“By destroying me instead?”
“I didn’t have a choice!”
“You did,” Reed said, stepping closer. “You had choices, and you chose to cut me out. You chose to let me believe you were dead rather than trust me to handle the truth.”
“I couldn’t lose you!” she said, her voice breaking. “If something happened to you because of me, because of my work, I couldn’t have lived with myself. At least this way, you got to live. You got to build something amazing, create this company, find happiness?—”
“Find happiness?” Reed stared at her incredulously. “Elena, I haven’t been happy in five years. I’ve been existing. Going through the motions. Building walls so high that even my own brothers couldn’t reach me sometimes.”
“But you survived?—”
“Barely,” Reed said quietly. “And only because I had to. Because the alternative was giving up completely.”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Reed, I’m so sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought?—”
Reed didn’t let her finish. He placed his hands gently on her shoulders, feeling the tension in her muscles, the trembling that betrayed how much this conversation was costing her.
“Elena,” he said softly.
She looked up at him, tears spilling down her cheeks, and Reed felt something shift in his chest. All the anger, all the resentment, all the hurt—it was still there, but underneath it wassomething stronger. Something that had survived five years of believing she was dead.
Reed pulled her closer and pressed his lips to hers.
The kiss was gentle at first, tentative, like he was asking a question he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to. But Elena responded immediately, her hands fisting in his shirt as she kissed him back with five years of suppressed longing and regret.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Reed rested his forehead against hers.
“We’re going to figure this out,” he said quietly. “All of it. Webb, the mission, us. But you don’t get to disappear on me again. Not ever.”
Elena nodded, tears still tracking down her cheeks. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Reed repeated, his hands still on her shoulders, holding her close. “Now let’s eat dinner before it gets cold.”
Elena laughed shakily. “You made it from scratch.”
“I remember what you like.”
And as they returned to the table, Reed realized that maybe—just maybe—some things were worth fighting for. Even if it took five years to find them again.
CHAPTER 9
The next morning, Elena and Reed went on another run. It was quickly becoming Elena’s favorite part of the day. They fell into their familiar rhythm around the lake, not talking but moving in perfect synchronization, the way they always had. There was something healing about it—the steady pace, the crisp morning air, the sense that for these five miles, nothing existed except the path ahead and Reed’s steady breathing beside her.
When they returned to the house, his brothers were already gathered in the kitchen with coffee and what appeared to be architectural blueprints spread across the island.
“Perfect timing,” Terrel said, looking up from his laptop. “I’ve got the updated building schematics, security protocols, and staff schedules for the Blackwood Estate.”
Elena moved to examine the documents, her professional instincts kicking in as she studied the detailed layouts. “These are much more current than what I had. Where did you get them?”
“Better you don’t know,” Terrel replied with a slight smile. “But they’re accurate as of yesterday.”
For the next three hours, they planned every detail of the operation. Walker and James would infiltrate the catering staff—Pinnacle Hospitality had been surprisingly easy to penetrate once Terrel had accessed their employee database—and Elena would pose as a photographer documenting the event, giving her legitimate access to move throughout the building while capturing intelligence.
“Communication?” Reed asked, pointing to the estate’s layout.
“Encrypted comms, but we’ll need to assume they’re monitoring frequencies,” Elena said. “Hand signals when possible, predetermined check-in times otherwise.”
“What about the server room?” Walker studied the basement layout. “It’s isolated, with multiple security layers.”
