Chapter 377
Chapter 377:
She had gone alone into the shadows of the container yard. She had opened container after container, finding huddled masses of terrified people—strangers, not Daphne. She had triggered the alarms to scatter them, creating chaos to cover their escape, believing all the while that at least one person—Daphne—was already safe under Julian’s protection.
Felix paced the length of the room, eyes glued to a tablet displaying security feeds from the perimeter. Every rustle outside made him tense.
Alistair stood by the window. He hadn’t moved in twenty minutes. His silhouette was dark and imposing, a statue carved from granite and rage. He watched the driveway, waiting for a threat that hadn’t arrived.
“We cleared the containers,” Skye said, her voice hollow. “The people at the docks… they got away in the confusion. But we barely made it out p>
The front door slammed open.
Julian Vance maneuvered himself into the room. He wasn’t using his electric chair tonight; he was in a manual one, his knuckles white as he forced the wheels forward. His breath hitched with the effort, clearly straining the healing stitches in his chest. His face was pale, his eyes burning behind his glasses.
“You reckless, arrogant child,” Julian hissed, pausing to catch his breath.
He threw a tablet onto the table. It slid across the wood and stopped in front of Skye.
“Julian,” Alistair warned, turning from the window. “Back off p>
“No,” Julian snapped, adjusting his glasses with a shaking hand. “She needs to see this. She played with a psychopath and thought she could win with a shell game p>
Skye looked down at the screen.
It was a police scanner transcript.
Incident at Dominion Hotel. Body recovered from the courtyard. Female. Identifying marks match missing person report: Daphne Collins. Fall from penthouse balcony deemed suspicious.
The world tilted on its axis. Skye felt the blood drain from her face, pooling in her feet.
“She’s dead,” Skye whispered. “But… you said she was safe. You said the safe house was secure p>
“It was compromised,” Julian said brutally. “Graves’ reach is deeper than we thought. His men hit the safe house twenty minutes after Hunter dropped her off. They dragged her back to the hotel just to throw her off the roof p>
Alistair stepped between them, a wall of muscle and shadow shielding Skye from Julian’s assault.
𝗕r𝗈wѕ𝘦 𝘣𝘺 c𝗮𝗍𝘦𝗀𝗈𝘳𝘺 оn 𝖻е.𝖼𝗼𝗺
“This isn’t on Skye,” Alistair growled. “We stopped the shipment at the docks. We saved thirty people in those containers. Daphne was a casualty of war, not Skye’s mistake p>
“It’s a message,” Julian countered, his voice dropping. “He killed the one person we thought we had successfully extracted. He’s telling us nowhere is safe. That no one leaves his grasp p>
Skye stood. Her chair scraped loudly against the floor. She walked past Alistair, past Julian, to the sink. She turned on the tap and splashed cold water on her face. It didn’t wash away the image of Daphne’s tear-streaked face in the hotel bathroom.
“He won’t stop,” Skye said. Her voice was steady now. Cold. The tremor was gone, replaced by something harder, like iron forged in fire.
She turned to face them. Water dripped from her chin onto her ruined suit.
“Lucian killed her to send a message,” Skye stated. “If I hide, he’ll kill more people to flush me out. He’ll target my staff. He’ll target Liam. He’ll target you p>
Alistair moved to her side and touched her shoulder. She flinched, a raw instinct, then leaned into his warmth.
“We go underground,” Alistair said. “We disappear. I have safe houses in Europe. In Asia p>
“No,” Skye said. She looked at Julian. “You were right, Julian. The only place he can’t touch me is in the light p>
Julian narrowed his eyes. “The show p>
“He’s an investor,” Skye said. “He’s watching it. If I’m on live television twenty-four hours a day, surrounded by cameras… he can’t snatch me. He can’t kill me without the whole world seeing it p>