All Chapters of Twice His Wife: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

Aster’s movement was a blur — not the kind that came from speed alone, but the kind that came from knowing exactly where the other person would be before they got there. Anaïs shifted her weight to counter, firing as she stepped sideways, but the shot went wide. Aster was already inside her range.The rifle became dead weight. Anaïs let it fall, her hand closing around the sidearm at her thigh. Aster’s arm shot out, fingers snapping around her wrist before she could draw. The two of them locked, muscles taut, boots grinding against rusted rails.“Still hesitating,” Aster murmured, low enough to make it sound like an observation, not an insult.Anaïs twisted hard, breaking the grip, and drove her elbow toward Aster’s ribs. The other woman caught it on her forearm, turning the impact into a pivot that brought them chest to chest. Anaïs smelled dust, sweat, and the faint chemical tang of Aster’s coat. Close enough to feel the slow, steady beat of her breathing. Unshaken. Always unshaken.

The canyon held its silence like a secret. Even the wind seemed to pass it by, skirting the rim instead of slipping down to the floor where they’d made camp. The fire was small, more ember than flame, barely enough to heat the tin of coffee Julien nursed between his hands.Anaïs sat apart from the others, perched on a flat slab of rock near the canyon wall. She’d cleaned her rifle twice already, then her sidearm, then the knife she’d retrieved after the fight. Her fingers weren’t restless; they were disciplined. But every so often, her gaze drifted toward the narrow cut of sky overhead, as if she could read movement there.Cassian walked over quietly. The chain marks on his wrists had gone from raw to bruised, purple shadows in the moonlight. He carried a cup of coffee in one hand, offering it to her.“Julien says we’ll hit the west pass by midmorning,” he said.She took the cup but didn’t drink. “If we’re not intercepted.”Cassian crouched beside her. “You think she’ll follow?”Anaïs

The road felt different after Aster vanished. Not quieter ; the rain still beat the roof, the tires still hissed , but heavier. Every turn in the darkness looked like it could hold her. Every shadow carried weight.Julien kept the truck at a cautious crawl, eyes scanning the slick ribbon of road ahead. Cassian rode shotgun, his grip tight on the recovered pistol, thumb resting along the frame. In the back, Anaïs sat with her rifle across her knees, watching the side mirror as if the rain might spit Aster back onto the road behind them.“She’s not gone,” Anaïs said finally.Julien didn’t look away from the road. “You think she’s pacing us?”“I think she’s making sure we know she can. That’s worse.”Cassian didn’t turn his head, but Anaïs saw his jaw tighten. “We could double back. Take the ridge road, come at the pass from the east.”“She’d expect that,” Anaïs said. “She’s counting on us to start running sideways.”Julien exhaled slowly, the sound almost lost under the rain. “Then what

The tires finally bit into solid ground, and Julien didn’t ease off until the river was nothing but a black ribbon behind them. Mud sprayed in heavy arcs, slapping against the sides of the truck. The cab smelled of wet metal, diesel, and rain-soaked clothes.No one spoke for the first mile. The only sound was the hiss of tires over soaked dirt and the steady thump of Anaïs’s pulse in her ears.Cassian was the first to break the silence. “You should’ve let me go out there.”Anaïs kept her gaze on the road ahead. “She wanted me. Sending you would’ve been a waste.”Julien glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “You really think she would’ve let you walk away if she had a choice?”“She did let me walk away,” Anaïs said. “That’s the problem.”Julien shook his head and turned back to the road, the wipers beating a slow rhythm.Cassian leaned back, arms crossed, eyes on the side window. “South’s a trap.”“I know,” Anaïs said.“So we’re cutting east?”Anaïs didn’t answer immediately. She coul

The fence rattled behind him, a high, metallic shiver that carried the sound of pursuit. Cassian didn’t look back—he couldn’t afford it. His breath tore in his throat as his boots hit the brittle ground beyond the fence, each stride a jolt that sent pain spiraling up his calf. The horizon stretched out ahead in blinding, flat expanse, the heat shimmering so thick it bent the edges of the world.The drive felt heavier than it was, its hard edges biting into his palm as if it knew how many lives it carried inside. He kept his grip tight, fingers damp, and scanned the line of pale land for the shadow of Anaïs.She was out there. Somewhere.The wind was sharper beyond the fence, cutting across the flats with a kind of low, constant whisper. It carried the stink of something scorched—metal, maybe. Or flesh. His lungs burned, each inhale tasting faintly of ash. Somewhere to his left, the dry grass crackled under heavier boots. Aster’s men.He veered hard right.A cluster of low rock lay a h