All Chapters of Trigger Me Gently: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

LOCATION: VAIRO TERRITORY – OUTER BORDERSTIME: 2:06 a.m.The walls were tagged now.Not with names.Not with crowns.With a mark burned into the brick a hairpin drawn in blood.The city had stopped asking where Solene went.It started asking who was helping her.And every time Morrow sent someone to investigate…They never came back.LOCATION: MORROW’S COMPOUND – STRATEGY ROOMTIME: 2:14 a.m.Morrow paced barefoot across the marble.Screens flickered. Her face smiling. Confident. In control.But her hands shook.Angelo sat in the corner, unimpressed. “They’re calling her a symbol now. A saint. A weapon.”“She’s not a ghost,” Morrow hissed. “She’s a virus.”“Then contain her.”“I can’t.”Morrow looked up, hair wild, eyes rimmed red.“She doesn’t have a name anymore, Angelo. That’s the power of it.”She jabbed her finger at the monitor.“You can’t kill what people don’t believe is mortal.”LOCATION: SAFEHOUSE – UNDERCITYTIME: 3:29 a.m.Lucien sharpened a blade against steel. Slow. Rhy

LOCATION: UNKNOWN SYNDICATE FACILITY – PRIVATE MED WINGTIME: 4:12 a.m.Rafael Vairo stood shirtless in the center of the sterile room.A biometric scanner moved over his chest.Clean vitals.He touched the ultrasound pinned beside the console.Then turned to the man standing in the corner face shadowed.“You delivered the file?”The man nodded.“It’s in Solene’s vault now. Buried beneath the kill list.”Rafael smiled.“Perfect.”Then: “And Lucien?”The man shrugged.“He thinks she’s unraveling. You’ll have time.”Rafael nodded.> “I don’t want time.”> “I want her broken.”LOCATION: SAFEHOUSE – WAR ROOMTIME: 5:08 a.m.Solene hadn’t slept.She stood barefoot on the cold tile, staring at the map, a red circle drawn around an unmarked zone: Vault Omega.Lucien entered with two files.He handed her one. "Intercepted transmission from a courier we thought was dead."She flipped it open.Photo.Of Rafael.Alive. Not hiding. Leading.Lucien handed her the second file.She froze.Ultrasoun

LOCATION: PRIVATE TRAIN – OUTSIDE NEW EDENTIME: 9:33 p.m.The carriage rattled beneath her boots.Solene stood in the center of the moving train cabin not armored, not armed.Bare skin. Black slip. Red heels.The kind of look that said this is a trap… but only to those who didn’t know her name.Lucien sat across from her.Dark shirt. Sleeves rolled. No visible weapon.But his mouth?Sharp. Waiting.“I didn’t agree to this,” he said, watching her pace.Solene didn’t stop. “You didn’t have to.”She moved like smoke, pouring herself a drink without asking if he wanted one."You're about to see Rafael’s heir for the first time," she said. "You needed to remember how it felt to want something you weren't supposed to touch."Lucien’s jaw ticked. “And that requires heels?”Solene smiled without teeth.“No. That requires you.”FLASHBACK – 11 HOURS EARLIERLOCATION: SYNDICATE SAFEHOUSEA red envelope slid across the table.Lucien read the note once. Then again. Then looked at her.“It’s from

LOCATION: BIANCA'S SAFEHOUSE – INNER COURTYARDTIME: 2:16 a.m.Rain fell like a memory sharp, relentless, unwelcome.Solene walked into the courtyard dressed in blood-red silk and silent intent. No armor. No backup. No Lucien.She’d left him on purpose.Because this was war, not rescue. And what stood between her and the child wasn’t an army.It was Bianca.She waited beneath the stone archway, blonde hair coiled like a crown, wine glass balanced in one manicured hand. The storm didn’t touch her.“You came,” she said, smiling.Solene didn’t stop walking.“I’m not here for you.”“No,” Bianca replied. “You’re here for the boy who doesn’t know what you are yet.”LOCATION SHIFT – SAFEHOUSE INTERIOR – BIANCA’S CHAMBERThe room smelled like lavender and something sweeter lies made to taste like intimacy.Bianca poured two glasses. Offered one.Solene didn’t take it.“I’m not drinking poison.”Bianca laughed, light and cold. “I don’t waste poison on women who poison themselves.”Then: “He’s

LOCATION: NEW EDEN SOUTHWEST TERRITORY BORDERTIME: 9:13 a.m.The rain had stopped, but the blood hadn’t.Solene moved through the underground checkpoint, hair damp, boots slick with soot. The child had been spotted crossing Sector 9’s smuggler lanesalone, fast, bleeding from somewhere.She didn’t ask Lucien to come this time.He came anyway.They walked in silence until they reached the gates.Then he asked, “Do you think he’s still human?”Solene didn’t look at him.> “No,” she said. “But I still am. And that’s the part that hurts.”FLASHBACK – YEARS AGO – SOLENE AS A CHILDAge ten. Small hands. Big knife.She was told to kill the girl who’d stolen from the vault.They locked them in a room. No exit.The girl cried.Solene didn’t.> “If you don’t kill her,” the voice said through the speaker, “you’ll both starve.”Three days later, Solene walked out.The girl didn’t.BACK TO PRESENTLucien saw it in her eyes.That memory.That ghost.“You’re not that girl anymore,” he said.Solene l