Chapter 4

Selene’s POV

The desert wind whipped across my face as Cassius pushed the bike deeper into nowhere. He didn’t slow, didn’t speak, and didn’t even look back.

Something heavy sat between us, not just fear but truth he hadn’t said yet, one I could feel pressing on the air like it was quietly waiting to explode.

I could feel it pressing down on my chest, cold and relentless, twisting my stomach into knots. God, it was suffocating.

We stopped at an abandoned service station miles off the main road. The place looked like a skeleton of a building with rusted beams, cracked walls, and broken windows, like it had been forgotten long before we arrived.

Cassius parked behind it and scanned the area as if danger lived in the shadows. Every movement he made was precise, almost predatory, as though he expected trouble to come crashing through the walls at any second.

“Get inside,” he said.

The door creaked loudly as we stepped into the dim, dusty room. Old tires were stacked in one corner. A broken stool lay on its side, the wood splintered and brittle enough to crumble.

Cassius checked each room with the precision of a man expecting death around every corner. He moved like someone who didn’t trust the silence, not even a little.

Only when he was satisfied did he nod toward a crate. “Sit down.”

I sank onto it, my hands gripping the edges like a lifeline. My palms were embarrassingly damp.

He stayed standing with his arms folded, pacing slowly near the only window. The shadows seemed to lean closer to him, bending with his presence, like they knew better than to get in his way.

“We need to talk,” he said.

My stomach tightened. “About what?”

“Your father.”

The words cut deeper than I expected. I felt a cold twist in my chest, a shiver crawling up my spine like something icy was running its fingers there.

“I don’t know anything else,” I whispered. “I already told you.”

Cassius stopped pacing. His eyes studied me the way someone studies a locked door, calculating, and searching for something hidden, something I didn’t even know I had.

“You think people just disappear?” he asked. “Not in my world.”

“I don’t know what he left behind,” I said. “He didn’t leave me anything.”

Cassius shook his head. “Oh, he left you something.”

Fear crawled up my spine like ice. “What does Darius think I have?”

“The ledger,” Cassius said. “The cartel ledger.”

My breath froze. “I don’t even know what that is.”

“It’s a list,” he said. “Names, money trails, deals…Everything Darius used to run.”

I swallowed hard. “And my father stole it?”

Cassius didn’t answer. His silence was enough, and somehow that silence felt louder than the words would've been.

“Why would he do that?” I whispered.

“To keep it from falling into worse hands, or to sell it. I don’t know.”

He let out a slow breath. “And that’s what scares me.”

I hugged my arms around myself, trying to calm the tremor in my fingers and the rapid thump of my heart. My whole body felt too loud.

“So you think I have it.”

“I think your father left it for you.”

“But why?”

“To protect it, or himself, and maybe you.”

His voice softened on the last word, turning sharper and more dangerous at the same time.

My heart stumbled, unsure whether it wanted to run or explode.

“Cassius…what if I don’t have it?”

“Then Darius will tear the world apart looking for you.”

“And you?”

His jaw flexed. “I won’t let him touch you.”

Heat climbed up my throat. Fear and something else tangled inside me, something I didn’t dare name just yet.

“Why?” I asked. “Why do you care?”

“That’s a question you don’t want answered.”

“I do,” I whispered. “Tell me.”

Cassius stepped closer, too close. Close enough that I felt the warmth of him even in the cold room.

“You look at me differently than everyone else,” he murmured. “Like I’m not the monster they see.”

“Maybe you’re not.”

“That’s the problem,” he said softly. “You make me feel like I’m someone else. Someone I can’t afford to be.”

“Cassius…”

He stepped back abruptly, as if he’d crossed a line he feared. The air shifted, sharp and cold.

“We’re resting here for a few hours,” he said. “Then we go back.”

My stomach twisted. “Back? To the clubhouse? You said someone there wants me dead.”

“They do but we can’t hide out here forever.”

“We can hide until sunrise. What if they follow us again?”

“They won’t. And if they do, I’ll handle it.”

“You can’t keep fighting everyone,” I said. “You’re bleeding and you’re exhausted.”

“I don’t get tired,” he said. “You don’t have that luxury.”

Anger flared through my fear as I stood up. “You keep talking like I’m your responsibility. I never asked you to protect me.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Cassius turned slowly, his eyes burning. “You want the truth?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“You’re not my weakness, Selene,” he said quietly. “You’re the leverage they need to break me.”

My pulse stumbled. “So that’s all I am? A weakness?”

“No. A target.”

“And what am I to you?” I whispered. “Be honest.”

He hesitated for just a moment. “You’re the one thing I can’t ignore.”

Before I could respond, thunder cracked outside. The roof rattled as a storm rolled in fast.

Cassius stiffened. “We need to move.”

“Now? It’s barely dawn.”

“It doesn’t matter. They found us.”

My blood froze. “How do you know?”

“Because the only people who know this place exists are me…and someone who’s been betraying me.”

“Who?” I whispered.

“You already know,” he said.

“No. Cassius…”

“Yes. It’s Livia.”

The world tilted. Livia, his closest officer, and his right hand woman. The one who despised me. 

“She wasn’t just giving Darius intel,” Cassius said. “She told him where I’d take you if I ever needed to disappear.”

I suspected it for months…but I didn’t have proof until now.

“So she wants me dead,” I whispered.

“No, she wants to destroy me. Killing you is the easiest way.”

The truth hit me so hard, it knocked the hair right out of my chest.

“All this time…she was working with him?”

“She’s been feeding him everything for months,” Cassius said. “And now she’s coming to finish what she started.”

A car engine roared outside, and the rain hit the roof hard enough to make dust drift down. 

Cassius stepped in front of me, gun raised. “We’re not running anymore,” he said. “We end this now.”

Footsteps crunched on the gravel, slow and deliberate. Too deliberate, like someone enjoying every step a little too much.

A voice cut through the storm, sharp, cold, and unmistakable. “Cassius,” the voice snapped.

My heart slammed against my ribs. I knew that voice. It was Livia’s.

Cassius’s hand tensed on his weapon. “Stay behind me,” he whispered.

I swallowed hard. The storm outside wasn’t the only danger tonight. Someone else was here, and whatever came next could change everything.

I could feel it in my bones, the way the air thickened, every nerve screaming. My body braced on instinct.

I clenched my fists, wishing I could make the fear disappear, wishing I had even a fraction of Cassius’s control.

The shadows moved differently now, or maybe it was me imagining them. A second later, the wind slammed the door, rattling the walls like a warning, and I knew whatever was coming wasn’t going to wait.