Chapter 89 Laney
Laney
The world doesn’t announce when it’s about to break.
It just… does.
One minute, I’m buckling Emmy into her carrier; the next, the air changes.
I don’t know how else to describe it. Instead of buckling Emmy in the carrier, I hold her close to me.
The tavern is busy. Normal. Someone’s laughing downstairs. Dishes clatter. Life is happening.
And then the back door opens.
I freeze.
Not because someone walks in.
Because someone doesn’t.
No footsteps.
No voice.
Just the soft, wrong sound of a door that shouldn’t be opening.
My heart starts to pound.
I turn slowly, Emmy warm against my chest.
The hallway is empty.
I tell myself I’m imagining it.
Then a shadow moves.
A man steps out of the laundry room.
He’s not one of the Rangers.
He’s not anyone I’ve ever seen before.
He smiles when he sees exactly what I’m carrying.
“Easy,” he says. “I don’t want to scare you.”
I take a step back.
He takes one forward.
“Someone just wants to borrow the baby.”
My blood goes cold.
I open my mouth to scream—
And he lunges.
Everything explodes at once.
Saint comes out of nowhere.
He hits the man so hard the sound cracks through the hallway.
I hold Emmy tight against my chest as Saint spins between us, one arm shielding me, the other driving the man into the wall.
Another body appears.
Then another.
Shouting.
Gunfire.
Glass shatters.
Wolf is there. Havoc is there. Nora is screaming my name.
Saint is not a man anymore.
He is violence, a deadly machine.
He breaks one attacker’s arm like it’s a stick. Drives another into the floor. Moves like something built for this exact nightmare.
One of them reaches for me—
Saint turns.
And the look on his face stops the world.
The man doesn’t even get to finish the motion.
Saint puts him down.
Hard.
The hallway is full of smoke, echoes, and bodies.
And then it’s over.
Just like that.
Just noise fading into ringing silence.
Saint turns to me.
“Are you hurt?”
I shake my head.
I can’t speak.
He touches Emmy’s cheek. Gently. Reverently.
“She okay?”
“She’s… she’s okay,” I whisper.
His hands are shaking.
So are mine.
He pulls us into his chest like he’s trying to shield us from the universe itself.
Behind him, Wolf is on the radio.
“This was a grab. Confirmed. They came for the baby.”
Saint closes his eyes.
Just for a second.
Then he opens them.
And whatever was holding him back before…
Is gone.