Chapter 136
Hailey-
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The security office was basically a closet. The air was too hot, and it smelled like stale coffee.
A wall of monitors glowed with surprisingly crisp black–and–white scenes of hallways and exits. A ghost world running parallel to the one outside.
The guard gestured us toward a single chair in front of the main console. Logan took it. He leaned forward, his eyes already glued to the screen.
Talon stood behind him, and I leaned against the door, putting as much distance as I could between myself and whatever was about to play out.
The guard tapped on the keyboard. “Time stamp is 16:38. This is the feed for the hallway outside room 412.” The screen showed an empty hall. The view was angled downward from the ceiling. Leo’s door was a third of the way down on the left.
For a few seconds, there was nothing. A nurse walked past with her head down, not even glancing at the door.
Another few seconds passed. Logan ran a hand over his face and glanced from one security guard to the other, probably deciding which one to choke out if they made him wait any longer.
Then a doctor walked into frame from the right, wearing polished shoes and a white lab coat. He moved with a confident stride, like he owned the hallway. He held a clipboard tucked under one arm.
My breath hitched when he went straight to Leo’s door, pushed it open, and stepped inside. The door swung shut behind
him.
The timestamp in the corner of the screen crawled forward. One minute. The hallway remained empty.
My mind was racing, trying to picture what was happening behind that closed door. I pictured Leo, smiling, thinking it was a final check–up. The “doctor” smiling at him. And then hitting him? Choking him?
What had he done? Was it a needle? A pill? Something undetectable… something that would leave no trace. Show “no medical reason.”
After one minute and thirteen seconds, the door opened again.
The man stepped out. He was still holding the clipboard. He pulled the door closed behind him, and then he did something so casual it was monstrous.
He shrugged. The white lab coat slid off his shoulders. He reached behind him and caught it, folded it once, and draped it over his arm. Right over the clipboard.
Underneath, he wore an impeccably tailored dark suit.
He didn’t look rushed. He didn’t look concerned. He took two steps away from the door, and then he stopped. He turned his head, and his eyes looked directly up.
Straight into the security camera lens.
The breath froze in my lungs.
The image was monochrome, but the message was crystal clear.
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It wasn’t a passing glance. He held the look for a full three seconds. Utterly deliberate.
He wasn’t accidentally caught on camera. He was posing for it. He was making sure we knew it was him.
Then he turned and walked calmly out of the frame, back the way he came.
Five seconds later, the first nurse came running, rushing into Leo’s room. The code had been called.
“Stop,” Logan said. His voice was quiet. Deadly.
The guard froze the image.
“Go back. To the look. Zoom in.”
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The guard rewound a few frames, then zoomed in on the man’s face. The pixels blurred and sharpened. He had a strong jaw, dark hair swept back. Sharp features that might have been handsome if they weren’t etched with such passive menace.
I don’t know how, but I knew I was looking at Anatoly.
And somehow, that realization smothered the guilt and turned it into two things. Rage and resolve.
Logan pulled out his phone. He didn’t say a word. He just pointed it at the monitor and took a picture. The click of the shutter sounded obscenely loud in the tiny room.
He stood up, shoving the phone back into his pocket. He looked at his father. Talon’s face was a granite mask, but a muscle was twitching violently in his jaw.
They didn’t need to speak. The communication between them was a highway of pure, homicidal understanding.
The security officers looked at each other, then back at us. Their professional concern was now mixed with outright fear. They were out of their depth. Logan had just confirmed their suspicions.
They’d just witnessed a professional hit in their hospital, and the men they were showing it to looked like they were about to blow up the damn building.
“We’ll be in touch if we have further questions,” Talon murmured. His tone dismissed them. The club president was taking control of the situation.
We filed out of the cramped office, and the bright hallway lights felt accusatory. We walked back the way we came, past the nursing station.
We had our answer.
The ride back to the clubhouse felt like a funeral procession. The wind didn’t feel freeing anymore. It felt like it was trying to rip away any remaining hope.
The rumble of the engines was a dull, angry roar that matched the fury vibrating through Logan’s body into mine.
We pulled in through the gate, and the gravity of the place seemed to have doubled, pulling everything down into a deeper
darkness.
News somehow traveled faster than words here. Nobody approached us with questions as we came through the door, but their stares were heavy.
Logan strode into the center of the main room, scanning until his eyes landed on Stella. She was sitting with her shoulders slumped, at a corner table with Abby and River.
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Chapter 136
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I could tell she was still hollowed out from her own ordeal, and now she was about to be dragged into another one.
Logan walked straight to her. Talon walked straight to the bar.
Talon’s route looked much more appealing, but I followed Logan. My feet felt like blocks of lead.
“Stella,” Logan’s voice was low, but it cut through the background noise. She looked up, and her eyes were wary. He pulled out his phone, tapped the screen, and held it out to her. “This him?”
She leaned forward slightly, looking closer at the phone.
All the blood drained from her face. It was so rapid, so complete, she looked like a photo negative of herself. Her lips went pale. She physically recoiled, pressing back into her chair.
A small, choked sound came out of her. She didn’t need to say yes. Her body was screaming it.
But she did. Her eyes were wide when they flicked back up to Logan’s. Her voice was a thin, soft whisper.
“Yeah,” she breathed. “That’s him.”
The confirmation wasn’t surprising. But it still landed like a bomb in my chest.
The connection burned away any last fraction of doubt. *Hope you enjoyed the show.* The first of my stupid, reckless texts. A pathetic attempt at defiance.
And this… this was his response. Not another text back. Not a threat to me.
A man in a coma. A life hanging by a thread.
The guilt was clawing its way back, rising hot and acidic in my throat. I wrapped my arms around my stomach, feeling like I might puke right there on the floor. This was my fault. All of it was on me.
But then I realized something.
If this was a reaction to my texts, he had slipped. He’d shown me that I was having an effect on him.
He moved. And maybe that meant I could move him again.
Logan slid his phone back into his pocket. He had his confirmation. Talon put a heavy hand on his shoulder in a silent communication of shared purpose. The club’s enemy was now more clearly defined than ever. They had a face to go with
the name.
They started talking in low tones, but their words were just noise to me. A dull buzz under the roaring in my ears.
I stood there, isolated in the middle of a crowded room. Surrounded by people, by my family, by the man I loved. I had never felt more completely alone, but I was strangely comfortable with it.
The secret was a wall of glass between me and them, and on the other side, Leo was paying the price for my arrogance,
But I wasn’t going to let this go any further. I wasn’t going to let him hurt anyone else.
We were still spinning, round and round in circles, but I needed to be in control of it now.
What goes around comes around.
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Chapter 137
Chapter 137
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
