Chapter 4
The tunnel smelled like gasoline, blood, and wet concrete.
Somewhere behind them, gunfire still echoed through the underground passage, sharp and violent, ricocheting off the walls in metallic bursts. Roman Vale didn’t even flinch.
But Ava saw it.
That single crack in him.
The instant the trembling gunman whispered, “The Odessa girl… her daughter survived,” something inside Roman shattered so fast it was almost invisible.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
Roman stepped forward slowly.
The armed man stumbled backward. “I thought she died,” he breathed. “We all thought she died.”
“Who?” Ava demanded.
No one answered.
Roman’s men spread through the tunnel with raised rifles, sweeping corners and checking exits. Red emergency lights pulsed overhead, bathing everyone in flashes of crimson.
Roman never took his eyes off the terrified man.
“Who sent you?” he asked quietly.
The man swallowed hard.
“You know who.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Ava looked between them. “What the hell is going on?”
The gunman looked at her again.
Not at her face.
At the silver necklace resting against her throat.
His expression drained completely.
“That necklace…”
Ava instinctively touched it.
A small silver locket.
The only thing she still had from her mother.
Roman noticed.
And for the first time since she met him, Ava saw something dangerously close to grief move across his face.
Then the shooting started again.
Bullets slammed into the tunnel wall.
Roman reacted instantly.
He grabbed Ava around the waist and dragged her down behind a concrete support pillar just as sparks exploded overhead.
“Move!” one of his men shouted.
Three masked shooters stormed the far entrance.
Chaos erupted.
Roman drew a black handgun from beneath his jacket with terrifying smoothness.
Ava had spent months investigating him.
She had read witness statements.
She had heard rumors.
She had listened to frightened prosecutors describe Roman Vale like a myth people survived by accident.
None of it prepared her for seeing him become violence.
His expression emptied.
Cold.
Precise.
Deadly.
Three shots.
Three men dropped.
The tunnel filled with smoke and screaming metal.
Roman shoved Ava behind him again.
“Stay down.”
“You still haven’t explained—”
Another bullet tore past them.
Roman fired without looking.
A body hit the ground.
Then silence.
Only dripping water.
Only smoke.
Only Ava’s heartbeat trying to break through her ribs.
Roman rose first.
One of his men approached carefully. “Boss. They’re all dead.”
Roman nodded once.
Then he looked at the terrified survivor still kneeling near the wall.
“Tell me who ordered this.”
The man shook violently.
“I can’t.”
Roman walked toward him.
Slowly.
That frightened Ava more than the gunfire.
The man began crying before Roman even reached him.
“You should’ve stayed buried,” he whispered to Ava.
Roman stopped.
The gunman stared directly at her.
“Your mother was never supposed to escape Odessa alive.”
Ava froze.
Her mother.
Dead ten years.
At least that’s what she believed.
“What are you talking about?”
The man laughed shakily.
“Ask him.”
He pointed at Roman.
“Ask Roman Vale why your mother begged him to save you.”
Everything inside Ava went cold.
Roman’s face became unreadable.
Then the gunman suddenly moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
He ripped a hidden pistol from his jacket.
Ava barely had time to scream.
Roman fired first.
The shot thundered through the tunnel.
The man collapsed backward.
Dead.
And with him, every answer.
For several seconds no one spoke.
Then Ava turned to Roman.
“Tell me the truth.”
Roman stared at the body.
May you like
When he finally spoke, his voice sounded older than before.
“Your mother wasn’t who you thought she was.”
