Lahat ng Kabanata ng Trigger Me Gently: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

“Did you ever love me?” Solene’s question hung in the haze of smoke and blood.Lucien’s heartbeat thundered beneath his vest. He didn’t answer, couldn’t. Instead, he kissed her, hard and raw, like it was their last gasp of air.INFILTRATION HALLWAY – 3:22 a.m.Solene, pistol still warm, as Lucien closes the gap, his hand steady on the weapon he dropped.Solene’s voice trembled. “If you did say it.”Lucien murmured against her lips. “I’m still here.”They stood, breath mingling, smoke swirling like ghosts. But Lucien’s eyes flicked to the detonator he dropped now silent. Gunfire echoed in the compound’s depths. The child he’d vanished. And the kill-switch? Still active.A burst of gunfire rattles the corridor’s steel doors. The compound’s power shudders, then blinks lights flicker. They move as one.Lucien whispers: “Security’s collapsing.”Solene nods, voice low: “Then we split.”She heads deeper into the compound; he goes left toward the child’s voice echoing in the network, signs of

“Smile for the camera, darling. It’s the last time your enemies won’t know what you’re planning.”Bianca’s voice was dipped in poison and champagne.Solene didn’t flinch.LOCATION: ROMANO TOWER – 57TH FLOOR PRIVATE BALLROOMTIME: 9:02 p.m.Glass chandeliers. Red silk. Wine that tasted like blood.The engagement party wasn’t just a spectacle, it was a declaration of power.Lucien stood beside Solene, sharp in black. The ring on her hand had been polished twice. His arm around her waist was a leash and a weapon.Bianca approached in white.Too white. Like war dressed up as a wedding.Bianca (smiling): “You clean up nicely, Solene. I almost forgot you broke my collarbone.”Solene: “Give me five minutes. I’ll break something you actually use.”Lucien said nothing. Just watched. Assessed. Calculated.Bianca’s voice dropped. “You should thank me. This alliance keeps you both alive. For now.”Solene: “Is that what this is? A peace treaty over hors d’oeuvres?”Bianca’s smile sharpened. “No, d

BOY: “Don’t… let her touch me.”The words were weak, almost swallowed by the dark, but they froze everyone.SOLENE: “Stay with me.”Her hands were clamped on his arm, blood seeping through her fingers.WOMAN: “He’s mine, Solene. Always has been.”Lucien stepped in front of Solene without hesitation, his pistol angled at the woman’s chest.LUCIEN: “Take one more step and you won’t walk out.”The woman’s laugh was slow, deliberate.WOMAN: “You think I’m afraid of a man who doesn’t even know the body count tied to his own name?”In the dark, Alpha’s voice slid between them.ALPHA: “She’s not here to kill the boy. She’s here to rewrite him… again.”SOLENE: “Rewrite?”Her voice cracked, but not from fear, rage.The woman tilted her head.WOMAN: “They didn’t tell you? You weren’t the first overwrite. I was. The prototype.”LUCIEN: “And they scrapped you.”Her smile sharpened.WOMAN: “No. I walked away. Took my memories with me. And now ” she glanced at the boy “I’m taking what’s mine.”BOY

SOLENE: “You’re bleeding.”LUCIEN: “Not as much as you.”The smoke was thick enough to chew. Every breath burned. Somewhere behind them, metal screamed as part of the compound collapsed in on itself.SOLENE: “You didn’t deny it.”LUCIEN: “We’re not having this conversation in a death trap.”SOLENE: “We’re having it now. Because if we don’t, I’ll start wondering if I should’ve let Angelo pull the trigger.”He grabbed her arm, yanking her behind a crumbling wall just as a burst of gunfire shredded the hallway they’d been running through.LUCIEN: “You want the truth here? Fine. I gave him the key.”Her stomach twisted.SOLENE: “Why?”LUCIEN: “Because at the time, I thought it was the only way to keep you alive.”SOLENE: “You thought letting him rewrite me was going to keep me alive?”LUCIEN: “I thought he’d only use it as leverage, not ”SOLENE: “ not turn me into a goddamn science project?”Rafael appeared through the haze, one arm around the wounded woman in black, the boy trailing beh

“Go!” Mother’s voice cracked through the roar of the flames.But Solene didn’t move. She couldn’t.The boy’s knife pressed against her ribs, the blade trembling as if caught between hesitation and fury. His eyes, lit by the inferno swallowing Angelo’s compound, weren’t the eyes of a child anymore. They were old. Broken. Familiar.Lucien’s gun was still aimed at Rafael. He didn’t blink. Didn’t waver. The world could be burning down around them and it was but his attention locked onto the brother who should’ve been six feet under.“Choose,” Rafael said softly. The word slithered through the fire like smoke. “Save the man who cages you, or save the boy who is you.”The soldiers were dead. The air was thick with blood and gasoline. The ceiling moaned as wood snapped overhead.Lucien’s voice came low, dangerous. “You staged your own death, Rafael. Why?”“Because a throne isn’t inherited. It’s stolen.” Rafael’s smirk twisted. “And you never had the hunger to steal it.”Lucien’s jaw ticked,