apter 7
Deep in the wilderness of Rockhaven Ridge, Montana.
It had been nearly six months since I’d “died.”
Since then, I’d thrown myself into extreme mountaineering. Only when clinging to icy cliffs and staring down death itself
could I feel the blood and rot inside me finally begin to wash away.
The death certificate, of course, had been a lie.
Ten million dollars bought the silence of a bodyguard who had “witnessed” it–and a medical report that looked official enough to fool anyone.
My parents had long vanished from public records and were rebuilding the family business overseas.
That day, I had just reached the edge of a glacier when the ground beneath me began to tremble.
Avalanche.
A thundering wall of snow roared toward me, fast and merciless. I braced for impact-
Then, suddenly, a gloved hand yanked me into a narrow crevasse just before the snow swallowed everything.
My rescuer wore the same dark red parka I had on. He sat motionless against the icy wall, hood drawn low, jaw tight and expression unreadable beneath the mask.
The air around him was colder than the glacier itself.
“Thanks,” I said quietly.
“Shut up. Save your breath.”
His voice came through the mask–flat, emotionless, arctic.
I was pissed. I hadn’t even been rude. Fine. Two could play that game.
We sat there in silence, waiting for the avalanche to settle.
When it finally did, he stood up and started climbing again like nothing had happened.
“You’re insane! The mountain’s unstable. A second wave could hit any second!”
He gave me a glance. Just one.
“Boring,” he said.
And walked off.
I had never met anyone so arrogant–or so completely unhinged.
And yet… I followed him.
Chapter 7
Complete Hunter Onboarding tasks to get 100 pulls and select a 5–Star Memory for freet
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He moved with impossible grace, scaling the icy terrain like a ghost. But beneath the bulky gear, his frame struck me as strange–lean, narrow–shouldered, almost the same size as mine.
That couldn’t be right.
Before I could dwell on it, his foot slipped.
He tumbled down the ice wall fast–toward a jagged field of rocks.
“Dammit,” I muttered, yanking off my pack. I grabbed my ice axe and rope, threw caution out the window, and lunged after him.
At the last second, I hooked his safety line.
He was unconscious.
It took everything I had to drag him to the nearest rescue cabin.
“He’s hypoxic. Open tibial fracture. He needs emergency surgery!” The medic shoved a consent form into my hand.
The emergency contact section was blank.
I hesitated.
Then signed.
Girlfriend: Avery Smith.
The surgery was a success.
But when the doctor pulled me aside afterward, his expression was grim.
“Miss Smith… your boyfriend has ALS. Lou Gehrig’s disease.”
ALS. The kind of hell that traps you in your body while it rots around you.
“No wonder he’s so desperate to summit…” I murmured to myself.
“We’ll try to slow the progression. But… most patients don’t make it past five years.”
I returned to the room to find him awake, his hood pulled back to reveal a pale, hauntingly young face and hollow eyes fixed on the ceiling.
When he saw me, he rolled his eyes dramatically.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I snapped.
Another eye–roll.
Two weeks passed. I fed him, cleaned him, handled the meds. No sleep, no thanks
Finally, he spoke, “Damien Blackwell,” he said, flatly. “And you, fake girlfriend?”
Chapter 7
Complete Hunter Onboarding tasks to get 100 pulls and select a 5 Star Memory for freek
“I told you, it was the only way they’d operate! You’re not my type, skeleton boy.”
He rolled his eyes again.
I looked up his name that night.
What I found made my blood run cold.
Damien Blackwell. Only son of Richard Blackwell–CEO of Blackstone Arms, one of the most powerful international arms
syndicates in existence.
He vanished three years ago during his own engagement party. The family offered an eight–figure reward for any trace of
him.
The man in that photo–sharp–eyed, deadly–was now the smug, sarcastic brat in my hospital bed.
I slapped a note on his pillow the next morning. “Call your family. I’m done playing nurse.”
They showed up that afternoon.
The entire wing was swarmed by men in black, like a silent tidal wave.
I didn’t stay to watch. I packed my bags and flew straight to Aspenridge to reunite with my parents.
But three days later, our villa was surrounded by black armored SUVs.
Damien stepped out, cane in hand, dressed in a custom black suit. His face was pale, but his posture sharp, his eyes cold.
No trace of the frail man I’d dragged down the mountain.
“Avery Smith? Vanishing without a word? That’s bad manners.”
My mom looked at me, confused.
He dropped a thick dossier on the table.
“The rights to three diamond mines in northern Canada. Sign here and they’re yours. One condition–be my girlfriend for a year. Climb with me. After that, whether I’m alive or dead, the deal holds.”
My mother’s face lit up with desperate hope. Our family’s future abroad was built on shaky ground. This was bedrock- bloody, but solid.
“I’ll do it,” I said.
The jungle was a nightmare.
I trailed behind Damien, cursing myself every step of the way.
“You signed the deal,” he called over his shoulder. “No takebacks. The raw diamonds are already in your family’s vault”
“You bastard,” I hissed.
Chapter 7
2.87%
Complete Hunter Onboarding tasks to get 100 pulls and select a 5–Star Memory for freet
Then everything went sideways.
A king cobra, hidden in the brush, struck.
We both took the hit.
The venom spread fast. My vision blurred. We collapsed beneath a massive banyan tree, the world slipping away.
Just before we blacked out, I heard the chop of helicopter blades.
Blackwell’s team. They brought antivenom.
“You knew there was antivenom all along?!” I shouted, jabbing the needle in a little too hard.
“Avery, what the hell–ah!”
“Oops,” I said, snapping the syringe in half, half of it stuck in his thigh.
I bolted.
He yanked me back by my ponytail, dragging me straight into his chest.
My elbow smacked something awkward.
His already pale face turned bright red.
“Sir!” The butler raced over. “Are you poisoned? Call the doctor!”
It was chaos.
In the end, Damien was medevacked back to the city, and I got shipped off–under “escort“-to Château Ravenhurst, the
Blackwell estate in southern France.
An international underground summit was scheduled to take place there.
One of the names on the guest list?
Chapter 7
