Chapter 489
Silence settled over the corridor. Kaleb turned back to Kristine with a self-satisfied smile. “See? She left you. If you cooperate, this doesn’t have to be unpleasant.” He reached out toward her face.
“Touch me,” Kristine said, her voice cold and perfectly even, “and I will make sure you lose every one of those fingers.”
Kaleb pulled back, caught off guard by her tone. He studied her expression, then rubbed his lip slowly. “You’re even more attractive when you’re angry.” He reached for her again.
Kristine’s gaze dropped to his hand. It was trembling.
“Those guards behind you,” she said, each word precise and deliberate, “don’t actually work for you, do they?”
Kaleb’s fingers shook harder, his composure cracking beneath the surface.
“Who sent you here?” Her eyes narrowed.
His face flooded with color. “What — what’s that supposed to mean? Of course they’re my men!”
Kristine said nothing. She simply held his gaze, steady and unblinking.
The longer she stared, the more he shifted, a restless, crawling discomfort spreading across his skin. The guards had been lent to him by someone else — he knew that. But he was a powerful man in Orepa, and being rattled by a woman in a hallway was more than his pride could take. He straightened up and adjusted his jacket. “They belong to me. I don’t care whether you believe it or not.”
Kristine let out a short, humorless laugh and opened her mouth to reply — but the sound of heavy footsteps at the far end of the hallway stopped her.
“Mr. Yates, they’re right up ahead.”
She recognized the voice immediately. Iris.
Rather than looking alarmed, Kaleb’s expression shifted into something that looked almost eager.
Within moments, a crowd surged into the hallway, filling the space around the restroom entrance.
The people following Colton stopped short, visibly thrown to find Kaleb still standing there, unhurried and unafraid.
“You’re still here with Mr. Yates right in front of you? You must have a death wish,” one of them called out.
“I have no reason to go anywhere,” Kaleb said loudly, though his eyes carefully avoided Colton’s.
“You’d better disappear before you regret it. Bothering Kristine in Gridron, of all places — have you lost your mind?”
Kaleb let out a thin, unsteady laugh that silenced the hallway. “Times change. Gridron might have a new boss sooner than any of you think.”
“Is this man drunk?” someone finally shouted. “Come on — let’s show him what happens when you disrespect Mr. Yates!”
The first man lunged forward, and the rest followed instantly, each one eager to prove his loyalty by being the one to land the first blow. Kaleb looked like easy prey — no real threat, no real danger.
But before they reached him, his security detail moved in and cut them down with brutal efficiency.
The hallway filled with the sounds of men hitting the floor.
Emboldened, Kaleb finally looked Colton directly in the eye. “So, Mr. Yates — still think I’m not man enough to take your woman?”
Colton’s expression didn’t change. “Who put you up to this?”