I was three blocks from EPL 18 when the building exploded.
The shockwave hit the SUV hard enough to crack the windshield. Vincent slamd on the brakes as debris rained down, and I watched the warehouse where Katherine was supposedly being held erupt into flas.
"Boss-" Vincent’s voice was tight.
"Drive!" I was already moving, already calculating. "Get closer!"
"Tony, if she were in that building..."
"She wasn’t." I didn’t know how I knew, just felt it bone-deep. "It’s too early. The text said one hour, this is twenty minutes... sothing’s wrong."
My phone rang. Thomas.
"Don’t go to EPL 18!" My father’s voice was sharp with panic - an emotion I’d never heard from him. "It’s a trap. Victoria Sterling orchestrated everything. The FBI investigation, the threats - everything. She’s been playing us from the beginning."
The world tilted. "What?"
"Katherine’s alive. She escaped. But Victoria’s still out there, and she thinks you’re about to walk into that explosion." He paused. "Son, she wants you dead. She’s been planning this for months."
"Where’s Katherine?"
"Luca Torrino has her. They’re en route to your location-" Static cut through the line. "Tony, Victoria has a secondary location. If the explosion didn’t work, she’ll go to plan B. You need to-"
The line went dead.
I stared at my phone, at the flas consuming EPL 18, at the evidence of how close I’d co to dying. And felt nothing but cold, focused rage.
"Vincent, pull up everything on Victoria Sterling. Properties, assets, and known associates. She’s got another location prepared."
"Already on it." His fingers flew across his tablet. "She owns a penthouse in Tribeca. Registered under a shell company, but it’s hers. Perfect secondary location."
"Then that’s where we’re going."
We were speeding toward Tribeca when another SUV cut us off. I had my gun drawn before I recognized the driver.
Luca Torrino.
And in the passenger seat, wrapped in his jacket, bloody and disheveled and alive-
Katherine.
I was out of the vehicle before Vincent entirely stopped. Katherine stumbled from Luca’s SUV, and I caught her, my arms coming around her like I could physically hold her together.
"You’re alive." My voice cracked. "I thought - the ssage said-"
"I know." Her hands fisted in my shirt, her whole body trembling against mine. The thin pajama shorts and oversized t-shirt she wore were torn, blood staining the fabric at her wrists. "Tony, Victoria-"
"I know. My father told ." I pulled back just enough to check her for injuries, my hands skimming over her shoulders, down her arms. The zip-tie marks on her wrists made my vision go red. "Did she hurt you?"
"I’m fine. But she’s planning sothing... a backup-"
"Tribeca penthouse." Luca approached, his expression grim. "My intel says she’s there now, preparing to run. We need to move before she disappears."
I looked at him - this man who’d held Katherine while I was breaking, who she’d given a key to her apartnt, who’d been there when I couldn’t be. Part of wanted to hate him. But he’d saved her life.
"Thank you." The words ca out rough. "For keeping her safe."
Luca nodded once, then turned to his n. "We’re going in hard. Full tactical. Victoria Sterling doesn’t leave that building alive unless she’s in handcuffs."
"Katherine." I cupped her face in my hands, my thumbs brushing over her cheekbones. "You need to stay here. Let us handle this."
"Like hell." Fire flashed in her brown eyes despite the exhaustion. "She kidnapped , threatened to kill you, and staged my death. I’m not sitting this out."
"You’re bleeding, half-dressed, and you just escaped-"
"And I’m the only one she’ll let close." Katherine gripped my wrists, her fingers strong despite the trembling. "She thinks I’m dead or trapped. If I walk in there, she won’t be prepared. She’ll make a mistake."
Every instinct scread to lock her in the SUV and face Victoria myself. But Katherine’s expression was pure steel - the sa woman who’d broken her own zip ties and fought her way free.
"Together then." I pulled her close, breathing in her scent, feeling her heartbeat against my chest. "But you stay behind . Always."
"Behind you. Beside you. Doesn’t matter as long as we’re together." Her voice softened. "Tony, I need you to know everything I said before, about not trusting you, about being done-"
"Later." I pressed my forehead to hers. "After we end this. After you’re safe. Then we’ll talk about everything."
"But if sothing happens-"
"Nothing’s going to happen." I kissed her hard and desperately, tasting salt from her tears. "Because we’re not dying today. Neither of us."
We moved as a unit - my n, Luca’s n, Vincent coordinating tactical positions. The Tribeca building was all glass and steel, luxury condos for Manhattan’s elite. Victoria’s penthouse occupied the entire top floor.
"Service entrance is our best bet." Vincent pulled up building schematics. "The staff elevator goes straight to the penthouse. Less exposure."
"Security caras?" Luca checked his weapon with practiced efficiency.
"Already looped. She won’t see us coming."
Katherine shivered beside despite Luca’s jacket wrapped around her shoulders. I shrugged out of my own coat, still wearing the dress shirt from my destroyed office, with sleeves rolled up to expose the tattoos on my forearms, and draped it over her. It fell to mid-thigh on her fra, the fabric swallowing her curves.
"Thank you." She pulled it tighter, and sothing possessive and primal surged through , seeing her in my clothes.
Mine. She was mine. And I was about to make sure Victoria Sterling understood that.
We moved through the service entrance like ghosts. The elevator ride to the penthouse was silent, tension coiling tighter with each passing floor. Katherine’s hand found mine, her fingers interlacing with my bloodied knuckles.
"Whatever happens-" she whispered.
"We survive." I squeezed her hand. "Together."
The elevator doors opened to chaos.
Victoria stood in the middle of her penthouse, phone pressed to her ear, her cream suit disheveled and stained. Behind her, a wall of windows overlooked the city, and in her free hand was a gun.
"—don’t care what it costs, I need a helicopter on that roof in ten minutes!" She spun at the sound of the elevator, and shock flashed across her face. "You’re supposed to be dead."
"Disappointed?" I stepped forward, putting Katherine behind . "Sorry to ruin your plans."
"Both of you." Victoria’s laugh was unhinged. "Of course. The star-crossed lovers survive again. How fucking predictable."
"It’s over, Victoria." Luca moved to flank us, his own weapon drawn. "The FBI is already raiding Sterling’s offices. Your father’s being arrested. There’s nowhere left to run."
"There’s always sowhere to run when you have money." Victoria raised her gun, and I saw the mont her control fractured completely. "But if I’m going down, I’m taking her with ."
The gun swung toward Katherine, and everything slowed.
I moved on instinct, shoving Katherine behind the marble counter as the shot rang out. Pain exploded through my shoulder - white-hot and imdiate, but I kept moving, kept shielding Katherine’s body with mine.
Return fire erupted from Luca’s n. Victoria dove behind furniture, and suddenly the pristine penthouse was a war zone.
"Tony!" Katherine’s hands were on my shoulder, blood seeping through my shirt. "You’re hit-"
"I’m fine." I wasn’t. The bullet had gone clean through, and the pain was blinding. But Katherine was alive and unhurt, and that’s all that mattered. "Stay down."
"Like hell!" She grabbed my gun from where it had fallen, checking the chamber with surprising competence. "Elliot taught to shoot. I’m not useless."
"I never said-"
She kissed . Hard and desperate and tasting like blood and fear and everything we’d been through. "If we die, we die together. You don’t get to martyr yourself for ."
Another shot pinged off the marble above our heads.
"Romantic," I muttered. "Terrible timing, but romantic."
Katherine actually laughed - a wild and slightly unhinged sound. "When this is over, we’re taking a very long vacation sowhere with no guns, no mafia, and absolutely no psychotic ex-fiancées."
"Deal."
We moved together, Katherine covering my blind side as I advanced on Victoria’s position. She was cornered now, Luca’s n surrounding her escape routes, my n blocking the elevator.
"It’s over, Victoria!" I called out. "Put down the weapon!"
"So you can kill ?" Her voice was shrill from behind the overturned couch. "So you can have your happy ending with her?"
"So you can face trial instead of dying in your own living room!"
Silence. Before she said, "I really did love you once, you know. Before you beca weak. Before she ruined you."
"She didn’t ruin ." I stepped into view, gun raised but not firing. Behind , Katherine did the sa - my woman, my partner, covered in blood and wearing my jacket and absolutely magnificent. "She saved ."
Victoria rose, gun hanging loose at her side, and for a mont I thought she’d surrender.
Then her arm swung up, the weapon aid at Katherine’s heart.
I fired.
So did Katherine.
So did Luca.
Victoria crumpled, the gun clattering from her hand, her cream suit blooming with red. She looked surprised more than anything - like she couldn’t quite believe her perfect plan had failed.
"You were supposed to love ," she whispered.
Then she was gone.
The penthouse fell silent except for my ragged breathing and the ringing in my ears. Katherine lowered her gun with shaking hands, and I pulled her against despite the fire in my shoulder.
"It’s over." I buried my face in her hair, breathing her in. "It’s finally over."
But Katherine pulled back, her eyes finding mine with an intensity that made everything else fade.
"No more lies?" Her voice broke. "No more secrets?"
"No more lies." I cupped her face with my good hand. "I love you, Katherine Blaire. I’ve loved you since you told to go to hell. I’ll love you until the day I die. And I promise - no more secrets between us."
"I love you too." Tears stread down her face, mixing with the blood and dirt. "God help , I love you so much it terrifies ."
"Then be terrified with ." I kissed her again, softer this ti, a promise instead of desperation. "Because I’m not letting you go. Not ever again."
Sirens wailed in the distance - FBI, police, the cavalry arriving too late but arriving nonetheless.
Katherine collapsed against , her whole body shaking with relief or shock or exhaustion.
And I held her, ignoring the pain in my shoulder, ignoring everything except the fact that she was alive and I was alive and we’d survived.
Together.
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