Lila exhales softly beside me. “That ended fast.”
The guard gives a brief nod.
“Security will remain doubled through the night. You are safe here,” he assures us.
He turns and disappears back down the corridor. The house grows quiet again. Yet the silence feels different now.
I rise slowly and help Lila stand. “Come on,” I murmur gently. “Let’s get you off your feet before that wound starts protesting again.”
She nods and allows me to guide her back toward the sitting room. Behind us, the hallway remains quiet, though the gunfire still seems to linger faintly in the air.
The sitting room looks exactly the way we left it. Two cups of tea rest on the table between the chairs, thin ribbons of steam still rising toward the ceiling while snow continues floating across the estate beyond the tall windows.
The room remains warm and quiet. My nerves don’t.
Lila lowers herself carefully into the cushions of the armchair, one hand bracing against the armrest.
“You good?” I ask quietly.
She nods once, though the motion carries more determination than confidence.
“I will be,” she murmurs, adjusting her position. “Once this week stops trying to kill us.”
A quiet breath escapes me before I sit down on the sofa and reach for my mug. The tea has cooled slightly during the chaos,yet the warmth still grounds my hands as I wrap my fingers around the ceramic.
Outside the estate grounds, the grounds glow beneath the security lights while armed guards move across the snow in wide patrol patterns. Engines hum faintly in the distance as vehicles circle the perimeter road, their tires grinding softly across frozen gravel.
Security has doubled. Probably more than that. My eyes follow one of the vehicles as it moves along the far side of the property before disappearing behind the trees.
“They knew tonight mattered,” Lila murmurs after a moment.
I glance toward her. “Who?”
“The men who came here.” Her eyes remain fixed on the window. “They didn’t drive into a fortified estate on a random night.”
The tension in her voice mirrors the thoughts moving quietly through my own mind. Ivan’s organization has been unraveling piece by piece since Kiren began dismantling it. Men operating within a collapsing structure often make reckless choices when the ground beneath them begins to give way.
“They must have known the operation was happening tonight,” she continues quietly.
I lift the mug and take a slow sip while considering the same possibility. If Ivan fell tonight, the men who followed him would feel that collapse immediately. A final strike against Kiren might have looked like the only remaining move they had left.
The tea tastes faintly bitter now.
Lila exhales and leans back in the chair, her hand resting lightly against her side.
“Rowan,” she murmurs after a moment, “this is insane.”
A tired breath escapes me before I answer. “You’re not wrong.”
The room grows quiet again. The estate is secure, yet my chest still feels tight from what happened minutes ago. When my phone vibrates softly on the table, the sound immediately pulls my attention down.
Kiren.
The tight pressure beneath my ribs loosens when I pick up the phone and answer before the second vibration.
“Are you safe?” he asks immediately.
“Yes,” I reply. “A group of men tried to force the outer gate. Your security intercepted them before they reached the house.”
