Chapter 12: When He Bleeds, I Break  

I woke to the taste of blood.  

Not mine.  

Roman.  

The world was sideways. Glass covered the dashboard like broken ice. My ears rang from the impact. From the scream of metal tearing.  

Then I felt him.  

Roman’s weight covered me. His arms caged my head. His body pressed against mine between the seat and the crushed door.  

“Isla.” His breath was hot against my ear. “Can you move?”  

I tried. Pain tore up my left side.  

“I am okay.” The lie tasted like copper. “Are you hurt?”  

He did not answer.  

Smoke curled from the hood. The car sat half in a ditch. The windshield was a web of cracks. Through it, I saw the black SUV reversing.  

They were coming back.  

“Roman.” I turned my head. Blood ran from a cut at his temple. It soaked into the collar of the hoodie I gave him an hour ago.  

His eyes found mine. Clear. Afraid.  

Not for himself.  

For me.  

“You have to run,” he said.  

“No.”  

“Isla, listen to me.” His hand found my face. It shook. “Julian does not want me alive. But he needs you to find the flash drive. If I am gone, you are worth more to him breathing.”  

He would let them take him. Let them kill him. If it kept me alive.  

I grabbed his shirt. “You do not get to decide that. Not anymore.”  

Headlights swept over us. Doors slammed. Boots on asphalt.  

We had seconds.  

I reached for the door handle. Jammed. The window was cracked but whole.  

Roman understood. He shifted his weight, wincing, and drove his elbow into the glass. It shattered.  

“Go,” he ordered.  

I crawled through first. Glass bit my palms. The night air was cold. It smelled like gasoline and burnt rubber.  

Roman followed. He stumbled when his feet hit the ground.  

The cut on his head was worse than I thought. His knees buckled.  

I caught him. He was too heavy. Too hurt.  

“Leave me,” he whispered against my hair.

“Please.”  

“Never.”  

Two men walked toward us. No guns drawn yet. Julian wanted Roman alive until he talked.  

I dragged Roman toward the tree line. Every step was fired in my ribs. He tried to pull his weight back. Tried to pull away from me.  

“Stop fighting me,” I hissed.  

“You do not understand,” he gasped. “If he gets me, it ends. If he gets you—”  

“He will not get me.”  

Because I was done staying small.  

High school Isla would have frozen. Would have waited for someone else to save her.  

But that girl died the night Roman woke up and looked at me like I mattered.  

A branch snapped behind us.  

“Down.” I shoved Roman behind an oak.  

A flashlight beam cut through the dark. It passed over us by inches.  

My heart was a drum in my throat.  

Roman’s hand found mine in the dirt. His fingers were cold.  

“I am sorry,” he said. The words were barely sound. “For high school. For Vegas. For not being strong enough then. For putting you in this now.”  

“Stop.” Tears burned my eyes. “You were seventeen. Your father beat you for saying no. You married me to protect me after my dad died. You lost everything.”  

“And I still hurt you.” His thumb brushed my knuckles. “I see it every time you flinch when I move too fast. I put that in you.”  

“You did not.” I turned his face to mine. “Your father did. Julian did. You took the blame so I would not have to be afraid of them. Only you.”  

His eyes closed. A tear slipped out.  

I was not just rescuing the man I loved.  

I was watching him drown in guilt for sins that were never his.  

I could not save him from that pain. Only from Julian.  

The voices got closer.  

“Check the ditch. Kade cannot have gone far in his condition.”  

Julian.  

He was here himself.  

Julian never got his hands dirty. He sent others. Lawyers. Assistants. Men in SUVs.  

If he was here, the flash drive was everything.  

Roman went still beside me.  

“Isla.” His voice was suddenly calm. Strategic. The CEO he used to be. “The flash drive. You still have it?”  

I nodded. It was in a box under my bed. Fourteen years old. I thought it held music.  

“Julian thinks it is at the estate. That is why we are here. That is why he came.” Roman’s eyes were calculating, despite the blood. “He will tear the house apart. He will not expect us to go back to the city.”  

“You want to use me as bait.” I understood.  

“I want to use us.” He cupped my cheek. “Together. No more lies. No more running. We will end this.”  

My chest cracked open.  

I pressed my forehead to his. “Okay.”  

We moved when the flashlights swung the other way.  

We were halfway to the road when Julian’s voice stopped us cold.  

“I know you are there, Roman.”  

We froze.  

“I also know she has it.” A pause. “The little nurse. Always so quiet in high school. Did you know she used to hide in the library during lunch? Your father made you follow her. Make sure she did not talk.”  

Roman’s body went rigid against mine.  

“Isla,” Julian called. His tone was almost gentle. “Come out. I will make it quick for him. You can go back to your nice, safe life. No one has to know you were married to a Kade.”  

Isolate. Manipulate. Make the victim choose silence.  

It was the same thing his brother did ten years ago.  

I felt Roman start to step forward. To sacrifice himself again.  

I locked my arm around his waist.  

“No,” I said out loud.  

Julian laughed. “She speaks.”  

Roman looked down at me. Shock. Pride. Fear.  

I met his eyes. “I am not silent anymore.”  

Then I raised my voice so it carried through the trees.  

“You want the flash drive, Julian? Come and get it.”  

The night went quiet.  

A shot rang out.  

It was not from Julian’s men.  

It came from the road.  

Roman jerked. His hand flew to his side.  

When he pulled it back, his fingers were red.  

“Roman.” My voice broke.  

He looked at me. Surprised. Like he could not believe it happened again.  

His legs gave out.  

I caught him before he hit the ground.  

“Isla,” he whispered. Blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth. “The phone.”  

I fumbled for the burner in my pocket.  

It was gone.  

In its place was a folded note.  

I opened it with shaking hands.  

Four words.  

I know what you did.  

I looked up.  

Detective Mara Singh stood at the edge of the road.  

Her gun was still raised.  

And she was aiming it at me.