Chapter 3The Billion-Dollar Bodyguard I Found in the Rain

The Polaris Tech office building looked like a relic from the last century.

Paint peeling off the walls. The elevator plastered with flyers and ads.

I walked ahead, heels clicking against the floor.

Luca followed silently behind me in a black tank top, like an immovable wall of darkness.

I pushed open the conference room door and walked into a haze of smoke.

A group of department managers were huddled around a table playing cards. The surface was buried under cigarette ash and takeout containers.

Not one of them looked up when I walked in.

"Well, well. If it isn't the precious Miss Lynn." It was Martin Beck, the head of the project department. "What's the occasion? Did you actually find time in your busy schedule to grace our little dump with a visit?"

He was a distant relative on Sophia's mother's side — planted here to skim off the top.

I ignored him and walked straight to the head of the table.

"Put your cards down."

Nobody moved.

Martin even blew a smug smoke ring in my direction.

I turned and looked at Luca.

Just one look.

That was enough.

Luca crossed the room to where Martin was sitting. Without a word, he reached out, grabbed Martin by the collar, and hauled him clean out of his chair like he weighed nothing.

"What the hell — let go of me!" Martin shrieked.

Luca didn't waste words. He grabbed Martin by the head and slammed it into the conference table.

Bang.

Cards and ashtrays scattered across the floor.

Martin slumped over the table, bleeding, moaning into the surface.

The room went dead silent.

The other managers sat frozen, faces drained of color, not daring to breathe.

"Now." I leaned back in my chair and studied my fresh manicure. "Can we have a conversation?"

"Starting today, I run Polaris Tech. Martin Beck — you're fired. Pack your things and get out. The rest of you: I want every financial report and project status update from the past three years on my desk within thirty minutes. Anyone who can't make that happen can follow him out the door."

I stood, walked out of the conference room, and didn't look back.

Luca released his grip and dropped Martin on the floor like a bag of trash, then fell into step behind me without rushing.

Back in the executive office, thick with dust.

I looked at Luca standing in the doorway like a dark sentinel.

"Nice work."

"I get paid to work." His tone was flat, like he'd just stepped on an ant.

Over the next week, I tore through Polaris Tech like a storm.

Every dead-weight freeloader was cut. Performance reviews were rewritten from the ground up.

The people who'd been waiting to watch me fail went quiet.

They finally understood — the so-called spoiled little rich girl who only knew how to shop was actually a viper. And she ate people alive.

Throughout all of it, Luca never left my side.

He barely spoke. Almost never initiated conversation.

But he always had a glass of warm water ready when I needed it, and whenever I stayed late into the night, a hot meal would appear on my desk without a word.

He functioned like a machine with no feelings — executing every instruction with perfect precision.

But sometimes, in an unguarded moment, I'd catch him watching me. His gaze was deep and still, like he was looking through me at someone else — or like he was holding something back. Something that could break through at any moment.

It unsettled me.

I was used to having control over everything. But Luca was a variable I couldn't calculate.

He was too quiet. The kind of quiet that made your skin crawl.

That afternoon, I was working through a proposal for a core AI algorithm.

This was Polaris Tech's only shot at survival. If we could win next month's city contract bid, the company could turn everything around.

But our current dev team couldn't write the low-level code the contract required. Not even close.

I pressed my fingers against my temples, frustration building to a breaking point.

Then the office door opened.

Luca stepped in.

"Miss Lynn. Evan Carter is here."

The moment I heard that name, my expression went cold.

"What does he want?"

"He says he has a gift for you."

Luca stepped aside.

Evan walked in wearing a tailored suit, looking every bit the part. Sophia was right behind him, their fingers laced together, the two of them practically glowing — like they'd shown up specifically to rub it in my face.

I let out a short laugh and settled back into my chair.

"Mr. Carter and Sophia — what a surprise. The engagement party never happened, so you two decided to honeymoon in my little dump instead?"