Chapter 33
Tessa
My name sounds wrong in his mouth.
“Tessa…”
I don’t move.
I don’t breathe.
I don’t blink.
Because the man standing in front of us—
That’s not the same man I knew.
This one is… broken.
Cracked open.
Dangerous in a way that doesn’t follow rules.
Ace shifts in front of me, blocking my view, but I can still see Daniel over his shoulder.
Still feel him.
Still feel the way his eyes are locked on me like nothing else exists.
“You don’t have to do this,” Daniel says, his voice uneven, like he’s holding onto something that’s slipping through his fingers. “You just have to come with me.”
My stomach twists.
“No,” I say, my voice steady even though my pulse is racing. “I don’t.”
His jaw tightens.
“You don’t understand,” he snaps. “They’ve twisted everything. They’ve got you believing—”
“Stop,” I cut him off.
That surprises him.
Good.
“You don’t get to rewrite what you did,” I say. “Not to me.”
For a second—
Something flickers in his eyes.
Pain.
Regret.
Then it’s gone.
Replaced by something darker.
Something that makes my skin go cold.
Ace feels it too.
I know he does.
Because his entire body goes still.
“Tessa,” he murmurs, low enough that only I hear it. “Stay behind me. No matter what happens.”
Something in his tone—
It’s different.
Final.
Like he already knows this isn’t going the way we want it to.
Daniel takes another step forward.
Beast shifts to the left.
Trigger adjusts behind cover.
Blaze’s voice crackles through the comms from inside.
“Hold—hold—hold…”
I frown slightly.
Hold?
Why would—
“NOW!” Blaze shouts.
Everything explodes at once.
A shot cracks from somewhere behind the truck.
Not Daniel.
Someone else.
Ace moves before I even process it.
He spins, grabbing me, dragging me down as another shot slams into the side of the house.
“SECOND SHOOTER!” Trigger yells.
Gunfire erupts.
Controlled. Precise.
Beast returns fire toward the treeline.
Daniel ducks back toward the truck—but not fast enough.
A bullet grazes his arm and he stumbles, slamming into the door.
Chaos.
Pure chaos.
My ears ring.
My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat.
“Ace—” I start.
“I’ve got you,” he says, his arm tight around me, his body shielding mine completely.
Another shot cracks—
Closer this time.
Too close.
“They’re flanking!” Blaze shouts through the comms. “Two—no—three hostiles moving in from the east side!”
Three?
This wasn’t just him.
This was planned.
Daniel looks up again—
Not at Ace.
At me.
And I see it.
The moment he realizes—
He’s losing.
His expression shifts.
Desperation.
Rage.
Obsession.
He lunges.
Fast.
Too fast.
Straight toward me.
“Ace—!”
Ace doesn’t hesitate.
His arm releases me just long enough—
One shot.
Clean.
Controlled.
Daniel drops to his knees mid-stride.
Silence doesn’t come.
Gunfire is still ripping through the air.
The team is still engaged.
But everything in my world narrows to that moment.
Daniel on the ground.
Breathing hard.
Bleeding.
Still staring at me.
“Tessa…” he chokes out.
I can’t move.
I can’t look away.
Ace steps in front of me again, gun still raised, stance lethal.
“Don’t,” he warns.
Daniel’s lips twitch.
Like he’s trying to smile.
Like something inside him is still broken beyond repair.
“You were supposed to come back,” he whispers.
Ace doesn’t respond.
Doesn’t lower the weapon.
Behind us, Trigger shouts, “Two down! One still moving!”
Beast fires again.
A body drops in the distance.
The last of the gunfire fades.
Silence creeps back in—
Slow.
Uneasy.
But Ace doesn’t relax.
Not even a fraction.
Because neither do I.
Daniel is still there.
Still breathing.
Still watching me like I belong to him.
And something tells me—
This still isn’t over.