Chapter 13 Laney
Laney
Iwasn’t trying to listen.
I swear I wasn’t.
But I heard his name.
Marco.
The sound of it freezes me halfway down the hallway.
My heart starts pounding so hard it feels like it might burst through my ribs.
I stop at the top of the stairs.
The voices from below drift up through the quiet house.
“…my mother hired them…”
The words don’t make sense.
Not at first.
I take another step toward the stairs, my hand sliding along the wall to steady myself.
“He’s not lying,” Trigger says.
My stomach drops.
“She said she’d make it look like me,” Marco’s voice continues.
I haven’t heard that voice since Italy.
Calm.
Controlled.
Dangerous.
“She’s always preferred to destroy people by turning them into monsters first.”
My knees almost give out.
I grab the railing.
All this time…
I’ve been running.
Running across countries.
Running across oceans.
Running from the wrong person.
Actually… I didn’t trust either of them.
But one of them wasn’t hunting me.
Saint’s voice cuts through the room.
Low.
Careful.
“Laney thinks you’re trying to kill her.”
Silence follows.
A long silence.
Then Marco speaks again.
Quiet.
Heavy.
“I know.”
Something inside me breaks.
Because suddenly I understand.
Every shadow I ran from.
Every fear.
Every sleepless night.
All of it was built on the wrong enemy.
And now the real one knows exactly where I am.