Ava
"Wake up. We need to leave. Now."
Adrian's voice pulled me from sleep. I opened my eyes to find him standing over me, fully dressed and armed. The clock showed three AM.
"What's happening?"
"Selene knows about the DEA. We have maybe an hour before the Syndicate moves against us."
I was out of bed instantly. "My mother."
"Dante's getting her ready. Pack only essentials. We're going dark."
Ten minutes later, we were loading into cars. My mother was confused and terrified, still half asleep. Dave had bruises on his face from the earlier confrontation with the feds.
"Where are we going?" I asked as Adrian drove into the darkness.
"Somewhere even the Syndicate can't reach us. I hope."
We drove for three hours, heading north into the mountains. The roads became narrower, less maintained. Finally, we turned onto a dirt path barely visible in the predawn light.
The safe house was more like a bunker. Built into the side of a mountain, reinforced steel doors, solar panels on the roof. Adrian punched in a code, and the doors opened with a hiss.
"How many of these places do you have?" Dante asked.
"Enough. This one was my father's. He built it during a war with the Russians twenty years ago." Adrian ushered us inside. "It's got supplies for six months, its own water supply, and communications equipment."
The inside was surprisingly comfortable. Living quarters, a kitchen, an armory that made my stomach turn. My mother sat on a couch, shaking.
"This can't be real. This can't be happening."
I sat beside her. "Mom, I know this is scary."
"Scary? Ava, we're hiding in a bunker from criminals who want to kill us. This is beyond scary. This is insanity." She looked at Adrian. "How did you let it get this bad?"
"I made mistakes. A lot of them. And now I'm trying to fix them."
"By hiding? That's your solution?"
"No. Hiding is temporary." Adrian's voice was cold. "While we're here, I'm going to figure out how to destroy the Syndicate. Permanently."
Zarek's voice came through a speaker. "Boss, you there?"
"Yeah. Status?"
"The Syndicate hit all your properties. The mansion's been raided. Your businesses are being seized. They're moving fast."
"Expected. What about casualties?"
"Three of your men are dead. Five more wounded. The rest scattered." Zarek paused. "Adrian, Emma put out a kill order. One million for your head. Two million if they bring you in alive."
My mother gasped. Adrian didn't even flinch.
"How long until they find this location?"
"Hard to say. Your father kept this place off all records. But with enough resources, they'll find it eventually."
"Then we have days, not weeks." Adrian looked at all of us. "Everyone needs to understand what's happening. The Syndicate wants me dead or enslaved. Anyone with me is a target. If you want out, now's the time to say so."
Dante spoke first. "I'm staying. We're family."
Dave nodded. "I'm with you, boss."
My mother stood up. "I want out. I want my daughter out. We're not part of this war."
"Mom, we can't leave. They know about us."
"Then we go to the police. Real police. FBI. Someone who can actually help."
Adrian shook his head. "The Syndicate has people everywhere. FBI, police, judges. Going to them is suicide."
"So we just hide forever? Live in fear? No." My mother's voice was firm. "Ava, you're coming with me. We're leaving."
"Mrs. Parker, if you walk out that door, you'll be dead by sunset," Adrian said quietly.
"Then I'll die free instead of living as your prisoner."
The words hung in the air. I saw the pain flash across Adrian's face before he masked it.
"Mom, please. Just trust me. We'll figure this out."
"Trust you? You trust him." She pointed at Adrian. "The man who kidnapped you. Who destroyed your future. Who's gotten us both marked for death. That's who you trust?"
"Yes. Because he's the only one who can keep us alive."
My mother stared at me like I was a stranger. "What happened to you? The Ava I raised would never choose a criminal over her own family."
"I'm not choosing him over you. I'm choosing survival over pride."
"It's the same thing." She turned to Adrian. "I want to leave. Now."
"I can't let you do that."
"So I'm your prisoner too?"
"You're under my protection. Whether you want it or not."
My mother's face crumpled. She started crying, and I went to hold her. She pushed me away.
"Don't touch me. You've made your choice. You chose him."
She walked to one of the bedrooms and slammed the door. The sound echoed through the bunker like a gunshot.
I felt like my chest was caving in. My mother hated me. She thought I'd betrayed her. Maybe she was right.
Adrian touched my shoulder gently. "Give her time. She's scared."
"She's right to be. We're trapped in a bunker, hunted by an organization we can't fight. What kind of life is this?"
"A temporary one. I promise you, Ava. I'll find a way out of this."
"How? The Syndicate is everywhere. They have unlimited resources. What do we have?"
"Desperation. And sometimes that's enough."
Over the next two days, we settled into a tense routine. My mother refused to speak to me or Adrian. She spent most of her time in her room, only coming out for meals. Dante tried to keep spirits up, but even he seemed defeated.
Adrian worked around the clock with Zarek, going through files, making encrypted calls, searching for any weakness in the Syndicate's armor. I'd never seen him like this. Focused to the point of obsession, barely sleeping or eating.
"You need rest," I told him on the third night.
"I'll rest when we're safe."
"We might never be safe. Does that mean you'll never rest?"
He looked up from his computer, eyes bloodshot. "What do you want me to say, Ava? That everything will be fine? We both know that's a lie."
"I want you to take care of yourself. You're no good to anyone if you collapse."
"I'm no good to anyone anyway. I've dragged everyone I care about into hell with me."
"Stop it. Stop blaming yourself for everything."
"Who else should I blame? This is my world. My mess. My—"
I kissed him. Hard. Desperate. Trying to shut up the self hatred pouring out of him.
When we broke apart, he looked stunned.
"What was that for?"
"Because you needed to stop talking and start feeling something other than guilt." I touched his face. "Adrian, we're in this together. All of it. The danger, the fear, the impossible odds. Together."
"You shouldn't be. You should hate me."
"Probably. But I don't. I love you."
The words were out before I could stop them. I'd been trying not to say them, trying to keep some emotional distance. But seeing him destroy himself with guilt broke something in me.
Adrian stared at me like I'd spoken another language. "What?"
"I love you. I'm in love with you. I know it's insane and wrong and completely illogical, but I can't help it."
"Ava, you can't love me. I'm—"
"A criminal? A kidnapper? A man with blood on his hands? I know. I know all of it. And I love you anyway." I pulled back. "You don't have to say it back. I just needed you to know."
I left him there, staring after me with an expression I couldn't read.
That night, I couldn't sleep. I lay in bed, replaying my confession over and over. What had I been thinking? Telling him I loved him in the middle of all this chaos?
A knock on my door. "Come in."
Adrian entered, still dressed. "Can we talk?"
"About my embarrassing confession? Sure, let's make it worse."
He sat on the edge of the bed. "You said you love me."
"I'm aware. I was there."
"Ava, look at me."
I turned to face him. In the dim light, his eyes were softer than I'd ever seen them.
"I don't deserve your love. I've done terrible things. I'll probably do more terrible things before this is over. But hearing you say those words—" His voice cracked slightly. "It's the only good thing in my life right now."
"Adrian—"
"I love you too. I've loved you since you stood up to me in my own mansion, refusing to be broken. Since you comforted me when I learned about Selene. Since you chose to stay when you could have run." He took my hand. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me. And I'm the worst thing that ever happened to you. But I'm too selfish to let you go."
"I don't want you to let me go."
"Even though loving me might get you killed?"
"Even though."
He kissed me, and this time it was slow. Tender. Like we had all the time in the world instead of borrowed moments between disasters.
We made love that night, desperate and gentle at once. Two broken people finding comfort in each other. When it was over, I lay in his arms, feeling safer than I had in days despite the danger surrounding us.
"What happens now?" I whispered.
"Now I figure out how to kill Emma Voss and destroy the Syndicate."
"That's impossible."
"So was saving those federal agents. So was escaping from Malric. So was surviving this long." He kissed my forehead. "I've done a lot of impossible things, Ava. I'll do one more."
The next morning, Zarek's voice crackled through the speakers with urgency. "Boss, I found something. It's big."
We gathered in the communications room. Zarek's face appeared on a screen, excited and terrified at once.
"I've been digging into Emma Voss's background. Most of it's fabricated, but I found something buried deep in old records. She had a daughter. Thirty years ago. The daughter was taken by a rival organization and supposedly killed."
"So?" Dante asked.
"So the body was never recovered. And I found adoption records from around the same time. A baby girl placed with a family in witness protection." Zarek pulled up a photo. "Boss, look at this."
The photo showed a young woman. Dark hair. Sharp features. Familiar eyes.
"That's Calista Rose," I said.
"Exactly. Calista is Emma's daughter. And she doesn't know it."
The room went silent as the implications sank in. Calista, who'd worked for various crime bosses. Who'd sworn revenge against Adrian for killing her fiancé. Who'd helped us against Selene.
She was Emma Voss's daughter.
"If we tell her the truth, she could be our weapon against Emma," Dante said.
"Or she could join her mother and we'd have another enemy," Dave countered.
Adrian was quiet, thinking. "Where's Calista now?"
"Last I heard, she was lying low after the warehouse incident. I can find her."
"Do it. Carefully. If the Syndicate realizes we're looking for her, they'll move her somewhere we can't reach."
After Zarek signed off, Adrian turned to me. "This could be our chance. If Calista hates Emma as much as she hated me, she might help us."
"Or it could be a trap. What if Zarek's wrong? What if Calista already knows?"
"Then we're no worse off than we are now."
My mother appeared in the doorway. It was the first time she'd left her room in days. She looked thinner, older.
"I heard everything. You're planning to manipulate some woman by telling her about her mother?"
"We're trying to survive, Mrs. Parker," Adrian said.
"By lying and scheming. By dragging more people into your nightmare." She looked at me. "Is this who you want to be, Ava? Someone who uses people?"
"I want to be alive. If that makes me a bad person, fine."
"It makes you just like him."
The words hit hard because part of me knew they were true. I was becoming more like Adrian every day. Harder. More willing to do questionable things for survival.
"Mom, I'm sorry you're caught up in this. But I can't change what's happened. I can only try to survive it."
"There's surviving, and there's losing yourself completely. You're doing the second one."
She turned and went back to her room. Adrian watched her go.
"She's not wrong."
"I know. But I'd rather be alive and morally compromised than dead and pure."
"Would you?" He looked at me seriously. "Ava, if this keeps going, if we keep doing darker things to survive, will there be anything left of the person you were?"
"I don't know. But I know I can't do this without you."
Two days later, Zarek located Calista. She was hiding in a apartment downtown, using a fake name. Adrian insisted on going alone to talk to her.
"If she's working with Emma, I don't want anyone else at risk."
"I'm coming with you," I said.
"Absolutely not."
"Adrian, she knows me. She might trust me more than you."
He didn't like it, but he agreed. Dave drove us to the location, a rundown building in a bad neighborhood. We took the stairs to the third floor.
Adrian knocked. "Calista. It's Adrian Blackwood. I need to talk."
Silence. Then the sound of a gun cocking.
"Go away. I don't work for you anymore."
"This isn't about work. It's about your family."
The door opened a crack. Calista's face appeared, suspicious and hostile. "What family? I don't have family."
"That's what you think. But I have information that suggests otherwise." Adrian kept his hands visible. "Five minutes. That's all I'm asking."
Calista studied him, then me. "Fine. But if this is a trick, I'll kill you both."
We entered a small apartment, sparsely furnished. Calista kept her gun trained on us the whole time.
"Talk."
Adrian laid out everything Zarek had found. The records, the timeline, the evidence that Emma Voss was her biological mother.
Calista's face went pale. "You're lying. This is some kind of manipulation."
"I have no reason to lie. In fact, telling you this puts me at risk. If you're working with Emma, she'll know I've discovered the connection."
"I'm not working with her. I hate the Syndicate."
"Even though your mother runs it?"
"She's not my mother. I don't care what some records say. The people who raised me were my parents." But Calista's voice shook. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I think you deserve to know the truth. And because Emma Voss is trying to kill me and everyone I love. If you want revenge against her for any reason, now's your chance."
Calista lowered her gun slowly. "What do you want from me?"
"Information. Access. Anything that could help us destroy her."
"I don't have any of that. I'm just a soldier. Was a soldier."
"But you could get it. Emma doesn't know you know about your connection. You could approach her, pretend to want to join the Syndicate. Get close to her."
"That's suicide."
"It's a chance. The only one we have."
Calista sat down, processing everything. "The man you killed. My fiancé. Did Emma order that?"
Adrian hesitated. "I don't know. It's possible. She manipulates everything."
"So she might have used me to hate you. Turned me into a weapon against you without me realizing it." Calista's hands clenched. "I need to think about this."
"We don't have much time. The Syndicate is hunting us. Every day we wait, they get closer."
"Then I guess you'd better hope I decide fast." Calista stood. "Leave. Now. I'll contact you when I've made my decision."
We left. In the car, Dave asked, "Do you think she'll help?"
"I don't know. But if she does, she might be the key to everything."
When we returned to the bunker, my mother was waiting. Her bags were packed.
"I'm leaving. Don't try to stop me."
"Mom, you can't. It's not safe."
"I don't care anymore. I'd rather die out there than live one more day in this bunker with him." She glared at Adrian. "You've stolen my daughter's soul. I won't let you have mine too."
"Mrs. Parker, please reconsider," Adrian said quietly.
"No. I'm done reconsidering. I'm done being your prisoner. Ava, you can come with me or stay with him. Your choice."
I looked between my mother and Adrian. The woman who'd raised me, sacrificed everything for me. And the man I'd fallen in love with despite every reason not to.
"I'm staying."
My mother's face crumpled. "Then I've lost you completely."
"Mom, please—"
"No. You've made your choice. Live with it." She picked up her bags and walked to the door.
Adrian didn't try to stop her. "Dave will take you wherever you want to go. He'll make sure you get there safely."
"I don't want anything from you."
"Take it anyway. For Ava's sake if not your own."
My mother left without looking back. I watched her go, tears streaming down my face. The door closed, and I heard the car start outside.
"She'll never forgive me," I whispered.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"You should be. This is your fault."
"I know that too."
I wanted to hate him. Wanted to blame him for everything. But the truth was more complicated. Yes, Adrian had started this nightmare. But I'd chosen to stay. Chosen to love him. Chosen my path.
And now I had to live with those choices, even as they tore me apart from the inside.
Three hours later, Dave returned alone. His face was grim.
"Boss, we have a problem. Mrs. Parker—"
"What happened?" I demanded.
"The Syndicate was waiting. They grabbed her two blocks from here."
My world stopped. "No. No, no, no."
Adrian was already moving. "How many?"
"At least six men. They had tranquilizers. She didn't even get a chance to fight."
"Where did they take her?"
"Unknown. But Boss, they left a message." Dave handed over a phone. "They want you to see this."
Adrian opened a video file. Emma Voss appeared on screen, sitting in an elegant room. And beside her, unconscious in a chair, was my mother.
"Hello, Adrian. I believe you have something of mine. My patience with your rebellion has run out. You have twenty four hours to surrender yourself to me, or Mrs. Parker dies. Very slowly. Very painfully. The choice is yours."
The video ended.
I couldn't breathe. This was my fault. I'd let her leave. I'd chosen Adrian over her. And now she was going to die because of it.
"We're going to get her back," Adrian said, his voice deadly calm.
"How? We don't even know where she is."
"Then we'll find out. Zarek, I need every resource we have focused on locating Emma Voss. Now."
"Boss, even if we find her, it's going to be a trap. She wants you to walk in."
"Then I'll walk in. But I won't walk out alone."
I grabbed his arm. "Adrian, you can't. She'll kill you."
"Maybe. But I won't let your mother die because of me. I've destroyed enough already."
He pulled away and started issuing orders. Weapons. Tactics. Contingencies. He was planning a suicide mission, and everyone knew it.
I went to my room and collapsed on the bed, sobbing. Everything I'd tried to protect was falling apart. My mother was going to die. Adrian was going to die. And I was helpless to stop any of it.
A knock on the door. Dante entered.
"Ava, I'm sorry. About your mother. About all of this."
"It's not your fault."
"Isn't it? I've stood by Adrian through everything. Supported his decisions. Maybe if I'd tried harder to stop him, none of this would have happened."
"We all made choices. None of us are innocent anymore."
Dante sat beside me. "Adrian loves you. You know that, right? He's willing to die for your mother because he loves you that much."
"I don't want him to die for her. I don't want anyone to die." I wiped my tears. "How did it come to this? How did saving one man's life lead to so much death?"
"Because this world doesn't let good deeds go unpunished. It takes kindness and twists it into weapons."
Hours passed. Zarek worked frantically to locate Emma. The deadline ticked closer.
Finally, with three hours left, Zarek found her. "She's at the old Riverside Hotel. The penthouse. Heavy security, but I've got the layout."
Adrian studied the plans. "It's a fortress. Getting in will be nearly impossible."
"Then we don't get in. We bring her out." A new voice spoke from the doorway.
Calista Rose stood there, dressed in black, armed to the teeth.
"I've made my decision. Emma Voss used me, manipulated me, maybe even killed the man I loved. So yes, I'll help you destroy her. Not for you. For me."
Adrian nodded. "Welcome to the suicide squad."
"One condition. When this is over, I get five minutes alone with Emma. Whatever's left of her is mine."
"Deal."
They spent the next two hours planning. The attack would come from multiple directions. Calista would go in first, pretending to surrender information about Adrian's location. While Emma was distracted, Adrian and the others would breach from below.
It was insane. Impossible. Our only chance.
As they prepared to leave, I stopped Adrian. "Don't die."
"I'll do my best."
"That's not good enough. Promise me you'll come back. You and my mother. Both of you."
"Ava, I can't promise that."
"Then promise you'll try. Promise you won't give up, no matter how bad it gets."
He pulled me close, kissing me like it might be the last time. "I promise. I'll fight like hell to come back to you."
They left. And I was alone in the bunker with just my fear and prayers that somehow, impossibly, everyone I loved would survive the night.
But deep down, I knew the truth. In Adrian's world, happy endings didn't exist. Only survival. And sometimes, not even that.