Elijah halted the moment he heard the rifle cock and turned to find the barrel aimed directly at him from across the compound.He let out a low sigh. “So you have decided to commit the crime yourself. Taking responsibility will be perfect this way, I suppose.”“Shut up!” Isaac’s voice cracked. “What do you know about the border military and how we operate?”“Julius, don’t say anything...” Serena whispered urgently from behind him. Everyone could see it now. Isaac was disturbed, and a disturbed man with a loaded rifle was a different kind of dangerous.Elijah answered anyway. “I just know that you cannot kill me today without consequences. If you leave now, everyone here can pretend nothing ever happened.”Isaac’s countenance twitched, and his grip on the rifle tightened. “Who are you to decide that? I decide everything here. I am Grand Marshal Isaac Blake, and you are still bold enough to stand there and offend someone of my status?!”“I think the Grand Marshal title might be a little

Tessa Mercer walked into the compound under the quiet gaze of everyone and slowly tilted her head in the direction of Isaac Blake, who remained frozen on the spot.“Field Major Blake.” Her voice was completely calm as her eyes moved across the faces of the tied-up women before settling back on Isaac. “Is there an explanation for this?”For some reason, her eyes stopped at the tree and didn’t tilt further to where Elijah stood not far away.A hard gulp pushed down Isaac Blake’s throat and he blinked rapidly, as though the sound of his name in her voice had broken whatever spell had been holding him in place. He turned his head slowly, and the moment his eyes confirmed what his ears were already telling him, his entire body shivered.It wasn’t happening inside his head. It was really her.“Lady Mercer, you are here…” he managed, with a slight, involuntary bow of his head.His soldiers didn’t hesitate. They stepped forward quickly and said in unison, “Lady Mercer.”At that moment, a gro

Later that day...Elijah was standing outside Serena’s room, watching through the open doorway as the family doctor checked her vitals. She was sleeping peacefully.He heard the soft rolling of wheels and looked to his side to find Old Mr. DiLaurentis being pushed down the hallway toward him by the family butler. The butler brought the wheelchair to a stop beside Elijah, locked it in place, and quietly walked away, leaving the two of them alone in the corridor.“How is she?” David asked.Elijah answered without turning his head. “She passed out from dehydration, same as her mother and sister. She will be back on her feet before nightfall.”The old man nodded.A long silence settled between them, the kind that had no discomfort in it, just two people with more on their minds than words were managing right now. David was the one to break it. “Isaac and I used to be good friends...”“I heard.” Elijah’s voice was calm.“About last night.” David’s eyes moved to the floor in front of him,

“What?”The expression on Elijah’s face was so cold it seemed to freeze the air directly around him, and a faint crack split across the ground at the spot where he stood.Old Mr. Carrington’s voice came back even more urgently. “With my influence as the oldest aristocratic family in this city, many of the institutions—”“Hit the nail on the head, old man.” Elijah was impatient.“Okay, okay. The Ainsworths stored the remainder of their share of the Langston gold bars in a vault underneath the city, and it has been under full-scale protection all these years. This evening, trucks were seen arriving at the vault location, so I sent a few people to check it out...” The old man coughed from speaking too fast, caught his breath, and pressed on quickly. “They found hired mercenaries loading the gold bars into one of the trucks. I’m telling you, Young Master, there is no place more secure to hide gold in Brooklyn Heights than that underground vault. If th

Elijah didn’t argue with her. He turned and started walking toward the fourth truck, and Tessa fell quickly into place beside him. “This one has too many locks,” she told him, her eyes moving over the rear doors as they approached. “It must be the one.” They both stopped at the back of the truck and looked at the double doors, a chain of heavy padlocks running from the very top all the way down to the bottom, thick steel links layered one after the other. “Take a step back,” Elijah told Tessa and climbed up, taking hold of both doors with firm hands. Her cheeks flushed red, and she stepped back without argument, clearly knowing what was about to happen. His internal energy gathered and surged into both palms at once, concentrating into a focused force, and with one strong pull, the entire chain of padlocks tore free of the doors and clattered to the ground. The doors swung wide open. A mercenary was waiting inside, rifle leveled directly at Elijah’s face. Zzzzt! Zzzzt! Zzzzt!