The Billionaire's Fake Girlfriend Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Read chapter 6 of The Billionaire's Fake Girlfriend by tamannaislam on NovelPedia.

Chapter 6: Darkness and Sandalwood (Ethan’s POV) The darkness was absolute as the primary lithium backup batteries engaged a dim, crimson emergency lighting system across the suite. I didn't waste a single heartbeat looking at the blood red strobes reflecting off the marble floorboards. I lunged forward into the kitchen alcove, my left arm locking securely around Ava’s waist as I pulled her slender frame flush against my chest to shield her from the glass balcony line. "Stay low," I commanded, my baritone dropping to a rough, flat whisper that vibrated against her temple. The forced physical contact was an immediate, overwhelming sensory assault. The sharp scent of her citrus perfume cut straight through the smell of my sandalwood cologne, her rapid, frantic breaths hammering against my chest like a trapped bird. Her fingers dug violently into the fabric of my forearms, her body trembling not from weakness, but from the sudden, high tension rush of pure adrenaline. "Did they just cut the power to a fortified penthouse?" Ava whispered, her voice surprisingly sharp and sharp in the dim red haze. "Your multi-million-dollar ice cube is currently failing its safety rating, Mr. Blackwood." "The primary breaker was deactivated from an external network override," I muttered, my eyes scanning the shadows of the living space as I guided her toward the rear residential corridor. "This isn't a power failure. It is a targeted tactical lockdown." We moved with rapid, synchronized steps toward the reinforced steel panic vault disguised behind the master bedroom closet panel. Every nerve in my body was on absolute alert, my defensive armor fully locked into place as I acted as her physical shield against the dark. The slow burn attraction I had been fighting since the red carpet turned completely magnetic in the narrow hallway, the heat of her skin radiating through the thin silk of her dress. "If we lock ourselves inside a steel box, how do we track Noah's campus security feed?" Ava demanded, tilting her face upward to meet my gaze through the crimson twilight. Our lips were mere inches apart, the suffocating proximity blurring the boundaries of our transaction into a dangerous, unauthorized obsession. "The panic vault hosts an independent satellite data terminal," I explained, typing a rapid security matrix into the concealed biometric wall plate. "It bypasses the main building infrastructure entirely." The heavy steel closet panel glided open with a muted hydraulic hiss, revealing the cold, gray interior of the reinforced bunker. I pushed Ava gently inside, stepping in behind her as the door automatically locked itself back into the frame with a solid, crushing thud that severed the exterior alarm sirens. I flipped a manual toggle switch, booting up the secondary console screens. The monitors flickered to life, illuminating our faces in a harsh, clinical blue light that chased away the lingering shadows. I immediately pulled up the real-time security grid tracking Daniel Ross’s mobile device at the main corporate wing. "Look at the entrance log," Ava breathed, leaning over my shoulder as her fingers pointed at the scrolling network metrics. A metallic, scraping sound suddenly echoed from the main penthouse entrance hallway outside the vault, amplified clearly through our external audio monitors. The security feed showed the heavy front door vibrating against the deadbolts as a high-tier military decryption device systematically overrode my biometric access codes line by line. The exterior security monitor displays Daniel Ross standing in the pitch-black hallway directly outside our vault door, his clothes smudged with soot as he types a frantic, highly suspicious syndicate override sequence into the main server terminal.