Billionaire's Bounty Cost Of Love And Revenge novel Chapter 137

Chapter 137

Asher’s POV

Ethan sat hunched over his laptop, fingers flying across the keyboard. His leg bounced under the desk, and every few seconds, he muttered something under his breath, mostly curses, sometimes nervous rambling.

Luca leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. “You’ve been at this for hours. You got something. or are we just watching you panic in real time?

Ethan shot him a glare but didn’t look away from the screen. “Oh, I’m sorry, a

am

I not working fast enough for the people who kidnapped me?”

I sighed. “Ethan.”

He exhaled sharply, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Fine. Here’s the deal–I’ve been trying to wipe those photos of you off the internet. Permanently. Not just hidden, not just buried under a thousand other search results, gone. Like they never existed.”

Luca raised an eyebrow. “And?”

Ethan hesitated. “And… it’s not easy.”

I narrowed my eyes. “But possible?”

He let out a nervous chuckle. “Theoretically, yes. But the internet is a pain in the ass. You delete something from one place, and it pops up somewhere else. Think of it like… like a virus. The second it spreads, it’s nearly impossible to contain.”

“Great analogy,” Luca said dryly.

Ethan ignored him. “Most images people think are ‘deleted‘ are really just deindexed, removed from search engines but not actually gone. They still exist on servers, still accessible if you know where to look. What I’m trying to do is kill them at the source. Wipe the servers. Force a chain reaction so that anywhere they were copied, poof. Gone.”

I leaned in slightly. “And?”

Ethan sighed. “And it’s working, but it’s slow. Some of these sites have backups, cloud storage, archives. The deeper I dig, the more l find. It’s like trying to pull out a weed, only to realize the roots stretch across the whole damn yard.”

Luca clicked his tongue. “So, what do you need?”

Ethan hesitated. “Time. And… access to a few places I don’t exactly legally have access to yet.”

Luca smirked. “That’s a fancy way of saying you need us to break into something, isn’t it?”

Ethan gulped. “No! I mean… maybe?”

I sighed. “Ethan, just tell us what you need to make this happen.”

He rubbed his temples. “Look, I’ve already gotten into a few private servers, don’t ask how, but there’s one major archive that’s giving me trouble. It’s locked down, high security, the kind that usually requires government–level clearance. If I can get in there, I can wipe the last traces of those images for good. But…” He hesitated, his fingers drumming against the desk.

“But?” I prompted.

“But if I screw up, not only do I fail, but I also leave a giant digital footprint that says, ‘Hey, someone tried to hack this system. And considering who might be watching, that’s… not ideal.”

Luca smirked. “So, basically, if you fail, you’ll have the FBI at your door?”

Ethan’s face paled. “Oh, God, don’t say that.”

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Chapter 137

Texhaled. “Then don’t fail.”

Ethan let out a nervous laugh. “Yeah. No pressure.”

It wasn’t like we were friends. Ethan was here because we made sure of it. The Don would have killed him otherwise, and while that might’ve made our lives easier, we needed him alive. He knew things. He could do things we couldn’t.

And right now, he was our only shot at clearing my name.

A few more seconds passed before Ethan let

Luca tensed. “I don’t like funny stories.”

Sabing of all nervous chuckle. “So, uh… funny story.

Ethan pushed his glasses up his nose, still avoiding eye contact. “Right. Okay, well, I, um… recorded my conversation with the Don.”

Silence.

I stared at him. “You what?”

His fingers drummed against the desk. “I, I didn’t plan to, okay? I just, I had a bad feeling, so I hit record on my phone before I walked into that meeting. And, uh… turns out, that was a good call.”

Luca let out a slow whistle. “So you’re telling me, the whole time we’ve been running in circles trying to fix this mess, you’ve had a recording that could blow it wide open?”

Ethan winced. “Yes? But in my defense, I didn’t know if it would be useful, and also, I wasn’t sure if you guys would, um… kill me if I told you.”

I exhaled slowly. “Let me hear it.”

Ethan hesitated, then clicked a few keys. A grainy audio file played from his laptop. The Don’s voice came through, smooth, commanding, directing Ethan on exactly how to frame me. He never said it outright, he was too careful for that, but anyone listening closely could put the pieces together.

When the recording ended, Luca let out a low chuckle. “Well, damn.”

Ethan glanced between us, his face pale. “So, uh… what now?”

The door swung open before I could answer.

Janine stepped inside, eyes sharp. “We use it,” she said immediately.

Luca raised an eyebrow. “You got a plan?”

She nodded. “We release the recording first. Let the public get riled up, let them start asking questions. And then,” she looked at me, “you go on the record. Live interview. No edits. No spin. Just you, telling the truth.”

Ethan blinked. “That’s a terrible idea.”

Janine ignored him. “It’s the only way. The evidence against Asher is circumstantial. If we control the narrative, we win.”

Luca smirked. “I like it.”

Ethan groaned. “Of course you do.”

I exhaled. “Fine. Let’s do it.”

The plan worked.

The recording spread fast. At first, people/doubted it, but then came my interview. I sat across from the reporter, my heart pounding, my hands steady. 1 told the truth. I didn’t try to win sympathy, I just laid it all out.

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Chapter 137

And the city listened.

Within days, the story shifted. My name was no longer tied to the human trafficking charge. The Don was still powerful, but now, people were watchin him. The police? They weren’t about to take him down, but they weren’t coming for me either.

It wasn’t justice.

But it was enough.

That night, we celebrated.

The house was warm with laughter, the dining table packed with food. It felt surreal, like the tension of the past few weeks had finally lifted, even if just for a moment.

Luca leaned back in his chair, smirking. “So, what’s nex” “A

I scoffed. “Not a chance.”

Janine grinned. “Hey, we pulled it off. That’s worth celebrating.”

We clinked glasses.

Then my phone rang.

I frowned at the screen. Isabella.

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