(Kira’s POV)
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"I’m gonna kill you!"
My words rang shrilly in my head, and in that mont, I ant it literally, and I could fantasize about it. About grabbing Maven by the collar, slamming him into a wall, and forcing him to feel even a fraction of the helplessness he had poured into my life these past few days.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to calm down, but even behind my eyelids, the visions played on—burning like film projected against darkness.
Then I forced a breath through my nose and exhaled slowly, deliberately.
Fine.
One last task.
I leaned forward, jaw clenched, and keyed the address into the car’s navigation system. The screen flickered, the digital map spinning before locking into place.
Destination confird.
It was still in Parallel City, tucked into one of the less congested areas—about a 15-to-30-minute drive depending on traffic. The map didn’t show much else. Just a generic icon, a few lines of text, and a narrow, dead-end street barely lit by the thin red trace of a GPS route.
I stared at it for a long mont.
The weight of it sat heavy in my chest.
There was no description. No clue who lived there, or why Maven wanted his groceries dropped off at that particular location. It wasn’t his ho—that much I knew. It wasn’t a store, a café, or even an apartnt complex I recognized.
It was just an address. And I was expected to follow it, like a dog following orders.
I felt sick.
The thing that scared more than Maven’s manipulation was how numb I had started to beco to it. How quickly I went from resisting to complying. One buzz from my phone, one line of text, and I was already back on the road, his errand girl.
What am I becoming?
The question slithered through the silence.
Outside, the plaza’s noise grew fainter as I rolled up the windows. The world muffled into sothing distant and dreamlike—just the low hum of the engine and the erratic rhythm of my heart filling the void.
With a weary sigh, I grabbed my phone, the familiar weight of it suddenly feeling heavier than usual—like it knew what was coming. I tapped Kraven’s contact and brought the phone to my ear. The dial tone barely rang once before he picked up.
"Hello..." I muttered, sinking back into the seat. My voice was low, laced with unease, like it had to sneak past the lump forming in my throat. "Anything?"
There was a beat of silence—short, sharp—then Kraven’s voice cut through like a blade.
"You’re being followed."
My breath hitched. Even though I’d suspected it, hearing him confirm it wrapped icy fingers around my ribs.
"Yeah..." I exhaled, slow and bitter. "Even I noticed. You have a picture of him?"
"Yeah. Sending it to you now."
A second later, my phone buzzed. The screen lit up. One new image.
I tapped it open with a flick of my thumb, bracing myself.
The photo was grainy, caught in motion, but sharp enough. A man. Mid-thirties, maybe. Nondescript jacket. Baseball cap. His expression was blank, but that blankness was its own kind of nace—like he’d perfected the art of invisibility. His cara was slung low, angled discreetly, but still unmistakable.
I stared at him for a few seconds, then slowly shook my head.
"I don’t know who this fucker is," I muttered, my voice quiet but soaked with venom.
It was him.
The sa man I’d seen back at the supermarket.
Silent. Shifty. Too still for soone surrounded by chaos.
"Was he waiting for at the supermarket?" I asked, more to fill the silence than anything else. My fingers had begun drumming anxiously on the steering wheel.
"I don’t think so," Kraven replied. "I didn’t see anyone else trailing you until then. He must’ve followed you in."
A chill blood down my spine, crawling slowly over my skin.
"Oh, fuck..." The words escaped my lips in a breath, barely audible.
So it wasn’t just paranoia. It was real. Soone had eyes on —and they’d had them for longer than I realized. Maven had really planned this out way more than I thought.
"What should I do?" Kraven asked after a while, his voice quieter now. Not scared—just... colder.
I was quiet for a mont, then, "Nothing. Not yet. He’s not Maven, that much I know. So let’s see if he leads us to whoever’s pulling his strings."
Kraven gave a sigh, even though I couldn’t see him, I could imagine him nodding his bushy head. He cleared his throat as if it were dry. "Okay then... I’m getting back into my car now. So, what are you gonna do?"
There was a slight rustle on the other end of the line, a door creaking maybe, then his voice again.
"Maven sent another address."
Of course, he had.
My grip on the phone tightened.
It always ca down to Maven. The strings he pulled, the traps he laid. This entire day had felt like a series of steps leading deeper into a maze I couldn’t map. And now there was soone else in the ga. Soone I didn’t recognize.
I swallowed hard and glanced at the rearview mirror. Just cars. Just movent. But that didn’t an I was alone.
A single unseen gaze could split you open faster than a knife.
"Let’s go," I said.
My tone had shifted—low and resolved, like soone flipping the switch from survival to war.
I ended the call.
Sliding the phone into the console, I leaned back and took a deep breath, trying to steady the rapid drumbeat of my heart. Then I turned the key in the ignition.
The engine humd to life.
I shifted into gear and eased out of the parking spot, every movent deliberate, every glance calculated. I scanned the side mirrors, the rearview, and the reflection in the shop windows as I passed them. The SUV from earlier was long gone—but sothing told this wasn’t over.
Sothing told that the real threat didn’t co with flashing lights or obvious danger. It ca quietly. In photos. In shadows.
I reached the exit of the plaza, blinkers clicking rhythmically as I rged into the street. The city stretched out before , loud and sunburned, the chaos of its afternoon traffic a kind of distraction—but not a comfort.
Not today.
For now, I was still stuck doing only what Maven wanted to do!
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