LOGINKAMARAThe warehouse was a labyrinth of smoke and the metallic tang of spent brass. My ears were ringing from the breach, but I didn't stop moving. I had two of the Whitmore tactical men flanking me, their suppressed rifles scanning the shadows, but my eyes were only on the iron cage at the center of the floor."Jace!" I screamed, my voice cracking through the haze.I reached the bars just as Oscar’s lead man blew the lock. The heavy iron gate swung open with a screech. Jace was already moving, but he was stumbling, his face pale under the layer of soot and sweat."Kamara? What the hell are you doing here?" Jace’s voice was a ragged growl. He grabbed my shoulders, but he wasn't hugging me, he was trying to push me back toward the exit. "Are you insane? You shouldn't be within ten miles of this place!. If Matthias sees you, you're freaking dead, Kamara! Leave! Have you lost your mind?”"Shut up, Jace! Just shut the hell up!" I snapped, my adrenaline-spiked temper flaring. I didn't care
The world came back to Jace in a violent, hacking cough. His lungs felt like they were coated in heavy soot, and a bitter, chemical aftertaste burned the back of his throat. "Careful, Jace," a voice drifted through the shadows, smooth and cold. "The sedative can be a bit... ungraceful on the way out."Jace forced his eyes open, blinking against the harsh yellow strobe of a dying overhead light. He was in a warehouse not far from Matthias’s home. He could smell the stagnant river water and diesel fuel. Beside him, Elijah was still slumped, his breathing shallow and hitched.Matthias stood a few feet away, leaning against a scarred metal desk, swirling a glass of scotch."You bastard," Jace chuckled, the sound turning into a dry rasp. "You are insane. What makes you think this plan of yours isn't going to flop? You think Oscar is coming for us? He doesn't care whether we live or die. He’s in this for his own selfish goals. He’s spent fifteen years in the dirt—you think he’s going to ri
KAMARAThe interior of Julian’s sedan had become a war room, though it smelled more of expensive cologne and cold sweat than gunpowder. We remained parked on the jagged edge of Sector 4, the engine idling in a low, rhythmic hum that felt like a heartbeat.Oscar sat in the back, a shadow among shadows, while Julian gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles looked like white marble."The docks are a fortress," Oscar said, his voice gravelly and precise. "He knows I’m coming. In fact, he’s counting on it. He’s playing the long game, waiting for me to walk into his sights so he can finish what he started fifteen years ago."I looked at Oscar, my heart hammering. As much as the truth about my mother was clawing at my insides, as much as I wanted to scream at him to tell me the name of the man she was running to, I still wanted Jace safe. "So he knows you’re the bait. He’s prepared for you.""Exactly," Oscar nodded, his eyes glinting in the dark. "Which is why we have the element of s
KAMARAThe push leather interior of Julian’s luxury sedan felt like a pressurized chamber. Outside, the neon lights of Sector 9 blurred into streaks of sickly pink and blue as he tore away from the motel, his knuckles white as bone against the steering wheel."Can you even hear what you’re saying?" Julian shouted, his voice cracking under the weight of the night's revelations. "You want me, my men, to infiltrate Matthias ?"Precisely," I corrected, my voice cold, my eyes fixed on the dark road ahead."Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea who Matthias is? What he does to people who breathe in his direction without permission?" He glanced at me, his eyes wide with a mix of terror and disbelief. "This isn't a game, Kamara. This isn't some rebellious tantrum against your father. This is suicide.""You don't need to know the 'why,' Julian. I just need a 'yes.' I don't need the lectures, I don't need the panic, and I definitely don't need your 'crap.' I need a yes or no answer so
JACETwenty-three hours and thirty-one minutes.I didn't need a watch to know. I could feel the time bleeding away in the rhythmic, wet thud of my own pulse against the plastic zip-ties. Every time the light dipped, the darkness seemed to creep inches closer to the chair where I sat, bound and broken.Beside me, Elijah was a silhouette of jagged edges and simmering hatred. He hadn't moved for an hour. His breathing was the only proof he was still alive."Elijah," I rasped. My voice was a ghost of itself, shredded by thirst and the lingering fumes of the acid that had eaten into my thigh. "Listen to me. If Matthias moves on the estate... if he goes after the girl... it's over. For everyone."Elijah didn't even turn his head. His gaze remained fixed on a crack in the concrete floor. "Let it be over, Jace. I told you. Her blood is his blood. They are the same. I don’t care what happens to her. In fact, I hope he burns the whole damn manor with her inside it.""She’s an innocent!" I spat,
KAMARAThe silence in the room was thick enough to choke on. Julian scrambled out of the bed with a frantic, desperate energy I had never seen from him. Gone was the polished, bored heir I had met. In his place was a man fumbling with his belt, his face a mask of pure terror. Behind him, the other man with dark curls and wide, startled eyes, dived for a discarded shirt, trying to shield himself."What the hell are you doing here, Kamara?" Julian choked out. His fingers were shaking so violently he could barely catch the prong of his belt buckle. "How did you—who told you—"I didn't answer. I couldn't. My brain was still trying to reconcile the cold, dismissive man who had sat across from me at the vineyard with the trembling person currently tripping over his own trousers. I turned my back, staring at the peeling, floral wallpaper of the motel room to give them a fleeting second of dignity they hadn't earned."Buckle up, Julian," I said, my voice sounding steadier than I felt. "We’re
Kamara The click of the lock was the loudest sound I’d ever heard. It wasn't the sound of a prison cell closing this time; it was the sound of the world being shut out.Jace didn't move for a long beat. He stood with his back to the door, his hand still resting on the deadbolt. The apartment was s
Jace’s POV“Won’t you invite me in?” Oscar finally broke the silence that had been lingering for more than half a minute..I tore my gaze away from the man and locked straight onto Oscar’s gray eyes. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I demanded. “And how did you find this place?”His smirk soften
Kamara’s POVThe staycation ended the way all escapes did and I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I stepped into my apartment. Reality. It hit hard.A slow, unavoidable return to reality.Morning light filtered through my curtains as I finished buttoning my fit, a simple top matched with m
Kamara’s POVIt was well past three in the afternoon and still no sign of him.Was he deliberately avoiding me… or was I reading into things the way I always did?I shoved the thought aside, focusing instead on the cup of ice cream in my hands, the once solid, now a sad, melted swirl I kept stirrin







