and switched the call to speaker.

Karl’s voice instantly ripped through the receiver. It was sharp, raspy, and vibrating with frantic, breathless excitement.

"Naomi! Report!" he barked, the muffled scream of wind and rushing city traffic bleeding through the background. "The sniper confirmed a clean breach through the observation glass. Is Hale down? Did you secure the signed ownership transfer for 14 Central?"

Sitting flush against Alex’s hard thighs, Naomi felt his other hand glide slowly up her spine. His calloused fingertips traced the sensitive dips between her vertebrae through the thin fabric of her silk blouse, sending sudden waves of scorching heat straight down to her core.

Alex dipped his head, his teeth lightly grazing the tender curve where her neck met her shoulder, silently daring her to lose her composure with the microphone hovering between them.

Naomi squeezed her eyes shut, fighting with every ounce of her cultivation to suppress the ragged, breathless whimper clawing at the back of her throat. Her knuckles turned white around the phone as she forced her vocal cords to steady, adopting the flat, clipped cadence of a veteran operative.

"Yes, Karl," she managed to say, her voice carrying a fragile, hoarse edge that mimicked sheer shock. "The target is down. The round caught him directly in the chest. Center mass."

A split-second of dead silence hung over the line, followed immediately by Karl’s loud, manic bark of laughter. The sound was deafening, dripping with ugly, venomous triumph.

"I knew it!" Karl roared, slamming his hand against something metallic in the background.

"That arrogant, lowborn bastard really thought he could stroll into the Central Corridor and push the Mercers around! He thought he was untouchable! Just another dead fool with a hole through his heart."

Karl’s laughter died down, replaced by the heavy, hurried sound of leather boots marching across polished stone.

"What about the documents?" he demanded, his tone hardening. "Did he sign them?"

Alex shifted his weight beneath her, his hand sliding around to the front of her waist to pull her even tighter against his chest. His thumb pressed deliberate, circular strokes into the bare skin exposed above her waistband, an agonizingly slow distraction that left her trembling violently in his hold.

Naomi dug her free fingernails into Alex’s shoulder to ground herself, fighting for enough breath to answer.

"They’re... on the desk," she said, each word a desperate battle against her unraveling senses.

"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" Karl laughed, the sound loud, manic, and practically vibrating through the small speaker. In the background, the heavy, rhythmic thud of combat boots echoed off the lobby marble.

"You truly outdid yourself, Naomi. You deserve a reward for such flawless execution... and guess what? I’m coming to you as fast as I can to deliver just that."

As his breathless laughter faded, his tone curdled into something greasy, dark, and venomously petty.

A prickle of cold unease crawled down Naomi’s spine. The strange, mocking lilt in his voice set off every trained instinct she possessed, instantly shattering any illusion of a routine extraction.

Her brow furrowed, her knuckles tightening around the handset.

"What?" she asked, her voice tight with growing suspicion. "What do you mean?"

A low, patronizing chuckle crackled over the line, heavy with sickening malice.

"You still don’t understand, my dear Naomi... how delightfully naive of you," Karl drawled, savoring every syllable. "Who do you think I brought an entire strike team for? Do you honestly believe I assembled the family’s best armed enforcers just to bag a dead man’s corpse? For that pathetic bastard?"

He paused, his voice dropping into a smooth, venomous purr that turned the air in the office to ice.

"These men are for you, my darling."

Naomi froze, the breath ripping straight out of her lungs.

"Karl..." The word died in her throat, a cold shock seizing her chest.

"Did you honestly think I was blind?" Karl sneered, his mask slipping completely, exposing the rotting spite underneath.

"Did you think I didn’t see how eager you were to take these meetings? How you looked at him? How you practically threw yourself into his arms? You thought you could crawl back to my bed after playing the whore to another man just to close a deal?"

He let out a cruel, mocking snicker that sounded almost unhinged.

"The Mercers don’t keep soiled tools, Naomi, and I certainly don’t keep unfaithful wives. You were never meant to walk out of that tower alive. When we get up there, the boys are going to put you down right next to him. Consider it your final service to the family."

Naomi’s eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock. Her mind spun into total chaos, her thoughts crashing against one another like a shattered mirror.

"Karl, I did everything you asked—"

"Shut up!" he hissed venomously, cutting her off like a lash. "How could I ever take you back after everything? A used, tainted whore who let another man put his hands on her just to close a deal? You’ve been classified as a compromised variable by Mercers... an unacceptable risk to the family."

A cruel, vicious chuckle crackled through the speaker, distorted by the hum of the ascending express elevator shaft.

?"So here is my advice, darling — run. Run as far and as fast as those pretty legs can carry you. You only have a few precious breaths left."

Karl’s laughter swelled into a loud, manic roar that violently shook the tiny speaker, filling the otherwise quiet office with sickening malice before the line abruptly clicked dead.

The phone slipped from Naomi’s numb fingers, dropping onto the plush carpet with a dull thud.

She sat frozen on Alex’s lap, completely paralyzed. Her wide, haunted eyes stared blankly into the shadows, flashing with a rapid, blinding cascade of memories.

She remembered years of loyalty. Every mission she had executed in the dark, every blood-soaked favor she had pulled for Karl’s advancement within the Mercer syndicate, every humiliating order she had obeyed to preserve their standing. She had endured his coldness, his pathetic insecurities, his manipulation — all under the illusion of duty and a shared survival.

And from the very beginning, he had never intended to let her walk out of this tower alive.

She wasn’t an operative to him. She was disposable bait, an expendable pawn wrapped in a tailored skirt, discarded the second the objective was secured.

A profound, sickening humiliation threatened to swallow her whole.

"You look surprised, Mrs. Shaw," a deep, untroubled voice broke through her spiraling thoughts.

Naomi slowly turned her gaze down toward Alex.

He hadn’t flinched. His dark eyes remained completely calm, devoid of shock, radiating an amused, predatory wisdom. His lips curved into a faint, knowing smirk as he looked up into her shattered expression.

"You... you knew?" her voice cracked, barely a whisper. "You knew he was going to kill me?"

"Of course I did," Alex murmured, his hand gently rising to cup her jaw, his thumb stroking her burning cheek with unhurried tenderness. "A weak, cowardly dog never shares a bone. Karl Mercer is a creature driven entirely by vanity and fear. A man like that could never stomach a wife who possessed more strength than him... especially one who spent hours writhing on another man’s lap."

His words pierced straight through her despair, stripping away the blinding fog of betrayal and laying bare the raw, brutal reality of her existence.

Karl had never loved her. Karl had never respected her. He had only feared her, used her, and plotted to butcher her the moment her usefulness ran dry.

Something inside Naomi snapped.

The paralyzing shock dissolved in an instant, burning away into an incandescent, untamed fury. The heavy guilt that had suffocated her chest since stepping into this tower vanished, leaving behind a clean, terrifying void of pure liberation.