All Chapters of The Devil's Game: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

Eleanor looked out toward the sea, where gulls wheeled above the cliffs. Her jaw tensed, but she spoke with practiced calm."I heard. It was in the papers, as you said. Plane crash over the Alps. No survivors recovered.""But you don’t believe it."Her aunt glanced at her, a flicker of something in her eyes. "I didn’t. Not at first."Ayra sat forward slightly. "So you looked into it."Eleanor didn't answer immediately. She adjusted the edge of her sleeve, smoothing an invisible crease."I asked a few friends to verify the story," she admitted. "Former colleagues, mostly. People with access to things the public doesn't see."Ayra's fingers tightened around the teacup."And?"Eleanor's tone was soft. "The crash was real. The manifest confirms Ferdinand was on board. The wreckage matched the tail number of his jet."Ayra closed her eyes. The warmth of the tea now felt far away. Her mind reeled with memories, not of love or comfort, but of cold conversations in his study, of documents sig

The soft, calculated murmur of conversation drifted through the hall of the Blackstone Hotel in Vienna. Businessmen in tailored suits sipped whisky. Lucian stood by the window, phone in hand, unmoving. The skyline stretched before him, a sea of glittering glass, but his focus was entirely on the name that had just echoed in his ear."Ayra."Nico's voice was quiet but urgent on the other end of the line. "She's gone. Slipped out last night during the fire. We just confirmed it."Lucian turned from the window slowly. "Gone?""We’ve tracked the incident to Eleanor Cartwright. She’s taken her. Possibly drugged. We got video confirmation—her license plate matches. Our men saw her exit a pharmacy with Ayra. She’s in disguise. They couldn’t follow, but they got enough to ID."There was a beat of silence.Lucian’s fingers clenched around his phone.Not Ayra. Not Eleanor.He had expected disappointment. Frustration. Even cold rage. But what coiled in his chest now was worse—something hot, twi

Fifteen minutes later, the black Land Rover crested a ridge. Nico scanned the terrain with a scope. A trail of tire treads weaved through the gravel, freshly marked."Got you," he muttered.---In the Audi, Eleanor's phone buzzed. She read the message, her jaw tightening."We may need to change the drop point," she told the driver. "If they catch on..."Ayra stirred again. Her lips finally moved. "Where... are we...?"Eleanor glanced over. "Still with me, pet? You're not supposed to be."Her tone had lost all pretense."You’re going somewhere nice. Somewhere they'll never find you. Think of it as... a long vacation."Ayra tried to move her arms. The straps held.She despaired, knowing no one was coming for her. ---Twenty minutes later, the mountain air crackled with incoming vehicles. Nico signaled for a wide flank.But when they reached the convoy—they found only the decoy car. Empty. Clean.The woman inside wasn’t Ayra.Nico stepped out, breathing hard."Nothing?" asked one of the

An hour later Lucian and Lisbeth pulled up beside a large van parked beneath a rocky outcropping. It was Lisbeth's and was obviously a mobile tech unit. How exactly she had managed to get something like that out here in such short notice was anyone's guess but then again she was a Russo. She had learnt from the best. The desert heat radiated off the sand like a second sun, burning through tires and patience. Lisbeth leaned over the control terminal inside her mobile unit, fingers flying across the keyboard. Lucian stood nearby, silent but tense. His sharp eyes tracked her every move as she requested access to a military-grade satellite system through a hidden backdoor."You have five minutes before they notice this breach," he warned her tightly."I'll only need three," she replied, jaw set, focus narrowed.Lisbeth had never been this involved in a live operation before, not since the academy, but desperation sharpened her intuition. Lines of encrypted code scrolled past. Her algori

The Wendell agents must have parked it for extraction—either for the handler or for Eleanor. It didn’t matter. Luck, finally, had dealt him a single card.He half-carried Ayra to the car, every step jarring his stabbed arm. When he got to the door, he yanked it open with one hand and slumped her into the backseat, her limp body settling with a thud that made him wince. He climbed into the front, hotwired the engine in seconds, and the vehicle snarled awake.Dust exploded beneath the tires as Lucian pulled away, the SUV tearing across the cracked remnants of a forgotten service road. The sun was already melting into the horizon, casting long shadows that danced with their flight.Ayra stirred in the backseat. Her head shifted, her lips moved."Lucian…?"His hands tightened on the wheel. He glanced into the rearview mirror and saw her eyes, half-lidded, barely tracking movement."You’re safe now," he said quietly. "Just breathe.""Where…" she whispered, "where are we...?""Far from them.