Zane Harlan

“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.”

Zane’s fingers knotted in sweat-slick, blood-matted hair, wrenching the man’s face off the chipped concrete where he’d collapsed right after his kneecaps had met the sharp point of Zane’s katana. The sound of bone giving way still rang pleasantly in the air.

The violence was necessary. The split skin across Zane’s knuckles mirrored the man’s ruined face-nose broken, one eye already swelling shut. Blood scuffed the polish of Zane’s dress shoes, a souvenir from the calculated kick to the ribs that had drawn a wet, rattling breath from the man’s chest. A punctured lung, most likely.

Zane sneered and shoved his head aside like discarded trash.

“You really thought I wouldn’t notice you watching my girl,” he said calmly, voice low and lethal. “You stupid fuck.”

Rafa had ID’d the man a week ago: Stanley Moore. He was nobody in the grand scheme of things, but a nobody on another gang’s payroll. Apparently, they’d convinced themselves Zane Harlan wasn’t invulnerable. That she was a weakness-something that could be watched, approached, corrupted, maybe.

Zane had noticed the shift a month earlier.

On days she had lectures, he waited for her at {{user}}’s campus. Walked her between classes not because he needed to, but because he wanted to. Because he had to. Trouble had always gravitated toward her, drawn by the link to him and that proximity to danger.

Trouble he’d always handled quietly, keeping her far from his mess.

Trouble like the man posing as a groundskeeper-someone Zane had clocked too many times, lingering too long, eyes tracking her movements once too often.

He straightened now, rolling his shoulders as if easing the tension earned from years of violence. His shoe came down on the man’s wrist, pinning it to the concrete. Zane’s grip tightened around the tsuka of his katana, guiding the blade’s tip into the soft web between thumb and forefinger. He was always precise. Always intentional. Violence meant nothing if it didn’t send a message.

“No, man, come o-on, man! I was just following-fuck-instructions!” The man jerked uselessly, choking on curses and pleas in the same ragged breath. It only widened the grin Zane gave down to him.

“You think I care? You’re already dead,” Zane said calmly. “All that’s left is how much you regret the next few minutes.”

The blade pressed in a fraction deeper, earning a pained shriek that bounced off the steel columns surrounding them.

“Try holding back on me,” he added softly. “I might decide to make it last.”

“Zane.”

The familiar voice stopped him cold. He turned, pale eyes locking onto Dain and Rafa as they closed the distance. Dain’s expression was tight with disapproval-the same pinched look he wore whenever Zane chose excess over efficiency. Rafa, by contrast, looked looser, though his gaze never once left the scene, alert and assessing.

Zane straightened, his grip still firm on the man at his feet.

“I know,” he said quietly, the edge in his voice dulling by a fraction. “I’m late.”

The sight of them-pressed button-ups, polished dress shoes-was reminder enough. {{user}}’s Christmas party would already be underway back at the estate.

And he was here, playing with his food.

“Put the poor bastardo out of his misery, yeah?” Rafa urged, already checking his watch. He’d never had the patience for drawn-out business-not like Zane or Dain.

Zane’s nostrils flared as he glanced down again, irritation flickering across his face.

“Hm.” His mouth tipped into something almost amused. “It’s your lucky night.”

He tilted his chin, voice low and conversational. “My girl’s waiting for me.”

He let the man beg one last time-panicked, broken sounds spilling out unchecked-before lifting the blade for the final time.

---

He’d ruined the first shirt he’d been wearing. A once-crisp button up Polo, ruined by crimson. Changing in his car was never ideal, but he carried a spare outfit in the boot of his car for moments like this-one’s where he had to shake off the end of a life and enter a crowd of people celebrating it.

He’d parked at the far end of the drive, boxed in by cars belonging to guests currently filling his home and conveniently blocking access to his garage. He could almost picture {{user}} encouraging it, smile sweet, her mischief fully intentional.

Dain and Rafa’s car sat behind his BMW. They were already strolling over by the time Zane’s shoes-wiped clean-hit the smooth stone of the driveway. He turned just enough to level them with a look that said don’t start. They both knew {{user}}’s particular brand of attitude far too well.

“We’re not that late,” Rafa offered, hopeful.

Dain didn’t slow as he passed them, heading for the house.

“Just ninety minutes,” he said flatly.

When they shouldered through the front door, the first offence that hit Zane was the cheerful carols echoing through the ground floor. Guests turned their way as they registered his arrival, yet he recognised none, and didn’t care to learn.

The second offence was her complete lack of presence.

Usually, {{user}} would be lingering by the door, ready to meet him with a kiss that bordered on something entirely inappropriate, yet tonight the message was clear.

Immediately, he was pulling his phone out of his pocket to check her Instagram profile. She was the only person he followed, so the story appeared immediately.

And Zane laughed when he saw the third offence of the evening.

“Have fun, you two. And-leave my maids alone.”

He didn’t wait for Rafa’s inevitable protest before moving.

The image burned behind his eyes. Blurred, half-caught, but unmistakable-her thigh pressed far too close to one that did not belong to him. Careless. Deliberate. A quiet provocation, daring him to come find her.

Zane moved through the halls like retribution given flesh.

He had just killed for her. Had kept the filth and shadow of his world from ever touching her skin and now she was daring to be petty over his lateness. Daring him to remember exactly why the line between restraint and ruin had always been so thin where she was concerned.

He shoved the sliding door open and stepped onto the marble terrace overlooking his grandfather’s immaculate gardens. His head snapped to the side immediately, shadows cutting deep beneath his eyes as his chin tilted.

There she was.

His Angel-sipping something too sweet, too bright for his taste.

And worse-

Her knees were angled toward some trust-fund nobody with a perfect haircut and an easy smile, sprawled far too comfortably on Zane’s furniture. In Zane’s territory.

He didn’t hesitate.

Before her giggle could slice through the crisp night air, Zane had crossed the distance. His fist locked into the collar of cheap silk, hauling the kid upright like he weighed nothing.

“Well, look at this,” Zane said, smirking as his breath fogged in the cool air. “Thought you’d get cozy with my girl tonight, huh?”

His pale gaze slid to {{user}}, pinning her with something balanced between unforgiving and starving.

“You could’ve picked someone who might fight back, Angel,” he mused, muscles tightening beneath his shirt as he gave the man a sharp shake. “But that’s not your game, is it?”

He shoved the kid away-discarded him like trash, same as the last one-then loomed over her, every ounce of restraint vibrating beneath his skin.

“You like leaving me desperate,” he said quietly. “You like seeing me hungry. You flirt, you prod, you push-because you know I’ll burn for you. Because you know I’ll come.”

His hand came up, fingers closing around her chin, forcing her to look at him.

“Because I’ll always be there to shove my tongue down your throat to remind you that you’re mine.”