CHAPTER 8: TARGETED

CORA'S POV

The moment the lights went out, Diamond grabbed my arm.

"Stay behind me."

Darkness swallowed the study.

For a second, I couldn't see anything.

A gunshot echoed somewhere inside the mansion.

Glass shattered.

Voices shouted through the hallways.

My pulse jumped into my throat.

"Diamond!"

"I'm here."

His voice came from directly beside me.

Another crash sounded downstairs.

I forced myself to breathe.

Panicking wouldn't help.

Thinking would.

My fingers brushed against the desk.

Then the keyboard.

An idea sparked.

I immediately sat down.

"Cora…"

"I'm not fighting."

The laptop screen flickered to life, bathing the room in a pale blue glow.

"I'm helping."

My fingers flew across the keys.

Security feeds.

Power controls.

Camera systems.

Within seconds, dozens of windows appeared across the screen.

Diamond stepped closer.

"What are you doing?"

I didn't look up.

"Taking back your house."

The first camera feed appeared.

Three masked men were moving through the eastern corridor.

I zoomed in.

"David."

Diamond instantly pulled out his phone.

"David, eastern corridor. Three hostiles."

A growl answered from the other end.

"Already on them."

The call disconnected.

I switched cameras.

"Two more near the west entrance."

Diamond's silver eyes narrowed.

"Can you slow them down?"

A smile tugged at my lips.

"Watch."

My fingers danced across the keyboard.

A second later, steel security doors slammed shut.

The intruders froze.

Then the emergency sprinkler system activated.

Water exploded from the ceiling.

One of the men slipped immediately.

The others crashed into each other.

Diamond stared.

"You enjoyed that."

"I really did."

To my surprise, he laughed.

The sound was brief but genuine.

For a moment, I almost forgot we were under attack.

Then a warning notification flashed across the screen.

My smile vanished.

"Diamond."

His expression immediately hardened.

"What?"

I pointed.

"This wasn't part of the attack."

A hidden file had appeared inside the security network.

Someone had buried it deep within the system.

The file name made my stomach drop.

DANIEL BANE

The room suddenly felt colder.

Diamond's jaw tightened.

I looked at him.

"You knew about this?"

His silence was answer enough.

Anger flared instantly.

"You knew."

"I suspected."

"That's not the same thing."

"No."

His voice remained steady.

"It isn't."

I clicked the file.

Folders appeared.

Financial records.

Communications.

Private reports.

My heartbeat quickened.

One folder stood apart from the others.

Encrypted.

Locked.

Hidden beneath several layers of protection.

I opened it.

A single document appeared.

The title made my blood run cold.

PROJECT HADES

The name felt familiar.

Dangerously familiar.

I didn't know why.

"What is this?"

Diamond stared at the screen.

"I was hoping to find out."

I opened the document.

Rows of text filled the monitor.

Most of it was encrypted.

Unreadable.

Except for one section.

My breath caught.

There was a photograph.

Me.

Nineteen years old.

Sitting in front of my computer.

I stared at it.

My stomach twisted.

"I never took this picture."

"No."

Diamond's voice turned grim.

"Someone else did."

The date sat beneath it.

Nine years ago.

The exact night I'd saved a stranger online.

The exact night I'd abandoned hacking forever.

My pulse thundered.

Beneath the photograph was a note.

Just one sentence.

SUBJECT CORA BANE IS MORE VALUABLE ALIVE THAN EXPOSED.

For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.

Diamond read it over my shoulder.

Neither of us spoke.

The words felt unreal.

Subject.

Like I was an experiment.

A project.

A target.

My hands began trembling.

"Who wrote this?"

"I don't know."

"Why me?"

Diamond remained silent.

Which terrified me more than any answer could have.

I scrolled farther.

More reports appeared.

Most were incomplete.

Some had been deleted.

Others were heavily encrypted.

But one fact became painfully clear.

Someone had been watching me.

For years.

A shiver crawled down my spine.

I suddenly remembered all the strange things I'd ignored over the years.

The feeling of being observed.

The unexplained glitches.

The anonymous messages that appeared and disappeared before I could read them.

I had convinced myself they meant nothing.

Now I wasn't so sure.

"Cora."

Diamond's voice softened.

I looked up.

His silver eyes held something unfamiliar.

Concern.

"This isn't your fault."

I laughed bitterly.

"Everything else was."

"No."

His voice hardened.

"That was never your fault either."

Emotion tightened my throat.

Before I could respond, an explosion rocked the mansion.

The windows rattled violently.

The lights flickered.

Then the security feeds went black.

Every single one.

Diamond immediately moved.

"We're leaving."

"What?"

"Now."

He grabbed a flash drive from the desk.

I quickly copied the files.

The transfer bar crawled forward.

Ninety percent.

Ninety-five.

One hundred.

"Done."

The drive disappeared into my pocket.

Diamond pulled open the study door.

Smoke filled the hallway.

Warriors raced past us.

Some were bleeding.

Others were shifting.

The entire mansion had become a battlefield.

David emerged through the haze.

Blood streaked one side of his forehead.

"Cora okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Good."

He looked at Diamond.

"This was a targeted attack."

"I know."

"They came for her."

My stomach dropped.

"For me?"

David nodded grimly.

"They asked for you by name."

The hallway suddenly felt much smaller.

Much harder to breathe in.

Diamond's expression darkened.

He took my arm.

"Come with me."

We moved quickly through the mansion.

Down a staircase.

Through a hidden passage concealed behind a bookshelf.

Finally, we reached a reinforced steel door.

Diamond pressed his hand against a scanner.

The door hissed open.

I stepped inside.

Then stopped.

Rows upon rows of computer servers stretched before me.

Massive screens covered entire walls.

Lights blinked across countless machines.

The low hum of technology filled the underground facility.

My mouth fell open.

"What is this?"

Diamond walked forward.

"My real headquarters."

I slowly turned.

"This is bigger than your office."

"Much bigger."

David laughed.

"Welcome to the part of the family business most people never see."

I stared at the endless sea of equipment.

Every instinct inside me screamed that this place held answers.

About Diamond, about Project Hades, about me, and maybe about the people hunting me.

A notification suddenly appeared on one of the monitors.

Bright red.

Urgent.

Diamond's expression changed immediately.

I followed his gaze.

The message contained only six words.

TARGET CONFIRMED. CORA BANE LOCATED.

The room fell silent.

My blood ran cold.

Whoever had been watching me for nine years had finally found me.