Chapter 43
Vera's POV
We cleared the last hallway with gunpowder still in our lungs. The moment we stepped into the wide, dim-lit atrium at the center of the compound, I knew this was it.
Leo stood near the back wall, hands behind his back, calm as ever. Dominic stood beside him, larger than I remembered—older, meaner. The kind of man who aged like steel left in fire.
Our crew fanned out behind us, weapons raised. His men mirrored them across the room—two armies waiting for the spark.
Dominic’s eyes landed on Valeria.
“Well well,” he said, voice low and amused. “I had no idea you survived that night with Ignacio. You were half-dead when we pulled out."
Valeria didn’t blink. She took a slow step forward.
“I’m hard to kill,” she said. Then her eyes flicked sideways—toward me. “And you started a war on my little sister.”
Dominic’s gaze shifted to me, then back to her. “So I should assume your loyalty doesn’t belong to me anymore.”
“It never did,” Valeria said coldly. “It always belonged to family.”
Something in my chest stilled. Just for a second.
But I didn’t let it show.
I kept my gun up, my stance steady. I didn’t trust this silence.
Valeria stepped closer, voice harder now. “Back off. Call off the men. Divide the territory. We can end this.”
Dominic raised an eyebrow. “You came all this way to negotiate?”
“I came here to end the bloodshed,” she said. “But I’ll spill yours first if you make me.”
Leo stepped forward finally, adjusting his cuffs like he was bored of the conversation.
“I think that’s a reasonable offer,” he said. “Divide the city. Clean borders. Cold peace.”
For a beat, I almost believed it.
Until Leo added casually, “As long as I get Claire’s head. A punishment for the warehouse.”
My blood went cold.
Before anyone could speak—before even Valeria could stop me—I moved.
I charged.
“Vera—!” she shouted, but I didn’t hear her.
I didn’t hear anything.
I aimed straight for Dominic, firing off two shots that missed as he ducked behind a pillar. He returned fire fast—sharp, heavy. I dove behind cover, pain ripping through my arm as a bullet grazed me.
And then everything exploded.
Valeria screamed something in Spanish and fired at Leo, forcing him back into cover as the rest of our crew surged in. The air filled with gunfire, smoke, bodies hitting the ground.
Leo lunged forward with a blade—close combat. Valeria met him head-on, her movements a blur of trained violence and fury. Their blades clashed, their boots dragging across the blood-slick floor.
Dominic came after me again, heavier but slower. I ducked under his arm and slashed upward with my knife—cut across his ribs. He roared and swung back hard, catching my shoulder, knocking me to the ground.
Around us, chaos roared. My crew was outnumbered but holding strong, fighting with everything they had. Bullets ricocheted off steel. Blood streaked the walls.
But all I could see was Dominic.
And all I could think was no one touches Claire.
Not again. Not ever.
The room was chaos.
Gunfire rained from every direction, the air thick with smoke and blood and shouted orders.
I kept moving—ducking Dominic’s swings, slashing upward, kicking off the crates behind me when he cornered me.
I was running on adrenaline and fury. Every time I blinked, I saw Claire—bound, bruised, Leo’s words still ringing in my ears.
I had no idea where she was in this compound now. But I’d promised I’d walk out with her. And I would.
Even if it killed me.
Dominic came at me again, heavy and wild, and I met him halfway—blade to blade, breath to breath. He was stronger. I was faster. I needed one clean opening.
But then I heard it.
A grunt of pain.
My head snapped to the side.
Valeria.
Leo had broken out of her hold. They were locked in a fistfight now, brutal, hand-to-hand. She was holding her own—barely. But then I saw the flash of steel, too fast.
He slashed her arm—deep.
She stumbled back, blood soaking through the sleeve.
I broke.
“Valeria!” I shouted, already moving.
I forgot Dominic.
I forgot everything.
My body moved without permission, sprinting toward her as she staggered back, blade still in her hand.
But I didn’t make it.
The shot cracked through the chaos.
And everything inside me stopped.
The impact knocked the breath out of me before I even heard the gunfire echo.
Pain exploded through my side—hot, consuming, paralyzing.
My legs gave out.
The world tilted.
I hit the ground hard, the sound of my name—someone screaming it—ripping through the noise.
Valeria.
She turned like fire.
Leo reached for her, grinning, but she was faster. She grabbed his knife mid-motion and shoved him—hard—into a pile of crates. They crashed to the ground around him, pinning his body with a dull thud. He didn’t get up.
And then she ran.
I could barely keep my eyes open, the blood pouring fast from my side, but I saw her—blade gripped tight, jaw clenched in pure rage—as she crossed the room in seconds.
Dominic was still standing.
Not for long.
She lunged.
The blade dragged across his throat in one clean, vicious sweep.
He dropped before he could even process the betrayal.
Valeria was already dropping to her knees beside me, pressing her hands hard against my wound, shaking.
“Vera—no, no, no—fuck, don’t you dare.”
Her voice cracked.
I tried to speak but nothing came.
“Gabriel!” she screamed, her voice raw and full of panic. “Gabriel—cover us! Get the med kit—NOW!”
The last thing I saw was her face hovering over mine, her hands soaked in my blood, her eyes wild with something I hadn’t seen in years.
Terror.
Not for herself.
For me.
Claire's POV
I was still pinned behind the wall, heart hammering so hard it hurt.
Gunshots echoed down the halls. Shouting. The sharp crack of something breaking. Every sound made me flinch. Every second that passed without seeing Vera made it worse.
Gabriel stood in front of me like a damn wall, his stance unshakable, gun at the ready, but his focus was split. I could see it in his jaw. In the tension creeping into his shoulders.
“She’s out there!” I shouted. “Let me go!”
“You know I can’t do that,” he said without looking at me.
“Then you go! Go help her!”
He stayed still.
“Gabriel—please!”
He finally turned his head, jaw clenched. “Her orders were clear. You don’t step into that crossfire.”
“She’s fighting and I’m stuck behind this fucking wall!”
I pushed against him again, harder, trying to duck under his arm, but he grabbed me and shoved me back gently but firmly.
“Don’t make me knock you out,” he said, and it was the first time his voice wasn’t calm.
My throat burned.
Then it came—Valeria’s voice, sharp and cracking through the chaos.
“Gabriel!”
We both froze.
“Gabriel—cover us! Get the med kit—NOW!”
His expression snapped from control to urgency in a heartbeat.
He didn’t wait.
Gabriel turned and bolted down the hall, gun drawn, already barking orders into his comms.
And I stood there—alone.
Stuck.
Listening to the sounds of hell just around the corner.
The blood in my ears roared louder than the gunfire.
I didn’t know who was still standing.
I didn’t know if Vera was breathing.
I don’t remember deciding to move.
One second I was frozen, locked behind Gabriel’s orders, behind Vera’s voice in my head telling me to stay safe.
The next, my legs were already carrying me down the hallway.
The sound of bullets echoing around me barely registered. Shouts. Ricochets. Muffled commands through earpieces. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t duck. I didn’t care.
None of it mattered.
I turned the corner, heart in my throat, and there she was.
Valeria was on the ground, knees slick with blood, her hands pressed against Vera’s side, trying—failing—to lift her. Her voice was cracking now, yelling Vera’s name, but Vera’s body stayed limp.
Her head had fallen back.
Eyes closed.
Unmoving.
My breath caught.
Everything in me screamed.
“No,” I whispered, voice breaking as I stumbled forward.
Valeria looked up sharply, eyes wide with panic, her face pale and speckled with blood. “I can’t get her to wake up,” she rasped. “She’s—she’s losing too much—”
But I was already dropping to my knees beside them.
The floor was soaked.
Vera’s face was too still.
“Come on, baby,” I breathed, brushing her hair back with shaking fingers. “You don’t get to stop now. You hear me?”
She didn’t answer.
Valeria pressed harder against the wound, her voice turning into a hoarse plea. “Vera. You don’t get to leave me again.”
I grabbed Vera’s other hand and held it like it was the only thing anchoring me to the earth.
And for the first time since I met her—since she kicked in a warehouse door and aimed a gun at the world—I saw her look like this.
Small.
Fragile.
Breakable.
And that terrified me more than anything.
Gabriel returned in seconds, barking orders to the men behind him.
I barely registered what he said, but two of them dropped beside us and began lifting Vera with practiced urgency.
Valeria didn’t let go until the last second, whispering something under her breath, her bloodied hands still hovering over Vera’s body like she could force her to stay.
I stood up on shaky legs, ready to follow. My feet moved without thought.
Then I saw it.
A flash of movement behind Valeria—too fast, too quiet.
An arm wrapped around her neck. Tight. Brutal.
Leo.
He dragged her back, choking her, using her as a shield. Valeria struggled, fingers clawing at his forearm, face twisting with fury and pain.
Something inside me snapped.
I didn’t think. Didn’t breathe.
I grabbed the gun from the floor where one of Vera’s men had dropped it and turned toward them. My hands didn’t shake.
Leo didn’t even see me in time.
I pulled the trigger.
The shot rang out like it belonged to someone else.
Leo’s head snapped back before he crumpled, his body dropping like a puppet with the strings cut.
The gun fell from my hands before I realized I’d let it go.
It hit the floor with a hollow clatter.
Valeria turned to me, wide-eyed, her hands still shaking from the grip he’d had on her. She rushed forward and grabbed my shoulders.
“Claire!” she said. Her mouth moved—but I couldn’t hear her.
Not really.
Everything was muffled.
Distant.
Like I was underwater.
The blood rushing in my ears drowned her out. My hands were tingling. My vision tunneled.
I saw her lips moving again—saw panic flash across her face.
But all I could focus on was the radio at her hip.
Gabriel’s voice crackled through it.
One sentence.
She’s not breathing.
And the world—my world—just stopped.