His innocent wife is a dangerous hacker.-Chapter 552 Hazel and Nicolas

"This is Dominique," Leo interjected smoothly, his tone leaving no room for ambiguity. He gestured to where Dom had finally emerged from the SUV, looking slightly windswept. "My assistant."

Hazel’s gaze swept over Dom. Her expression didn’t flicker. "Ah."

"Oh. Uh. Yeah," Dom managed, his brain short-circuiting. He was staring. The electric blue eyes. The mask. The mysterious tattoo. The way the mountain breeze played with a strand of her dark hair.

Oh.

That’s Hazel.

The Hazel.

The bride.

His brain finally made the connection. His eyes widened a fraction.

Hazel’s gaze moved past him to Jason, who was trying to look professionally bland and failing miserably. "And who is he?"

Dom’s mouth moved on autopilot, his attention still wholly captured by Hazel. "He’s... he’s my assistant."

From beside him, a pained, hushed whisper cut through the thin air.

"Bro."

"Nice to meet you, Isabella. I’ve heard so much about you."

Suddenly, a voice spoke in a low, intimate purr, and before Bella could even process the words, he was there. Someone enveloped her. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her body flush against his in a move that was far from casual. One hand spread possessively against the small of her back, his fingers pressing in, while the other hand slid up her spine in a slow, deliberate caress that felt more like a claim than a greeting.

Bella gasped, her entire body going rigid with shock. Her hands flew up, bracing weakly against his chest, but he was solid, unmovable. The scent of his cologne was expensive, spicy, and overwhelming. The intimate pressure of his hands, the way he held her too tightly, too close, felt invasive, unsettling, and unnervingly deliberate.

"Nicolas."

Leo’s voice didn’t rise. It dropped. It became the quiet, dead calm sound of a safety clicking off a weapon.

Nicolas released her, but it was a slow, languid retreat. His hands slid from her body with a final, lingering sweep, and he stepped back with a smirk that danced in his dark eyes. He looked not chastised, but satisfied, as if he’d successfully drawn a line in the sand.

He was tall, confident, dressed in severe, perfect black. His gaze held a challenge as he glanced at Leo.

"Relax," Nicolas said, his tone dripping with feigned innocence. "I was just giving your beautiful wife a proper welcome."

Leo did not relax. A cold, terrifying stillness settled over him. His eyes, locked on Nicolas, promised violence so absolute it chilled the mountain air. The tension was a live wire, crackling between them.

Completely ignoring the lethal aura emanating from Leo, Nicolas turned his predatory smile back to a shaken Bella.

"I’m Nicolas," he said, as if introducing himself at a garden party. "Hazel’s fiancé."

Bella swallowed, forcing her composure back into place with sheer will. She met his gaze, her own voice carefully neutral, giving him nothing.

"Nice to meet you," she said, the words polite and distant.

"Freaking control your fiancé," Leo growled, the words low but vibrating with a rage that was anything but quiet. His jaw was a hard line, his gaze a laser fixed on Nicolas’s back as the man strolled ahead, already laughing with a member of the security detail.

Hazel didn’t flinch. "You’re overreacting," she stated, her voice as cool and even as the mountain air. "He greets everyone that way. You’re being possessive, Leo. It’s not a new look for you."

A short, harsh sound escaped Leo. "No. You are underreacting. Did you even see how he touched her?"

Dominique, who had been staring at Hazel with the stunned, tragic focus of a man watching his dream home burn down, snapped back to the moment. He found himself nodding furiously. Yes. Yes, he did see. He’d seen the inappropriate, lingering hands, the proprietary hold. And he’d also just had his soul quietly crushed by the realization that the woman with the electric blue eyes and the serpent tattoo, his absolute, instant dream girl, was not only real but promised to that walking red flag.

"Yeah," Dom blurted out, his voice tight with a mix of righteous indignation and personal heartbreak. He pointed a subtle, accusing finger toward Nicolas’s smug figure. "I concur. That wasn’t a ’hello’ hug. That was a... full frontal, prolonged contact, boundary violation hug."

Hazel’s head turned. Not quickly, but with a slow, deliberate pivot that brought Dom directly into the crosshairs of her electric blue gaze. Her expression wasn’t angry. It was assessing, dissecting, and utterly cold.

Dom’s hand dropped as if the air itself had become heavy. His heart hammered against his ribs. "Respectfully," he squeaked, "I am now a void. A silent, observational void."

"Good survival instinct," Jason muttered from beside him, not taking his eyes off the tense standoff.

Hazel’s attention returned to Leo. "You haven’t changed," she said, her voice dropping, losing its cool edge for something more weary. "Always assuming the worst of anyone who comes near your orbit."

"And you haven’t changed," Leo shot back, the words clipped and sharp. "Still making excuses for him. No matter what line he crosses."

The silence between them turned brittle, charged with old history and fresh anger.

Bella felt it fracture the air. She took a small, deliberate step forward, inserting herself into the space between their locked stares.

"Please," she said, her voice soft but clear. "Don’t fight."

Both Leo and Hazel looked at her, the force of their conflict momentarily diverted.

Bella swallowed, gathering her calm like a shield. "We just got here," she continued, her tone gentle but firm. "This is your wedding. Your time. Not... for this."

Hazel studied her, the sincerity in her eyes, the steady worry on her face. After a long, silent moment, some of the ice in her own expression thawed. She let out a slow, controlled breath. "You’re right."

Leo didn’t speak, but the rigid set of his shoulders eased a fraction, a concession noticed only by Bella.

Dom leaned so far toward Jason he almost toppled. "Did she just... de-escalate a potential mafia war with basic human decency?" he whispered, awestruck.

Jason gave a single, grave nod. "Legendary behavior. We are not worthy."

Bella’s eyes found Leo’s again. The storm was still there, dark and dangerous, still tracking Nicolas in the distance. But when her fingers brushed lightly against his wrist, his gaze snapped to hers. And the fierceness in it shifted. Not gone, but tempered, softened by her touch.

"Come," Hazel said, her voice returning to its neutral, commanding tone. "Let’s go inside."

This time, Leo moved without another word. He held her arm possessively as he led her forward, away from the tension and toward the resort entrance, with Dom trailing behind, casting one last, longing, devastated look at the back of Hazel’s head.