Chapter 16
The weekend brought a rare stillness to the estate. With the twins sleeping in, the usual morning symphony was replaced by the low hum of the air conditioning and the distant thud of gloves hitting pads in the gym.
Anna stood in the center of the training ring, her movements a blur of economical violence. Three of the newer recruits, men hired while she was "dead" were currently learning why the Wraith was a legend.
One, a massive guy named Burke, wiped blood from his lip and spat on the floor.
"I don't care who she is," Burke muttered, loud enough for the others to hear.
"I’m not taking pointers on my stance from Aiden’s new trophy. This is a man’s job."
The gym went graveyard quiet. Marcus, standing on the sidelines with his arms crossed, actually winced in sympathy for the guy.
Anna didn’t look angry, she looked bored. She beckoned Burke forward with a single flick of her wrist. When he lunged, she didn't meet his strength with hers. She pivoted, a ghost in yoga pants, and used his own momentum to send him face first into the canvas.
Before he could draw breath, her knee was pinned to the small of his back and her hand was pressed against his carotid artery.
"A trophy stays on a shelf," Anna whispered into his ear, her voice cold enough to induce frostbite. "Next time you see me as a woman instead of a threat, it’ll be the last mistake you ever make. Am I clear?"
"Clear," Burke wheezed.
She stood up, barely winded, and caught Marcus’s eye. He was practically vibrating with excitement.
The gym was a cacophony of heavy bags being struck and the rhythmic thud of sparring. The newer recruits were still nursing their egos from the morning session when the heavy steel door creaked open.
Leo, still wearing his pilot cap and clutching a toy plane, wandered in. He was looking for the one person who made him feel safe.
"Anna?" he called out, his small voice almost swallowed by the noise.
"Anna, are you here?"
At that exact moment, Burke, the massive guard Anna had humbled earlier, was mid swing on a heavy bag. Frustrated and blinded by his own bruised pride, he didn't see the five year old wander into his peripheral vision.
As he pivoted for a massive roundhouse kick, his heavy boot swung wide, aimed directly at head height for a child.
He didn't hit Leo.
He didn't hit him because Anna appeared like a glitch in reality. She didn't just block the kick, she intercepted Burke’s entire momentum with a force that sounded like a car crash.
She caught Leo with her left arm, shielding his eyes against her side, while her right hand seized Burke’s forearm. There was a sickening snap, the sound of dry wood breaking, that echoed off the gym walls.
Burke screamed, collapsing to his knees, his arm bent at an impossible, jagged angle.
"Leo, go to Marcus. Right now baby," Anna said, her voice a terrifying, low vibration. She didn't look at the boy, her eyes were locked on Burke, and they were devoid of any human emotion.
Leo, sensing the shift in the air, scrambled toward the door where Marcus stood, frozen in shock.
"I told you," Anna whispered, stepping over the writhing guard. The entire gym had gone deathly silent. The other guards backed away, some hitting the walls in their haste to get out of her path. "I told you that if you saw a woman instead of a threat, it would be your last mistake."
She looked at the rest of the security detail, her gaze lingering on each man until they looked away. "This gym is off limits to the children. But if any of you, any of you, ever let a shadow fall over them again, a broken arm will be the mercy you pray for."
She turned and walked out, her pace steady, leaving a broken man and a terrified crew in her wake. The lesson was learned, Anna wasn't just the boss’s partner. She was the apex predator of the estate, and the children were her cubs.
The sound of Burke’s arm snapping was still echoing in the rafters when the gym’s heavy double doors swung open with a bang.
?Aiden stepped through, his expression a mask of cold, controlled fury. He had been watching the feed from the security room, his heart stopping the moment he saw Leo wander into the path of Burke’s reckless kick.
He was holding Mia tightly against his chest, she had been looking for Leo. ?But before Aiden could utter a single word of command, the room shifted.
"Mom!" Leo cried, running and burying his face in Anna’s waist and gripping her training gear with white knuckled intensity.
The word hit the room like a physical shockwave. Marcus froze by the door, his breath hitching. The guards, hardened men who dealt in cold facts, looked at each other in stunned silence.
They had known Anna was staying with Aiden, but hearing that title, Mom, uttered by the Thorne heir changed the very air in the estate.
Anna froze. For a fraction of a second, the lethal assassin was gone, replaced by a woman who looked like she had just been struck by lightning. Her heart gave a violent, unsteady thud.
"Mom!" Leo cried again, burying his face in her waist.
Mia’s eyes went wide, her face lighting up with a pure, infectious joy. "Mom?" she squealed, squirming out of Aiden’s arms the moment he set her down. She scrambled over to join the huddle, throwing her arms around Anna’s neck from behind. "We have a mom now! We have a mom!"
Aiden stood over them, his gaze softening as he looked down at the three of them. The fury he had felt toward Burke was still there, simmering in the background, but it was eclipsed by a profound sense of completion.
He looked at the guards, then at Marcus, and finally at the writhing man on the floor.
"Get him out of here."
The murderous ice in Anna’s eyes didn't vanish, but it shifted, banking like a fire behind a screen. She pulled the twins into a fierce hug, she held them for a long beat, letting their breathing level out, before pulling back just enough to look them in the eye.
"Listen to me," she said, her tone serious but kind.
"This is a place where the men train to stay sharp. It’s loud, and sometimes people get hurt because they aren't paying attention. You and Mia don't come near the gym or the training grounds unless I am holding your hand, okay? I don't want anything, not even a scratch, to touch either of you."
Leo and Mia nodded vigorously "We promise, Mom."
"You heard your mother," Aiden said, the word "mother" rolling off his tongue with a deliberate, heavy pride. "The gym is off limits."
Anna stood up, a twin attached to each hand. She looked at Marcus, who was watching her with something close to religious awe.
"Marcus, take them up. I think they’ve had enough ‘training’ for one weekend."
Marcus replied, his voice thick with respect. "Right away, Mom, I mean, Ma'am."
As Marcus led the chattering twins away, Aiden didn't move. He kept his hand on Anna’s shoulder, feeling the tension slowly bleed out of her. He leaned down, his lips brushing the crown of her head.
"I knew you were the Wraith," he whispered, his voice for her ears only. "And I knew you were the woman I loved. But I think 'Mom' might be your most dangerous title yet."
?Anna looked up at him, in her eyes was a raw, shimmering vulnerability, a look of someone who had finally been found after being lost in the dark for a lifetime.
Aiden felt a physical pull in his chest, it was a look he vowed to protect no matter what, even if he had to burn his entire empire to do it.
? "Are you okay? That was... a lot of mission parameters to accept at once."
?Anna swallowed hard, the word Mom still echoing in her soul. "I'm fine, Aiden. I just... I have a lot more to lose now."
?"We both do," he murmured.