Chapter 7 Rowan #3
“Our father spent his life as an enforcer,” Ivan continues. “He killed whoever he was told to kill. Protected men who would never let him stand beside them.”
Lila doesn’t interrupt him now.
“No matter how loyal he was, or how many enemies he removed for them, he died exactly what they wanted him to be.”
Ivan pauses.
“A nobody they barely remembered.”
No one moves.
“I watched that,” he goes on. “And I decided very early that I wouldn’t spend my life bleeding for someone else’s empire.”
His eyes lift to Lila again. “I won’t die the way he did.”
The certainty in his voice is colder than anger.
“You were never meant to be pulled into this,” he says. “But once Kiren entered the equation, you became relevant.”
Lila lets out a sharp breath.
“Relevant?” she repeats. “You used me.”
Her hand lifts toward me without thinking, a protective movement that surprises even her.
“And you dragged her into it too,” Lila continues, anger sharpening her voice. “She had nothing to do with you, or Arkady, or any of this.”
Ivan doesn’t hesitate. “She was necessary.”
The honesty is merciless. Tears gather in Lila’s eyes, but she refuses to let them fall.
“You set me up,” she says quietly now. “Everything with Jonathan. The debt. The solution you offered.”
Ivan doesn’t deny it.
“You made the choice that followed,” he replies.
The words feel like a door closing between them.
“I trusted you.”
For a moment, he looks at her, as if considering whether the statement deserves a response.
It doesn’t.
Ivan straightens, whatever brief trace of personal history existed between them folding neatly back into distance.
“You’ll be moved shortly,” he says, his voice returning to that calm, even tone. “This site is no longer optimal.”
Lila stares at him, disbelief and fury colliding in her expression.
He turns toward the door. It closes behind him, the lock turning with a heavy click that echoes through the room.
For a moment, neither of us moves. The silence he leaves behind feels almost physical, crowding my ribs, and then Lila’s knees buckle as if whatever was holding her upright has finally given out.
I reach for her before she hits the floor, catching her shoulders and lowering with her as she presses both hands to her face.
“No,” she whispers into her palms, shaking her head hard. “No. I’m not like him.”
Her breathing falters as she tries to keep herself from falling apart completely, and when she finally lowers her hands, her eyes are bright and raw but stubbornly dry.
“I didn’t know,” she says, looking straight at me now. “Rowan, I swear to God, I didn’t know.”
I hold her gaze for a long moment before answering.
“I know.” The words come out quietly, but they’re true.
She drags a hand across her face, frustration and guilt fighting for space in her expression.
“I brought this to you,” she continues, her voice cracking as the realization sinks heavier on her shoulders. “Everything with Jonathan. The debt. The solution he offered. I walked it straight into your life.” She swallows hard before finishing. “And now you’re here because of me.”
I hold her gaze for a moment before answering.
“You opened the door,” I tell her quietly.
Her face tightens.
“That doesn’t mean you knew what was waiting behind it.
“I’m going to fix this,” she says, the words gaining strength as she speaks them. “I don’t know how yet, but I will. I’m getting us out of here, Rowan. I promise.”
I study her face while she says it. The betrayal still hurts. It sits somewhere deep in my chest, raw and stubborn, because every step that led us into this place began with a decision she made.
But the girl sitting in front of me now isn’t Ivan.
She isn’t calculating. She isn’t cruel. She’s the same person who held my hair back in a dorm bathroom when I had the flu sophomore year, who once drove across the city in the middle of the night with greasy takeout and bad movies because she knew I was having a day where everything felt too heavy.
She’s still my best friend. And right now she’s terrified.
“He killed Arkady like it was nothing,” Lila says after a moment, her voice quieter now.
I fold my arms loosely across my middle, steadying myself before answering.
“No,” I state. “He killed him like he’d been waiting to.”
The trains continue grinding somewhere outside the building, the sound traveling through the walls in a low metallic rhythm that never quite stops.
Somewhere in this warehouse, men are already reorganizing loyalty, scrubbing blood from the floor, replacing one name with another as if power can be transferred the same way furniture gets moved from one office to the next.
Within the hour, we’ll probably be relocated again. New walls. New door. New isolation.
Lila looks at me, the fear in her expression slowly hardening into something more focused.
“We can’t let him move us again,” she says.
She’s right. We can’t. Once we disappear into another location, whatever chance we have of finding a weakness, catching the right moment, or Kiren reaching us before Ivan decides we’re no longer useful becomes smaller.
“We get one shot,” I tell her.
And if we miss it, Ivan will make sure we never get another.