The ER is in full lockdown.
Security blocks the entrances, doctors whisper nervously, and half the staff keeps glancing at me like I'm carrying a bomb under my scrubs. Maybe I am metaphorically because Caspian Leone hasn't moved from my side since the moment the glass cracked.
He stands like a wall.
Shoulders squared.
Jaw tight.
Grey eyes fixed on the entrance like he's waiting for death to walk through.
And God help death if it tries.
"Aria." His voice is low, controlled. Too controlled. "We need to go. Now."
"I can't just leave in the middle of my shift." My voice comes out sharper than I intend, but fear does that.
He turns slowly, face a few inches from mine. "Someone tried to kill you. You're leaving."
I fold my arms. "You're not my boss."
His eyes darken, and for a second, just a second something cracks in him. Not anger. Fear.
Caspian Leone is afraid?
No. Men like him don't get afraid.
They calculate. They strategize. They dominate.
But the look he gives me is real.
"Aria, listen to me carefully." His voice drops to a quiet, lethal whisper. "This attack wasn't random. Someone sent professionals to get to you."
"Why? I'm nobody."
He blinks, slowly, intentionally. Like he's choosing which truth won't destroy me.
"You're not nobody," he murmurs.
Before I can demand more, three security officers rush over.
"Sir, the area's clear," one says shakily. "But whoever shot the door disappeared."
Caspian's jaw flexes. "Of course they did."
He takes my hand.
Not gently.
Not romantically.
Possessively.
"Let go," I hiss, trying to pull back.
"No."
The single word is a command.
A promise.
And something inside me jolts fear, yes, but something else too. Something I don't want to name.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked.
"Somewhere safe".
"Define safe."
He meets my eyes.
"With me."
Before I can argue, the hospital director approaches, sweaty, anxious, desperate to appease Caspian like he's the mayor, the president, and God combined.
"Mr. Leone, sir, we've arranged a private exit. Your—uh—your companion can leave through the service hallway."
Caspian doesn't even blink. "Good."
"I'm not his companion," I snapped.
The director freezes like he just insulted a mafia boss.
Caspian turns to me, voice calm but hard enough to cut steel. "Aria. Walk."
I should refuse.
I should choose logic, safety protocols, anything except following a dangerous billionaire who commands a room with a look.
But the cracked glass.
The dying man who whispered my surname.
The way Caspian's body shielded mine without hesitation,
my legs move.
Not because he told me to.
Because the world outside that ER suddenly feels far more dangerous than the man pulling me out of it.
We move down a back hallway. Caspian's steps never falter. Mine try to. Twice. He tightens his grip every time.
At the exit, a black Lamborghini SUV waits. Sleek. Expensive. Ominous.
A man steps out. Tall. Silent. Muscular.
Eyes sharp enough to slice through bone.
Geoffrey Hartman.
I've seen him once, months ago standing beside Caspian at a charity gala. A shadow dressed in a suit.
Tonight, he looks even more dangerous.
"Is she injured?" he asks, voice low.
"No." Caspian opens the SUV door. "But she's a target."
Geoffrey's jaw restrains. "Then we move."
"Stop," I say, pulling my hand free at last. "I'm not going anywhere until someone tells me what the hell is going on."
Both men look at me.
Two predators.
Two storms.
Caspian steps closer, his voice steady, deep.
"You are in danger because of me."
My breath stutters.
He continues.
"And because of something you don't know about your past."
"My past?" I whisper. "What about it?"
Caspian glances at Geoffrey, then back at me like he's calculating the risk of telling me or breaking me.
"You'll get answers," he says finally. "But not here."
I swallow hard. "Caspian, why me?"
For the first time all night…
the truth flashes in his eyes.
Guilt.
Fear.
And something darker.
"Because someone thinks you're the key to destroying me."
The hallway lights flicker.
The air shifts.
And I realize,
My life didn't just change tonight.
It ended.
Whatever comes next belongs to a world I was never supposed to enter.
Caspian puts a hand on my lower back, guiding me into the SUV.
"Stay close to me, Aria," he murmurs, voice rough. "No matter how dangerous it gets… I will not let you die."
And the worst part?
A tiny part of me believes him.