Shackled To The Enemy King

"Maximilian!"

Catherine gasped and instinctively looked down. His hand was firmly wrapped around her breast.

It was not resting there. It was grabbing.

She stared at it in disbelief before looking back at his face.

"This man..."

Despite everything, despite the tears still wet on her cheeks, an exasperated laugh escaped her.

It wasn’t even the first time. Whenever he slept deeply, his wandering hands somehow always found her there.

Her gaze softened.

His eyes were still closed. He hadn’t woken up. Carefully, she slipped her hand over his.The moment her fingers enclosed his, he squeezed back... Weakly, but unmistakably.

Her breath caught.

"Maximilian..." Her voice trembled.

That single response was enough to tell her everything she needed to know. She smiled through her tears.

"Thank you."

Without wasting another second, she pressed the emergency call button before glancing toward the monitor. Years of research and countless hours around brains allowed her to interpret the readings almost instinctively.

Her lips curved.

He wasn’t fully awake. But... This wasn’t the same as before. The doctors would probably call it a minimally conscious state.

It wasn’t recovery. Not yet. But it was a world away from a deep coma.

He was coming back. Slowly... One step at a time.

By the time the doctors finished examining him and confirming her suspicion, another hour had slipped by. Samantha came in, and Catherine hugged her. "He’s getting better, Sammy," she said, and she couldn’t stop her tears. Samantha, too, wiped the corner of her eyes. Her aunt looked like her life had returned to her. She wanted nothing more for her.

Her phone rang. Dorian.

She answered immediately.

"When are you leaving?"

That was all he asked. Not how her father was. Not whether she needed another day. Not whether everything had gone well. Only... when she was returning.

"In an hour," Catherine replied evenly.

Silence lingered on the line for several seconds before Dorian finally spoke again.

"Fine."

The call ended.

Catherine slipped the phone back into her pocket. There was still one thing she had to deal with before boarding the jet.

She immediately called Jonathan.

After giving him a brief explanation about the phone call she’d received, she waited while he processed everything.

"A twenty-million-dollar margin deposit..." Jonathan muttered. "If it isn’t paid before the deadline, they’ll probably freeze the account, liquidate the collateral, and depending on how the position is structured, it could trigger cross-default clauses."

Catherine rubbed her forehead. "I didn’t understand a single word you just said."

Jonathan laughed awkwardly. "I figured."

She sighed. "So let me ask in a language I understand." A brief pause followed. "Should I pay it or not? It’s not a scam, is it?"

Jonathan considered the question carefully.

"For someone like Maximilian... no, I don’t think so. If he opened a leveraged position that large, he would’ve anticipated the possibility of a margin call. Without knowing what investment this is tied to, I can’t tell you exactly what he’s doing."

He paused again.

"Do you have access to that amount?"

"I do." She answered casually. "It’s only twenty million."

Jonathan blinked. "Right..." He cleared his throat. "Then I’d pay it. And... I’ll start looking into what investment this belongs to. Maximilian did mention he had plans involving BioQuant. This could very well be connected."

Catherine frowned. "He never explained it to you?"

"Not enough," Jonathan chuckled. "He also tried explaining it to you, if I remember correctly."

Catherine groaned. "I should’ve listened." She leaned back in her chair. "I’m such a dumb fool."

Jonathan laughed. "I doubt Maximilian or any of us would agree with that."

He became serious again. "Do you know how to transfer it? It might have to go through one of his treasury accounts."

Catherine nodded slowly. "I think I do." A faint smile appeared despite herself. "He made me process payments through his treasury hub a few times."

She paused. "...And taught me how to move money around."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "Launder it?"

Catherine chuckled. "I believe his exact words were, ’It’s not laundering if the lawyers approved the structure.’"

Jonathan laughed outright. "That sounds exactly like something he’d say."

She smiled. "I just hope I still remember how."

"There’s less than thirty minutes before the deadline," Jonathan said. "Call me immediately if anything goes wrong."

"I will."

After ending the call, Catherine opened Maximilian’s encrypted treasury portal. Her fingers moved across the screen almost entirely from muscle memory.

One authentication. Then another. Several encrypted confirmations. Finally, the transfer window appeared. She entered the amount.

$20,000,000.00

Confirm.

The loading circle appeared. She stared at it without blinking. The progress bar crawled forward at an agonizing pace.

"Why is international banking always this slow?" she muttered, glancing anxiously at the countdown clock.

Two minutes.

One minute.

Thirty seconds.

The progress bar inched forward.

"Hurry..."

Her fingernails dug into the armrest.

With only eighteen seconds remaining before the deadline, the screen refreshed.

Margin Call Settled.

Account Status: In Compliance.

The timestamp beneath it read:

3:59:42 PM EST

Catherine closed her eyes and finally released the breath she’d been holding.

"...Maximilian," Catherine whispered with a weary smile. "I hope I just did the right thing... and not accidentally fund some cartel or something."

A small laugh escaped her.

It felt ridiculous to joke at a time like this, but if Maximilian were awake, he would probably have teased her for asking that question after transferring twenty million dollars without blinking.

He remained peacefully asleep, almost as though none of the world’s chaos could reach him.

She stepped closer one last time, brushed a loose strand of hair away from his forehead, and gently kissed him over the bandage.

"I’ll come back soon."

With one last lingering look, she finally forced herself to leave the room.

Only halfway down the corridor did she remember the one-hour timer she’d started.

Her eyes widened.

"Cassian..."

She immediately called Alexander.

"Fitzgerald Rathbourne is in Stonehaven," she said the moment he answered. "He knows. See whether he’s already left."

She ended the call before Alexander could ask any questions.

For a long moment, she stood in the corridor, her phone still clutched tightly in her hand.

Please...Please be sensible.

Just leave.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald Rathbourne stood beneath the entrance canopy of his hotel, one hand tucked inside the pocket of his worn jacket as he watched every passing vehicle.

His duffel bag rested beside his feet. He had already checked out. All that remained was one last thing.

He had slipped his room key into Samantha’s jacket pocket when he kissed her.

She would’ve found it... eventually.

Two hours passed. She never came.

He glanced at his watch again before looking toward the road. "Where are you, Sammy?"

He wasn’t accustomed to waiting for people. Usually, they waited for him.

Yet here he was... Waiting.

A strange feeling settled inside him.

Disappointment.

Before he could dwell on it further, he noticed movement through the hotel’s glass doors. The receptionist had just answered a phone call. A moment later, she looked directly at him. Then whispered something to another employee. Both of them glanced in his direction.

Fitzgerald’s lips slowly curved. "That woman..."

She had actually done it. She had informed her brothers, true to her word.

He watched one of the staff quietly reach for the telephone again. Security.

He considered waiting. After all, they couldn’t legally detain him.

But... There wasn’t much point.

He picked up his duffel bag, hailed the nearest taxi, and climbed inside.

"Airport."

The taxi pulled away just as two security officers stepped through the hotel’s revolving doors.

-----

It wasn’t until Samantha returned home late that evening that she discovered something unusual.

She had just slipped off her oversized jacket when her fingers brushed against a plastic card inside one of the pockets.

She frowned.

"A room key?"

Pulling it free, she stared at the hotel’s logo embossed across the front. For several seconds, she simply blinked.

Then her face gradually flushed.

"...Fudgie?"

She remembered the kiss. The lingering pressure of his lips. The mischievous nibble. The warmth that had stayed with her for hours afterward.

Her heart began pounding all over again.

She looked back at the room card. "...Was he asking me to come?"

She bit her lip.

"Would he... still be there?"

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!