Chapter 24 Iris
IRIS
The code blurs across the screen.
My fingers move automatically, building the backdoor Morrison demanded. Each keystroke feels like a betrayal. Another nail in Alexi’s coffin.
Maya’s scream still echoes in my head.
I type faster.
The encryption protocol takes shape—elegant, invisible, devastating. Everything Morrison needs to infiltrate Ivanov Systems. To steal their data. Destroy their operations.
Destroy Alexi.
My hands shake.
Can’t stop them.
Morrison stands behind me, breathing down my neck and watching every line of code. He’s making sure I don’t slip any warnings in.
“Faster,” he says.
“Complex encryption takes time.”
“You have less than you think.” His phone buzzes. He steps away to answer it.
I glance at the door.
Still locked. Still guarded.
Maya’s somewhere in this building. Bleeding. Terrified.
Because of me.
Because I couldn’t leave well enough alone. Had to dig into Nightshade. Had to prove I was smarter than everyone else.
Had to get involved with Alexi Ivanov.
The thought of him twists something in my chest. He’s probably searching for me right now. Tearing Boston apart looking for answers.
Or maybe he’s decided I’m not worth the risk.
Morrison might be the government, but the Ivanovs are the Russian mafia. They know when to cut their losses.
I blink back tears and keep coding.
The backdoor initializes. Connects to the Ivanov mainframe through their financial systems. Exactly where Morrison wanted access.
“Good girl.” Morrison leans over my shoulder. “Now give me a backdoor into the Ivanov family’s systems.”
My stomach turns.
“I need more time—”
The building shakes.
A massive explosion rocks the walls, sending Morrison stumbling backward. Dust rains from the ceiling. Alarms shriek to life.
I grab the edge of the desk, heart pounding.
Another explosion.
Closer this time.
Gunfire erupts somewhere above us—automatic weapons, rapid bursts, then shouting in Russian.
Hope flares white-hot in my chest.
Alexi.
Morrison yanks a gun from his shoulder holster and grabs my arm, hauling me out of the chair.
“Move.”
He drags me toward the door.
I dig my heels in. “Where’s Maya?”
“Fuck your friend.” He shoves the gun against my temple. “Walk or I paint the walls with your brain.”
I stumble forward.
Morrison’s grip cuts into my arm as he drags me into the corridor. The concrete walls amplify the chaos—gunfire, shouting, bodies hitting the floor somewhere above us.
He pulls me right, toward a metal staircase.
“Up. Now.”
“You’re taking me toward the fighting?”
“There’s a helicopter on the roof.” He shoves me onto the first step. “Move.”
My mind races. If Alexi’s team breached the building, going up puts me closer to them. Closer to rescue.
Or closer to a bullet.
Morrison climbs behind me, gun pressed against my spine. Each step echoes. The stairwell spirals upward through three floors of concrete and steel.
Second floor landing—more gunfire. A body crashes against the door, denting the metal.
Morrison doesn’t slow.
Third floor—the door bursts open.
A man in tactical gear stumbles through, bleeding from his shoulder. He sees Morrison and raises his weapon.
Morrison shoots him twice.
The man drops.
I freeze on the stairs, ears ringing from the gunshots in the enclosed space.
“Keep moving.” Morrison shoves me forward over the body.
Fourth floor. The roof access door sits twenty feet ahead.
Almost there.
A figure rounds the corner from the opposite corridor.
Alexi.
His green eyes find mine instantly. Blood spatters his shirt. Gun in his right hand, another body somewhere behind him.
“Step away from her.” His voice carries cold precision.
Morrison jerks me backward, arm around my throat. Gun pressed to my temple. “Drop the weapon, Ivanov.”
“Not happening.”
“I’ll kill her.”
“You’ll try.” Alexi doesn’t lower his gun. Doesn’t even blink. “But you won’t make it out of this building either way.”
“I have a helicopter waiting—”
“Had. Past tense.” Alexi’s smile contains no warmth. “Erik took care of that fifteen minutes ago.”
Morrison’s arm tightens around my neck. “You’re bluffing.”
“Test me.”
The gun barrel digs harder against my skull. Morrison’s breathing accelerates. Panic is setting in.
Trapped.
No vehicle. No escape route. No leverage except me.
“Let her go,” Alexi says. “Walk out alive.”
“So you can shoot me in the back?”
“So I don’t shoot you in the face.”
Morrison’s hand trembles against my throat.
My pulse hammers against Morrison’s forearm.
Three seconds. Maybe four before he decides to pull the trigger or use me as a shield to run.
Neither option ends well for me.
Alexi’s gaze shifts. Not to Morrison. To me.
His lips form a single word. Duck.
I drop my full weight downward.
Morrison’s arm slips. His gun moves off my temple for half a second.
The shot rings out.
Morrison’s grip releases. His body crumples behind me.
I hit the concrete floor hard. Elbows scraping. Ears ringing.
Alexi’s there before I finish falling. Hands on my face. My shoulders. Checking for wounds.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Not mine.” My voice shakes. “Maya. He has Maya somewhere—”
“Dmitri found her. First floor. She’s alive.”
Relief crashes through me so hard I can’t breathe.
Alexi pulls me against his chest. His heart pounds as fast as mine. Blood soaks through his shirt—definitely his this time. A gash across his ribs, still bleeding.
“You’re hurt.”
“Flesh wound.” He doesn’t let go. “What did he make you do?”
The code.
The backdoor.
Everything I built to save Maya’s life.
“I gave him access to your systems.” The words taste like ash. “Complete backdoor through your financial servers. Everything.”
Alexi’s grip tightens. “Where?”
“Laptop. Downstairs. The room where he kept me.”
He pulls back enough to meet my eyes. No anger. No accusation.
Just cold calculation.
“Can you undo it?”
“I—” My thoughts scatter. “Maybe. If we move fast enough.”
“Then we move.” Alexi stands, pulling me with him. “Erik!”
Heavy footsteps echo from the stairwell. Erik appears, covered in more blood than Alexi. None of it seems to be his.
“Basement level,” Alexi says. “Laptop with government files. Grab everything. Don’t let anyone transmit data out of this building.”
Erik nods and disappears back down the stairs.
Alexi keeps his hand locked around mine as we follow. My legs shake. Adrenaline crash is hitting hard.
“Morrison’s dead,” I say.
“Yes.”
“You killed him.”
“Yes.”
The man who murdered my parents and tortured Maya. The man who would have killed me.
Gone.
I should feel something. Relief. Victory. Justice.
Instead, I feel hollow.
We hit the ground floor.
Bodies litter the corridor. Government operatives. Morrison’s men. All down.
Dmitri stands beside a doorway with his phone pressed to his ear. Maya slumps against the wall behind him, conscious but pale. Blood crusts the cut on her face.
“Maya—”
“She’s stable.” Dmitri pockets his phone. “Erik’s securing the data. We need to move. Police dispatch logged multiple shots fired. ETA six minutes.”
Alexi doesn’t release my hand. “Building secure?”
“North entrance clear. Nikolai’s holding the vehicles.”
Gunfire erupts from somewhere above us.
Everyone freezes.
“What the fuck?” Dmitri pulls his weapon. “I thought we cleared—”
“Backup team.” A new voice crackles over someone’s radio. “Federal response unit inbound. Three minutes out.”
More footsteps thunder down the stairwell behind us.
Erik appears, laptop tucked under his arm. “Got it. But we’ve got company.”
The front entrance explodes inward.
Glass and concrete spray across the foyer. Smoke fills the corridor.
Flashbangs follow.
I squeeze my eyes shut as light sears through my eyelids. The concussive blast rings through my skull.
Alexi yanks me sideways into a room. Maya and Dmitri dive through another doorway. Erik disappears behind a concrete pillar.
Boots hit the floor. Multiple sets. Tactical team moving fast through the smoke.
“Federal agents! On the ground now!”
Alexi shoves me behind a desk. Crouches beside me. Gun up.
He presses a finger to his ear. “How many exits?” His voice stays level despite the chaos.
Someone clearly replies in his ear as he says, “Helicopter’s gone.”
More thud of boots, as the tactical team spreads through the building.
Erik fires twice from his position. Someone screams. Bodies hit the floor.
Return fire peppers his pillar. Concrete chips spray.
Dmitri’s voice cuts through the noise. “South dock. Thirty seconds.”
Alexi grabs my wrist. “Can you run?”
“Yes.”
“Then run.”
We break from cover.
Bullets punch through the drywall beside us. Alexi fires backward without looking. Buys us three seconds.
Erik provides cover from the pillar. Two more agents drop.
Maya stumbles ahead with Dmitri supporting her weight. They hit the south corridor first.
My lungs burn. Legs pumping. Alexi’s hand locked around mine.
The loading dock door looms ahead.
Twenty feet.
Ten.
Something slams into my shoulder.
The impact spins me sideways.
My shoulder explodes with pain.
Alexi’s grip rips free.
I hit the concrete floor hard. I can’t breathe or think past the white-hot agony radiating down my arm.
“Iris!”
Hands grab me and lift me.
Not Alexi’s.
Someone’s dragging me backward. Away from the loading dock. Away from—
“Let her go!” Alexi’s voice cuts through the ringing in my ears.
I twist to see who’s got me.
They are wearing black tactical gear with a federal badge on the vest. The agent hauls me toward the main corridor, using me as a shield with a gun pressed against my ribs.
“Stand down or she dies!”
My vision blurs. The shoulder wound throbs, and blood soaks through my shirt—warm and sticky.
Alexi stands fifteen feet away. Gun raised. Aimed at the agent’s head.
But he can’t take the shot without hitting me.
Erik flanks left. Dmitri right. Both have their weapons drawn, but the same problem blocks them.
Me in the middle.