Page 202 of The Owner's Temptation

Her photo hits me first.

It’s from the week after she joined—hair in soft waves, eyes uncertain, lips just barely turned up like she wasn’t sure she deserved to smile.

She had no fucking idea how dangerous she was back then. How fuckingmineshe was.

I click deeper.

The screen loads slowly—my punishment, maybe—and then the profile appears.

Client Name: Dominic Salvi

My breath catches.

And then the world goes fucking still.

BecauseI know that name.

That name is a ghost from the past.

Mypast.

I made it up.

We were sixteen—me and Lorenzo. Drunk off our asses, pulled over in my old black Challenger with beer bottles rolling around the backseat. If his father had found out we’d been drinking and driving?

He wouldn’t have beat us. He would’ve buried us.

So when the cop leaned in and asked for our names, I didn’t hesitate.

“Matthew Cole,” I’d said. Calm. Stone-cold.

Then I added, “He’s Dominic Salvi.” I pointed to Lorenzo.

The officer gave us a look, went back to run the names through his cruiser computer, and I took the fuck off.

We were never caught.

Not then. Not for that.

But ever since… Lorenzo held onto that name.

Used it.Adoptedit. Turned it into his mask.

Dominic Salvi became his cloak of invisibility—an alias tied to a ghost of a night that should’ve ended in handcuffs.

And now he’s using it here. Inmy fucking system.

My entire body goes cold.

Because I didn’t see it. I didn’t fuckingsee it.

And now he’s not just in my system.

He’s got Sienna.

TWO DAYS EARLIER

The moment I step into the airplane hangar, something feels off.

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