Chased by My Possessive Ex (Dylan) novel Chapter 78

Chapter 78

HUNTER

Pain was the first thing I felt.

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A deep, grinding ache that spread through my abdomen and up my spine, dragging me back into my body whether I wanted to return or not. The steady beep of a monitor followed, slow and mocking, and the sterile scent of antiseptic filled my lungs when I drew a breath.

I opened my eyes, and I was quickly greeted by my familiar ceiling.

My hand moved instinctively to my side-and met thick bandages instead of blood. Good. I was alive. That wasn’t the problem.

“Dylan.” The name tore out of my throat before I could stop it. She’s the last one I was thinking of before I lost consciousness, and she’s the first one that comes out of it as soon as I wake up.

I pushed myself upright, ignoring the sharp protest from my body. Tubes pulled, alarms shifted. Footsteps

rushed in.

“Boss-don’t move,” someone said quickly. One of my men. “You’ve been out for three days.”

Three days.

My head snapped toward him. “Where is she?” I asked when I noticed she wasn’t anywhere in the room.

Silence.

That was all it took.

The room tilted as rage flooded in, hot and violent, burning through the fog of painkillers. I ripped the IV from my arm and swung my legs over the bed.

“Boss, stop-”

“Where,” I growled, “is Dylan?”

No one answered fast enough.

I lost it.

The bedside table went flying across the room, crashing into the wall. A chair followed. Someone tried to grab my arm, and I shoved them back hard enough to make them stumble.

“You were ordered to protect her,” I snarled, chest heaving. “Every second. Every breath. And you’re standing here telling me you lost her?”

“We didn’t lose her, boss,” one of them said carefully. Too carefully. “She left.”

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Chapter 78

That word detonated.

:

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“You’re lying!” I snapped. “She wouldn’t do that-” My voice cut off, jaw clenching. “She wouldn’t…”

“She insisted, boss,” one of my men said quietly, standing at the foot of the bed. “She said Beckett was the only one who could give her answers.”

My jaw tightened.

I’d known she wouldn’t stay still for long. Dylan never did. Not when questions clawed at her like that.

I dragged a hand through my hair, pacing despite the pain screaming in protest. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

“We tried. She threatened to tear the place apart.” A pause. “You told us not to restrain her. Ever.”

I remembered saying it. Remembered meaning it.

And I hated myself for it.

“Did she go alone?” I asked.

“No, we went with her,” another added quickly. “Just like you ordered. We didn’t let her out of our sight.”

I stared at the ceiling, listening but already bracing myself.

“There was a moment,” the first man continued, hesitation creeping into his voice. “Just a few minutes. She went inside the house. She insisted she wanted to talk to him alone. That’s why we stayed outside.”

A mistake.

My fingers curled weakly against the sheets.

“When we realized something was wrong, it was too late,” he said. “The back exit was open. No sign of a struggle. And they were gone.”

Silence fell heavy in the room.

“She left,” someone said carefully. “With Beckett.”

The words landed like a blade straight through my ribs.

I sucked in a breath, sharp and uneven, pain flaring-not from the wound, but from something far worse. Images crashed into me uninvited: Dylan standing between us, torn, confused. The past Beckett shared with her. The life they almost had.

Had I underestimated that pull?

Had she chosen him?

My chest tightened until it was hard to breathe. I turned my head slowly toward them, forcing my voice to be steady. “Search radius?”

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Chapter 78

:

“Already expanded,” they replied. “No leads yet.”

I closed my eyes.

:

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I’d sworn to protect her. To keep her safe-even from herself if I had to. And now she was gone, vanished into the hands of the one man I never trusted near her.

A bitter thought crept in, uninvited and cruel.

What if she didn’t need saving?

What if she went willingly?

The idea hurt more than the bullet ever could.

I swallowed hard, forcing it down. I refused to believe it. Dylan didn’t run toward cages-she broke them. If she’d gone with Beckett, it wasn’t because she chose him.

It was because he’d lied to her.

Used her.

And that was on me.

I pushed against the bed, ignoring the sharp protests from my body. “Find her,” I ordered, voice low but deadly calm. “I don’t care how long it takes or what it costs.”

I swung my legs over the side of the bed before the monitors could finish protesting. Pain ripped through me, white-hot and merciless, but I welcomed it. It kept my head clear. Kept the fear from swallowing me whole.

She didn’t choose him.

I repeated it like a mantra as I forced myself upright.

Beckett was a master manipulator. Always had been. He wrapped control in the language of love, obsession dressed up as protection. I’d seen it years ago, but Dylan was too lovesick to see that Beckett wasn’t a good fit for her. Thinking about her happiness, I let her go and allowed her to be with Beckett. But the moment he decided to choose his ex-girlfriend and their son over Dylan, I took that as a sign that I should take her away from him. This time, it’s for good.

This life might be dangerous and difficult for her. But I’ve seen the life without her, and I’d rather spend every minute of my life protecting her and keeping her out of danger while staying by her side than not having her

at all.

A sharp knock came at the door. One of my men stepped back in, urgency written all over his face. “We found something.”

I looked at him. “Talk.”

“The house they went to-it’s not on any current registry. Off-grid utilities. Old security system, manually reinforced.” His jaw tightened. “It’s the place the madam and Beckett lived after the accident. The one no one

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Chapter 78

knew about.”

My blood ran cold.

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That house had been a ghost even back then. No paper trail. No digital footprint. I’d searched for it once, years ago, and come up empty. I’d assumed Beckett had simply been careful.

I’d been wrong.

“And one more thing, boss,” the man continued, lowering his voice as if the walls themselves might be listening. “It seems like there’s someone helping him. We can’t trace a direct link yet, but the shell company that owns the land… it was once tied to the Velasquez clan.”

The name hit harder than the wound in my gut.

Velasquez.

My jaw locked as memories surfaced-blood-soaked meetings, silk-clad dinners, and the carefully constructed lies I’d lived under their roof. I’d married into that clan to bring it down from the inside, wearing their name like armor while quietly dismantling their empire piece by piece.

They were supposed to be finished.

Burned out, scattered, and leaderless after everything I’d done.

Apparently, I’d underestimated how deep their roots still ran.

“So they survived,” I muttered. “Or at least… parts of them did.”

The Velasquez clan never acted out of loyalty. They traded in leverage. In secrets. In people. If Beckett had managed to get their attention, it meant he’d offered something worth protecting.

Or someone.

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