LOGINCeline's POVThe black SUV turned the curve in the road, and that was it; Caelum was gone.I watched it drive down the street out of the window of the safe house, holding my hand flat on the cold glass, Hope snuggled up against my chest in her wrap carrier. She was asleep, her mouth open slightly and looking with an innocence unknown to her of the terror that walked in behind this man who had become her father — unaware that he had just stepped into something that would at least leave him limping. I envied her that peace. I hadn’t experienced anything even resembling peace in days.“You need to move back from the window.The voice belonged to Elena. She said it the way she said everything, without warmth, without apology, as if words were nothing more than tools she wielded to achieve an end. She was in her mid-forties, lean-jawed, with silver running through her dark hair and eyes that never stopped for long upon anything. She had been identified by Victoria as ex-Mossad. And it seem
CAELUM'S POVWithout waiting, without a word exchanged we just ran. Victoria was behind us, pretty fast and nimble for being over fifty. I am carrying Hope in this car seat carrier, pressing it into my chest and holding on to keep it steady, with Celine close behind me, reaching back over my shoulder to press her hand against my back so no one gets lost or separated in the madness.Kent and Ryker provided a direct distraction, as they took on the shooters who turned away from our escape route to face them. All over the library building, there were gunshots and people screaming in terror. I detested putting innocents in the line of fire, but we really had no choice.We poured out of a back door Kent had identified while scouting the place, and into an alleyway where Amaya was parked behind the wheel of a stolen SUV with its engine running.Frantic, we dove in last second, barely able to get the doors shut before Amaya hit the gas. We burned rubber, screeching against the highway paveme
CELINE'S POVVictoria’s face grew serious as she took her seat in the corner private study room that Kent managed to reserve for us. Hope lay on my arm, fast asleep; her little face was calm and serene — she knew nothing of the peril that threatened us from every side!“Just before Vivienne died, she put into effect what they call a dead man’s switch,” Victoria said, speaking softly and urgently as the two of us looked around to ensure we had privacy. “It’s Alexander thhat we have in much of the rest of the world. Every six months she had to check in with a very specific coded message sent to a secure server, or some information would automatically be made public in such a way that her enemies would read it. Extremely detailed, damaging information.""What kind of information exactly?" Caelum inquired, though his voice indicated he was fairly certain the answer wasn't going to be a pleasant one.My stomach dropped sickeningly. “How many days has it been since she died in that warehou
CAELUM'S POVI looked at the crib, and memories washed over me — thoughts that I’d buried and repressed for the better part of 20 years. Victoria, my own aunt who was Vivienne's little sister. I was a mere 8 years old when she’d been presumed dead, too young to grasp the enormity of death and the grief that followed its wake.I remembered her being essentially gentle where Vivienne was hard and cold. Warm and kind where Vivienne was calculating and distanced. She had read me bedtime stories when I came over to her apartment, showed me how draw simple little pictures, and thought of me as an actual child and not a future mafia don born for power.Then came the fire. A fire at her apartment building, which burned to the ground and killed six people, including Victoria. The family said it was just a sad accident, a case of shoddy wiring or something. That Victoria died trying to save other people, heroic until the end.Vivienne grew colder after that, even more cutthroat when it came to
CELINE'S POVCaelum went as white as a sheet, just fucking staring at his phone screen with all the color sucked out of him like somebody had pulled a plug. He was near the hospital room window, completing the last of the nominal discharge paperwork. Twelve hours of labor had already left me speechless from exhaustion, but in too much happiness to be too concerned over my aches and pains as I held baby Hope against my chest.But when I saw his face, my stomach sank."What's wrong?" I asked right away, moving Hope veru gently.He attempted to conceal it, stuffing the phone in his pocket. "Nothing. Just a congratulations text from Kent about the baby.”"Show me." I knew him too well, after all we had been through. Could see and read every micro expression that crossed his face."Celine, you just gave birth. You’re supposed to be asleep, not worried about —”"Caelum. Show me the message. Now."He paused for a long second weighing whether to shield me from whatever it was. Reluctantly, h
CAELUM'S POVSophia let go of the gun as if she had been burned by it, struggling to still her shaking hands. The weapon clanked to the lighthouse floor, and its echo broke his thoughts in the silence following his shot. "I came after you," she whispered so that her words were lost to me over the roar of my fluttering heart and the boom of waves breaking far below. "I thought I could help you out after what all you did for me. I couldn’t just be here, safe at home while you went out again and risked your life.”I simply nodded, too stunned and overloaded to reply in kind with words. I was still thinking through what had just happened, how close we’d come to it all falling apart. I knelt down beside Celine and took her in my arms, patting her hurriedly to check for any damage I might have ignored. "Are you okay? Is the baby okay? You're supposed to be in the hospital on bed rest, hence what are you doing here by yourself?“I’m O.K.,” she said, out of breath and crying and laughing at t
Celine's POVThe campus exploded.When I returned to my dorm, reporters were already staking out the building. News vans were parked up and down the street, cameras trained on every doorway. Students gathered in clusters, phones out, filming everything."Miss Moretti! Is it true that your partner w
Celine's POVThree hours.Three hours to my mother’s place. And three hours of highway stretching on indefinitely while my mind whirled in the world of worst case scenarios.I couldn't stop shaking. Couldn't breathe properly. I closed my eyes, and I saw my mother’s face, heard her terrified voice b
Caelum's POVMax the security was just as awful as I remembered!I'd been in worse situations. Had been snatched by rivals, tortured for information, left for dead. But this time there was no way out. No backup plan. No exit but through the judges and lawyers who had wanted me dead or at least lock
Caelum's POVI stayed locked on my mother, gun to gun, every instinct screaming that the threat was gone."What did you do?" My voice was flat, controlled."Isn't it obvious?" Vivienne waved Dante over with her now-clean blade. "I found the guy who threatened my kids and fiancee. I extracted inform







