CHAPTER 5 - The Point of No Return

"Step away from her, Cross." Richard's voice shook despite his attempt at authority. "This does not concern you."

Damien's laugh was dark, lethal. "Everything about her concerns me now." His eyes never left mine. "What is it going to be, Flora? The cage or the fire?"

Richard's grip on my hand tightened painfully. "Flora, be reasonable. This man is a criminal. My father can have him arrested within the hour."

"Try it." Damien's hand moved to his waistband, and I saw the glint of metal. A gun. "See how that works out for you."

The associate reached inside his jacket. Damien's weapon cleared leather first, aimed directly at the man's head.

"Do not." The command was soft, absolute. "Unless you want your brain decorating this elevator."

Everyone froze.

"Flora, listen to me." Richard pulled me closer, using me as a shield. "This is who he really is. Violent. Dangerous. Is this what you want? A life of running and hiding?"

"Better than suffocating in yours." The words ripped from somewhere deep inside me. "Let me go, Richard."

"I cannot do that. I love you."

"You love controlling me. There is a difference."

His fingers dug deeper into my wrist. "Everything I have done is for us. For our future. You are just confused—"

"She said let her go." Damien's voice dropped to a deadly whisper. "I will not ask again."

"You will shoot me? Here? Witnesses everywhere?" Richard's confidence returned. "You are not that stupid."

"You sure about that?" Damien cocked the gun. "I have killed for less."

The words should have terrified me. Instead, something primitive and wrong inside me thrilled at his lethal protectiveness.

"This is insane." Richard's associate raised his hands slowly. "Mr. Ashford, we should call the police—"

"No police." Richard's mask finally cracked, revealing desperation underneath. "Flora, please. Think about what you are throwing away. Your family. Your reputation. Everything we built together."

"We did not build anything. You constructed a prison and called it love."

"I gave you everything!"

"Everything except freedom."

Damien extended his free hand toward me. "Come here, Flora. Now."

The elevator swayed slightly, suspended between floors. Between lives. Between the woman I was supposed to be and whoever I might become.

"If you go with him, you are dead to us." Richard's voice turned cold, clinical. "My father will make sure of it. Your family will disown you. You will have nothing."

"Then I will have nothing." I yanked my hand free from his grip, stumbling toward the open doors. "But it will be mine."

Damien caught me, pulling me through the gap into the maintenance shaft. His arm locked around my waist as he holstered his gun.

"Bad decision, Flora!" Richard shouted behind us. "My father owns this city. There is nowhere you can hide that he will not find you!"

"Let him try." Damien guided me to a metal ladder. "Climb. Fast."

My bare feet found the rungs, and I climbed with adrenaline-fueled speed. Damien followed, his body blocking any pursuit from below.

"Where are we going?"

"Roof. I have transport waiting."

We emerged into cold night air. A motorcycle sat running beside the roof access door, held steady by a massive man covered in club patches.

"Took you long enough, brother." The man grinned at me. "She worth all this trouble?"

"More than." Damien swung onto the bike. "Flora, this is Bull. Bull, Flora. Now let us move before building security responds."

I climbed on behind Damien without hesitation, wrapping my arms around him.

Bull laughed. "She is already trained. Nice." He climbed onto his own bike. "Victor's men are circling the block. We take the north route?"

"Yeah. Stay tight."

We tore across the roof, launching off a ramp I had not noticed onto the neighboring building. My scream was lost in the roar of engines and the impossible thrill of flying through darkness.

We jumped two more buildings before descending a fire escape, emerging in an alley three blocks from the hotel.

"Who the fuck was that suit?" Bull pulled up alongside us as we hit street level.

"Her ex-fiancé's cleanup crew." Damien's voice was tight with barely controlled rage. "Connected to Marcus Ashford."

Bull whistled low. "The Marcus Ashford? Real estate developer Marcus Ashford?"

"The same."

"Fuck me. She really knows how to pick enemies."

"Not helping, Bull."

We weaved through late-night traffic, sirens wailing somewhere behind us. My heart would not stop racing. Everything I knew was gone. Everything I was supposed to be had died in that elevator.

Damien took us to a compound on the city's outskirts, surrounded by high fences and watchful men. The Iron Wolves clubhouse. Motorcycles lined the lot like metal soldiers.

Inside, the place smelled of motor oil, leather, and smoke. Men stopped talking as we entered, their eyes tracking me with open curiosity.

"Church. Now." Damien's command sent everyone scrambling. "Flora stays with me."

He pulled me into a back room—an office decorated with weapons and maps. The door closed, and suddenly we were alone again.

"You chose me." He turned, cupping my face with surprising gentleness. "Do you understand what that means?"

"That I am insane?"

"That you are mine. Really mine. No take backs. No running home when things get hard." His thumb traced my cheekbone. "The Ashfords will not stop. They have money and power. They will come after you. After us."

"I know."

"And you still choose this?"

I thought about Richard's cold eyes, the suffocating expectations, the life that was not really living. Then I looked at Damien—dangerous, violent, but real. So devastatingly real.

"I choose this."

His kiss was possessive, claiming. When he pulled back, his expression had shifted to something darker.

"Good. Because I just got word from my president." His jaw clenched. "The Ashfords? They are bankrolling the Savage Kings. Your ex-fiancé's family is funding the war against my club."

The floor tilted beneath me.

"Which means, Flora, you are not just my woman anymore." His eyes burned into mine. "You are a weapon. And we are going to use you to destroy them all."