جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 70

Elara’s POVThe lockdown lasted two hours. Those two hours felt longer than the execution, longer than the video from the warehouse, and longer than the moment I realized someone had tried to access the reinforced room where I had been resting.Ruin returned to me just before midnight.His shirt was wrinkled, and there was a faint smear of dust along his sleeve. His expression was controlled, but his eyes were sharp in a way that told me he had not found what he wanted.“They cleared every corridor,” he said. “There was no one inside the lower level.”“The scanner logged an attempt,” I replied.“Yes,” he said. “The attempt came from a cloned access chip.”I felt my shoulders tense. “So they can copy our credentials now.”“They can copy a basic chip,” he corrected. “They cannot bypass biometric authentication.”“They are trying to learn how,” I said.He did not deny it.Axel had already left to coordinate external patrols. The house felt quieter now, but the quiet was not comforting. I

Elara’s POVThe image on the screen did not blur or distort; it was clear. My father knelt on the concrete floor of the warehouse with his hands bound behind him. His head was lowered, but he was conscious. Behind him stood a man in dark clothing whose face was partially obscured by shadow. What froze my blood was not the masked figure in front of my father. It was the man standing off to the side.He wore one of our club patches. Not a replica or a blurred guess, but one of ours.I looked at Ruin slowly. “That patch is real.”“Yes,” he replied.He did not raise his voice, he did not curse, and he did not react outwardly at all. The stillness in him was worse than anger.Axel leaned closer to see the screen clearly. “Zoom,” he said.Ruin expanded the image.The club insignia was unmistakable. “That narrows the list,” Axel muttered.“It narrows nothing,” Ruin corrected. “It expands it.”I understood what he meant. The betrayal could be internal, or it could be staged. It could be plant

Elara’s POVWe left the estate before dawn. Ruin did not announce the move to anyone beyond his inner circle. He gave instructions in short, controlled sentences while the vehicles were prepared. The rerouted shipment remained under surveillance, but he refused to risk keeping me in a place that had already been breached both digitally and physically.I did not argue.The safe house sat outside the city limits, hidden beyond a stretch of unmarked road and dense trees. It was not large, but it was fortified. The structure looked ordinary from the outside, yet every window was reinforced and every entrance was monitored.When we arrived, Ruin stepped out first and scanned the perimeter himself. Only after he was satisfied did he open my door.“You are safe here,” he said.His tone carried a promise he intended to keep. Inside, the house felt quiet in a different way than the estate. There were no echoing halls or constant footsteps. The space felt contained, controlled.Daniel and two o

Elara’s POVThe image on the screen did not move for several seconds. Ruin held the secure tablet in his hand while Daniel transmitted the intercepted feed to us. The camera angle inside the estate was positioned high near the balcony railing, and the lighting was dim enough to make the shadows appear longer than usual.A man knelt in the center of the hall.His hands were tied behind his back, and a dark cloth covered most of his face. The only visible features were his hair and the familiar cut of his jacket.I recognized him immediately. “That is Victor,” I said quietly.Ruin’s jaw tightened, but he did not interrupt the feed.Victor had worked security at the estate for three years. He was dependable, quiet, and fiercely loyal to the club. Seeing him restrained inside our own hall felt wrong in a way that was difficult to describe.“How did they get inside?” I asked.“They did not break in tonight,” Ruin replied. “This footage was recorded earlier.”Daniel confirmed it from the ot

Elara’s POVFor a moment, no one spoke. The live feed on the tablet showed the estate’s main hall with brutal clarity. Victor remained tied to the chair beneath the chandelier, and the man holding the detonator stood behind him with calm confidence.The digital timer above them continued counting down to 00:08:32; Ruin’s motorcycle engine idled beneath us as he stared at the screen.“They redirected us,” Axel said through the communication channel.“Yes,” Ruin replied quietly.“They wanted us away from the estate,” another rider added.The distorted voice from the broadcast spoke again. “You moved quickly,” the man said. “But not quickly enough.”My chest tightened as I stared at the familiar marble floors and the staircase behind Victor. “That is our home,” I whispered.Ruin turned off the motorcycle engine, and the sudden silence made the moment feel heavier.“We turn back now,” Axel said urgently.“Yes,” Ruin replied.He restarted the engine immediately, and the riders around us fo