Sarah’s legs burned as she pushed through the dense forest.The terrain was merciless, each step pulling her farther from the captors who had hunted her.Exhaustion clawed at her, but the fear of being caught again was stronger than her body’s protests.The air grew colder, and the trees loomed taller, their branches intertwining above her like a canopy of secrets.The moonlight barely filtered through, leaving the forest eerily silent except for the crunch of leaves underfoot and her ragged breathing.She didn’t know how far she had run, but the distant sound of voices made her freeze.Her heart thundered in her chest as she crouched low, her eyes darting around.Up ahead, a faint glow pierced the darkness.It wasn’t a fire but a series of floodlights illuminating a clearing.She crept closer, her movements slow and deliberate. What she saw made her stomach churn.A cluster of black vehicles, their engines still idling, surrounded a low building camouflaged by the forest.Men in dark
The door slammed open, making Sarah flinch.The leader’s aide entered again, this time dragging two men in zip ties behind him. The captors from before, Gerald’s men.Their faces were bruised, and one limped as he was forced to kneel on the cold concrete floor in front of the leader.“We caught them snooping near the perimeter,” the aide said, his tone clipped. “Claim they were looking for her.” He nodded toward Sarah.The leader’s sharp eyes flicked from the captors to Sarah, then back to the men on the floor.His gaze was unrelenting, cold enough to make even hardened criminals squirm.“Who sent you?” the leader demanded, his voice a low growl that made Sarah’s stomach churn.The captors exchanged nervous glances, one of them swallowing hard.“Answer me,” the leader snapped, his tone like a whip.“We... we were just following orders,” one of them stammered, his voice trembling.“Whose orders?”The man hesitated, but the aide didn’t give him a chance to think.A swift kick to his side
Inside the hall, the leader stood in the middle of the room, his black coat billowing slightly as he paced before the two kneeling captors.His imposing figure loomed like an executioner’s shadow, and his eyes burned with an intensity that froze the men before him.“You crossed into my territory,” the leader said, his voice calm but laced with menace. “You broke my rules.”The first captor, still shaking, stammered, “W.. we didn’t know it was your territory. We were just following Gerald’s orders.”The leader tilted his head, a faint, humorless smile curving his lips. “Ignorance doesn’t absolve you of guilt.”The second captor, now sweating profusely, tried to speak, but the leader raised a hand, silencing him.“You came into my domain,” he continued, his voice like steel. “You endangered my people. And for what? To do Gerald’s dirty work?”He stopped pacing, turning sharply to face the men. “Your actions warrant consequences.”Without hesitation, he pulled out his gun, a sleek black
The tension in the air seemed to dissipate as the leader rose from behind his massive oak desk, a faint smile tugging at his lips.The room, though dimly lit, radiated a quiet power, much like the man himself.The glass of whiskey in his hand swirling lazily. His piercing eyes remained trained on the door, the faint sound of footsteps growing louder as his trusted aide approached.“They’re here,” the aide announced.The leader nodded, his face unreadable as he rose from his seat. “Bring them in.”The door opened, and two figures entered the room.One was unmistakably Carter, Alexander’s most loyal man, his presence commanding yet respectful.Beside him, Alexander sat in his wheelchair, his expression a blend of exhaustion and resolve.“Alexander Blake,” the leader said warmly, stepping forward.His voice carried the weight of authority, yet it softened as he extended a hand. “It’s been too long.”Alexander, seated in his wheelchair, managed a weary smile. “Indeed, Darius. Too long.” H
The drive away from Darius's compound was steeped in a heavy silence, the hum of the car engine the only sound as Carter navigated the winding roads.Sarah sat beside Alexander, her hands gripping her knees as she tried to calm her racing heart.The events of the night replayed in her mind, Gerald’s betrayal, her desperate escape, and the unsettling presence of Darius.Finally, unable to contain her curiosity, she turned to Alexander. “Who is he?” she asked quietly.Alexander, seated in his wheelchair with a blanket draped over his legs, glanced at her.He knew the question would come, and he seemed to take a moment to gather his thoughts before answering.“Darius is… complicated,” Alexander began, his voice low. “His full name is Darius Blackwell. He’s the kind of man who can command a room with a single glance. People fear him for good reason. He’s ruthless, calculated, and incredibly powerful.”Sarah frowned, her brow furrowing. “But you said you’re friends?”Alexander nodded, a fa
The study in Gerald estate was a scene of chaos. Papers were scattered across the desk and floor, a glass of whiskey had shattered against the wall, and Gerald himself stood in the middle of the room, breathing heavily.His face was flushed with rage, his hands clenched into fists so tight his knuckles were white.“Darius Blackwell,” he spat the name like venom. “That damn bastard.”The message Darius had sent earlier, complete with the tongueless man and a chilling note, still lingered on his desk. Now, Gerald had received fresh news, not only had Alexander Blake managed to get Sarah, but he had done so with Darius’s blessing.Gerald slammed his fist onto the desk, the sound echoing through the room. “How?” he hissed, his voice trembling with anger. “How is Alexander still alive? How is he always one step ahead?”Gerald paced the room, his thoughts spiraling. The fact that Darius and Alexander were still on good terms grated on him like a jagged blade.He had banked on Darius remaini
The warehouse buzzed with cold efficiency as Gerald’s top enforcers prepared for the mission.The air was heavy with the scent of gasoline and gun oil. Three black SUVs stood ready, their engines idling ominously.Inside, men dressed in tactical gear double checked their weapons, their faces set in grim focus.“Target’s convoy is heading west on Route 17,” the team leader barked, his voice clipped and authoritative.He pressed a finger to his earpiece. “We intercept at marker 52. Make sure there’s no escape.”“Understood,” another enforcer replied, snapping the magazine into his rifle. “What’s the kill order?”“Loud and clear,” the leader responded, his lips curling into a ruthless grin. “This isn’t just a hit. It’s a message. Make them bleed.The tension inside Alexander’s armored car was palpable.Sarah sat stiffly beside him, her hands fidgeting in her lap as the dense forest outside blurred past the windows.The events of the past few hours had left her on edge, and the eerie stil
The convoy rolled through the wrought iron gates of Alexander’s sprawling estate, the security detail at full alert.Guards lined the driveway, their weapons slung across their chests as they saluted the vehicles.The mansion loomed ahead, its stone façade illuminated by floodlights, an imposing fortress against the night.Inside the lead car, Sarah leaned her head against the window, her exhaustion evident.The adrenaline that had fueled her during the ambush had long since faded, leaving her drained and emotionally raw.“We’re home,” Alexander said softly, his hand reaching over to rest on hers.She turned to him, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. “Home,” she echoed, the word feeling foreign after the chaos of the past hours.The car came to a stop, and Alexander’s guards moved swiftly to open the door for them.One guard wheeled Alexander out of the vehicle, while another helped Sarah, who swayed slightly as her feet hit the ground.“Ma’am, are you alright?” one of the guards aske
Sarah stayed curled in Alexander’s arms for a long moment, breathing him in like he was the only tether keeping her from floating away.His hand cradled the back of her head, his chest rising and falling in unsteady waves as if he still couldn’t believe she was real, that she was here.But then her eyes drifted down.Her gaze locked on the white sheets, crumpled and slightly lifted around his lower half.Something tugged at her memory, the shot.The sharp crack of a bullet.The sight of him falling behind her as she ran, screaming his name. Her stomach twisted.She leaned back slightly, her hand moving instinctively to the edge of the blanket, brushing against the thick padding of a cast beneath.Her voice was soft. “You were shot… I remember… I...”Alexander caught her hand gently, pressing it to his lips. “It’s okay. I’m here.”But Sarah’s heart had already begun to race again. “You were limping… and I saw… but I didn’t know it was this bad.” Her eyes darted toward the crutches now
The first thing Sarah registered was the scent of antiseptic, clean, sharp, and nauseating.Then came the ache. Deep in her bones. In her chest. In the marrow of her soul.She stirred, her fingers twitching over crisp hospital sheets as her body shifted ever so slightly, and her mind scrambled to catch up.She wasn’t tied down. She wasn’t cold anymore. She wasn’t in that dark room. That house. That… nightmare.She was safe.Or… something like it.Her eyes fluttered open slowly, lashes damp from tears she hadn’t even known she’d been crying.The ceiling was a sterile white blur. The walls hummed faintly with distant activity, soft footfalls, medical monitors, the low murmur of conversation somewhere outside the door.But none of it mattered.Because he wasn’t there.And without him, none of this felt real.Her lips parted, cracked and dry, and she tried to speak. Tried to push out the name that had lived on the edge of every prayer she'd whispered during captivity.It came out broken a
Alexander turned his head, his eyes bloodshot and glistening. “I’ll be a burden now. She’ll never say it, but I’ll see it in her eyes. Pity. Guilt. I’d rather she hate me than pity me.”“She’s not that kind of woman,” Darius said firmly.A pause. Then Alexander swallowed hard and asked the question that had been clawing at him since the moment the doctor said the word paralysis.“What if she stays… just because she thinks she owes me?”Darius’s brow furrowed. “Then you remind her what you both have been through. Remind her who the hell you are. And what you mean to each other.”Silence again.Then Alexander leaned back against the pillows and stared up at the ceiling. “Gerald got away.”Darius’s expression hardened. “Barely. One of my men put a tracker on his vehicle before he escaped. Victoria got caught in the crossfire. Gerald used her,” Darius replied coldly. “He doesn’t care who dies as long as he gets what he wants.”Alexander’s jaw clenched. “Then we’ll burn every last shadow h
The sterile beep of Alexander’s heart monitor filled the hospital room like a metronome, steady and soft. The worst had passed, so the doctors said. He had survived the bullets, the blood loss, the surgery. He had defied death.But outside the room, just as Darius turned to check on Sarah again, something in her expression shifted.Relief.That was the first thing he saw.A full bodied, all consuming relief that weakened her spine, dulled her eyes, and uncoiled every taut muscle that had kept her upright through pain, fear, and heartbreak.Then she crumpled.“Sarah...!” Darius lunged forward and caught her just before her knees slammed into the polished floor.Her body was limp in his arms, barely conscious, her breathing shallow and unsteady. Her bloodied hands slipped against his shirt as he pulled her close, his voice sharp and commanding as he yelled over his shoulder, “Get a doctor! Now!”Within seconds, nurses flooded the corridor. A gurney was wheeled over, and Darius laid her d
The woman he’d secretly crushed on since the first night he saved her bleeding and defiant.“Holy shit,” he muttered.But she was already in the driver’s seat.The moment her fingers wrapped around the wheel, she changed. Her spine straightened. Her breath slowed. The fear didn’t vanish, but it sharpened, fused into her bones like steel.And when her foot hit the gas, the tires screamed their fury into the night.The SUV became a blur under her hands.Trees melted past them. Headlights glared like ghosts. The world narrowed to instinct and motion.Sarah didn’t flinch when they nearly sideswiped a truck. She didn’t panic when the back tires fishtailed across loose gravel. She was in it.. back.Back to the part of herself she’d buried when she married into the Blake family.Back to Sparrow.“Hang on,” she said under her breath, glancing at Alexander in the mirror, his head resting in Darius’s lap as the man tried to stop the bleeding.“He’s fading,” Darius warned. “We’ve got fifteen min
The air turned electric as Darius’s boots pounded the forest floor, his rifle cradled tight against his shoulder. His men moved ahead of him like shadows, silent, fast, lethal.Their coordinated breaths were drowned out by the distant echoes of gunfire erupting from the estate.Alexander was still fighting.He was alive.But for how long?“Alpha to all units,” Darius growled into his earpiece, “entry on my mark. Hostile count is high. Primary objective, get Alexander out alive. Secondary level anyone who tries to stop us.”“Copy that,” came a chorus of calm, battle hardened voices.Behind him, the night swallowed his words.But not all of it.He turned briefly, his sharp gaze locking onto Sarah, who stood beside the black SUV Darius had arrived in. Her body trembled, her eyes red from tears, but she had not collapsed.She hadn’t fallen apart.And that, Darius admired deeply.“Can you drive?” he asked, voice hard but not unkind.Sarah blinked, startled. “What?”“If this goes south, we’
SarahShe sat on the floor, trembling hands curled around a piece of porcelain, a broken teacup she’d stashed away after a “servant” delivered tea hours ago.The sharp edge glittered in her shaking grip.She was pale.Her lips cracked from dehydration. Her dress hung off her like it didn’t belong to her anymore. Her eyes were void. Empty.As if she was no longer here.“Just one cut,” she whispered to herself. “Just one cut and I’ll see him again.”She looked up, eyes glassy, smile fragile, as if she could see someone standing in front of her already.“Alexander,” she breathed to the ghost in her mind. “I’m sorry I didn’t wait. I couldn’t. I’m just... so tired…”She raised the shard to her wrist.And a hand caught her.Real. Warm. Strong.Her eyes widened in horror and disbelief. “No…”She turned, and for a heartbeat, she didn’t believe it.But he was there.Kneeling before her.Alexander.His chest heaving from the run. Dirt on his clothes. Gun holstered at his side. Eyes red, wild, b
Alexander hadn’t slept.He couldn’t.His mind was a storm of fury, grief, and determination, all tightly leashed beneath the sharp cut of his suit and the red ring around his eyes that hadn’t dulled since Sarah was taken.The private jet cut across the clouds like a missile, Darius seated across from him, tablet in hand, phone to his ear, speaking in rapid fire to his tech team.“She’s still alive,” Alexander muttered under his breath. Not to Darius. Not even to himself. To the universe. As if daring it to prove him wrong. “She has to be.”Darius finally looked up. “We caught a break. One of Gerald’s men paid a contact to move a chopper from that warehouse. The payment route was unusual, and we traced it to a shell company under a different alias… all leading to one place.”He tapped on the screen and turned it to Alexander.An isolated property on the southern coast. Hills. Forest. A private airstrip nearby. No neighbors for miles.Gerald’s new hideout.“You think he’s keeping her th
Alexander pulled at the collar of his coat, suffocating from the weight of regret.When she had insisted he save Raven, he thought he was doing the right thing.He believed that was what Sarah would want. But now, the decision clawed at his chest like poison.He imagined her now, alone, terrified, thinking he was dead. Thinking he’d abandoned her.And that killed him.With trembling fingers, he grabbed his phone and called the only man he trusted in a crisis this dire.“Pick up,” he growled.The line clicked.“Darius,” Alexander said, his voice steely. “They took her. Gerald, he has her. He flew her out in a chopper. I need you to mobilize everything. I don’t care what you’re doing, who you’re with, drop it. Get me a flight path. Scramble every contact you have in surveillance, air traffic, satellites, everything.”Darius’s voice was sharp, ready. “On it.”“And send a second team. Heavy artillery. No questions. I want Gerald hunted down like the rat he is.”“Consider it done.”Alexand