CHAPTER SIXTY TWOAsher stood at the big window in the hill house living room. Sunlight poured in and made the glass glow. He watched the driveway below. Empty now. No black cars. No shadows. But his hands stayed clenched at his sides.Declan walked in from the guest room. Stefan slept again. Zara sat with him. Reading quiet to keep him calm.Declan stopped beside his brother. “Thanks for this place. I didn’t know you had it.”Asher kept looking out. “Bought it two years ago. After mother got sick the first time. Needed somewhere to disappear when father got too loud.”Declan nodded. Felt the old ache of family secrets. “You never told me.”Asher turned slow. Eyes tired. “I never told anyone. Not even her.”Declan waited. Knew there was more.Asher walked to the kitchen island. Poured two glasses of water. Handed one to Declan. “Sit.”They sat at the counter. Morning light caught the dust in the air.Asher spoke low. “I know why father wants you back so bad. Not just the name. Not jus

CHAPTER SIXTY FOURThe house groaned like a dying animal. Ceiling beams cracked loud above them. Dust and plaster rained down in thick clouds. Declan coughed hard. Grabbed Stefan under the arms. “We move now!”Zara ran to the bedroom door. “The back stairs! There’s a service exit!”Stefan tried to stand. Legs buckled. Pain shot through his chest. He gasped. Declan lifted him half over his shoulder. “Hold on to me.”The floor tilted. Furniture slid. Glass shattered somewhere in the kitchen. They stumbled down the hall. Walls buckled inward. Pictures fell. Frames smashed.Zara led the way. Pushed open the service door. Narrow stairs down to the garage level. Dark. Steep. She flicked on her phone flashlight. “Careful! Steps are wet!”Declan carried Stefan down one step at a time. Each jolt made Stefan groan. Blood seeped fresh through his bandages. “I’m slowing you,” Stefan whispered.“Shut up,” Declan said. Voice rough. “You’re not dying here.”Halfway down the stairs the whole house sh

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIXThe gunshot echoed through the rain-soaked trees like thunder cracking open the sky.Declan felt the world slow. Mr. Hale’s pistol bucked in his hand, the muzzle flash lighting up Zara’s pale face for a split second. Time stretched—her eyes wide, lips parting in a silent scream.But the bullet never found her.Declan roared, pure animal fury exploding from his chest. He slammed into his father like a freight train, shoulder first, driving the older man backward into the mud. They hit the ground hard, water splashing up around them. Declan’s fists flew—left, right, left—each punch landing with the weight of every humiliation, every sneer, every time he’d been forced to bow.Blood sprayed from Mr. Hale’s nose. The man gasped, tried to bring the gun up again.A second crack split the night.This time it came from behind.Mr. Hale jerked, clutching his thigh. The pistol slipped from his fingers into the muck. He howled, rolling away as blood mixed with rainwater.Stefan—

CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHTThe rain had finally stopped, leaving the night air thick and heavy, saturated with the scent of wet earth and pine. Every breath felt like inhaling smoke. The world seemed to hold its breath along with them.Viktor Kane stood squarely in the middle of the narrow dirt road, his broad silhouette framed by the faint silver of moonlight that managed to pierce the canopy overhead. Gold chains glinted across his chest like small, cold stars. His two men flanked him, rifles held low but steady, barrels pointed not at Declan’s heart but at more vulnerable places: Zara’s legs, Stefan’s already torn-open side. The precision of their aim spoke volumes. These were not men who killed quickly. They crippled. They prolonged. They made examples.Declan’s pulse thundered in his temples. Every fiber of his body screamed to lunge forward, to fight until one of them stopped breathing. But he felt Zara’s fingers digging into his forearm, nails biting skin through fabric. Her trembling

CHAPTER SEVENTYDeclan stared at the burner screen until the glow burned spots into his retinas. Five minutes. The words felt heavier than the concrete pressing in around them.He thumbed the power button. The phone went dark.Zara watched him, reading the shift in his posture before he even spoke. “What did it say?”“Someone knows we’re here,” he said, keeping his voice below a whisper. “Knows the culvert. Wants the folder left at the east exit. Five minutes or they unleash the bounty hunters themselves.”Stefan coughed wetly. “Your father’s people?”“Maybe.” Declan’s jaw tightened. “Or someone playing both sides. The message says my father wants me alive. That part feels true. The rest… I don’t know.”Zara’s eyes flicked toward the faint moonlight leaking through the grate. “If we leave the folder, we lose everything. If we don’t, they come down here and take it anyway.”Declan nodded once. “We buy time.”He crawled to the far end of the junction chamber, where the pipe continued ea