The air between the four of us was a live wire, humming with the kind of electricity that could set the whole place alight.Luca’s gaze snapped to Matteo, a silent warning that would’ve sent most men stepping back. Matteo didn’t blink. His stance was casual—shoulders loose, one hand still fixing the buttons on his shirt—but his eyes never left his brother’s face.“Not your call,” Luca said, voice low but edged like a blade.“It is now.” Matteo’s tone was calm, but there was a bite under it. The kind that said he’d already made his decision and nothing was going to shake it loose. “If Umbra’s using her father, we don’t sit here playing ghost stories while they get further ahead.”I felt them both looking at me, like I was the ground they were fighting over. And maybe I was. It wasn’t the first time I’d been caught between them—sometimes willingly, sometimes not—but this was different. This wasn’t about who got their way. This was about who got to protect me.“Matteo,” Luca’s jaw flexed
The quiet didn’t last.It never did.I heard Luca before I saw him—metal on tile, a slow, methodical rhythm as he disassembled his Glock on the kitchen counter. He didn’t need to say a word; the silence between us had already told its story. The weight of Berlin, the file, the name… and what had happened between Matteo and me. It was all there, unsaid, thick in the humid air of the safehouse.I moved carefully, my body still aching in places I wasn’t used to acknowledging. There was something raw in my skin, something unguarded that hadn’t been there before. Matteo was still in the bedroom, maybe asleep, maybe just quiet—he did that sometimes, vanished into himself when he didn’t want to show the world what he was feeling.I opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, the hiss of the plastic seal breaking louder than it should’ve been. I didn’t meet Luca’s eyes.“You know we can’t stay here,” he said, voice steady.“I know.”“We’ve got maybe 48 hours. Less if Umbra has eyes on Dr
39:58:42 — Safehouse | Inner City Grid, Unknown LocationWe didn’t say it aloud, but we were grateful to hear traffic again.City noise. Sirens in the distance. Neon bleeding through rusted blinds. A neighbor’s bad music pulsing through walls that hadn't been patched in years.It wasn’t home, not really. But it was far enough from Umbra, and that made it close enough.Matteo was the first through the door, shoulder pressed to the frame like he expected it to explode. Luca checked the corners before he even blinked. I just stood still, breathing it in — that musty, metallic city air. Oil. Rain. Warm dust.This place had been prepped months ago. Just in case. Different IDs. Clean clothes. Weapons. A freezer full of things none of us trusted enough to touch.But the water worked. The locks held. And for the first time in three days, no one was chasing us.No orders.No guns.Just... this.We’d made it out of Berlin with half a file, a name that shouldn’t exist, and each other.I should’v
43:01:12Berlin Compound – Lower Hangar BayThe plan wasn’t airtight. But none of ours ever were.It didn’t have to be clean—just fast.Matteo was the first to move. No orders, no questions. Just a duffel slung over his shoulder and that look he got when he’d already decided the outcome. Luca followed, slower, like he was trying to convince himself this wasn’t surrender.I was already waiting by the cargo elevator.We didn’t speak on the descent.What was there to say? Goodbyes only mattered if we didn’t make it back.The hangar was dark. Empty, except for the low hum of the private jet we’d hidden in the manifests weeks ago, back when we were still paranoid enough to plan for treason.The kind of paranoia that saves you when loyalty doesn’t.Matteo climbed the ramp first, then turned, hand out like it wasn’t a question.I took it.Luca hesitated just long enough to make us wonder if he’d bail. Then he exhaled through his nose, muttered something about regretting this already, and came
Matteo-43:37:50Berlin Compound – North WingI didn’t follow them at first.I watched the door close behind her—the girl who wasn’t supposed to come back—and for a full thirty seconds, I didn’t move.Then I did.The hall was too quiet now. No barking orders, no thudding boots. Just the hum of cold fluorescent light and the sound of a fuse burning in my chest.They were in the debriefing room.Luca. Matteo. And you.Not a word spoken when I walked in. Just the shift of weight, the electric pulse of tension.Ilya was in the center of the room, flanked by two guards and lit like she was standing in a confession booth with the wrong god listening.She didn’t look at me.Good.I wasn’t ready to look at her either.Because it wasn’t about her.It never was.You were at the edge of the table, fingers curled against the wood like you were holding something back. Luca leaned in the corner, arms crossed, but his jaw said everything. And Matteo?Matteo was watching you.Not her.I shut the door
43:59:12The clock kept ticking.But so was something else.A connection.A fracture healing sideways.A war becoming personal.43:58:31The snow was still falling.Fat, white flakes, soft as dust, burying the pine spines outside the compound walls. It should’ve felt peaceful. Clean. Like winter was trying to smother the fire we’d lit underneath it.But I knew better.Stillness was just waiting with its mouth closed.I leaned against the mezzanine rail, staring out over the lower decks. Below, security personnel moved like ghosts between checkpoints. Gear checks. Line drills. Nothing was out of place.Except me.I hadn’t slept. I hadn’t eaten.I’d just kept seeing her face.Ilya.The girl they’d built from the same wreckage they’d pulled me out of. Cold. Fast. Flawless.Until she wasn't.Until she looked at Ana and didn’t pull the trigger.That shouldn't have meant anything.But it did.It meant everything.“She’ll come back,” Luca said behind me. His voice was tight. Tired. “You know