LOGINLia sat up in bed. Heart pounding. "What's happening? Why are there police?"Caspian had his hands up. Four officers. Guns drawn. One of them is reading rights."You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you...""Stop!" Lia tried to get out of bed. An officer moved to stop her. "Don't touch me! I'm pregnant!""Ma'am, stay in bed. This doesn't concern you.""The hell it doesn't! That's my boyfriend! The father of my baby! You can't just...""We have a warrant for his arrest. Murder. He needs to come with us.""Murder? Caspian didn't murder anyone!"Caspian finally looked at her. His expression broke her heart. Guilty. Resigned. Like he'd been expecting this."Lia. It's okay. Let them do their job.""No! It's not okay! You were defending yourself! Defending me! Kozlov tried to kill us!""Ma'am, we need you to calm down or we'll have to ask you to leave.""This is MY room! You leave!"One of the officers moved toward Caspian. Handcuffs out."Wait.
Caspian parked in the hospital garage. Sat in the dark for a minute. Trying to breathe. Trying to think.Twenty-four hours. That's all he had. Before the detective came for him. Before everything fell apart.But first, Lia. He had to see her. I had to make sure she was okay.He got out of the car. His side was still bleeding through the bandage. Not bad. But enough to leave a trail. Enough to get him caught.He needed to clean up. Couldn't walk into Lia's room covered in blood and evidence.The emergency room bathroom was empty. He locked the door. Looked at himself in the mirror.Worse than he thought. Blood on his shirt. His hands. His face. Splattered across his neck where he'd missed it before.Kozlov's blood. Mixed with his own.He stripped off his shirt. Threw it in the trash. Washed his hands. His face. His neck. The water is running pink then red then pink again.The gunshot wound was still seeping. He pressed paper towels against it. Applied pressure. I waited for it to slow
The abandoned factory smelled like rust and death.Caspian stood in the shadows. Watching. Waiting. Gun in one hand. Knife in the other. Blood still seeping through the bandage on his side from the gunshot wound.He should be in a hospital bed. Should be with Lia. Should be doing anything except this.But Kozlov was here. And Kozlov needed to die.Marcus had tracked him. Found the location through a captured Bratva soldier who talked after minimal persuasion. This factory. South side. Abandoned for years. Perfect place to hide.Perfect place to die.Caspian moved forward. Silent. Every step calculated. He'd done this before. Hundreds of times. Hunted men. Killed men. This was what he was good at.This was what he was.The main floor was empty. Just old machinery and broken windows. Moonlight cutting through the darkness."Mr. Nero." Kozlov's voice echoed from somewhere above. "I knew you'd come. Couldn't resist, could you?"Caspian didn't answer. Just kept moving. Toward the stairs. T
The gunfire was getting closer. Louder. Like a war happening just outside. Julian pulled Lia away from the broken window. Pushed her behind the bed. "Stay down. Don't move." "What's happening?" "Someone's attacking the warehouse. Don't know who. Could be Caspian's people. Could be a rival to Bratva. Either way, we use the chaos to get out." "How? The door's locked. We're trapped." "Not anymore." Julian grabbed a piece of broken glass from the window. Big shard. Sharp. "When they come to check on us, I take them down. Get their keys. We run." "You're hurt. You can barely stand." "I'll manage. I've survived worse." Footsteps outside. Running. Yelling in Russian. Panicked. Scared. The door burst open. Two guards. Young. Distracted by whatever was happening outside. Julian moved. Fast. Slammed the glass into the first guard's throat. Blood everywhere. The man dropped. The second guard reached for his gun. Julian tackled him. They fought. Brutal. Ugly. Desperate. Lia watched. Fr
"We need to leave. Now." Lia was already moving. Trying to get dressed. Find some small equipments. Do anything useful while her hands shook.Julian grabbed her shoulders. "Stop. Think about this. It could be a trap.""I don't care. That's Caspian. He's surrendering himself. Because of me. I have to stop him.""How? We don't even know if that video is real. Could be old footage. Could be photoshopped like the last one.""It looked real. The timestamp was from today. And the warehouse in the background, I recognize it. Caspian showed me once. Said it was one of his properties on the south side.""Okay. But even if it's real, what's your plan? Walk in there? Ask Kozlov nicely to let him go?"Lia didn't have a plan. Just knew she couldn't sit in this motel room while Caspian traded his life for hers."I'll figure it out when we get there. But I have to try."Julian looked at her. Really looked at her. Then nodded. "Okay. We go. But we're smart about it. We scout first. Don't just rush in
Dorian walked in looking like he'd seen a ghost."What?" Caspian didn't look up from the map. He'd been staring at it for three hours. Plotting. Planning. Trying to figure out where Kozlov was hiding."I found her."Caspian's head snapped up. "What?""Lia. I found her. She's alive."The world stopped. Everything stopped. "Where? Is she okay? The baby?""Both fine. Some injuries. She was in a hospital upstate. Preterm labor scare. But she's stable now.""Take me to her. Right now.""I can't.""What do you mean you can't?""She's not there anymore. By the time I got the location, she was gone.""Gone where?"Dorian hesitated. "With Julian Ashford."Silence. Cold. Deadly."Say that again.""Julian showed up. Got her out before the Bratva could take her. They're on the run together. Have been for days.""Together.""Yeah.""Lia is with Julian. Her ex-husband. The man who destroyed her. And she's just... with him.""She didn't have a choice, Boss. The guards were dead. Bratva was coming. J
The SUV smelled like leather and cigarettes. Lia sat wedged between two men built like linebackers, her wrists zip-tied in front of her. Every time she tried to speak, the man on her left would shake his head. A silent warning.So she stayed quiet. Watched the city pass by through tinted windows. T
The SUV smelled like leather and cigarettes. Lia sat wedged between two massive men, her wrists zip-tied in front of her. Every bump in the road sent pain shooting through her arms. She'd tried screaming when they first grabbed her. One of the men had backhanded her hard enough to make her ears rin
Monday morning came too fast.Lia woke in the guest bedroom to gray light filtering through the curtains and the sound of Julian's car pulling out of the driveway. He hadn't even bothered coming in to see if she was home. Probably assumed she was at Isla's again. Or maybe he just didn't care anymor
Lia stood in front of her closet trying to decide what to wear to her own betrayal.The black dress felt too obvious. The red is too bold. She settled on dark green silk that Caspian had once said brought out her eyes. At least if she was going to gather intelligence for a blackmailer, she could lo







