Chapter 9
“No!”
Ava dropped beside him as gunfire still erupted around them.
Roman’s blood spread across her hands.
His breathing became shallow.
Sokolov approached slowly through the smoke.
“History repeats itself,” he said calmly.
Ava looked at Roman.
At the man she had sworn to expose.
The man who terrified entire cities.
The man who had protected her with his own body again and again.
Roman’s hand weakly caught her wrist.
“Listen,” he rasped.
“No. Don’t you dare—”
“The ledger…” He coughed blood. “Release everything.”
Ava stared at him.
“Burn his empire down.”
Sokolov smiled coldly.
“You think that matters? There will always be another empire.”
Roman tried to rise.
Failed.
Ava felt something inside her snap.
All her fear.
All her confusion.
All the rage she carried since childhood.
She stood.
Sokolov aimed his weapon lazily at her.
“You have your mother’s eyes,” he said.
Ava looked at the men surrounding him.
Then at the fuel leaking across the garage floor from shattered vehicles.
Then at the emergency flare lying near one of the dead guards.
And suddenly she understood Roman completely.
Sometimes survival required fire.
Ava grabbed the flare.
Sokolov’s expression changed.
“You wouldn’t.”
Ava smiled shakily.
“You really don’t know me at all.”
She struck the flare alive and threw it.
The garage exploded.
Flames roared across the fuel instantly.
Sokolov vanished behind a wall of fire.
Roman’s men dragged Ava and Roman toward the emergency exit as the structure began collapsing around them.
Heat chased them up the stairwell.
Concrete cracked.
The entire garage started coming down.
They burst into the freezing Chicago night seconds before the underground level collapsed completely.
Fire consumed the building beneath them.
Ava fell to her knees beside Roman.
“Stay with me.”
His eyes barely opened.
“Ava…”
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Then Roman’s head lolled sideways.
And everything went still.
Three months later.
Chicago looked beautiful in autumn.
The city had changed.
The leaked ledger destroyed careers across three countries.
Judges resigned.
Politicians vanished.
Federal raids dismantled criminal networks overnight.
Roman Vale’s empire had collapsed publicly.
At least officially.
Ava stood beside the river in a wool coat clutching a paper coffee cup.
Her article had won every journalism award imaginable.
But none of that mattered.
Because Roman Vale was dead.
At least that’s what the world believed.
A black car pulled quietly to the curb behind her.
Ava froze.
The passenger window lowered slowly.
Roman sat inside wearing a dark coat.
Alive.
Her breath disappeared.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” she whispered.
Roman’s mouth curved faintly.
“I’ve been told I’m difficult to kill.”
Ava stared at him.
“You faked it.”
“I needed Sokolov’s remaining allies to stop looking.”
A long silence passed.
Then Ava laughed once in disbelief.
“You are completely insane.”
“Probably.”
The city lights reflected in his dark eyes.
For the first time since the garage explosion months ago, he looked peaceful.
Not harmless.
Never harmless.
But free.
Roman studied her carefully.
“You released the ledger anyway.”
“You told me to.”
“And yet you spared me.”
Ava looked out at the river.
“You saved my life.”
Roman’s gaze softened.
“So did you.”
The wind moved through the silence between them.
Then Roman opened the passenger door.
“Come with me.”
Ava raised an eyebrow.
“That’s your pitch?”
Roman actually smiled.
It transformed him.
“No explosions this time,” he promised.
“Your promises are historically unreliable.”
“That’s fair.”
Ava looked at him for a long moment.
At the dangerous man she should probably walk away from.
Then she remembered the garage.
The kiss.
The fire.
The way he had shielded her before he even knew whether she was enemy or salvation.
And despite everything… she trusted him.
At least enough to take one step forward.
Ava slid into the passenger seat.
Roman looked at her.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Roman started the engine.
“Somewhere no one knows our names.”
The car pulled away from the curb and disappeared into the glowing Chicago night.
May you like
And for the first time in both their lives, neither of them was running alone.
THE END
