MasukAVAChaos swallowed the ICU whole. Alarms screamed from every bed. Nurses and doctors rushed to evacuate patients as Victoria's poison spread through the ventilation system. Parents clutched their sick children, crying, demanding answers no one could give.And my son—my Eli—was seizing on the hospital bed, his small body convulsing as monitors shrieked warnings."We need to move him!" a doctor shouted over the noise. "Get him to the ambulance bay!""Wait!" Agent Torres grabbed the doctor's arm, her phone pressed to her ear. "I've got someone from the CDC on the line. They're saying.." She went pale. "Oh God.""What?" Liam demanded, standing on the other side of Eli's bed. His burns wept through his bandages, but he didn't seem to notice. "What is it?"Torres put the call on speaker. A woman's crisp voice filled the space between alarms. "This is Dr. Patricia Wells, CDC Special Pathogens. I've reviewed the genetic markers in the child's bloodwork. Where did you get this sample?""From
LIAMThe police helicopter touched down on Memorial's rooftop thirty seconds after Ava's chaotic landing. I stumbled out before the skids fully settled, my burns screaming in protest, my vision blurring from pain and medication."Eli!" I shouted over the dying rotor wash. "Where's my son?"A nurse rushed over, trying to guide me toward a wheelchair. "Mr. Blackstone, you need treatment. Your burns..""Where is my family?" I shoved past her, heading for the rooftop door.Inside, the corridors were controlled chaos. Doctors and nurses rushed past, and overhead speakers blared codes and room numbers. I grabbed the first person in scrubs I saw, a young resident with tired eyes."Four-year-old boy, just brought in by helicopter. Digoxin poisoning. Where?""Trauma Three, but sir, you can't just.."I was already running. My hospital gown flapped open in the back, my bandages pulled and leaked, but I didn't care. Down the corridor. Through double doors. Following the signs for Trauma.I burst
AVATime stopped. The pilot's gun was pointed at my chest, his finger on the trigger. Behind me, the paramedic continued chest compressions on my dying son. Above us, the medical helicopter circled uselessly, unable to land.Derek raised his hands slowly, blood seeping through his shirt. "Let's talk about this. Whatever they're paying you..""This isn't about money." The pilot's accent was thick, Russian maybe. "This is about loyalty. Anna saved my sister from men who would have killed her. I owe her everything.""Anna is dead," I said, my voice shaking but loud enough to carry over the rotor noise. "You're killing a child to honor a murderer.""I'm honoring a debt."The paramedic's voice cracked with desperation. "Ten minutes! His heart has been stopped for ten minutes!"Something inside me snapped. I'd watched my son be drugged, kidnapped, nearly sold for his organs, and poisoned. I'd fought monsters, survived psychiatric imprisonment, and crawled through fire. I was not going to wa
DEREKPain was nothing new to me. Two years undercover had taught me to push through bullet wounds, broken ribs, and worse. But climbing out of that ambulance with a gunshot wound in my chest, held together by nothing but kevlar and sheer stubbornness, might have been the stupidest thing I'd ever done."Agent Morrison, you need medical attention!" the paramedic shouted as I stumbled toward the police motorcade forming up behind the ambulances."That kid needs it more." I grabbed the radio from the nearest patrol car, ignoring the officer's protests. "This is FBI Special Agent Derek Morrison, badge number 7-7-4-2-9. I need immediate clearance for emergency transport to Memorial Hospital. Priority one."The radio crackled. "Agent Morrison, this is Dispatch. We're coordinating..""Coordinate faster!" I snapped, watching Ava's ambulance ahead. Through the back windows, I could see the paramedic performing chest compressions on Eli. The monitor's flat-line was visible even from here. "We'v
AVAThe world narrowed to the rhythm of my hands on Liam's chest. One. Two. Three. Four. Press. Release. Press. Release."Come on," I whispered, my voice cracking. "Don't you dare leave us now."Eli clung to my leg, his small body trembling. The smell of smoke filled the pediatric ward, and through the window, I could see flames beginning to lick up the walls of the east wing. Victoria's final act of vengeance was consuming the hospital, and we had maybe six minutes left.One. Two. Three. Four.Liam's lips were blue. His chest wasn't rising on its own. The electrical shock from the defibrillator had saved us from the locked room, but it might have killed him in the process."Mommy?" Eli's voice was so small, so frightened. "Is Daddy sleeping?""He's going to be okay, baby," I lied, pumping harder. My arms screamed with exhaustion, but I couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop.Derek groaned from the corner where he'd been shot. Blood pooled beneath him, spreading across the white tile. "Ava," he
LIAMThe morphine drip in my arm was supposed to keep me unconscious. Three days post-surgery for third-degree burns, and the doctors wanted me sedated while my body healed. But when Victoria's voice echoed through the hospital intercom, announcing that we were all going to die, the adrenaline cut through the drugs like a knife."Explosive devices have been planted throughout the building. They will detonate in thirty minutes..."Thirty minutes.Ava and Eli were five floors below me. In the pediatric ward. Trapped.I ripped the IV from my arm, ignoring the sharp pain and the blood that started flowing. My back screamed in agony as I swung my legs off the bed, every movement pulling at the burned skin and surgical staples holding me together."Mr. Blackstone, you can't.." A nurse rushed toward me, but I was already standing, swaying but upright."My family is downstairs. I have to get to them.""Sir, you've had major surgery. You need to stay in bed.."The lights flickered. Once. Twice
AVAThe clinic smelled like antiseptic and broken dreams. I sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair, bouncing Eli on my knee while we waited for the results I already knew would destroy my life. His little fingers played with the buttons on my shirt, completely unaware that his world was about to ch
AVAI hadn't eaten in two days. Food felt like betrayal when my son was somewhere I couldn't reach him, being cared for by strangers who were slowly erasing me from his memory. The empty apartment echoed with his absence, every corner holding ghosts of his laughter.The knock on my door came at exa
AVAThe morning after the gala, I woke up with a knot in my stomach that had nothing to do with the champagne I'd consumed. Victoria Sterling's possessive touch on Liam's arm kept replaying in my mind, along with that knowing smile she'd given me.I found Liam in the dining room, reading the financ
AVAThe penthouse elevator seemed to climb forever. I clutched my single suitcase, everything I owned in the world fitting into one battered bag. Beside me, Liam stood perfectly still, checking his phone like he was conducting any other business transaction."Nervous?" he asked without looking up.







