2026-03-14 23:37:52
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Chapter 70
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
Chapter 69
CHAPTER SIXTY NINEThe engines grew louder with every passing second, a low growl that vibrated through the wet ground and into Declan’s bones. Headlights stabbed through the trees ahead—three sets, maybe four—cutting sharp white beams that danced across the trunks like searchlights in a prison yard. The tracker on his belt blinked faster now, its green light pulsing in rhythm with his racing heart.Thirty minutes.That was all the anonymous message had given them.Thirty minutes before whoever sent it came for the folder.Thirty minutes before Viktor’s men, or his father’s, or the governor’s son’s dogs closed the noose completely.Declan gripped Zara’s hand tighter. Her fingers were ice-cold despite the humid night. Stefan hung between them like dead weight, his breathing shallow and ragged. Every few steps he groaned, fresh blood seeping through the makeshift bandages on his chest.“We can’t outrun vehicles,” Zara whispered. “Not like this.”“We don’t have to outrun them,” Declan sa
Chapter 68
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 67
CHAPTER SIXTY SEVENDawn clawed its way through the rusted cracks in the shed roof, weak and gray, like it didn’t want to look at what was left of them.Declan woke to fire.His shoulder throbbed in time with his heartbeat—hot, wet, infected. The gauze Zara had wrapped was stiff with dried blood and fresh pus. Every breath pulled knives through his side. He tried to sit up. The world tilted. He bit down on a curse so hard he tasted copper.Across the dirt floor, Stefan lay curled like a broken thing, fever-flushed, muttering nonsense about “the folder… the key…” Zara sat beside him, knees drawn up, one hand pressed to her own swollen arm wound. Her eyes were hollow. She hadn’t slept.Declan forced himself to his feet. Pain exploded white behind his eyes. He leaned against the wall until it passed.He pulled the sodden folder from his jacket. Opened it. Stared at the photo again.His mother. Smiling. Holding him as a newborn. The handwriting on the back burned into his brain: Protect h
Chapter 66
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 65
CHAPTER SIXTY FOURThe floor buckled under Declan’s feet like the earth itself had decided to swallow them whole. A deep groan ripped through the walls. Plaster rained down in thick sheets. The emergency lights flickered red, then died completely, plunging the house into total darkness except for the faint glow of Stefan’s monitor in the next room.Declan grabbed Zara’s arm. “Run!”But she was already moving. She bolted toward the bedroom where Stefan lay. Declan followed, heart slamming against his ribs. The hallway tilted. A crack spider-webbed across the floor ahead of them, widening fast.Stefan’s voice cut through the chaos. “Leave me! Go!”Declan burst into the room. Stefan was trying to sit up, one hand clutching the IV pole, the other pressed to his bandaged chest. Blood already seeped through the white gauze.“No way,” Declan said. He ripped the IV from Stefan’s arm and scooped him up in one motion. Stefan gasped in pain but didn’t fight. His weight felt heavier than before,
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