He Came Back Running (Maya and Mason) novel Chapter 190

Chapter 190

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Chapter 190

Mason’s POV

She studied me the way people studied things they weren’t certain about.

Not from weakness…. Zara Collins was not a weak person, and the weeks since the wedding had stripped away whatever performance she had been running when she arrived in this city. What was left was something more honest: a woman who had been cornered by her own choices and was deciding which remaining option produced the least damage.

I let her study me….. I had nothing to hide in this room.

Or rather, I had many things to hide, but none of them from Zara, who was in possession of the same information I was and had the same reasons I had for keeping it contained.

Mutual leverage

The cleanest kind.

“So what exactly is your plan?” she said.

“Killing Alex almost got us both caught,” I said.

She looked at me…..

“Another attempt at violence would produce more police attention than either of us can currently absorb, “I said.

“Reeves has Maya’s investigation. He has Selina’s cooperation. He has the board member’s cooperation. He has Alex, who is awake and who heard things from inside that hospital room that he’s going to put on record in the next forty-eight hours.” I paused. “Violence is done. It has produced nothing except evidence.”

“Then what,” she said.

“We don’t destroy Alex,” I said.

She waited….

“We destroy what he has with Maya.”

I watched her receive this.

“If we can make Alex question her,” I said, “make him doubt what he thinks he knows about her…. they fall apart on their own. No hands required. No evidence. No surveillance footage.” I looked at her.” Nothing that ends up in a room with a detective.”

“You’ve been trying to make Alex doubt Maya for months,” Zara said. “The photographs were yours too.”

“The fabricated photographs were yours,” I said. “They failed because they were traceable. Carter had the

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Chapter 190

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provenance in thirty-six hours.”

She held my gaze….

“The blog post about the pregnancy was mine,” I said. “It produced temporary disruption. Not enough.” I kept my voice level. “What I’m describing is different from both of those things. Not a story planted in a blog. Not edited photographs. Something that reaches Alex directly. Something that comes from inside the relationship rather than outside it”

She tilted her head slightly

“What are you proposing,” she said.

“I’m proposing we use what we both have,” I said. “You have proximity to Alex…. the history with him, the access his family’s network still gives you because my father’s connections run through people who haven’t been fully severed. I have information.” I paused. “About Maya. About her investigation. About the things she hasn’t told Alex yet because she hasn’t found the right moment or because she’s been managing what he knows for his own protection.”

I held her gaze. “There is no relationship in the world that survives one person managing what the other knows.”

Zara looked at me.

“You want to make it look like she’s been hiding things from him,” she said.

“I want to use the things she has actually been hiding from him,” I said. “Which is more effective. Because when Alex looks into it… and he will look into it, because he’s not a passive person, he’ll find that the information is real. Which means the doubt will be real.” I paused. “Real doubt is harder to argue out of than planted doubt.”

She was quiet for a moment…. I watched her work through it.

Not because I needed her agreement….. I needed her access and her history with Alex’s network, which were separate from her agreement and could be used regardless of whether she chose to engage fully. But her full engagement would accelerate the timeline, and the timeline mattered now that Alex was awake.

“You want Maya,” she said

“I want what, was mine,” I said.

“She told you there was no future between you,” Zara said. “In the hospital corridor. I heard about it.”

“I know what she told me,” I said

“And you’re still…..”

“Yes,” I said.

“Once they separate,” I said, “you can have Alex.” I kept my voice even. “Whatever he is to you…. whatever

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Chapter 190

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the four years were, you have the best chance of reaching him when Maya is no longer the centre of his field of vision. And the only way she stops being the centre is if he makes the choice to step back.”

“He won’t step back because of manufactured doubt,” she said.

“Not manufactured,” I said. “Real. I told you…. real things she has actually been hiding. Real decisions she made without telling him. Real investigations she’s been running that have real implications for his family.” I looked at her. “Real doubt, delivered carefully, from someone he already has some reason to…..”

She looked at me for a long time.

Then she looked at the window

“For now,” she said. “We work together.”

I extended my hand.

She looked at it….

She shook it….

Her grip was firm.

Mine was firmer

We were both already thinking about the day the other became a liability.

That was fine.

That was honest.

The best alliances were the ones where both parties understood the alliance was instrumental…. where no one pretended the shared interest was more durable than it was. What we had in common was a window of time and a shared objective. Beyond the window, we were opponents. Within it, we were useful to each other.

I respected that.

We stood

Crossed the reception area.

Neither of us looked up.

Neither of us noticed the small security camera mounted at the far end of the lobby, angled to cover the seating area, its red indicator light steady and unblinking.

Neither of us noticed.

Which was the only thing, in the next several weeks, that would matter more than the alliance itself.

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