29

Sierra’s POV

The week that followed was the strangest of my life. It felt like living in the calm eye of a hurricane we had hired to protect us.

There were no more threatening texts. No sinister figures in grainy photos. Instead, I received a single, efficient email from an address named “AFord Consulting.” It contained a detailed, three-page security assessment of our estate, pointing out two vulnerabilities in the perimeter fence our own team had missed. The tone was cold, professional, utterly devoid of emotion. It was signed, *A. Ford*.

Elias Crowe was already at work.

Louis handled the correspondence, his responses just as clipped and businesslike. It was a transaction. A monstrous, necessary transaction. But seeing him interface with the man who had threatened to hurt Katie made my skin crawl.

The psychological whiplash was severe. One day I was tasting genuine peace, the next I was co-signing a deal with the devil. I’d lie awake at night, Louis’s steady breath against my neck, and wonder what we had become. Were we the heroes of our story, or had we just become a more refined kind of villain to survive?

My only solace was Katie. She was oblivious, thriving in the routine of her new, secure life. She had started calling the main security guard, Ben, “Uncle Ben,” and he’d started carrying apple juice boxes in his suit pocket for her. That slice of normalcy, that pure, uncomplicated love, was my anchor.

Louis felt my turmoil. He didn’t try to pretty it up. One evening, after Katie was asleep, he found me on the terrace, staring into the dark.

“We crossed a line,” he said, standing beside me, his gaze on the same nothingness. “There’s no going back.”

“Does it bother you?” I asked quietly. “What we did?”

“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “It bothers me that it was necessary. It bothers me that the world is a place where a man like Crowe exists, and where dealing with him is the smartest option. But does it bother me that I did it to keep you and Katie safe?” He turned to me, his face etched in moonlight. “Not for a second. I would burn down every line, every rule, every last shred of my own soul before I let anything happen to you.”

His absolute certainty was both terrifying and comforting. He bore the moral weight so I wouldn’t have to. But I didn’t want that. I had chosen to stand beside him. That meant standing in the shadow too.

“I’m not sorry either,” I said, surprising myself with the truth of it. “I’m disgusted by the method. But I am not sorry for the result. He’s gone from a threat to… an employee. A horrible, dangerous employee, but one on our payroll.”

Louis pulled me to him, a rough, grateful sound escaping his chest. “My fierce queen.”

The “extraction plan” for Crowe’s transformation into Alistair Ford was set for the weekend. It was a complex, multi-stage operation that involved private jets, forged immigration stamps, and a luxury apartment in Sydney that was already purchased and waiting. Our money was building his cage.

The night before he was to leave, another email arrived. This one was for me.

*Ms. Trevane,*

*Prior to my departure, I have completed a secondary review. Your friend, Jasmine Reid, remains a soft target. Her building’s security is inadequate. As per our agreement, I am protecting the asset (your family). She is a subsidiary asset. I have taken the liberty of having a state-of-the-art system installed in her apartment today. The bill is enclosed. Consider it a signing bonus.*

*- A. Ford*

Attached was a invoice for twenty thousand dollars for a security system I never ordered. And a photo, taken from a discreet distance, of Jasmine carrying groceries into her building, completely unaware.

I stared at it, a cold nausea rising in my throat. He was still watching. He was just watching *for* us now, instead of against us. The violation felt the same.

I showed it to Louis. His jaw tightened. “He’s establishing his value. Proving his reach. It’s a power play.”

“We have to tell Jas,” I said. “She can’t come home to a system she didn’t install. She’ll think she’s being stalked!”

“We tell her a version of the truth,” Louis decided. “That due to the lingering threats from Victor’s world, we’ve taken the precaution of upgrading security for our closest contacts. It’s not a lie.”

It was a lie of omission, a glossy varnish over the rotten truth. I called Jasmine.

“Hey, fancy lady! To what do I owe the honor?”

“Jas… listen. Something’s been installed at your place today. A security system.”

Silence. Then, “What? Sierra, what’s going on? Did someone try something?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” I used the script Louis and I had hastily prepared. “It’s just… Louis’s security team did a review. With everything that happened, they said people close to us could be potential targets. They recommended upgrades. I should have told you first, I’m so sorry, it all happened so fast…”

I could hear her breathing, processing. “So… you had a billionaire’s security team burglarize my apartment to make it safer?”

“When you put it like that…”

She laughed, but it was tense. “It’s okay. I get it. It’s the world you live in now. Just… warn a girl next time, yeah? I almost peed myself thinking a serial killer had rearranged my furniture.”

We talked a little longer, but a new distance had crept into her voice. The gap between my old life and my new one was now a physical thing, installed in her home without her permission.

After the call, I felt profoundly lonely. I had Louis. I had Katie. But I was losing my tether to the person I used to be.

The next day, Crowe vanished. One minute he was a digital ghost in our servers, the next he was gone, his old identities scrubbed, his trail cold. Alistair Ford landed in Sydney on a private visa, took possession of a waterfront apartment, and sent a single, encrypted file.

It was the second key. The one that, combined with the key Louis already had, could permanently destroy the recording of the Victor deal.

Louis verified it. Then he destroyed both keys.

The recording was gone. The immediate sword over our heads was gone.

But the man who had wielded it was now on our payroll, living in a palace we bought, his loyalty secured only by his own self-interest and our continued power.

That night, Louis took me out to the terrace again. The air was clear. The threat, for now, was oceans away.

“It’s done,” he said.

“Is it?” I asked, leaning into him. “Or did we just plant a time bomb on the other side of the world?”

He didn’t have an answer. Instead, he kissed me, a deep, searching kiss that held all the fear, the guilt, the desperate love, and the grim triumph of the last week.

We had traded a clear enemy for a nebulous, controlled one. We had secured our safety at a terrible moral cost.

As I kissed him back under the indifferent stars, I made a silent vow. We had walked into the shadows to protect our light. I would not let the shadows consume us.

We had a monster on a leash.

Now, we had to learn to live with the sound of its chains.