Vivian had always known how betrayal felt. Sharp. Sudden. But this...this was different.
Aiden didn't flinch when Graham's voice echoed off the warehouse walls. He didn't look away when the screen flickered to life and Evelyn's face came into view, serene as ever, framed by a halo of cold studio lighting. He just stood there. Still. Like this had been inevitable.
Vivian's wrists ached from the zip ties. Too tight. Just loose enough to pretend it wasn't deliberate. Her back was cold against the rusting chair, but it wasn't the chill of metal that unsettled her.
It was the silence in Aiden.
"You played it well," Evelyn's voice cooed through the speakers. "Your loyalty act. The sad, soft-eyed intern with a score to settle. It had Liam on edge for weeks. You should be proud."
Vivian didn't look at the screen. She looked at Aiden.
"I trusted you," she said quietly. "Even after the first time."
His jaw twitched, just slightly. But he didn't speak. Graham smirked beside him, arms crossed, relishing the drama.
"I didn't lie about everything," Aiden finally said, eyes still not meeting hers. "But I did what I had to."
"Did you?" she asked. "Or did Evelyn promise you power if you sold what was left of yourself?"
Aiden's hands curled into fists, but he said nothing.
Vivian inhaled slowly, eyes scanning the warehouse behind them. No guards. Just the three of them. The camera overhead blinking red. There was still a chance slim, but enough.
Evelyn's image filled the screen again, voice like silk over broken glass. "You always were predictable, Vivian. Righteous. Emotional. You let your gut override your brain makes you easy to lure. We didn't even need a real trap. You walked right in."
Vivian laughed, sharp and low. "And yet you're still hiding behind a screen. What's the matter? Afraid I'll break your nose again?"
Evelyn's smile faltered just for a beat.
Graham stepped forward. "You won't be laughing in ten minutes. That drive you stole? Fed it to the press this morning. Twisted just right. By noon, your company will be a pile of smoking ash."
"And Ashford?" Evelyn added. "It'll be renamed. Rewritten. Forgotten."
Vivian's heart thudded. But she didn't show it.
She leaned forward slightly. "You're really afraid of us, aren't you?"
Evelyn tilted her head. "Afraid? No, dear. Just thorough."
Behind them, the camera whirred faintly. Aiden turned slightly, as if to check something but his eyes flickered toward Vivian, just once. There was a crack there. A split. The kind you couldn't fake.
Vivian caught it. Filed it away. She'd find a way through.
Because she wasn't done. Not yet.
Liam's thumb hovered over the tracking app again.
Still offline.
Charlotte leaned over his shoulder, her face tight, her voice low. "That's the third ping that didn't return. Either her comms are down, o"
"She's trapped," Liam muttered.
He shoved his chair back with a force that made the table rattle. The war room buzzed with monitors, intel feeds, and the constant churn of Ashford's skeleton team scrambling damage control after the leak. But everything else dulled beneath the roar of one fact:
Vivian wasn't answering.
"She had backup," Charlotte said quickly, moving beside him. "The team was shadowing from a distance. We vetted the route twice. The warehouse was neutral."
Liam shook his head. "And somehow Evelyn still got there first."
Charlotte's eyes flickered, guilt flashing beneath her calm. "I should've sent a tighter sweep. Maybe"
"No." Liam turned to her. "This isn't on you. Evelyn's been playing long-range strategy for months. She knew Vivian would break protocol to chase the next lead."
Charlotte hesitated. "She went alone the first time. She promised she wouldn't again."
"She didn't tell us the first meeting was real," he said. "Only mentioned it after we found the audio feed from that bugged pen. You think I forgot that?"
Charlotte's expression didn't shift, but the air between them thickened.
"She was trying to protect us," she said, voice softer now. "From a trap she thought she could control."
"Well, she can't control it now," Liam snapped. Then quieter, more to himself: "She's in there. Alone. With two people who'd rather see her gone."
He stepped back, hands on his hips, breathing hard. His pulse was too loud in his ears.
Charlotte adjusted the earpiece in her comm and called out to the team, "I need eyes on the East Industrial lot. Traffic cams, drones whatever's close."
A younger analyst at the back called out, "We just got a partial motion capture from a drone sweep someone was entering the northeast section. Signal was lost ten minutes ago."
"Replay it," Liam ordered.
The grainy footage came on-screen. Two figures. One tall, broad Graham. The other thinner, hair tucked beneath a cap Aiden.
No Vivian.
But in the bottom corner, a shape. Just barely visible.
Liam pointed. "That's her. In the back. They moved her inside."
Charlotte was already scanning the building layout. "If they're keeping her alive, it means they want something. A statement. A public collapse."
Liam's hands closed into fists. "Then they underestimated her. Again."
He turned toward the table, dragging up the blueprint.
"She'll find a way to stall," he said. "She knows we're coming. We just have to get there before Evelyn turns this into a broadcast execution."
Charlotte didn't ask if he was sure.
She just grabbed her coat. "Let's move."
The warehouse smelled of rust and damp earth, the kind of decay that had settled long before tonight. Vivian's wrists ached from the plastic ties, her shoulders screaming from being forced upright in a chair bolted to the floor. A single industrial bulb swung overhead, casting long, dancing shadows along the concrete.
Across from her, Evelyn stood calm, unhurried. Every inch of her tailored suit was perfect. No blood. No dust. Like she hadn't just orchestrated a kidnapping.
Beside her, Graham leaned against a support beam, arms crossed, silent. Watching. Aiden paced the edges of the room, restless. Avoiding her eyes.
"You always were clever," Evelyn said, almost admiring. "I underestimated your tolerance for pain. Not just physical professional. Personal. You held on longer than most would've."
Vivian didn't respond. Her mouth was dry, but her eyes were sharp.
Evelyn stepped closer.
"But there's a cost," she said. "Loyalty. Isolation. You're here now, Vivian, and none of them Liam, Charlotte, your precious legal team none of them have managed to stop me. You still think they'll save you?"
Vivian's voice came out hoarse but firm. "I don't think. I know."
Evelyn raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. I would've bet your optimism died in that boardroom. Or maybe when your father's legacy was torn out from under you."
Something flickered across Vivian's face. But she held steady.
"I've seen your kind before," Evelyn said quietly. "Born into power. Thinking it comes with meaning. You confuse inheritance with purpose."
Vivian shifted her gaze to Aiden.
He hadn't spoken since they brought her in. Now, he lingered near the exit, jaw clenched, eyes low. Still pretending this wasn't what he signed up for.
"You're shaking," she said to him.
Evelyn chuckled. "He regrets, sometimes. It's cute. But he's useful."
Vivian leaned forward, chains scraping. "You still think he's loyal to you?"
Evelyn smiled, turning her back.
"Doesn't matter," she said. "What matters is what happens next. You're going to record a message, Vivian. A statement of resignation. A confession. That you were involved in misappropriating funds, falsifying documents"
"No."
Evelyn didn't flinch. "...and that Ashford's future is better under Graham's leadership. You'll say this. You'll say it clearly. And if you don't..."
She gestured toward the screen hanging on the wall.
It lit up.
Daniel's face.
Vivian froze.
Not live. A video. School grounds. Grainy, distant. But it was recent his new backpack, the uniform sleeve he'd gotten ink on this morning.
Her breath caught.
"You" she started, but the words broke in her throat.
Graham stepped forward now, folding his arms behind her.
"We didn't touch him," he said. "Yet."
Vivian closed her eyes. Just for a second. Just long enough to build the wall back up.
Then: "You touch that boy, and I swear to you, no storm on this earth will protect you from me."
Silence.
Evelyn studied her.
Then said softly, "That's the voice I want on record. Not fear. Fire."
She turned to Aiden. "Start the camera."
But Aiden didn't move.
"Now," Evelyn said.
His jaw tightened. He pulled the phone from his pocket. Pressed record.
Vivian looked straight into the lens.
And smiled.
Liam crouched beside the passenger door, his breath fogging in the cold night air. The warehouse loomed ahead half-forgotten on Ashford's eastern fringe, surrounded by overgrown lots and rusting freight lines. The kind of place people were brought to disappear.
Charlotte adjusted her comms unit. "Satellite confirms movement inside. Three heat signatures clustered west end. One pacing, two stationary. Could be Graham, Evelyn... and her."
Liam's fingers tightened around the cold grip of the stun weapon she'd handed him earlier. "Let's not screw this up."
They moved fast two shadows against the skeletal fences, ducking behind crates and pallets stacked like forgotten tombstones. Charlotte led, motion fluid and precise. The years hadn't dulled her. If anything, they'd carved her sharper.
At the service door, she paused. "Two guards posted just inside. Minimal patrol. Probably overconfident."
Liam glanced at the security feed she pulled up from a jammer-linked tablet. "Looks like they re-routed all their resources to surveillance. Not enough bodies to guard all angles."
"Typical Graham," she muttered. "Show of force, sloppy backend."
She reached for the lock override, but Liam grabbed her wrist.
"Wait."
He looked up.
The window above the storage dock. Slightly ajar. A shortcut.
Charlotte followed his gaze and nodded once. "You up for it?"
"I don't really have a choice, do I?"
They climbed.
Inside, the air was thick with mildew and tension. Below, harsh voices echoed faintly a woman's low tone (Evelyn), the scratchy drag of someone pacing (Aiden), and a third voice... Vivian's, cutting through with sharp defiance.
"East corridor," Charlotte whispered, checking the building layout on her tablet. "Leads to the loading dock. She's being held there."
Liam didn't wait for a plan. He bolted.
Charlotte cursed under her breath and followed, silent and lethal behind him.
As they neared the hallway, they heard it
"…I swear to you, no storm on this earth will protect you from me."
Vivian.
Liam's chest tightened. That voice steady, fierce. Not broken. Not begging.
Just as they reached the corner, Charlotte held up a hand. Two guards. One reaching for a phone, the other leaning near a closed steel door.
Liam mouthed, On my mark.
They struck fast. Charlotte swept low, kicking the legs out from one while Liam jabbed the stun device against the other's side. They collapsed in a tangle of limbs and gasps.
Charlotte dragged them into an alcove. "We've got maybe ninety seconds before someone checks in."
Liam nodded, breathless, and turned to the steel door. Behind it Vivian, Evelyn, Graham, maybe Aiden. Maybe
He hesitated.
"What if it's a trap?"
Charlotte pressed her hand to the door. "Then let's spring it."
The door slammed open.
Vivian barely flinched.
Evelyn did.
Charlotte entered first, gun raised, eyes sweeping the room with practiced control. Liam followed close behind, fists clenched, face cut with fury.
Vivian's shoulders dropped... just for a breath... as their eyes met.
She was still on her feet. Blood trickled from her lip, but her stance was rooted, defiant. Untouched where it mattered.
Evelyn's smile snapped back into place with effort. "Well. The cavalry arrives."
Graham shifted near the far wall, hand inching toward his belt. Charlotte caught the movement and turned her weapon on him. "Try me."
Liam stepped beside Vivian. "You okay?"
Vivian nodded once. "More than she expected."
Aiden hadn't moved. He stood a few feet away, frozen, face pale. The tremor in his hands betrayed him.
Liam spotted it. "You picked your side. Was it worth it?"
Aiden looked away.
Vivian's voice cut the room. "Tell them, Evelyn. Tell them what you've built on ruins and blackmail."
Evelyn laughed softly. "You think this ends with one brave little ambush? You're children playing at war. I've already made the call."
Charlotte narrowed her eyes. "What call?"
Evelyn smirked. "The one that burns this whole game down."
A faint click sounded. Aiden flinched.
Charlotte's eyes darted to the far corner where a small device blinked red. "She's rigged a failsafe."
Evelyn turned her gaze on Liam. "You never did learn, did you? Power isn't taken. It's survived."
And then
Bang.
For a moment, no one breathed.
Vivian's knees buckled.
Liam caught her before she hit the floor, eyes wide in disbelief. Blood soaked through her blazer, just above her ribs. Her hand clutched his shirt, jaw clenched against a scream.
"Vivian... no, no...stay with me!"
Charlotte tackled Graham, slamming him to the ground as smoke curled from the barrel of his hidden gun.
Aiden staggered back, pale as ash. "I didn't... I didn't know"
Vivian gasped. "You knew enough."
Her voice was raw, wet with pain.
Liam pressed his hand over the wound. "You're going to be okay. Just hold on."
But Evelyn was gone slipping out the emergency exit as chaos erupted behind her.
Sirens echoed in the distance Charlotte had triggered the silent alert on entry. Reinforcements were coming.
Too late.
Liam cradled Vivian against him as she fought to stay conscious.
"You held the line," he whispered. "You didn't fold."
Her lips twitched. "Neither did you."
And then her eyes closed.
Darkness swallowed the warehouse.
But outside, for the first time in months the sky began to rain.