15 Bc
Julian’s Savage Reckoning
-Julian-
The heavy double doors of my private office didn’t just close; they seemed to vibrate with the lingering echo of Sam’s rage.
I stood by the floor-to-ceiling glass, my eyes locked on the rain running down the pane, but I wasn’t seeing the Manhattan skyline. I was seeing Katia’s face. The split lip. The bruised cheek. The mental image of Jude Wolfe’s hand connecting violentl with her skin made a hot, suffocating wave of pure, primitive madness surge through my chest.
He had touched her. He had put his heavy, abusive hands on my wife, and then he had used my son-my blood-to force her into silence.
The beast in my chest wasn’t just screaming anymore; it had gone completely silent, compressing its rage into a freezing focu
Zane had walked out, shrugging, leaving me alone in the quiet office. I didn’t throw a corporate tantrum. I didn’t smash the crystal decanters on my desk. I slowly reached into my pocket, pulled out my encrypted black phone, and dialed a secure, unlisted number that bypassed the standard WEG security infrastructure entirely. This was the line for my personal shadow detail-military-grade contractors who handled high-risk asset protection and tactical containment.
“Windsor,” I rasped, my voice sounding like iron sliding over stone.
“Sir,” the voice on the other end answered instantly.
“Jude Wolfe,” I said, my breathing slow and deliberate. “He is currently leaving the NYPD precinct or heading back to his penthouse at the Whitmore. He has four personal British bodyguards. I want him neutralized and taken. No noise. No public footprint. Bring him to the Brooklyn shipyard warehouse.”
“Understood, sir. We are already tracking his convoy’s GPS. Execution will take less than twenty minutes.”
“Make it clean,” I commanded, and hung up.
I walked to my desk, picked up a roll of white medical tape, and slowly began wrapping my knuckles.
I took my time. The shhh-t of the tape tearing was the only sound inside the quiet office. I stretched the fabric tight over my skin, feeling the stiff, dry ache in my palms. My face had settled into a completely blank, frozen wall of stone. Jude Wolte had played his games. He had used the law, the press, and my child to build a fortress around his fraud.
But he had forgotten that I don’t play by the rules of the corporate ledger when my territory is breached.
The private underground executive garage of the Whitmore Hotel was silent, smelling of damp concrete and expessive exhaust
Jude’s four bodyguards stood near the idling silver Porsche and the backup black SUV, their postures telked, theu hands in their pockets. They believed New York was a civilized market. They believed the NYPD “misunderstanding” statement bad cleared the board, and they were preparing to escort their employer to a private airfield to escape back to London
The service elevator clicked open.
Jude stepped out, his silk robe replaced by a dark, tailored three piece suit, his head slightly tited back to ease the throb of the cut at the base of his skull Alistair walked beside him, holding his tablet, reviewing the thight plan
“The jet is fueled and cleared for a ten forty departure, sir.” Alistat said
Before Jude couid answer, the overhead halogen lights of the executive garage went pitch black
The sudden, absolute darkness was instantaneous, accompanied by the high frequency hum of a portable signal jammer
“Security!” Alistair shouted, his voice cracking with a sudden, sharp panic
Jude’s bodyguards moved instantly, their hands reaching inside the repacks 6 for their sidearms but they were already blind The Windsor tactical team didn’t use warning sens, and they dido sue corporal commands. They moved thingh the dark
+15 Bo
with night-vision optics, silent, fast, and lethal.
The sharp thwip-thwip of suppressed pneumatic taser darts echoed in the concrete garage.
Two of Jude’s guards went down instantly, their bodies convulsing violently as fifty thousand volts of electricity seized their nervous systems. The third guard tried to draw his weapon, but a shadow materialized from the darkness behind him-a sweeping, heavy forearm strike to his throat that cut off his air, followed by a violent, close-quarters elbow to his temple that sent him crashing senselessly onto the concrete.
“Alistair!” Jude whistled through his wired jaw, his voice shaking as he stumbled back against the hood of the Porsche.
Alistair was already pinned against the wall, a heavy zip-tie locking his wrists behind his back, a gloved hand firmly covering his mouth to suppress his screams.
The fourth guard managed to clear his holster, but he never got the chance to aim. A tactical boot heel slammed into his knee, fracturing the joint with a sickening crack, and before he could yell, a heavy, gloxed fist smashed into his jaw, knocking him unconscious before his body hit the oil-stained ground.
Jude turned to run back toward the service elevator, his hands clawing at the concrete wall for balance, but the doors were already blocked by a towering, dark silhouette.
He didn’t even see the hand that grabbed him.
A heavy, chemically treated cloth was pressed violently over his nose and mouth. Jude thrashed, his fingers scratching frantically at the tactical vest of the operator holding him, but the high-grade anesthetic did its work in seconds. His knees buckled, his good eye rolling back into his head as his hundred-and-ninety-pound frame went completely limp.
They pulled a dark, heavy utility bag over his head, loaded his senseless body into the back of a blacked-out transport van, and drove out of the garage before the hotel’s backup generators could even flicker back to life.
The entire extraction had taken exactly ninety-four seconds.
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Savage
Julian’s POV-
The abandoned WEG shipyard warehouse in Brooklyn smelled of salt, rusted iron, and fifty years of stagnant oil.
It was freezing inside. The rain from the harbor was hitting the corrugated steel roof in a heavy, deafening roar, but the s was distant, blocked out by the massive, cavernous silence of the concrete floor. In the center of the dark space, hanging single, frayed black wire, a high-intensity halogen bulb cast a harsh, stark cone of white light onto the damp concrete. Directly beneath the light, tied to a heavy steel industrial chair with thick, reinforced zip ties, was Jude Wolfe.
He was barely conscious. His head was slumped forward, a thin, dark trail of fresh blood dripping from his nose onto the t fabric of his silk shirt. His face was already a ruined, swollen mask of plum colored bruising from the penthouse siege, bu fresh laceration at the back of his skull-courtesy of Sam’s fire extinguisher-had been crudely bandaged with a piece of utility tape to keep him from bleeding out before I was done with him.
I stood in the deep shadows just beyond the light, slowly wrapping the last layer of white tape over my knuckles.
The shhh-t of the tape tearing was the only sound inside the warehouse. I kept my movements slow, stretching the fabric over my skin, feeling the stiff, dry ache in my palms. My face was settled into a completely blank, frozen wall of stone. Insi chest, the nuclear, primitive rage had settled, compressing itself into a cold, clinical focus.
Jude let out a wet, rattling wheeze through his wired jaw. His head slowly lifted, his single good eye blinking rapidly agains harsh glare of the halogen bulb. He looked around the vast, dark, empty warehouse, his breathing instantly turning shallov frantic as the reality of his abduction registered.
He didn’t see me yet. I was nothing but a towering, silent silhouette in the dark.
“Windsor,” Jude whistled through his teeth, his British accent sounding wet and hollow behind the wire mesh. He tried to p his arms, but the steel zip ties bit deep into his wrists, cutting off the circulation. “Windsor, you… you are completely out of y mind. This is kidnapping. This is federal-”
I didn’t answer.
I stepped into the light.
I didn’t offer a corporate explanation, and I didn’t issue a warning. I crossed the ten feet of concrete in two long, heavy strides my boot-heels silent against the damp ground. I grabbed Jude by his styled dark hair, yanked his head back until his spine popped against the steel chair, and hit him.
Crack.
1
The sound of my taped fist connecting violently with his cheek was deateningly loud. It was a raw, full weight strike that cartie the entire force of my back and shoulders. Jude’s head snapped violently to the side, a spray of dark blood and saliva splashing onto the cold concrete.
Before he could even catch his breath, I grabbed his throat, my fingers digging deep into his windpipe, cutting off his ar completely, and drove my left fist viraight into his ribs
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.

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