Chapter Fourteen: The Price Tag

For a fraction of a second, the room froze, caught in the aggressive hum of four phones vibrating at the exact same time. It wasn’t a normal notification. It was that heavy, urgent buzz that instantly makes your stomach drop.

The buzzing stopped. Nobody dared moved.

Silas still didn’t lower his gun from the doorway where we all stood, his eyes darted down to the screen clipped to his vest. Across the room, Elias was already looking at his phone, his face draining of whatever color it had left.

"Silas..."

"Read it," Silas commanded, his voice deadly tight. Though we all had the same message on our screens, Silas needed to hear it aloud.

"It’s an alert... sent to every local device on this block," Elias muttered, his breath catching as the heavy thud of boots grew louder on the metal stairs of the fire escape just outside the window. "It has your picture, Vienne.

I leaned over slightly, my eyes catching the display on Elias phone. My breath hitched. The picture was recent. Very recent. The background showed the interior of Lena’s apartment building. The realization hit me like a physical blow. They hadn’t just tracked us, they had been watching us from the moment we arrived here.

Elias continued, pulling the screen away from my face. It says: 'Vienne Caelthorne is at 412 Maple Street, Apt 3B. Ten million if she’s brought in alive. Twenty million if she isn’t. Bring her to us within five minutes before the local grid is cut”.

My lungs seized. Ten million. Twenty million.

Victor Laurent or whoever was behind this had put a literal price tag on my head and broadcasted my exact location to every dirty player, corrupt cop, and hired killers in this city.

"Who sent that?!" I cried out, my hands flying to my head. The dizziness from the blast earlier was finally catching up to me, and the blood trickling from my temple felt warm and sticky against my shaking fingers.

"Victor," Silas growled, turning sharply to grab my arm. His grip was bruising, but sincerely, it was the only thing keeping me upright. “Of course it’s victor”.

“He knows we aren’t dead” "He’s starting a feeding frenzy. He’s putting a target on our backs so thick that even if we slip past his men, the rest of the city will tear us apart trying to collect…”

I looked at Silas. He looked back at me. For a moment, neither of us spoke. It felt strangely final. I knew what they were trying to collect, he can as well just finish his sentence.

CRASH.

The window by the radiator completely exploded. Shards of glass showered the room as a heavy, dark boot kicked through the frame.

"Down!" Elias roared. Pivoting on his heel, he unleashed three rapid shots directly into the opening. A choked scream echoed from the dark alley outside, followed by a heavy, wet thud as a body tumbled down the metal step.

Even in the middle of the absolute chaos, I couldn’t help but stare at Silas. One thing I deeply love about him was that he was fiercely brave, always ready to save the people around him without a second thought.

Suddenly, From the street below, we could hear the chaotic slamming of car doors and the unmistakable, terrifying sound of automatic weapons being racked in the dark.

"Lena, move!" I shrieked, lunging forward to grab her jacket.

Lena was completely motionless, staring at the shattered glass on her floor, her chest heaving in a silent suffocating, panic attack. When I pulled her, her knees simply gave out. Silas caught her by the collar before she hit the floor, lifting her up effortlessly with one arm while keeping his gun trained on the door, pushing both of us out into the building's narrow hallway. It was our escape route.

"Elias, cover the stairs!" Silas ordered, slamming Lena's apartment door shut behind us.

The building’s hallway smelled of old carpets and stale air.

"The roof," I gasped, the walls around me tilting violently as the head wound made my vision blur. "Silas... I can't... my legs."

"I've got you. Stay with me, Vienne," he said, his voice dropping into that low, fierce frequency that always managed to anchor me. He slipped his arm under my knees, lifting me cleanly against his chest. Lena clutched at the back of his leather jacket like a child terrified of drowning.

We scrambled up the concrete steps, our frantic footsteps echoing loudly off the walls. Below us, the building's main lobby doors burst open with a deafening, splintering sound. They were coming up from the bottom and the fire escape was crawling with them from the back. The only way out was up.

Silas hit the second heavy metal roof door with his shoulder, and the freezing winter gale hit us like a physical blow. The wind howled across the gravel rooftop, swirling the falling snow into blinding white sheets.

Elias slammed the door behind us, shoving a thick iron pipe through the handle to jam it shut.

“That'll buy us two minutes max!" he yelled over the roaring wind, his gray eyes wild with adrenaline.

Silas set me down gently against the brick ledge of the roof. His large, calloused hands came up to cup my face, forcing me to look directly into his dark eye. "Vienne. Look at me."

"I'm looking," I whispered, shivering violently as the snow melted against my hot skin, mixing with the blood on my cheek.

"No matter what happens when that door gives way, you stay behind me. Do you hear me?" His thumb brushed over my cheekbone, his voice carrying a raw, heavy weight. "What happened to Marissa... I won't let it happen to you. I will burn this city to the ground before I let them touch you."

He laid Lena down after that. Tapping her chin softly to make sure she was still conscious.

Before I could even speak or check on Lena, a heavy, metallic thud vibrated through the roof doors. They were at the top of the stairs. They were throwing their bodies against the metal and the iron pipe Elias had jammed into the handle beginning to bend and groan under the immense pressure.

But that wasn't what made my heart stop.

I looked over the edge of the roof, down into the snow-covered street below.

Armed thugs. Men with masks. They were all staring up at the building, their phones glowing in their hands as they checked the map of my location. The reward was live. And that reward was obviously “ME.” The chasing has ended. We were completely cornered.

And then, with a terrifying, explosive CRACK, the iron pipe on the roof door snapped in half.

The metal door flew wide open. Through the swirling snow, I saw dark silhouette step onto the roof, their guns raised. I couldn’t tell they were clearly through the blinding white flurry.

But then, a familiar figure followed suit, stepping out from behind them into the open air.