Chapter 21 Savannah
Savannah
The ride back feels longer than the road ever should, not because it’s far, but because my body is stuck on repeat.
Every click. Every shadow. Every hand on a handle.
Every little sound that meant nothing to anyone else, but meant everything to me.
The soft latch. The shift of a lock. The scrape of a shoe on tile.
The way a door can open without warning and turn a normal second into a trap.
I keep seeing it as if it’s right in front of me, if I blink too slow, I will be back there.
Back in that tight hallway with my lungs doing that stupid thing where they forget how to work.
My shoulders stay high the whole ride. My hands stay in my lap, fingers curled, nails pressing into my skin just enough to remind me I am still here.
I stare out the window, but I am not really seeing anything.
All I can hear is that click, and all I can think is how close hands were to me again, how easy it would have been for someone to touch a handle and decide I was theirs.
Gabriel’s phone buzzes and his face changes. His jaw locks and his eyes go cold in a way that makes my skin tighten. The air feels different, as if something just stepped closer.
He says one name and my body panics, it remembers pain without needing the details.
Viktor. Mikhail’s man. My throat goes tight.
My hands go numb. I can feel my pulse in my fingertips, fast and frantic.
My chest pulls in, it’s bracing for impact, because men like Viktor don’t show up to talk.
They show up to take something. As if it’s already theirs.
I sit beside Gabriel in the back seat with my hands folded tight in my lap, fingers pressing into each other until my knuckles ache. I can feel my pulse tapping against my skin. So I stay still. I hold my breath a second too long, then let it out slow, careful, quiet.
My ribs still hurt. My elbow stings under the wrap. It’s just that the worst hurt is inside me, not where you can see it. The part of me that stays tense, waiting. The part that keeps listening for a handle to turn, because my body still expects a door to open and everything to go wrong.
The city lights slide past the tinted glass in long, blurry lines.
I cannot focus on any one thing long enough to feel steady.
Every street feels too empty. Every passing car feels too close.
I know it’s just night driving. I know it’s normal traffic.
But my body doesn’t believe in normal right now.
It keeps acting like we are being followed, as if something is sitting right behind us, waiting.
Shadows move in the corners of my vision and my brain keeps trying to turn them into threats.
Gabriel’s hand rests on my thigh again, heavy, anchoring me to the present.
I whisper without looking at him, “Is he real.”
Gabriel’s tone is even. “Yes.”
My throat tightens. “Is he coming for me.”
His tone stays flat. “Yes.”
The honesty is brutal. It hurts. It claws deep inside my chest. It also quiets the spiral in my head. Everything narrows down to one name. I swallow hard.
“Why,” I whisper.
Gabriel’s jaw flexes. “Because you embarrass them.”
I blink. “How.”
“You lived,” he answers.
The sentence hits hard. Me surviving is an insult. Gabriel continues, voice low and controlled. “Viktor won’t accept that. He won’t accept not being the one in control.”
I stare down at my lap and my fingers find the panic device.
It’s small and solid in my hand, and I hold it tight.
The edge digs into my palm when I grip too hard, and I make myself loosen.
Then I tighten again, because my body cannot decide what is safer.
My hand still doesn’t know how to hold onto control without squeezing like it might slip away.
I whisper, “So what do we do.”
Gabriel’s eyes flick to me. “The house is locked down.”
* * *
We arrive at the compound through the inner gate, not the main gate. Everything is darker than usual. No casual lights. No normal hum. It feels like the whole place is holding its breath. Even the air feels thicker, like it’s waiting for a scream.
Guards move, shadows with guns in their hands. Doors lock behind us in layers, one after another, Click. Click. Click. My body flinches at each one and I hate that it happens before I can stop it. it’s automatic, a reflex that kicks in on its own. My bones remember what it feels like to be trapped.
Gabriel notices. He doesn’t stop the locks from clicking. He just threads his fingers through mine and holds on. He is reminding everyone who I belong to without even looking at them.
* * *
We enter his office. Juan is already there. Luca too. Maps spread out again, screens showing camera feeds. The compound looks like a chessboard now, little squares of black and white footage. Corners. Gates. Roof lines. Blind spots that are not supposed to exist.
Gabriel speaks fast, low. “Double the perimeter. Put eyes on the roof and keep thermal running. I want coverage on every side, every door, every corner. No gaps, no excuses. If anything shifts out there, I know before it touches my property.”
Juan nods. “Already done.”
Luca adds, “We shut down all non essential staff. Only a trusted rotation now. People I know, people I have watched, people who don’t talk. If they are not necessary, they are not here.”
Gabriel’s gaze turns colder. “Run it again. From the top. don’t miss a detail.”
Luca nods, then his eyes flick to me. Not disrespect. Just a quick assessment, like he is doing the math in his head and I am part of it whether I want to be or not.
Gabriel turns to me and lowers his voice. “You stay in the inner room.”
My chest tightens anyway. Inner room. Locked. Protected. A door that shuts. A place that is supposed to keep me safe, but still feels like a cage.
I whisper, “No.”
The word comes out before I can stop it. Both Juan and Luca freeze. The air shifts, sharp as a knife. Gabriel goes still too, but his face doesn’t harden. He just looks at me.
“Explain,” he says quietly.
My throat burns. Panic tightens in my chest. I swallow anyway. I force words past the fear.
“I did that,” I say, lifting the device slightly. “I pressed it. I fought. I didn’t disappear.” My voice shakes, but I keep going. “So if he’s coming, I want to know what’s happening. I don’t want to be sitting behind a door waiting to be found.”
Juan’s jaw tightens, he wants to argue, then his eyes flick to the device in my hand and he stills. Luca stays quiet, eyes sharp, watching me like he is trying to figure out whether I am breaking or holding it together.
Gabriel speaks low. “You think knowledge will keep you safe.”
I swallow. “It keeps me present.”
Present. That is the real word. If I am locked away, my mind goes back. If I am present, I can breathe. I can choose.
Gabriel’s gaze holds mine. Then he says, “Tell me what you want.”
The question lands like a weight. My lips tremble.
“I want to be near you,” I whisper.
Gabriel’s throat shifts on a hard swallow. I add quickly because it feels too vulnerable, too much like begging.
“And I want another exit plan that isn’t a window.”
Juan’s eyes flicker. Luca exhales quietly.
Gabriel nods once. “Okay.”
Juan opens his mouth. Gabriel cuts him off with a glance. “Not up for debate. She decides what she can handle.”
Juan shuts his mouth. Luca’s gaze flicks to me again, something like approval behind his cold eyes.
Gabriel gestures to a corner of the office. “There. That inner door leads to the safe corridor. Two exits. One armored room. One tunnel.”
My stomach drops. “Tunnel.”
I stare at him. “You have a tunnel.”
Gabriel’s mouth tightens. “I don’t like being trapped.”
A broken exhale almost becomes a laugh. It’s not funny. It’s just insane enough that my body tries to pretend it is. Of course he dosen’t. Even monsters keep an escape route.
Gabriel steps closer and lowers his voice so the men hear, but it still feels aimed at my chest. “You stay within two rooms of me. Always. If we move, you move with Juan. If Juan dies.”
Juan mutters, “Jefe.”
Gabriel’s gaze cuts him silent. “If Juan dies, you move with Luca.”
Luca nods once.
My throat tightens. The way he says it makes it sound permanent, he is already arranging my life for after the worst happens. Gabriel looks down at the device in my hand.
“If you press it,” he says, “you don’t wait. You move.”
I nod slowly. My breath is shaking, but I nod.
Gabriel turns back to the table and points to the cameras. “Viktor will try to breach quietly first. He’ll want her alive.”
I flinch, then force my chin up. Alive means bargaining. Alive means used.
Gabriel glances at me, eyes dark. “He won’t,” he says.
A guard appears at the door and speaks quickly to Juan. Juan listens, then turns to Gabriel. “Movement near the south fence.”
My blood turns cold. Gabriel’s entire posture changes. He grabs his gun from the desk and checks it with one smooth motion. He looks at me.
“Stay behind me.”
My chest tightens. “Yes,” I whisper.
Juan moves first. Luca moves second. Gabriel’s hand closes around my wrist for one second, firm, and pulls me up. Then he places me behind his shoulder and keeps us moving. The office lights dim. The hallway is darker. Guards seem to come out of nowhere, as if the compound has eyes in every corner.
My heart pounds. My ribs hurt. I don’t slow down. I don’t complain, because I can feel it. This is the kind of moment where a woman turns into a hostage again if she hesitates for even a second.
* * *
We reach the safe corridor. Thick walls. No windows. It smells like concrete and metal, a bunker, a place built to survive fire and stay standing no matter what happens.
Gabriel stops at the armored room door and turns to me. His face is hard. His eyes are sharp. His voice drops low.
“Look at me.”
I look.
He cups my cheek. He pauses. He leans in and kisses me, not on the mouth, but on the corner of my jaw, then my throat. A slow press of his lips that makes my skin flare.
Gabriel’s mouth brushes my ear. “If I tell you to run, you run.”
My breath catches. “Okay,” I whisper.
He pulls back. His eyes hold mine for one beat longer than necessary. Then he opens the armored door and pushes me inside.
The door is heavy. It closes with a deep, final sound, sealing me in.
My chest tightens. Gabriel stays outside. I lunge toward the door instinctively.
No. don’t leave me.
His voice comes through the metal, low and controlled. “I’m right here.”
My hand rests on the door, shaking.
“You said you wanted to be present,” he tells me. “This is what that looks like. You watch the camera, you breathe, and you follow the plan.”
A screen panel glows on the wall, multiple feeds. Perimeter. Fence. South corner.
I force myself to step back. To turn. My hands shake as I touch the panel. The south fence feed is grainy but clear enough. A shadow moves near the outer line. Then another.
My stomach twists.
A figure kneels near the fence, hands working fast, cutting. Breaking the line.
The vibration comes through the concrete first, a low tremor under my feet. Then the sound, muffled shouting through the corridor, then gunfire. Not close. Outside. The smell comes a heartbeat later. Gun oil. Hot metal. Smoke finding its way through vents.
My breath stops.
Then another feed flashes. A camera inside the compound, near the service entrance, a door I did not know existed.
And I see him.
A man in black steps through like he owns the space. He is tall and unhurried, and he doesn’t look away from the cameras. He looks up directly into the lens as if he knows I am watching.
My skin turns to ice.
He lifts his hand slowly and smiles. Then he raises two fingers to his mouth and blows a kiss at the camera.
My body goes numb.
His lips move. No sound reaches me, but I can read it.
Hello, princess.
My fingers slam onto the panic device. I press it hard. This time the alarm doesn’t scream. A silent red light on the panel turns on. Then I hear Gabriel outside the door, voice snapping.
“What.”
I cannot speak. My throat is locked. My hand shakes as I point at the screen.
Gabriel’s voice drops. “Viktor.”
I nod. Tears burn behind my eyes, not because I am weak, but because my body knows that smile. I have seen smiles like that before, the cruel kind, the taunting kind. The kind a man wears when he already knows he is going to hurt you and he wants you to feel it coming.
Gabriel’s voice goes so low it terrifies me. “Stay inside.”
I choke out, “He saw me.”
Gabriel’s voice is steel. “Let him. Now he knows I’m close.”
The feed shifts. Viktor turns away from the camera and walks deeper into the compound.
My chest tightens. “He’s inside your house,” I whisper.
Gabriel’s voice stays low. “He won’t leave it.”
Then Juan’s voice echoes down the corridor, sharp and urgent. “Jefe, he’s not alone.”
My blood goes cold.
Not alone.
My mind flashes to ropes and hands grabbing me.
The service entrance feed glitches for a second, then returns. Viktor is gone. Only an empty hallway remains.
And then the armored room light flickers. Once. Twice.
My heart stops.
Because that door is supposed to be sealed.
The handle shifts slightly from the outside, just a touch. Not trying to open it, just reminding me he knows where I am.
* * *
Dear Diary,
His kisses make my body react.
I hate myself for it.
My breath caught. My skin sparked.
That awful shiver ran through me like a lie.
I hate that my body can still answer a man’s mouth.
It feels like a betrayal.