LOGINElara’s hands were still shaking when she reached Damon’s office.Not the uncontrollable tremor of fear, but the aftershock of everything her body had endured in the last few hours. Smoke still clung faintly to the hem of her jacket. Her palms burned where the skin had scraped raw against concrete and metal. Every muscle protested with each step she took down the familiar corridor.And beneath all of it, the echo of Kai’s voice still lived inside her ears.Don’t… leave.She hadn’t.Not really.But she also hadn’t stayed.Because staying meant being found.And whoever had been watching them at the pier hadn’t been there by accident.The mansion greeted her with silence, but it was the wrong kind. Not the comfortable quiet she used to associate with late nights and empty halls, but something sharper. Alert. As if the walls themselves were listening.She closed the office door behind her carefully, making sure it didn’t latch too loudly. She didn’t turn on the overhead lights. The faint
The mansion had a way of pretending nothing was wrong.Its lights glowed softly, casting a warm, golden sheen over marble floors polished to perfection. The air smelled faintly of wood polish and expensive flowers, the kind chosen not for scent but for status. Even after everything Elara had uncovered, the calm felt deliberate, rehearsed, like a performance meant to lull her into lowering her guard.She didn’t.The silence felt too aware.The USB sat hidden inside her jacket, resting against her ribs like a second heartbeat. Small. Ordinary. Dangerous. Every step she took through the corridor was measured now, her senses tuned to details she had once ignored. A door closing too softly. A security camera angling just a fraction slower than usual. Footsteps that paused when she paused.Someone was close.She felt it before she heard it.“Madam.”The voice came from behind her.Elara turned slowly, schooling her expression into something neutral, something calm. Panic had never served he
Kai stood alone in the narrow corridor outside the medical wing, one hand braced against the wall as he steadied his breathing.The corridor lights were dimmed to night mode, casting long shadows that stretched and overlapped like cracks in stone. Somewhere deeper in the mansion, a clock ticked softly, each second painfully deliberate.Pain still pulsed through his ribs, deep and stubborn. It spread with every breath, reminding him of the bullet that had torn through flesh weeks earlier and the explosion that had nearly finished the job tonight. He welcomed it anyway.Pain meant he was awake. Alive. Able to think.Able to choose.Valentina’s words echoed in his head no matter how hard he tried to silence them.She was never meant to survive.He exhaled slowly through his nose, forcing the memory away. Valentina didn’t frighten him. What frightened him was how certain she sounded. How calmly she spoke about elimination, as if it were a correction rather than a death sentence.He stra
Elara’s hands were still shaking when she reached Damon’s office. Not the uncontrollable tremor of fear, but the aftershock of everything her body had endured in the last few hours. Smoke still clung faintly to the hem of her jacket. Her palms burned where the skin had scraped raw against concrete and metal. Every muscle protested with each step she took down the familiar corridor. And beneath all of it, the echo of Kai’s voice still lived inside her ears. Don’t… leave. She hadn’t. Not really. But she also hadn’t stayed. Because staying meant being found. And whoever had been watching them at the pier hadn’t been there by accident. The mansion greeted her with silence, but it was the wrong kind. Not the comfortable quiet she used to associate with late nights and empty halls, but something sharper. Alert. As if the walls themselves were listening. She closed the office door behind her carefully, making sure it didn’t latch too loudly. She didn’t turn on the overhead lights.
Kai woke to the subtle hum of machinery and the muted echo of footsteps somewhere beyond the room. His eyelids felt heavy, but the sharp sting in his ribs reminded him he didn’t have the luxury of easing back into consciousness.His first thought wasn’t his injuries.It was Elara.The last memory before darkness swallowed everything was her dragging him through smoke and fire, refusing to let go even as the world collapsed around them.He tried to push himself upright, and pain flared hot and immediate. A thin hiss escaped him, but he forced himself to sit.The room came into focus, white walls, soft clinical lighting, stainless steel counters stocked with medical equipment. A private medical wing.Valentina’s domain.GKai scanned the space, searching for Elara.Empty.His pulse quickened, not from fear, but from urgency.He swung his legs off the medical table just as the door opened.Valentina stepped inside.Her posture was as pristine as the room, composed, elegant, untouched by
Elara didn’t know how long she sat there beside Kai, listening to the distant crackle of the fire and the restless waves hitting the pier. The night air was cool against her smoke-stung skin, grounding her just enough to keep her from unraveling.Kai was unconscious but breathing. That was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.Her body was trembling, shock, adrenaline, exhaustion , she wasn’t sure. But her mind wasn’t in the harbor anymore.It had pulled her backward.To a day she had tried very hard not to remember.The wedding was beautiful.Grand, elegant, flawless, the kind of event magazines loved and strangers envied.People gasped when she walked down the aisle. Not because of her, but because the event itself demanded it. The Moretti name, the venue draped in white roses, the orchestra filling the air with a love song she never felt connected to.She remembered standing in the hallway before the ceremony, surrounded by stylists adjusting details she didn't care abou







