Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 144 Christian had been hunched over the dining table for more than two hours, poring over the files Alex had pulled from Elise's computer. Hard drives, printed emails, passwords and logins, chat backups, screenshots of bank transfers-a mountain of data spread before us like the pieces of some dark, intricate puzzle. "Found anything?" I asked, walking over with two steaming mugs of coffee. He exhaled heavily, running a hand through his hair, the exhaustion written all over his face. The dark circles under his eyes said it all-he hadn't slept much, if at all. "Aside from the obvious?

Not much," he admitted, taking the cup from me and sipping. "There are a lot of exchanges with Francesca-some of them a little too personal-plus a few suspicious transfers and Euradian contacts I don't recognize. But nothing that's an outright confession. Nothing we can use in court, at least not yet? I picked up one of the printed emails, scanning the dense text filled with technical jargon and business references. Some of the names looked familiar, but I couldn't quite connect the dots. "So what now?" I asked, frustration tightening my chest.

"I'll hand everything to the Kensington IT division," Christian said, methodically sorting the documents into neat piles. "They have forensic tools that can go deeper-recover deleted files, trace IPs, analyze metadata. That kind of digital digging is out of my league." A chill ran down my spine at the thought of bringing more people into this. Even Kensington employees made me uneasy. "Are you absolutely sure you can trust them?" I pressed, unable to hide the worry in my voice. Christian froze mid-motion, then met my eyes. His expression was calm, steady-unflinchingly certain.

"There are a few people I can trust completely," he said firmly. "People who've been with the family for decades, handpicked by Joseph himself when he still ran things. They've proven their loyalty time and again. Not everyone in the company, of course-but a few. And those few, I trust without hesitation." I nodded slowly, trying to silence the paranoia clawing at the back of my mind. Every decision, every face, every sound outside the window felt like a potential threat. "How about we go out for dinner?" Christian suggested suddenly, closing the laptop with a decisive click.

small slice of peace, sounded like exactly what we needed. "Perfect," I agreed

way his jaw was set. "I'm being cautious," he corrected evenly. "There's a difference. After everything, it would be reckless not to be." "Christian, we can't live

in time to see the blinding headlight tearing toward us-too fast, too direct, swerving off the street and onto the sidewalk. Everything happened both in slow motion and

fuel filled my lungs. "My God," I gasped, my heart pounding so violently it felt like it was trying to break out of my chest. Christian held me tight, his arms trembling from the rush of adrenaline and barely restrained fury. The tension radiating off him was almost tangible-hot, volatile, and on the edge of snapping. "That's it," he said, his voice low and dangerously

was probably drunk, or high, or-" "An accident?" he cut in sharply, his blue eyes flashing with a fury that made my stomach drop. "The same kind of 'accident' that nearly killed me?" I swallowed hard, feeling the