Chapter 41
Claire's POV
The second car ride was colder. Not just the temperature—everything.
Leo didn’t say a word this time. He didn’t have to. I already knew what I was to him. Bait. Leverage. A target dressed in skin Vera couldn’t walk away from. I sat stiffly in the back seat, arms bound, the silence pressing in from every direction.
I kept my eyes on the window, watching trees blur past, fields stretch out into nowhere. We were headed further out. Remote. Hidden. Smart. Which meant…
Vera was going to find the first place empty.
And when she did, she’d come tearing through the map until she found this one.
My stomach twisted at the thought.
They drove down a long gravel road that led to what looked like an abandoned estate, the kind of place people forget exists. The car rolled past rusted gates and toward a second level, one built directly into the earth—concrete and metal, no windows, just steel doors and a heavy sense of isolation.
This wasn’t a place people walked out of.
The guards pulled me out of the car and walked me through a dim corridor, past thick doors and buzzing lights. The air smelled like metal and damp stone. One door opened. A small, square room. A cot. A bucket. A single bulb overhead that flickered just enough to be maddening.
They shoved me inside and locked the door.
No speech. No theatrics. Just silence.
I sat down slowly on the edge of the cot, my wrists aching, my chest tight. I closed my eyes and tried to focus. Stay calm. Think clearly.
But I couldn’t stop the thought spiraling behind my ribs.
Vera’s coming.
She had to know by now. She had to be burning through every lead, tearing through the city. And when she gets close enough, when she finds this place…
Leo will be ready for her.
She’ll walk into a trap. All because of me.
I leaned back against the wall, jaw clenched, breath shallow. I didn’t care what happened to me. Leo could do his worst—I’d survive it. Or I wouldn’t.
But if Vera showed up here, if she came for me with the fire I knew she carried, they’d try to put it out. And maybe this time they’d succeed.
Maybe the smartest thing I could do was hope she didn’t find me.
At least then… at least then she’d stay alive.
At least one of us would.
I didn’t know how long I sat there.
Time moved strangely in silence. Minutes felt like hours. My arms were numb, my throat dry, but I didn’t move. I stayed on the edge of the cot, back against the wall, forcing my thoughts to stay sharp, even as my body ached.
The door opened with a metallic creak that made my skin crawl.
Leo stepped in like he owned the air. No guards. No show of force. Just him, with his sleeves rolled up and that same smug calm on his face. He didn’t even look around—just straight at me, like I was already broken.
“How’s the room?” he asked lightly. “I know it’s no penthouse, but you’ll find it’s quite... secure.”
I said nothing.
He walked closer, hands in his pockets. “You’ve gone quiet since we left the decoy. Starting to sink in now?”
I kept my face still.
Leo crouched in front of me, lowering himself to eye level, and tilted his head. “Do you think she’s found the safehouse yet?”
I flinched, just barely.
His smile sharpened. “She has. Or she’s about to. Either way, she’ll come running.”
He leaned in just slightly, his voice turning colder. “How does it feel, Claire, knowing you might be the reason she goes down?”
My heart pounded.
“You think Vera’s going to stop? You think she’ll hesitate? No. She’ll walk right into the fire for you. That’s what people like her do. And I’ll be waiting on the other side of it.”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.
Because the truth was—I had thought it. Over and over. In the silence. In the dark. In the second I realized I was gone and she’d come after me no matter what it cost.
Leo stood and stepped back.
“She won’t stop, you know,” he said. “But she should.”
Leo didn’t turn to leave.
He just smiled, slow and deliberate, like he was savoring a final move in a game no one else had caught up to yet. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
My stomach dropped.
He held it up, dialed without hesitation, eyes still locked on mine.
For a second, nothing. And then I heard her voice.
“Where is she?” Vera.
Sharp. Dangerous. Barely human.
Leo’s grin widened.
“Relax,” he said smoothly. “She’s alive. For now.”
My chest tightened. I didn’t breathe.
“We’ve moved her,” he continued. “The place you just visited? Cute little trap. Too bad you didn’t stay longer.”
A pause. Then, with perfect clarity, he said the name of the road we were on. The real one. The one Vera would burn to reach now.
I stared at him, horrified.
“No backup,” he said calmly. “No sniper on the ridge. No Gabriel. You come alone. Or I put a bullet in her head before you even touch the gate.”
He held the phone a little closer to his mouth.
“Are we clear?”
I didn’t hear what she said.
But whatever it was—it made Leo chuckle.
He ended the call without another word and slipped the phone back into his pocket, eyes still on me.
“There,” he said, almost gently. “Now we wait.”
My blood ran cold.
He had just drawn her in—alone.
And I knew Vera. She’d come.
No hesitation. No caution.
Just vengeance. And I had just become the fuse.
Vera's POV
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I didn’t hesitate. I answered on the first ring.
“Where is she?” I said, voice flat, every word sharpened with steel.
Leo didn’t rush. Of course he didn’t. That smug bastard lived for this kind of moment.
“Relax,” he said, smooth as glass. “She’s alive. For now.”
My grip on the phone tightened. I didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink. I let him speak.
“We’ve moved her,” he continued. “The safehouse you just stormed? That was cute. Loud, messy. But predictable.”
I said nothing.
Let him talk. Let him hand me everything I needed to kill him.
He did.
He said the name of the road like it was nothing. Like he didn’t just light a fuse inside my chest.
Then he added, “No backup. No Gabriel. You come alone. Or I put a bullet in her head before you even touch the gate.”
My jaw locked. My free hand curled into a fist at my side.
“Are we clear?” he asked, tone clipped now. Cold.
“I’ll come alone,” I said, quiet. Dangerous. “And you’ll die screaming.”
He laughed, low and entertained, then ended the call.
The silence after was heavier than the gunfire earlier.
Gabriel stood a few feet away, eyes already narrowed. “What did he say?”
I didn’t answer. I was already walking.
“Vera.”
I spun on him. “He has her. He gave me the address. He said if anyone else shows up—if you’re even seen—he’ll shoot her in the head.”
Gabriel stepped in my path. “You’re not going alone.”
I shoved him back, hard enough to make him stumble.
“Yes, I am.”
“You don’t know how many men are there. You don’t know what he’s set up—”
“I don’t care.” My voice cracked at the edge. “I put her in this. I’ll get her out.”
I stalked down the hall, past the weapons room. I already knew what I needed. Light gear. Close-range weapons. Speed over armor.
Gabriel’s voice followed me. “Then let me come in after. Let me cover the exit.”
I paused in the doorway.
“She means something to you, fine. But if you go in like this, you don’t walk out.”
I turned my head slightly.
“I’ll walk out,” I said. “With her. Or not at all.”
And then I left. The roar of my bike followed me like a war drum.
The wind hit me like a slap the moment I gunned the throttle, but I welcomed it.
Let it sting my skin, drown out everything except the engine and the fire burning in my chest. The map in my head pulsed with only one point now—Leo’s location.
That bastard had said the address like it meant nothing.
Like I wouldn’t tear through hell to get there.
The road curved, but I didn’t slow down. Trees blurred into walls of green. My fingers locked tight around the handlebars, my body leaning forward like I could bend time and force it to move faster just by wanting it more.
I didn’t think about how many men he had.
Didn’t think about the setup, the angles, the traps.
I didn’t care. All I saw was Claire—maybe in a cell, maybe tied up, maybe bleeding.
And worst of all, maybe sitting there thinking I wouldn’t come.
That I’d realized it was too dangerous. That she wasn’t worth the risk.
My jaw clenched until my teeth ached. She was the risk. The reason. The only thing I had left that still made sense.
I reached under my jacket, fingers brushing over the familiar weight of the pistol at my side. The blade at my hip. A flash grenade tucked inside my inner pocket. Light. Fast. Clean. I didn’t need to carry firepower. I was the fire.
The pavement cracked beneath my tires as I passed the final stretch of road.
The gate came into view—just like Leo described.
One stretch of chain-link and rust, surrounded by forest and silence.
No one in sight, but that meant nothing.
If Leo wasn’t watching already, he’d hear me coming soon enough.
I veered off the road, pulling the bike into the trees. Killed the engine. Let the quiet settle around me.
For one second, I stayed still.
Then I climbed off and adjusted my jacket, ran my hand once down my holster. My blood felt cold, focused. Claire was here. I knew it. I could feel it in the pull behind my ribs like gravity.
Get in. Get her. Kill Leo.
I moved toward the gate like a ghost.
If this was the last thing I ever did, it would be enough.
Because I’d rather die with her in my arms than live in a world where Leo still breathed.
The moment I cut the engine, the world went still. No voices. No footsteps. Just trees rustling and that old buzz of instinct crawling up my spine.
I pushed the bike deeper into the trees, low enough it couldn’t be spotted from the road.
Then I crouched beside it, checking my sidearm one last time.
Two extra mags. Blade tucked at my hip. Flash grenade in my jacket.
I moved fast and quiet, lighter than I’d ever been on a mission, but no less deadly.
This wasn’t a hit.
This was personal.
I kept low as I approached the edge of the property.
The main house wasn’t flashy—Leo never liked to flaunt when he planned to bury someone.
But the setup was tight. One man on the porch, rifle across his chest. Another circling the far side of the house, boots crunching the gravel in a lazy but steady rhythm.
Too casual. They weren’t expecting me yet.
Good.
I could work with that.
I waited until the rotating guard rounded the corner again, then made my move—fast, silent, straight to the blind spot between trees and wall. My back hit the cold concrete, and I slipped inside the side entrance, just as the lock clicked from the inside.
I didn’t blink. Just raised the knife.
The guard barely had time to inhale before I slid it across his throat. Clean. Quiet. He dropped without a sound.
I caught his body before it hit the floor.
One down.
The hallway was narrow, damp. A red bulb flickered weakly above me. No voices. No alarms. They still thought they had time.
Idiots.
I pressed forward, gun in hand now, blade tucked away. Every room I passed, I scanned—empty office, storage, another holding room. But when I reached the corridor lined with reinforced steel doors, I knew.
She’s here.
My breath slowed.
I stepped over a blood smear, recent. Not Claire’s. Wrong size boot print. Probably a fight.
Good.
Let them bleed before I even get there.
My hand hovered over the nearest handle, then moved to the next.
And then—faint, barely audible—a sound.
Breathing.
I pressed my ear to the door. Slow. Controlled. Like someone was trying not to be heard.
I closed my eyes.
I took a step back, lifted my gun, and exhaled once. Then I kicked the door open.
Claire's POV
I thought I was imagining it.
The sound—the sharp crack of metal, the crash of a door flying off its hinges—it couldn’t be real. It had to be my mind playing tricks, trying to give me hope just before everything collapsed.
But then I saw her.
Vera.
Framed in the doorway like every prayer I didn’t believe in finally answered. Eyes blazing. Chest rising fast. Gun drawn. Her entire body coiled like a weapon about to strike—but her face… God, her face.
She looked like she was about to fall apart just from seeing me.
I couldn’t breathe.
I didn’t move.
And then she said my name.
“Claire.”
Just that.
But it undid me.
My knees buckled the second I saw her cross the room. I didn’t even feel myself fall—only the warmth of her arms around me, the press of her hands against my face, her forehead crashing against mine like she couldn’t believe I was real either.
“You’re here,” I choked out, voice shaking. “I told myself not to hope—I thought if you came, he’d kill you—I didn’t want you to come—”
“Too bad,” she whispered harshly, her voice already fraying. “You don’t get to decide that.”
I laughed—sobbing and breathless—and grabbed at her, fingers tangling in the front of her jacket, pulling her closer like I needed to feel every inch of her to believe it.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” I said. “I thought I’d be the reason they—”
“No,” she snapped. “Don’t. Don’t say that.”
Her voice cracked, just slightly.
Her thumb brushed the corner of my mouth, trembling.
“You’re the reason I made it here,” she said.
And when she pulled me into her, held me like I was the only thing left in the world worth bleeding for, I broke completely.
Her arms were still around me when we heard it—the slow, deliberate clap echoing through the corridor like a countdown.
I froze.
Vera stiffened instantly, her body snapping back into that sharp, lethal stillness I’d seen the night she first saved my life.
Then came the voice.
“Well,” Leo said, stepping into view with that insufferable smirk, “what a sweet moment.”
He took a few more steps forward, slow, theatrical. Behind him came Dominic—quiet, looming, his eyes fixed on Vera like he was already picturing how to break her. And behind him, more men. Armed. Blocking the exit.
The room shrank.
I felt Vera shift, placing herself in front of me before I could even blink, her gun raised without hesitation, aimed square at Leo’s head.
He didn’t flinch.
“You made good time,” he said, voice smooth as glass. “Didn’t think you’d be able to resist the bait.”
“I told you,” Vera growled. “You’d die screaming.”
Leo chuckled and held up his hands in mock surrender. “And I told you—you come alone, or she dies. You kept your word. I’m impressed.”
Dominic took a step forward, and Vera raised the gun slightly, warning.
“Try me,” she hissed.
I could feel her muscles coiled, ready to lunge, to shoot, to rip through every man in this room to get us out.
But there were too many.
And Leo knew it.
He looked between us, eyes gleaming. “Touching, really. You risked everything for the girl. All this rage, all this obsession… I almost feel bad ruining it.”
I stepped out from behind Vera slowly, voice low but steady.
“Don’t flatter yourself. You haven’t ruined anything yet.”
Leo’s smile twisted. “Haven’t I?”
He looked at Vera again.
“Now let’s see how far you’re willing to go to keep her breathing.”
Leo watched the barrel of Vera’s gun rise slightly—steady, no shake, her finger resting too comfortably on the trigger. His smirk didn’t move, but he could feel the tension in the air shift. She wasn’t bluffing.
Dominic, just behind him, didn’t flinch. He stepped forward half a pace, silent, towering—ready to strike.
But Leo felt it before Vera even made her move.
That simmering rage under her calm. She’d shoot if he pushed too far.
She wanted to.
Then Dominic’s voice cut through the air, quiet but firm.
“Take it easy,” he said to Leo, his tone cold and flat. “Not here. Not yet.”
Leo turned slightly, just enough to glance back at him.
Dominic’s eyes didn’t leave Vera.
“We don’t stain the floor with her yet,” he added.
Leo’s smirk twitched, but he nodded.
“Of course,” he said smoothly, then gave Vera a mock bow. “Forgive the intrusion. We’ll let you two enjoy the moment.”
He backed away slowly, men closing in around him, guns lowered but ready.
“We’ll talk again soon,” he said, just before the door closed.
And with a final click, they were gone.