LOGINELARA
"Honestly?" His hand comes up, fingers brushing my jaw. "I wasn't really sure you would come. That you'd realize after you get home what a monumental mistake you were making and decide to cut your losses."
The vulnerability in his voice surprises me.
"And if I had?" I ask softly. "If I hadn't come?"
"Then I would've respected your decision." His thumb traces my lower lip. "After I finished losing my mind."
Despite everything, I smile. "You don't strike me as someone who loses control easily."
"I don't." His eyes bo
ELARA I go back to work one week after Richard's arrest. Jennifer hugs me the moment I walk into the office. "Oh my God, we were so worried. Are you okay?" "I'm fine." The lie comes easily now. "The family emergency is resolved. Everything's back to normal." But nothing is normal. I sit at my desk and stare at emails I can't process. Every sound makes me jump. Every person who walks past my office makes my heart race. I keep expecting Richard to appear, to prove that his arrest was just another manipulation, or another trap. Reeves is with me constantly. Still playing the role of personal assistant, but now there's no real threat. Just lingering fear. "You should take more time," she says at lunch, watching me push food around my plate. "I need to work. I need to feel productive and feel ..." I trail off. "I don't know what I need." "You need therapy." Her voice is gentle. "Professional help processing the trauma. What you went through...what you survived...that does
ELARA Hayes appears, and checks Richard's pulse. "He's alive. It is a shoulder shot. He'll survive." "Good." Damien kneels beside Richard, who's gasping, and clutching his bleeding shoulder. "You're going to prison. Real prison this time, not the country club facility you had before. Federal Supermax. Twenty-three hours a day in a concrete box. No windows. No visitors. No chance of parole." Richard coughs, blood on his lips. "You can't—" "I already did. The moment you tried to kill Elara, you became a federal target. Attempted murder of multiple people. Conspiracy. Domestic terrorism for the bomb threat—even though it was fake, you claimed it was real. That's enough for life." Damien stands. "You wanted to destroy me. Instead, you gave me everything I needed to bury you. Forever." "I'm your father—" "You're nothing." Damien turns away. "Hayes, get him a medical attention. Just enough to keep him alive for trial. Then transfer him to federal custody. I don't want to see hi
DAMIEN Time freezes. As Richard's finger hovers over the trigger, his smile is sharp and triumphant and the four cases of cash sit open between us, the hundred-dollar bills stacked neat and perfect...bait that worked too well. "Tick tock, son." His voice is calm and amused. "Every second you waste deciding is another second closer to everyone in this building dying. Including you." My mind races through scenarios. Call his bluff...but what if it's real? Let him go...but he'll come back, always come back. Shoot him...but if the trigger is a dead man's switch, we all die anyway. Hayes's voice crackles in my ear. "Sir, thermal sweep detected anomalies in the ventilation system. Multiple heat signatures consistent with explosive devices. He's not bluffing." Fuck. "How much C4?" I ask quietly. "Enough to collapse the sublevel and everything above it. We're evacuating the building now, but it'll take at least ten minutes to clear everyone..." "We don't have ten minutes." I keep my
DAMIEN Dawn comes too fast. I'm dressed by 6 AM with tactical gear under my suit, and a vest under my shirt, I place the comms device in my ear, while Hayes does a final check of all equipment. "Teams are in position," he reports. "There are snipers on four surrounding buildings. The ground team in the vault sublevel. The extraction vehicles are in the underground garage. And some medical team that are standing by two blocks away. We're ready, sir." "Good." I check my watch. "Richard gets his access code at 11 AM. We go in at 11:30, make sure everything is perfect. He arrives at noon." Elara appears, already dressed despite the early hour. "I made coffee." "Thank you." I take the mug she offers, our fingers brushing. "You should try to rest—" "I'm not resting. I'm waiting." She sits on the couch, Sophia joining her. "We'll be right here. Watching the feeds Hayes set up and waiting for you to come home." "I will come home." I kneel in front of her, taking both her hands. "I pr
DAMIANThe bedroom is dark except for the faint silver of moonlight slipping between the curtains, painting stripes across the sheets. Elara’s request hangs in the air between us—raw, desperate, and impossible to refuse.I roll her beneath me in one smooth motion, bracing my weight on my forearms so I can look down at her. Her eyes are wide, glistening with fear and need tangled so tightly I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.“It’s not the last time,” I repeat, voice low. “But I’ll give you everything you want tonight. Every touch. Every breath. Until you forget there’s a tomorrow at all.”I kiss her slowly at first—deeply, and deliberately, tasting the salt of her unshed tears on her lips. My tongue strokes hers in lazy rhythm, coaxing her to open, to melt, to let me in. She sighs into my mouth, hands sliding up my back, nails digging into me just enough to sting.I trail my mouth down her throat, biting softly at the pulse point that flutters under my lips. She arches,
DAMIEN The video call is scheduled for 10 AM. I'm in the office by 8, going over every detail with Hayes and the operator who'll play the bank manager—Miller, mid-fifties, with grey temples, and expensive suit that screams old money and discretion. "Remember," I tell him for the third time, "you're not trying to convince him. You're doing him a favor. This whole setup is for his benefit, his security, his paranoia. You're the professional facilitating an unusual but legitimate transaction." Miller nods, his expression perfectly bland. "I've run ops in hostile territory where one wrong word meant death, sir. I can sell a banking transaction." "Good." I check my watch. "Elara and Sophia will stay out of frame. Hayes, your team is monitoring audio and video feeds. The moment Richard agrees to the location and time, we move into final positioning." "Already coordinated," Hayes confirms. "Snipers are placed on rooftops surrounding the vault. There's surveillance in every direction an







