The dawn arrived uninvited.The sky, stained with a threatening gray, seemed to anticipate the storm.In the base’s operations room, maps were spread out, screens were on, and the air… was heavy.Max was marking positions on the map with absolute focus.Dax was checking intercepted surveillance cameras.Maddox stood, arms crossed, watching everything as if he had already seen it all play out in his mind.And Amalia.Amalia was there.Sitting at the table, among them.One of them.But she was no longer just the woman dragged into this war by mistake.Now… she was part of the strategy."We have three blind spots on the west border," Max said, pointing. "If they’re coming in, it’ll be through there.""And what if that’s not what they want?" Amalia cut in. "What if this is just a distraction?""That’s what I thought too," Dax added. "Look at this."He projected a video.A hooded figure moved through shadows.A familiar silhouette."Is that…?" Amalia whispered."Yeah," Maddox confirmed, his
The name hung in the air like an ancient poison.Gian.Amalia hadn’t heard it in years. Not since the first whispers, when everything was still darkness and fragments. Not since Maddox had erased it from every conversation, as if eliminating his existence was the only way to contain what it truly meant."Are you sure?" Amalia asked, her voice barely a thread.Maddox looked at her. His gaze, usually impenetrable, was now an uncontrollable storm. His gray eyes gleamed like blades under the dawn light slipping through the shattered windows."Too sure."June stood in the corner of the room, still processing everything that had just been revealed. But when she heard that name, she took a step back. As if the past had just punched her in the face."He wasn’t dead..." she whispered."He never was," Max said, voice dry.Dax ran a hand through his hair, frustrated."They lied to all of us.""Who is Gian?" Amalia finally asked, her tone as sharp as a promise of breaking.Maddox didn’t answer imm
The roar of engines echoed through the trees.Amalia adjusted her tactical jacket as she descended the hill alongside Maddox, Dax, and Max. Leaves crunched beneath their boots. In the distance, a cloud of dust rose: Cillian’s men were on the move.“Left flank, Dax. Don’t let anyone come through the stream,” Maddox ordered without turning. His voice was clear, sharp. Undeniably a leader, without hesitation.“Got it,” Dax replied, drawing both his knife and pistol. His smile was tense but electric—like he’d been waiting for this moment for weeks.“Max, with me,” Maddox continued. “We’ll greet them head-on. Amalia…”She looked up.“What?”“You decide,” Maddox said, his gray eyes locked on hers. “Do you lead the second line of defense or come to the front?”Amalia swallowed. It was the first time he openly gave her the choice. He wasn’t sidelining her or treating her like a burden.“The front,” she answered without hesitation.A flicker of approval crossed Maddox’s face. Just for a second
The contact was barely a touch.But for both of them, it was the end of resistance.Amalia felt the slight tremble in Maddox's fingers when he touched her. It wasn't insecurity—it was the weight of everything he always held back. The words he never said. The emotions he had denied, even when he desired her, even when he protected her like his life depended on it.This time, he didn’t stop.His lips brushed hers with a gentleness that shattered her. As if he didn’t want to break her. As if he knew that if he crossed that line, there would be no going back.She held him by the nape, pulling him closer, and he lost control.He kissed her with a silent desperation. A mix of need, guilt, desire, and redemption. As if she were his only way out. His only peace.Maddox gripped her waist, pulling her toward him. His hard, tense body enveloped hers completely. The brush of his torso against hers made her burn inside. It wasn’t just heat—it was connection. The kind of fire that consumes you slow
The first ray of sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtain, tracing a golden line across the messy bed. The warmth of Maddox’s body still lingered in the sheets, even though he was no longer there.I sat up slowly, still wrapped in the slow rhythm of our night. Every muscle ached in new ways—not from physical exhaustion, but from the emotional intensity still vibrating in my bones.Maddox had been... different.There had been a fierce tenderness in his touch. A restrained need that didn’t come from desire, but from something deeper. More dangerous.An attachment he didn’t want to admit.I wrapped the sheet around me and stepped out of the room. The hallway was quiet, but not empty. I could feel his presence before I saw him.And there he was.Standing by the window in the main room, a cup of coffee in hand, eyes fixed on the horizon. He wore only his suit pants, his shirt unbuttoned, and the sunlight kissed his back as if trying to understand him too.When he heard my steps, he
The sound of tires on gravel was the first thing that warned us. The convoy stopped right in front of the new temporary base, an armored house on the outskirts of Monterrey. No one said anything for the first few seconds. We all knew that from that moment on, every step would be definitive.Max got out first, checking the perimeter. Dax stretched his shoulders and glanced toward the horizon before opening the car door where Maddox and I were."You're trembling," Maddox murmured. His deep, low voice felt like a command disguised as concern."I'm not trembling," I lied.His gray eyes examined me. Dark. Deep. Unyielding. As always.As if they could see everything I wasn’t saying."What’s coming isn’t for those who hesitate, Amalia," he said. "I need you not to blink."I nodded, even though my thoughts were swirling. The plan was clear: attack Cillian’s central communication point that very night. And I would be there. With them. As one of them.The house was a disguised bunker. The windo
Dawn seeped through the windows like a pale ghost.Nothing in that house —or within us— seemed to have rested.The tension in the air was different. Sharper. Less restrained. As if we were all waiting for the final detonation.Maddox stood in front of the window, phone in hand, his face carved from stone. His imposing silhouette cast a long shadow across the wooden floor."Everything alright?" I asked from the doorway, my voice steadier than I felt.He didn’t respond immediately. He just hung up and turned around, his gray eyes as sharp as blades."The game’s over." His voice was a sentence. "Today, we go after them."Dax and Max entered the room like they had heard every word before it was said. They were ready. Combat gear. Weapons within reach. Chins high. Jaws tight."The reports are clear," said Max, dropping blueprints marked with red Xs onto the table. "Adris is weakened, but not enough. And Cillian… he’s the real threat now.""We’re attacking directly?" I asked, stepping close
The clock read 3:47 a.m.The silence of dawn was heavy with something unnamed. It wasn’t fear, it wasn’t desire. It was expectation. The calm before a storm.Max was checking weapons on the central table, the muscles in his back outlined beneath his tight black shirt. Dax paced from one side to the other, focused on the escape route, on the blueprints, on everything… except me. But I felt it. Felt his eyes sliding toward me every time he passed nearby.And Maddox…Maddox was leaning against the window frame, arms crossed, watching the darkness of the forest like he could control it. He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. But his presence alone was enough to dominate the air.I had tried to sleep. I had closed my eyes. Counted breaths. But every time I did, one image pulled me back to the present: the three of them. And everything I hadn’t said."Three hours left," Max murmured. "That’s our window before the security shift changes. If we’re doing this, it has to be before seven."Dax nodded
The French city rose before them with indifferent beauty. Marseille welcomed them with a salty breeze and a sky covered in low-hanging clouds, as if the very weather sensed the war that was coming.Amalia stepped off the jet with her coat tight around her body, eyes fixed on the urban horizon. Beside her, Maddox walked with a steady pace, flanked by Max and Dax. Lev, slightly behind, held her purse discreetly, observing everything with sharp eyes."This is the point of no return," murmured Dax as the armored vehicles approached on the private runway."We passed it a long time ago," Max replied, without taking his eyes off the approaching cars.They boarded in silence. The convoy took them through the streets of Marseille to an old manor on the outskirts, a property that had belonged to the Dangello family for generations. Now turned into a temporary headquarters, it would be their base for the final operation.Inside, maps, screens, and electronic devices buzzed with the energy of the
The early morning left a faint trace of mist over the land surrounding the house. Amalia woke wrapped in a warmth that had nothing to do with the fire: Maddox’s arms held her with measured strength, as if he feared the world could take her even in sleep.She said nothing. Just watched his face. Serene, contained, human.For a moment, she allowed herself the luxury of thinking the end was near.But the sound of the cell phone on the nightstand shattered that fantasy.Maddox sat up instantly, his gray eyes already alert."Who is it?""Dax," she said, picking up the phone. "He says they found something."Half an hour later, they were all gathered in the main living room."We intercepted a call," Dax reported, opening a recording on a laptop. "The number belongs to one of the Council's old contacts. They’re organizing a secret meeting in less than 72 hours.""Where?" Max asked."Marseille. A private yacht, in international waters. It’s not an ambush, it’s a power statement."Amalia crosse
The morning light filtered softly through the windows of the Dangello’s old hideout—far from Las Vegas, far from the noise, far from the chaos. The stone walls held a strange silence, one that didn’t come from the absence of sound, but from the weight of what had just ended.The war had been stopped.Cillian was dead. Project Phoenix, neutralized. The Council, weakened.But no one spoke of victory.Amalia had locked herself in the room she shared with Maddox and hadn’t come out since they arrived. She had been the first to shoot. The first to bring down the monster. And though everyone looked at her like a hero, all she felt was a strange emptiness.Maddox didn’t push her.He waited.Outside, Max was coordinating the final cleanup of what was left in Las Vegas. Dax was training the new allies with a seriousness he had never shown before. And Lev… Lev was resting more peacefully. Her pregnancy was progressing well, and peace was reflected in her eyes every time Max came near. There was
The sun had just begun to tint the edges of the windows with gold when Amalia woke up. Not from exhaustion, but from the intensity of the thoughts that wouldn’t let her rest. The day had come.The operation against Project Phoenix would begin that very night.She went down to the living room and found it empty, though it still smelled like freshly brewed coffee. Max was on the terrace, speaking softly with Lev. From a distance, Amalia noticed the gentleness of his smile and how Lev looked at him with a mix of admiration and curiosity. A silent connection that seemed to grow without words.Dax appeared with a folder under his arm.“We already have the internal blueprints of the Cosmopolitan. Maddox wants us to review them together before noon,” he announced, placing the documents on the marble table.Amalia nodded, taking a quick glance. Internal corridors, emergency exits, evacuation routes, and most importantly, the camera blind spots. Dax’s work was clean. Precise. And that gave her
The morning light filtered through the curtains, bringing with it an unusual calm. Amalia was in the kitchen, making coffee, when a soft knock at the door made her turn around."Who could it be at this hour?" she thought, drying her hands with a towel.When she opened the door, the world seemed to stop. Standing in front of her were June and Kari, her lifelong friends—those she had believed lost forever."Amalia?" June whispered, tears in her eyes.Without a word, Amalia hugged them tightly, feeling overwhelmed by emotion."I thought I’d never see you again," she said between sobs.After a few minutes, they sat down in the living room, still processing the reunion."What happened to you? Where have you been all this time?" Amalia asked, searching for answers.June was the first to speak:"After that night when everything changed, we were kidnapped by a group looking for information about you. They kept us separated, interrogating us constantly."Kari nodded, adding:"We managed to esc
The night fell like a sigh over the quiet neighborhood, so different from the chaos I had grown used to. My mother's house, with its scent of cinnamon and aged wood, felt more like a memory than reality. Everything was silent, except for the soft murmur of trees swaying in the wind.Maddox stood by the window, his silhouette outlined by the warm light inside. He was still wearing his black shirt, though it was no longer fully buttoned. His gray eyes, as intense as ever, were fixed on the darkness beyond the glass."You're not going to sleep?" I asked softly, pausing at the threshold of the living room.He didn’t turn at first. He only answered after a long second."Everything here feels... too quiet. It’s strange."I walked closer. The sound of my steps was nearly inaudible on the handwoven rug. He tensed slightly when I stopped beside him, but didn’t pull away."It’s not strange," I said, looking at the same point he was. "It’s peace. Something we don’t know how to hold for too long.
The forest was covered by a fog so thick it seemed to swallow sound. Only the crunch of boots on damp earth broke the silence. Maddox led the march with steady steps, flanked by Dax and Max, while Amalia followed a few steps behind, feeling each heartbeat sync with the looming danger.Ivan and Nina had taken forward surveillance positions. Cillian didn’t know they were there. Not yet."You have five minutes to cross into the perimeter undetected," Ivan whispered through the communicator."Plenty of time," Maddox replied coldly.Amalia hadn’t seen this side of him in days. The lethal leader. The strategist who turned every decision into a perfect calculation. In that moment, he wasn’t just the man who desired her. He was the shadow walking ahead to face the darkness.Dax crouched behind an oak, studying the complex's map on a tablet."Side entrance. Three men. Active cameras," he said. "We need a distraction.""You’ve got one," Nina interrupted from the other end. "There’s a thermal gl
Dawn arrived with a sky tinted gray. There were no birds, no sounds. Only silence.The kind of silence that feels like a warning.I sat at the edge of the bed, wrapped in a white sheet, watching the first rays of light slip through the window. Beside me, the space was empty.The three of them had gotten up before me.I could hear their muffled voices downstairs. They weren’t arguing, but they spoke with the tension of people about to walk into fire.I got dressed slowly, as if any sudden movement could shatter what we’d lived the night before. I could still feel their lips, their touch, their intensity. Everything we’d shared had clung to my skin like a fresh scar.When I came down, Maddox was the first to turn toward me.Impeccable. Elegant. Imposing.He wore a long black coat over his combat gear. His presence was so dominant that everything in the room seemed to lean toward him. Dax, leaning on the counter with a cup of coffee, looked up and gave me a half-smile. Max already had th
The clock read 3:47 a.m.The silence of dawn was heavy with something unnamed. It wasn’t fear, it wasn’t desire. It was expectation. The calm before a storm.Max was checking weapons on the central table, the muscles in his back outlined beneath his tight black shirt. Dax paced from one side to the other, focused on the escape route, on the blueprints, on everything… except me. But I felt it. Felt his eyes sliding toward me every time he passed nearby.And Maddox…Maddox was leaning against the window frame, arms crossed, watching the darkness of the forest like he could control it. He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. But his presence alone was enough to dominate the air.I had tried to sleep. I had closed my eyes. Counted breaths. But every time I did, one image pulled me back to the present: the three of them. And everything I hadn’t said."Three hours left," Max murmured. "That’s our window before the security shift changes. If we’re doing this, it has to be before seven."Dax nodded