36. Chapter 36
Chapter 36
Noah
" W hat happens if we don’t get to her in time?" The question scrapes against my throat like broken glass, my grip tightening around my phone as I watch her location inch painfully closer. Too close. Too still.
Roman exhales sharply, his fingers clenching the steering wheel like a lifeline. His knuckles are white, his expression carved from stone.
"You can’t think like that. Not in this line of work," he mutters, voice low, controlled, too controlled.
"But Jake doesn’t play games," I snap, my pulse hammering against my ribs. "If he wants to hurt Ana, he will. And now we’re running on borrowed time-"
"If you go into this thinking she’s dead, you won’t think clearly," Roman cuts in, his tone edged with warning. "Jake is toying with you, getting into your head."
If only he knew how much it’s working.
Roman drives as fast as he dares, navigating the slick roads with razor-sharp focus. The tires hiss against patches of ice, but he doesn’t falter, his hands locked on the wheel, his gaze burning into the dark highway ahead.
"How far?" he growls, flipping on the comms to update his men.
"Only a mile or so," I whisper, swallowing hard. "She’s not moving."
I don’t want to think about why.
Roman curses under his breath, his jaw flexing as he presses harder on the gas.
"My men are close behind us," he says, his voice clipped, barely containing his fury. "Some are still combing the woods for Walker and Cole. Eden’s keeping an eye on Ana’s parents and friends, but she said she’s having trouble keeping them all at the school."
I drag a hand through my hair, the weight of this moment pressing down on me like a vice.
"Her dad wanted to follow," Roman adds.
I shake my head, my chest constricting.
"I can’t have him here," I grit out. My stomach twists at the thought of what we might find. "What the hell would happen if we find her and she’s-"
I can’t say it. The word lodges in my throat, suffocating me.
My voice drops to a raw whisper.
"God, it’s my fucking fault she got involved with my family. My fault my past came crashing into her life-"
"Like it or not," Roman says evenly, "your family and Ana were bound to collide. Levi’s death would’ve brought her back to the Antonovs one way or another. Be thankful she met you first and not Jake."
His words hit like a gut punch, but there’s no time to dwell on them. I grip my phone tighter, my entire body trembling with restrained rage.
"How can you be so fucking calm?" I snap, turning on him. "The woman I love might be dead, and you can barely crack an emotion-"
Roman’s gaze flicks toward me, cold and lethal.
"Because emotions get you killed," he says, his voice quiet but firm. "If it were Eden, hell, I’d be just as angry as you. I’d already have every resource at my disposal hunting these fuckers down. But one of us needs to keep our head."
His grip tightens on the wheel.
"Trust me when I say I know how it feels to put someone you love in a dangerous situation. But you losing it now?" His jaw clenches. "That won’t save her."
The silence that follows is deafening.
I suck in a breath, trying to suppress the overwhelming dread clawing at my chest. Ana’s location is just ahead.
And she’s still not moving.
"How do you live this life?" My voice barely rises above a whisper, my throat tight, raw. "How do you do what you do and then go home to Eden with a smile? To your daughter?"
For a moment, Roman doesn’t answer. His grip on the wheel remains firm, his gaze locked on the road ahead, unreadable. Then, finally, the ghost of a smile tugs at his lips, barely there before it’s gone again.
"I’m making this world a better place for my girls," he murmurs, exhaling slowly. "Despite the chaos. Despite the madness. They see the world as good, as safe, because of the work I do. Those girls are my life." His voice softens, as if the weight of those words has the power to steady him. "I didn’t know true happiness until I met Eden. And fuck…" He lets out a breath that sounds almost like a laugh, shaking his head. "When I met our daughter… there wasn’t a fire I wouldn’t walk through to keep them safe."
Something in my chest clenches.
"I never gave much thought to the idea of having kids," I admit, my voice quieter now, lost in the hum of the engine.
"Neither did I." Roman scoffs, but there’s something warm beneath it. "But having that part of Eden and myself…" He trails off for a second, his fingers flexing on the wheel. "There’s no way to describe it. I wake up every day wanting to be better...for both of them."
A small, unexpected laugh slips past my lips.
Roman’s eyes flick toward me. "What?" he growls, already suspicious.
I smirk. "Have you considered what you’re going to do when she’s old enough to date?"
Roman doesn’t even hesitate.
"For starters," he hisses, "keep her away from teachers that look like you."
Brutal.
But deserved.
I bark out a laugh. "And?"
"I don’t know." His tone darkens. "None of her boyfriends will live long enough to even shake my hand-"
His words cut off.
Both of us see it at the same time.
The brutal fucking wreckage.
The twisted metal, the glass glittering in the headlights like shattered stars. Smoke still rising in slow, curling tendrils from the flipped Porsche.
My stomach drops.
"It says she’s only a couple hundred feet ahead-"
No.
No. No. No.
Before Roman even has the chance to fully stop the car, I throw the door open and bolt.
My legs burn. My feet skid against the frozen ground. My breath is a vicious rasp in my throat as I sprint toward the wreckage, my hand already drawing my pistol.
Please. Please. Please.
Not her.
Not Ana.
Sliding to a stop in front of the wreckage, my heart hammers against my ribs. My gun is up, my teeth bared, breath coming in sharp, ragged bursts.
I peer inside the vehicle, my stomach plummeting.
No one’s inside.
Where is she?
The realization slams into me like a freight train, dread clawing at my insides.
The driver’s side is torn apart, glass shattered across the pavement, the air thick with the acrid scent of burnt rubber and gasoline. But no body. No Ana.
Roman jumps out, his own weapon raised as he scans the wreckage. We move quickly, clearing the vehicle, our eyes sweeping the area. And then...
Blood.
A trail of it. Leading into the forest.
"She ran," I whisper, tracking the booted footprints in the dirt. My chest tightens. "Jake went after her."
My legs coil, ready to run, but Roman throws up a hand, blocking me.
"Wait, my men are almost here-"
The gunshot rips through the air.
A single, deafening crack.
Everything Roman was about to say doesn’t fucking matter anymore.
My breath catches, just for a second. Then instinct takes over.
I shove past him, sprinting into the woods.
Branches whip against my face, the cold burning my lungs, but I don’t stop. I can’t stop.
Because if I lose Ana.
If Jake killed her.
I will gladly take his life and end it all.
Because that future.
That life Roman fought for.
I need it.
I want it.
But there is no point to life if Anastasia Burns is not in it.