Trapped By The Coldhearted Billionaire's Game
Cassidy Fox woke up in a freezing, luxurious penthouse that wasn't hers.
Before she could clear her spinning head, ruthless billionaire Jaret Taylor threw a phone onto the bed.
The screen showed an explicit photo of her boyfriend, Burt, tangled in sheets with Jaret's fiancée.
Burt had fled the moment things got complicated, leaving Cassidy behind as a scapegoat to face a monster.
Jaret demanded an eye for an eye.
He trapped her in the room, choked her until she nearly blacked out, and threatened to completely destroy her career if she refused to submit to him.
When she still fought back and escaped, Jaret's men captured Burt and lured her to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of a hurricane.
Burt was tied to a rusted pillar, beaten and sobbing in terror.
He didn't care about what degrading acts Jaret would force her to perform to pay off his debt.
"Cassidy, please, just listen to them! We can figure this out, just don't let them hurt me!"
Cassidy felt a suffocating wave of despair and injustice.
She had risked her life driving through a deadly storm to save the man who had once saved her from drowning, only to realize she was sacrificing herself for a selfish coward who had already betrayed her.
Jaret sat at the poker table, looking at her rain-soaked body with a cruel smirk.
"Every hand I win, you do exactly what we ask. If you manage to win a hand, we cut off one of Burt's fingers."
Looking at the pathetic man begging for his life, Cassidy slowly picked up her cards.
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Chapter 6
The word hung in the air between them, heavy and suffocating.
Cassidy stared at him, her brain struggling to process. Then, anger flared, hot and bright, cutting through the fear.
"Is this another part of your revenge?" she scoffed, pushing at his chest again. "Punishing me for Burt?"
Jaret shook his head slowly. His eyes roamed over her face, down her neck, lingering on the rapid pulse at the base of her throat.
"Punishing that coward is boring," he murmured. "It lacks... creativity."
He reached up, his long fingers tracing the line of her jaw before tipping her chin up. His touch was different tonight—not just brutal, but possessive, almost admiring.
Cassidy slapped his hand away. "I am not a toy for you to play with."
Jaret's smile didn't falter. He turned and walked over to the coffee table, picking up a thick manila folder. He tossed it onto the glass surface in front of her.
Cassidy looked down. The label on the folder read GreenTech - Series A Term Sheet.
Her heart skipped a beat. She opened it, scanning the first page. It was a fully executed investment intent letter, with a staggering amount of money listed. The only blank space was the signature line at the bottom.
"Spend the weekend with me," Jaret said, his voice cutting through her shock. "Sign this on Monday."
Cassidy stared at the paper. It was the lifeline she had been desperately searching for all night. It was the salvation of her company, her job, her future.
Her fingers curled into the fabric of her dress, her knuckles turning white. The internal war raged inside her, tearing her apart.
Jaret watched her struggle, his eyes narrowing. He stepped closer, his voice turning to ice.
"Look at you. You're drowning. You're about to lose your job, your apartment, your reputation. You can't even afford the dress on your back."
Each word was a scalpel, slicing away her armor, exposing the raw, ugly truth of her existence.
Cassidy bit her lip so hard she tasted copper. Her eyes burned, but she forced the tears back. She looked up at him, her jaw set, and shook her head.
"No," she said, her voice firm. "I won't sell myself to you."
Jaret didn't look surprised. He pulled his phone from his pocket, tapping the screen a few times before turning it toward her.
It was a live feed. Downstairs in the bar, Meredith was sitting across from Kade, laughing and clinking glasses. She looked thrilled, completely oblivious to the trap.
"One word from me," Jaret said, his tone casual, "and that meeting ends. And it won't just end. I will make sure you are blacklisted from every firm on Wall Street. You will never work in this city again."
Cassidy stared at the screen. It wasn't just her life on the line. It was the livelihood of her team, the people who depended on her.
"You can't just force someone to be with you," she argued, her voice desperate. "I hate you. This is insane."
Jaret let out a low, dark laugh. "I don't care if you hate me. I just need you to be there."
The admission sent a chill down her spine. This wasn't about Burt anymore. This was something far more twisted. Jaret Taylor was obsessed.
She backed away until her shoulders hit the cold glass of the window. There was nowhere left to run.
Jaret closed the distance, planting both hands on the glass on either side of her head, trapping her in a cage of muscle and fury.
"I'm done negotiating," he said, his voice a low growl. "You are staying. The only question is whether it's by your choice or by force."
Cassidy closed her eyes. She saw the faces of her coworkers. She saw the past-due notices on her desk. She saw the eviction notice on her door.
But then she saw the torn check on the floor of the penthouse. She felt the bruising grip on her neck. If she said yes now, she would be signing away her soul.
She opened her eyes, a fierce determination burning through the fear. She shoved Jaret backward with all her strength.
"No!" she shouted.
She spun toward the door, her hand outstretched for the handle.
Jaret was faster. He didn't grab her hair. He stepped sideways and caught her wrist, using her own momentum to yank her off balance. She stumbled, her shoulder hitting the wall hard, and before she could recover, he had her pinned—one hand flat against the wall beside her head, his body blocking her only exit.
"Every time you run," he said, his voice dangerously quiet, "I will take something you care about. Test me again."
The civilized billionaire was gone. In his place stood a predator whose patience had finally run out.
He didn't give her another ultimatum. He didn't offer another deal.
He hauled her up by the arm, dragging her toward the bedroom door.
Cassidy fought back, her nails scratching at his hand, her feet kicking at the carpet. She reached out, her fingers finding the doorframe, gripping it with everything she had.
"Let me go!" she screamed, her voice hoarse with terror.
But Jaret was immovable. He pulled harder, her grip slipping against the polished wood. She was a leaf caught in a hurricane, about to be swept into the abyss.
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8.6
In my past life, the Cerberus strain leaked, turning the world into a blood-soaked hell of rotting flesh and mutated monsters.
I thought my boyfriend Declan and my best friend Hailee would have my back as we fled the quarantine zone.
Instead, when the surging crowd of the infected cornered us, they didn't hesitate.
They shoved me backward into the horde just to buy themselves three seconds to run.
As I fell into the mud, I saw them fleeing without a single backward glance.
"She's dead weight anyway!" Hailee screamed.
"Just keep running, she'll distract them!" Declan yelled back.
I was torn apart, feeling the agonizing tear of rotting teeth sinking into my neck and the hot spray of my own blood.
Before the apocalypse, my greedy uncle had locked away my ten-million-dollar trust fund, leaving me with nothing but a fake boyfriend who only wanted me for my money.
Until my last breath, I couldn't understand how the people I loved most could trade my life for a head start.
Why did I blindly trust them? Why didn't I see through their perfectly choreographed lies?
Opening my eyes again, the stench of decaying flesh vanished, replaced by the sterile smell of my college dorm room.
Hailee and Declan were standing over my bed, faking tears of concern over my meningitis fever.
I was back exactly seven days before the world ended, and my spatial vault ability had come back with me.
This time, I'm extorting my uncle for every cent, hoarding the city's supplies, and leaving them all to rot.
9.2
Jacqueline Blackburn, a desperate Ivy League tutor, walked into the sleazy Veridian VIP club just to save her job.
But her billionaire client, the ruthless Christian Montgomery, mistook her for a cheap escort, blowing cigar smoke in her face and treating her like trash.
When she furiously turned to leave, a drunk former client attacked her in the hallway, tearing her white dress open and pinning her by the throat.
She fought back, stabbing the man's hand with a pen, only for Christian to emerge from the shadows and brutally crush the attacker's bleeding hand under his heel.
Instead of letting her go, Christian draped his heavy suit jacket over her exposed skin, trapped her in his dark suite, and forced her to sign a suffocating contract.
"You have exactly ninety days, or I will personally ensure you cease to exist in my city."
She thought she could just keep her head down, teach his nephew, and survive.
But she didn't understand why this terrifying underground tyrant was suddenly so fixated on her.
Why did he use his immense power to isolate her, publicly claim her at a billionaire gala, and track her every move?
When she received a chilling midnight text demanding she pack her bags and move into his sprawling estate by 8:00 AM, the terrifying reality set in.
She hadn't escaped the wolf. She had just walked directly into his cage.
8.8
I am the best esports jungler in the league, but I've been hiding a severe wrist injury just to keep my team alive in the semifinals.
Right in the middle of the crucial tie-breaker game, our mid-laner deliberately walked into the enemy team and died without casting a single defensive spell.
He was match-fixing for offshore betting sites, throwing away our entire season for a massive payout.
Because of his betrayal, we had to sub in two terrified rookies, and we were absolutely slaughtered. The stadium crowd booed us out of the arena. The internet exploded with pure vitriol, trending hashtags calling me a washed-up fraud who hid on the bench to save my own stats. The media demanded I retire immediately. My physical therapist gave me a grim ultimatum: my shredded nerves only allow me four hours of playtime a day before my right hand completely locks up.
I destroyed my own body for this team, only to be sold out by a coward and crucified by the very fans I bled for. Why should my legacy end in total disgrace because of someone else's greed?
I refuse to step down. I forced the traitor out, ignored management's safe roster choices, and locked my eyes on the most toxic, universally hated streamer on the platform.
"He's a walking PR nightmare," my coach warned.
I don't care. He is an arrogant, unhinged killer in the game, and I am going to make him mine.
8.4
On the night before her wedding, Navia Harrison discovers her fiancé in bed with her step-sister-and worse, the two of them are already planning how to get rid of her after the marriage.
Humiliated and consumed by hatred, Navia exposes their affair during the wedding ceremony itself, destroying both families' reputations in a single move.
Then, she meets him.
Leonel Crawford - the cold and dangerously powerful head of the Crawford family. Untouchable. Ruthless. A man no woman has ever been able to keep close.
He's also her ex-fiancé's uncle.
One impulsive proposal changes everything.
"If you need a wife... marry me instead."
"Honestly... we'd make a pretty good match."
7.6
Top DEA agent Kaitlynn Bruce woke up to a heavy, chemical lethargy, only to realize she was trapped in the body of a weak, abused war widow.
Before she could even process her new reality, she heard her sister-in-law counting cash, selling her unconscious body to a local thug for a measly two hundred dollars.
The thug dragged her new seven-year-old son, Cason, into the bedroom.
"Mommy!"
When the boy reached out, the man brutally kicked his small body into a wooden doorframe, leaving him gasping and bleeding on the floor.
Memories flooded Kaitlynn's mind. Her predecessor was a pathetic doormat whose husband's military pension had been bled dry by these greedy in-laws, leaving her children to starve and suffer endless abuse.
But as Kaitlynn looked at the bleeding boy's dark, unnervingly alert eyes, a chilling piece of DEA intelligence clicked in her mind.
Cason Richmond.
The name, the town, the abusive aunt—it all matched the classified files of the "Director of the Hive," the most ruthless and feared cartel puppet master in the criminal underworld.
How could this battered, starving child be destined to become the ultimate monster she used to hunt?
The original widow's tragic death was supposed to be the catalyst that pushed this boy into total darkness.
But Kaitlynn Bruce was not a victim.
Adrenaline burning through the drugs, she cracked the thug's neck with a brass lamp and choked the sister-in-law against the wall.
Looking down at the boy who was supposed to become a global nightmare, she made a vow. She was going to rewrite his script, even if she had to burn the whole world down to do it.
9.8
Three women, three brothers, a single, crumpled dollar bill.
Alina's world shatters the moment she's auctioned off-and claimed by the powerful Hawthorne brothers.
Thrown into Adrian Hawthorne's cold, dangerous world, she becomes his to control... his to protect... and, terrifyingly, his to desire. He's ruthless, possessive, and hiding secrets that could destroy them both. But the deeper she falls into his world, the harder it becomes to tell if she's his prisoner-or something far more dangerous.
Because the Hawthorne brothers don't just take.
They keep.
Viviane has spent her life surviving, so when Julian Hawthorne "buys" her freedom, she knows better than to trust it. Men like him don't save people-they collect them. But Julian isn't as simple as he pretends to be, and the deeper she's pulled into his world, the more dangerous it becomes to walk away.
Especially when she realizes she might be the only thing he's ever been willing to fight for.
Lena doesn't belong to anyone-and she intends to keep it that way. Brilliant, guarded, and hiding more than anyone suspects, she enters Lucien Hawthorne's world on her own terms. But Lucien doesn't play fair, and he doesn't let go.
When her past comes crashing back, Lena is forced to face the one thing she's been running from: trusting someone who could destroy her... or save her.
Three women. Three choices.Stay. Fight.
Or burn it all down.
Because being sold was only the beginning.