“With you…” she said, breath hitching, “the secrets that make me dangerous… feel lighter. Less like poison, more like air. Like I don’t have to be my past anymore.”
And I broke.
Because that was it. That waseverything.
“You could tell me anything,” I said. “Every ugly, sharp, bloody part of you—and I’d stay. Not because I’m unafraid of who you are… but because Ichooseyou, every time.”
She reached out like gravity had finally given up fighting us, her hand finding mine.
It was trembling. So was mine.
But when our fingers laced together, the storm faded.
Not the rain — it still came down in sheets. But the storm between us… the one we’d been carrying for far too long… quieted.
And then she kissed me.
No warning. No hesitation.
It was fierce and fragile all at once—like she was pouring every unspoken word into that kiss. My hands found her face, hers clutched my shirt, and we kissed as if the storm would swallow us whole if we stopped.
When we finally pulled apart, she pressed her forehead against mine, our breaths mingling in the chaos around us.
We stood there in the rain — soaking, shaking, undone — butHeard.
Not perfect. Not fearless.
But finally,free.
---- ??? ----
The sky hung in a heavy gunmetal gray when we arrived, not a single cloud in sight — a stark warning.
From the outside, the place resembled a ruin that had been half-swallowed by time. An old refinery,cloaked in rust and creeping vines, nestled in a forgotten valley as if it wished to remain lost.
It was perfect for a mission. Or perhaps a trap.
We glided through the shadows with practiced silence, clearing hallways and checking corners. Liz was always two steps ahead, every move precise, her body coiled like a wire yet somehow fluid. Watching her was like witnessing something… elemental.
She wasn’t just trained; she was crafted for this. Not because someone designed her, but because she had survived everything that tried to shatter her.
And yet, that didn’t harden her.
It honed her.
Even now, in the stillness before the storm, I found myself captivated by her when I should’ve been keeping an eye on the hallway.
How the rain traced down her cheekbone. How her mismatched eyes darted between entry points. How her fingers, steady as steel, danced over the access code to the intel bunker as if she already knew the lock’s rhythm.
She was something extraordinary.
Terrifying and beautiful all at once.
In seconds, she cracked the vault. I followed her inside, grabbing the case filled with drives, blueprints, and hard intel that could dismantle the entire operation.
We were almost out when the ambush hit.
Bullets ripped through the walls like forked lightning. Instinct kicked in — I shoved Liz behind cover and fired three rounds down the hall, taking down one of the attackers. Her eyes ignited as she sprang into action — fast, brutal, focused. She moved like a storm with a heartbeat, taking out two of them in less than ten seconds.
