I'm In Love With My Bestfriend's Billionaire Fiance!
Chapter 94: The Edge Of The Valley

Chapter 94: The Edge Of The Valley

(Jace’s POV)

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Ethan slammed his foot on the gas at my order, and the SUV lurched forward like a predator catching scent of its prey. The city began to blur outside the tinted windows, streetlights streaking like comets across the windshield. His grip tightened on the steering wheel, jaw clenched, eyes narrowed with razor-sharp focus. The roar of the engine echoed my pulse—loud, fast, relentless.

We were heading straight for Vic Marino.

"His address isn’t far," Ethan said, voice flat with intensity. "Ten minutes tops if traffic doesn’t screw us. If not, I’m sure we’d get there in five minutes, as promised."

I nodded, though the knot in my stomach refused to loosen. My fingers dug into the edge of my phone like it was the only thing anchoring me to reality.

"I just hope he’s actually there," I muttered, trying to keep my voice calm, though I knew I was fooling no one. "It’ll suck if we get all the way there just to find out the bastard’s gone."

Ethan didn’t miss a beat. "Even if he’s not home, we’re still going in. There’s always something. A paper trail, a burner phone, a laptop, a receipt... something he left behind that tells us who the hell he really is and why he’s playing this sick game. One way or the other, we’d get our fucking answers."

He spoke like a man who’d done this before. The calculated calm in his voice was a strange comfort—and a chilling reminder that this wasn’t just theory anymore. We weren’t guessing. We were hunting. But I was impressed. I knew exactly what I was getting when I opted to hire Ethan, and so far, he had not disappointed.

I glanced down at my phone again, checking it for the sixth time in two minutes. No texts. No missed calls. Just the cold, unbothered glow of the lock screen staring back at me. The silence from Casey felt louder than everything else around me.

From the driver’s seat, Ethan caught my eye in the rearview mirror. "Still no word from her?"

I shook my head, swallowing the sharp edge of panic that had been building in my throat. "Nothing. Not a single ping. What if something’s actually wrong with Kira? What if... I don’t know, what if I made the wrong call being here instead of going to look for her?"

Ethan didn’t answer right away. He let the silence hang for a second like he was choosing his words with care. Then he spoke, firm but not unkind.

"Look at it this way," he said. "If Kira is

with Maven, then this is where you need to be. Every mile we close in on Vic gets us one step closer to her. We find him, we find answers. Hell, we might even find her. And if she’s not with him..."

He trailed off for a second, then looked at me again.

"Then she’s probably safe. Maybe even hiding or doing something dumb that the kids of the ultra-rich do. Either way, being here helps more than chasing shadows."

I wanted to believe him. I needed to believe him. But the cold sweat creeping down my spine said otherwise. Every worst-case scenario was flashing through my head—Kira gagged in some dark basement, her phone crushed to pieces, Maven standing over her with that calm, calculating smile.

And through it all, one thought kept circling in my brain like a vulture: What if we were already too late?

I shook my head slowly, the weight of my fear sinking deeper into my bones. But I didn’t say another word. I couldn’t. My throat felt tight, like it was wrapped in invisible cords, each one wound tighter with every second that passed. A cold dread coiled in my stomach, making me nauseous. Something was wrong. I could feel it—not just a hunch, but a deep, primal certainty clawing at my insides.

Kira was in trouble. Real trouble.

And the most terrifying part? I wasn’t even sure that finding Maven would mean finding her. I wanted to believe it. I needed to believe that it was all connected—that the trail we were following would somehow lead us straight to her. But that hope felt paper-thin now, like it would collapse under the weight of reality at any moment.

Still, we had a plan. That was something. A fragile line of logic we were clinging to like it was a lifeline in a storm. If we lost that—if we let panic take over—we’d spin out. And chaos was the last thing we could afford. Not with Kira missing. Not with Maven still a ghost.

So I kept silent. Swallowed my fear. Clung to the illusion of control.

The SUV hummed steadily beneath us as Ethan maneuvered through the morning haze, guiding us further and further from the glittering glass towers and neatly curated sidewalks of Silicon Valley. The transition was stark—like crossing an invisible threshold into another world. One minute we were surrounded by innovation and wealth, and the next, we were skimming the outskirts, where the city’s heartbeat was slower, grittier... forgotten.

We had reached the fringe of the Valley now—this far, and it was like even the air had changed. Drier. Dustier. The buildings grew sparser, more run-down. There were no tech startups here, no luxury cafés or electric car chargers. Just empty lots, leaning fences, and the slow creep of decay.

"Where the hell are we?" I muttered under my breath, peering out the tinted window.

Ethan didn’t answer. He just turned the wheel, pulling us off the main road and onto a narrow, pitted street that didn’t even have a name sign.

The SUV bumped and rattled as we drove deeper into the forgotten corner of the Valley, toward a place that looked like it had been erased from every map. The road was unpaved, a dusty stretch of gravel and potholes. The houses—if you could even call them that—were whitewashed, but not in any way that suggested care or style. The paint was chipped and peeling, clinging to the cracked walls like dead skin.

"This is worse than Ramon’s neighborhood," I said quietly, unable to stop the words.

Ethan nodded grimly, his eyes scanning every doorway, every flicker of movement between buildings. "Yeah. This place wasn’t built for visitors."

There was a silence then, heavy and tense. I didn’t want to imagine the kind of people who did live here. The kind who made sure no one asked questions. The kind who knew how to disappear—how to make others disappear.

My heart pounded faster.

Every corner we turned felt like we were slipping deeper into a maze we couldn’t climb out of. And at the end of it... I wasn’t sure if we’d find Kira—or just the echo of whatever Maven had left behind.

"What the hell..." I muttered, leaning forward in my seat, my eyes narrowing at the crumbling world unfolding outside the SUV window.

The air felt heavier here. Thicker. Like it had absorbed years of neglect and hopelessness and now clung to the skin like smoke.

"Yeah," Ethan said, his tone low and grave. "This is The Abbey. Technically, it’s neither Silicon Valley nor Parallel City. It just... exists. Like a ghost neighborhood stuck between two worlds. The government barely acknowledges it. It’s been years—decades, even—since they did anything here. No infrastructure. No cleanup. No oversight. It’s like time forgot it."

I stared at the broken pavement, at the buildings barely standing, with jagged metal fences and windows patched up with cardboard and duct tape. There were no children outside. No laughter. Just the faint rustle of wind through trash-strewn alleys and the distant bark of a feral dog. It was eerie—too quiet, too still. The kind of place where the shadows watched you back.

"Oh, shit..." I gasped, the realization hitting like a cold slap. "Don’t tell me the guy who’s been tormenting us—who’s turned our lives into this nightmare—actually lives in the goddamn Abbey."

Ethan didn’t answer right away. His jaw tensed. His hands gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. "We’re about to find out."

He pressed on the gas.

But before the SUV could roll another five feet, my gut twisted violently. My heart slammed against my ribs, and my voice burst out of me in a sharp, panicked cry.

"Wait—stop! We can’t go further. Ethan, we can’t move another fucking inch!"

His foot slammed on the brake. The SUV screeched to a jarring halt, the sudden stop throwing me slightly forward before my seatbelt yanked me back.

Ethan turned to face me, concern tightening his features. "What? What’s wrong?"

My pulse was thundering now. My palms were slick against the phone still clutched in one hand. "I don’t know. I can’t explain it. But we need to stop—right now. We shouldn’t drive any further into this place."

He scanned the area quickly, then leaned back into his seat. "You’re shaking."

"I know."

"What’s got you so rattled? We’ve been to worse places."

"Believe me when I tell you this, we can’t afford to go any deeper! This is for our own safety!!"

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