Stripping For My Devil Ex Husband

​Vivian paused, tilting her head with a faint, mocking smile.

​"I was the one... who went to the police," Clara coughed, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the concrete near Vivian’s designer heels. "I’m the one who signed the statement against you. If you want your sick revenge... kill me. End it right here. Why drag Ana into this? Leave her alone!"

​Vivian let out a low, amused laugh, stepping closer and using the cold metal tip of the phone to tilt Clara’s chin upward.

​"Kill you?" Vivian murmured, her eyes gleaming with icy, manic malice. "An ordinary marketing lead isn’t worth the bullet, Clara. You were just the cheese in the trap."

​Vivian leaned in, her whisper cold and venomous against Clara’s bruised ear.

​"You gave me the perfect excuse to draw Damian Sterling’s prized possession out of his iron fortress," Vivian purred. "Anastasia is on her way right now. And tonight... Neither of you is walking out of here alive."

________________________

Inside the café, Valerie sat straight in the corner booth, forcing a dazzling, effortless smile onto her face.

​Gary, the lead security officer, stepped inside from the front entrance, scanning the room with sharp, watchful eyes. When his gaze landed on the empty seat across from Valerie, his brows pulled together in immediate suspicion.

​"Miss Valerie," Gary said, approaching the table with stiff, measured steps. "Where is Mrs. Sterling?"

​"Oh, Gary, don’t be so rigid," Valerie laughed lightly, waving a hand toward the pastry display. "Ana is just in the powder room fixing her makeup. Come on, sit down for two seconds. I actually ordered a box of artisan croissants for the rest of the team outside... you boys have been standing in the cold for hours. Tell me which ones they prefer before the barista boxes them up."

​Gary hesitated, his jaw tight. He glanced back toward the hallway leading to the restrooms, his hand hovering near the radio clipped to his tactical vest.

​"I should check the corridor perimeter..."

​"Gary, please," Valerie interrupted with a teasing pout, leaning forward and tapping the glass display menu between them. "I’m not letting you walk out of here empty-handed. Look at these options. Just give the girl five minutes of privacy, will you?"

​Reluctantly, the captain’s eyes shifted down to the counter menu, completely unaware of the swinging service door closing quietly behind the kitchen.

​Under the wooden tabletop, Valerie’s fingers trembled as she held her phone beneath the rim of the table.

​Her screen displayed a high-resolution satellite grid linked directly to her luxury smartwatch. A bright, steady green dot was pulsing on the map. It moved out from the rear alley, merged onto the secondary expressway, and began speeding directly toward the industrial harbor docks.

​Valerie exhaled a ragged breath, her heart hammering against her ribs. It’s working. The signal is solid.

​She watched the green beacon cut through the city grid, preparing her thumb to dial Damian’s direct secure line the second she secured a definitive radius.

________________________

​Meanwhile, in the narrow asphalt alley behind the café, Anastasia stepped into the back of the idling black sedan.

​The heavy door slammed shut behind her, the central locks engaging with a sharp, pneumatic snap.

​Before Ana could draw a single breath or speak Clara’s name, an iron grip seized her from behind. A masked operative pinned her arms against the leather seat, while a second man lunged forward from the front console, plunging a cold, thin needle directly into the side of her neck.

​Ana gasped, a sharp sting flaring across her skin.

​"Stop..." she choked out, but the heavy sedative hit her bloodstream in a violent, paralyzing wave.

​Her limbs went completely limp, turning heavy as lead. Her vision doubled, the dark interior of the vehicle blurring into sickening, spinning shadows. She couldn’t lift a finger, couldn’t fight back, trapped in terrifying paralysis as her consciousness slowly slipped away.

​The operative beside her grabbed her personal phone from her hand, rolled down the window, and tossed the device into the gutter as the sedan accelerated down the alley.

​"Run the detector," the driver commanded, his voice cold and flat. "Search her coat."

​The man in the back ran a handheld digital scanner over Ana’s slumped, helpless body. A shrill, high-frequency beep shrieked from the device near her left lapel.

​"Transmitter located," the operative grunted, sliding his gloved hand deep into the hidden inner seam of Ana’s trench coat. He ripped the rose-gold smartwatch free from the lining, his eyes narrowing. "Live satellite relay."

​The operative threw the luxury watch onto the floorboard. He brought his heavy combat boot down with brutal force, crushing the delicate glass, digital face, and internal circuitry into worthless, splintered metal.

​He pulled a thick, black blindfold over Anastasia’s unseeing eyes, plunging her world into pitch-black darkness.

________________________

​Back inside the café, Valerie’s thumb hovered over Damian’s contact name.

​Her eyes remained glued to the pulsing green tracker on her screen. The dot was halfway down the coastal highway when the icon suddenly flickered wildly.

​The steady green light flashed an ominous, jagged crimson.

​A sharp, static buzz emitted from the phone speakers. The digital map glitched violently, and the pulsing satellite marker dissolved into thin air.

​A stark, flashing error box overtook the center of the display...

​SIGNAL TERMINATED. CONNECTION LOST.

​Valerie froze, the blood instantly draining from her face. Her hands shook so violently the phone slipped from her numb fingers, clattering loudly against the wooden table.

_________________________

Miles outside the city grid, the sleek black car idled at the edge of a dense, overgrown gravel road.

​Damian stood beside the hood, his coat whipped by the biting coastal wind, flanked by Walter and three armed security operatives inspecting the perimeter of a secluded, iron-gated estate tucked between the trees.

​Jullian stepped up beside him, his breath fogging in the cold evening air as his sharp eyes scanned the darkened stone villa.

​"This is Vivian’s private off-grid property," Jullian said, his voice grim and hollow. "Back in our university days, she used to drag her inner circle up here for wild, unhinged weekend parties. I came once out of courtesy, but the reckless circus she called entertainment was never my cup of tea."

​Damian didn’t shift his lethal gaze from the villa. "I always refused her invitations."

​"I know," Jullian murmured, running a hand through his windblown hair. "You were always too smart for her games."

​Before Damian could signal Walter to breach the rusted gate, the heavy phone in his inner breast pocket vibrated violently against his chest.

​Damian pulled it out. The caller ID flashed... Valerie.

​His dark brows drew together in sharp irritation. He tapped the screen and brought the receiver to his ear. "Valerie, I told you I am handling business outside the city. Why are you calling this line..."

​A ragged, breathless sob tore through the speaker, drowning out his words.

​Damian’s entire body went rigid. His breath caught in his throat, a sudden, violent coldness seizing his chest... a sensation so foreign to a man who ruled by unyielding control that his heart skipped a heavy, sickening beat.

​"Damian..." Valerie’s voice broke into jagged, hysterical weeping on the other end. "Damian, oh god... please... Ana is gone..."

​"Valerie," Damian commanded, his tone dropping into a low, terrifying pitch that made Jullian and Walter instantly freeze in their tracks. "What happened? Where is Anastasia?"

​"I’m so sorry... Damian, I’m so sorry!"

Valerie cried out through her choking tears, the sheer horror bleeding through the receiver.

"Damian, I’m such a fool... they sent Ana a video of Clara’s beaten and hostage state! We went out to have some fresh air but Ana begged me to help her, and I let her go through the back of the café to save Clara! I put my tracker in her coat, but someone just smashed the signal near the harbor! They took her, Damian... they took Ana!"

The world around Damian stopped. Everything dissolved into a deafening, terrifying silence.

​His knuckles turned stark white, gripping the phone tight enough to fracture the tempered glass. The blood drained from his face, replaced by a darkness so raw, so monstrous, that the air around him dropped into lethal stillness.

​Jullian watched him, the color leaving his own face as pure dread washed over him. "Damian...? What is it?"

​Damian didn’t look at Jullian. He didn’t blink. His eyes flared with a cold, annihilating fury that belonged to a predator ready to tear the earth apart.

​He slowly lowered the phone, his tone slicing through the dead silence like a blade forged in hell...

​"Tell the entire security grid to seal every exit out of this city. If a single hair on Anastasia’s head is harmed... there won’t be a safehouse, a name, or a bloodline left standing by sunrise."

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