Chapter three

Chapter 3

POV: Lumiere

The sharp, metallic pop of the suppressed gunshot did not just break the quiet of my bakery, it shattered the fragile, glass-walled reality I had spent a decade building. The sound echoed in my ears, vibrating through the floorboards and straight through my bones. But it was not the sight of Jarkko’s body falling that broke me. It was the sudden, violent tearing of my own mind.

My breath caught painfully in my throat as the air seemed to disappear. My vision narrowed, the warm yellow lights of the bakery blurring into streaks of white and red. My knees gave out, but I never hit the ground. Strong hands caught me by the waist, holding me against a body that felt solid and immovable.

Mikael.

His name formed in my thoughts, but I couldn't say it. The smell of copper and woodsmoke filled the air, dragging me backward through time, stripping away Helsinki, the bakery, the flour, and the cold December night.

Fire.

It was everywhere. Flames tore through the grand corridors of a place I hadn't known I remembered. Heat filled the air, burning through the smoke as crystal chandeliers cracked and fell onto marble floors.

"Lumiere! Corazon, corre!"

A man’s voice deep, desperate, and carrying a thick Italian accent shouted through the smoke. A heavy oak door crashed open. Boots pounded against the floor. Shouts echoed through a hallway lined with burning tapestries. And then came the sound that had haunted my dreams for ten years: pop, pop, pop.

Gunfire. Real, merciless gunfire.

"No!" I choked out in the present, my hands flying to my ears as I grabbed Mikael’s dark wool coat, trying to push him away while clinging to him at the same time. My lungs screamed for air, but every breath tasted like ash and smoke. I was fourteen again, hiding in a freezing, dark stone basement while the world above me burned and my family disappeared into the chaos.

"Lumiere. Look at me."

Mikael’s voice cut through the noise in my head. It wasn't gentle, it was firm, pulling me back to the present. His gloved hands held my shoulders, shaking me just enough to break through the flashback.

I gasped, my pale-blue eyes opening to focus on his face. He was inches away. The harsh emergency lighting from the street cast shadows across his jaw and the silver-blonde strands of his hair. There was no pity in his ice-grey eyes, but there was something more frightening: recognition. He knew what was happening to me. He had expected it.

"You're not there," Mikael said, his voice low and steady. "You're here. In Helsinki. With me."

"What... what did you do?" I sobbed, my voice breaking as my gaze moved past his shoulder to where Jarkko lay motionless on the floor. The blood seemed to blur as my heart raced. "You killed him. You just... you murdered him in cold blood!"

"He was a parasite," Mikael replied, his expression unchanged as he looked at the body. "And he touched what belongs to me."

The words hung in the air. What belongs to me.

Panic shot through me. I tried to pull away, my fingers catching against his chest, but his hold did not loosen. He wasn't hurting me, but he wasn't letting me go either. The closeness frightened me almost as much as the scene around us. I hated him for what he had done. I hated him for invading the one place where I had felt safe, yet I was still shaking against him, unable to control the fear running through me.

"Let me go!" I gasped, a sob escaping as the weight of everything crashed over me. "I don't know you! I'm just a baker! I don't belong to anyone!"

"You think you're ordinary," Mikael said quietly, his thumb brushing a tear from my cheek. "You think a quiet life in this city was an accident. It was a cage I built around you to keep you breathing."

Before I could understand what he meant, distant police sirens sounded through the Helsinki night. They were faint, but they were getting closer. Then the bakery door swung open again.

Footsteps rushed inside heavy, quick, and controlled. Dark figures in tactical gear moved into the shop, their faces hidden behind black balaclavas. They barely glanced at the body or the damaged pastry cases. Instead, they formed a tight perimeter around Mikael and me, securing the room with frightening precision.

Talvikki Jarvinen, her copper-red hair pulled into a tight braid and her amber eyes sharp, stepped through the group of guards. She looked at Jarkko’s body without surprise before turning to Mikael.

"Boss. The municipal security logs are wiped, but we have less than three minutes before the patrol cars clear the corner," Talvikki reported. "The transport is waiting in the alley."

Mikael didn't look away from me. His ice-grey eyes stayed fixed on mine.

"Pack her things," Mikael ordered.

"No…wait, no, you can't do this!" I shouted, struggling as two of the guards moved closer. "Where are you taking me? Who are you?"

Mikael didn't answer. His arm moved beneath my knees, lifting me from the floor before I could react. I gasped and wrapped my arms around his neck to keep from falling.

He carried me from behind the counter, stepping past the blood on the floor and through the bakery doors into the freezing, snow-covered alley of Helsinki.

The heavy doors of a black armored SUV closed behind us, leaving the cabin dark and quiet. Mikael sat beside me, his presence filling the small space as the vehicle pulled away.

My hands were cold despite the warmth around me, and my thoughts felt scattered and useless. Nothing made sense anymore. The bakery that had always been my safest place suddenly felt like somewhere I had never truly known. I wanted my old life back.

"We are going home, Lumiere," he said quietly as the SUV surged forward into the dark, snow-filled night.