His Dangerous Love On Ice Chapter 185: Cole's Pov

Sophia shook her head. "He doesn't tell me anything anymore. But I see the way he looks at her. The way he acts around her. It's..." She paused, searching for the right word. "It's obsessive. Unhealthy. Like she's the only thing that matters and everything else—including his family—is just background noise."

This was useful information, confirmation of what I'd already suspected but hearing it from someone who knew Zane intimately made it more real, more concerning.

"What do you know about Olive's past?" Sophia asked suddenly, turning to face me fully. "You dated her for years. You must know things about her that could be useful. Things that might make Zane see her for what she really is."

I took a long drink of my wine, considering how much to reveal.

"I know she's manipulative," I said carefully. "I know she has this way of making men think they're rescuing her when really she's the one controlling everything. I know she acts innocent and vulnerable but she's calculating every move she makes."

"Exactly," Sophia said with satisfaction, like I'd just confirmed something she'd been thinking. "That's exactly what she's doing to Zane. Making him think he needs to protect her, making herself seem helpless so he feels important. But underneath that act, she's just a gold-digger who saw an opportunity to upgrade from you to a Mercer and took it."

The casual way she said "upgrade from you" stung more than it should have, a reminder that in Sophia's world...in everyone's world, really…Zane Mercer would always be considered better than me in every measurable way.

"Do you want to break them up?" I asked directly. "Is that what this is about?"

Sophia looked at me for a long moment, and I could see her debating how honest to be.

"I want my brother back," she said finally. "The brother I used to have before Olive Monroe poisoned his mind against his own family. And yes, if that means breaking them up, then that's exactly what I want."

This was it…the moment where I could both play it safe and keep my own agenda hidden, or I could take a risk and see if Sophia might be useful as an actual ally instead of just a source of information.

"What if I told you I might have information about Zane that Olive doesn't know?" I said slowly. "Information about his past that could change how she sees him?"

Sophia's eyes sharpened with interest. "What kind of information?"

"The kind that people kill to keep secret," I said. "The kind that would destroy his relationship with Olive the second she found out about it."

"Tell me," Sophia demanded.

I shook my head. "Not yet. I need to verify some details first, make sure I have everything I need before I deploy it. But when the time comes..." I let the sentence hang there, pregnant with possibility.

Sophia leaned forward, her entire demeanor changing from angry and defeated to calculating and focused.

"We could work together," she said. "Pool our resources. You want Olive back, I want Zane back. We both have reasons to see their relationship destroyed. Why not coordinate our efforts instead of working separately?"

It was exactly what I'd been hoping she'd suggest, but I made myself appear hesitant, like I needed to be convinced.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked.

"I have access to family information that you don't," Sophia said. "I know things about Zane's business dealings, his connections, his plans. And I can get close to Olive during work, can undermine her professionally in ways that you can't."

She stood and started pacing again, but this time it was with purpose instead of agitation, like she was formulating a plan in real-time.

"And you," she continued, "you know Olive's weaknesses. You know what she's insecure about, what triggers her, what makes her run. Between the two of us, we can create a situation where their relationship implodes from multiple directions at once."

I pretended to consider this, even though I'd already made up my mind.

Sophia sat back down, her glass empty, and I could see the exhaustion starting to creep into her features now that the initial fury was wearing off.

"We should work together," she said finally, though her voice sounded tired now instead of energized. "You want Olive back, I want Zane back. We both have reasons to see their relationship destroyed."

It was exactly what I'd been hoping she'd suggest, but the conversation felt mechanical now, robotic almost, like we were both just going through the motions of forming an alliance without any real passion behind it.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked, refilling both our glasses because this conversation clearly wasn't ending anytime soon.

"I've been doing research on her," Sophia said, taking a sip of the fresh wine. "On Olive. Trying to find anything I could use professionally to undermine her credibility at work."

"And?"

"And I found out she had an older brother," Sophia continued, watching my face carefully. "One she lost. Years ago. She never talks about him, never mentions him, but it's there in her background if you dig deep enough."

I felt my entire body tense, but I forced myself to keep my expression neutral, mildly interested but not overly so.

"Really?" I said, taking a drink to hide my reaction. "I think I heard about that once. Klaus, maybe? Or something like that?"

Sophia's eyes narrowed immediately, her entire demeanor shifting from tired to suspicious in a heartbeat.

"So you have been thinking about her," she said, her voice sharp with accusation. "Researching her background. Looking into her past."

"No, no," I said quickly, holding up my hands. "It's not like that. Olive mentioned him once, maybe a year ago when we were dating. Just in passing. I barely remember the conversation, but the name stuck in my head for some reason. That's all."

Sophia stared at me for a long moment, clearly trying to decide whether to believe me.

"Okay," she said finally. "So what do you know about him?"

"Not much," I admitted, and this part was actually true. "Just that he died when she was younger. She didn't like talking about it, got upset whenever his name came up, so I learned to avoid the subject entirely."

"Was it an ordinary death?" Sophia asked, and there was something in her voice now—something calculating and cold that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I stared at her, trying to figure out what she was really asking, what she actually knew versus what she was fishing for.

"I don't know," I said carefully. "Like I said, they don't really talk about him. It seemed inappropriate to dig into it, you know? Let the dead be dead. Show some respect for the family's grief."

It was complete bullshit and we both knew it…I had absolutely no problem disrespecting anyone's grief if it served my purposes…but it was the safest answer I could give without revealing how much I'd actually been digging into Klaus Monroe's death recently.

Sophia just groaned and leaned back against the couch, closing her eyes.

"This is exhausting," she muttered. "All of it. Fighting with Olive, trying to get through to Zane, dealing with my father's manipulations, pretending like everything is fine when the entire family is falling apart."

I was about to respond when my phone beeped with an incoming message.

I glanced at it casually, expecting another lawyer's email or maybe a spam notification.

But what I saw on the screen made my heart rate spike immediately.

A location pin.

Just coordinates and an address, sent from a friend’s number.

1247 West Industrial Boulevard. Club Venom.

And underneath the address, a single line of text: She's here. Thought you'd want to know.

My hands tightened around my phone as my mind raced through possibilities of who she would be with.

"Cole?" Sophia's voice cut through my thoughts. "What is it?"

"Nothing," I lied, already standing up and moving toward my bedroom. "Just something I need to handle. You should probably go or stay up—it's late and you look exhausted."

Sophia frowned but didn't argue, probably too tired to deal with whatever was happening.

She grabbed her bag and headed for the door, pausing to look back at me.

"I will be leaving…don't do anything stupid," she said. "Whatever that message was, don't let it make you act impulsively. That's how you ended up in trouble last time."

"I won't," I said, though we both knew it was a lie.

The second she left, I was moving…grabbing my jacket, my keys, my wallet, checking the address again to make sure I had it right.

Club Venom.

Olive was at a club, probably with friends, probably drunk and vulnerable and not expecting to see me.

This was it.

This was the opportunity I'd been waiting for.

I looked at my reflection in the hallway mirror as I headed for the door, at the man who was about to drive across town to confront the woman who'd destroyed his life.

"Let's see how confident you are when I show up uninvited," I said to my reflection.

Then I walked out, already planning exactly what I was going to say when I see her.