As the estate came into view, Jaden let out a breath he'd been holding for what felt like hours. The massive iron gates loomed ahead, floodlights cutting sharp angles across the manicured lawn.
"Y-yes, right there. Stop right there," he rasped.
The young woman, still pale, knuckles white on the wheel, glanced at him, then up at the towering gates. "Are you sure this is your friend's place?"
Jaden opened his mouth to answer, but a sharp car horn blared behind them.
He twisted in the seat. A black SUV had pulled up close, headlights glaring. The driver's door opened, and Damon stepped out, Leonardo right behind him, both men moving with lethal purpose, guns already drawn and leveled.
The girl's eyes went wide. "What the fuck is going on? Who are they?"
Jaden shoved the back door open and stumbled out, hands raised high, blood still soaking his shirt from the shoulder graze.
"It's me, Jaden!" he shouted, voice cracking. "I'm not here to cause trouble!"
Damon advanced, Glock steady. "Then why the fuck are you here?"
Leonardo flanked him, eyes scanning Jaden for weapons, then flicking to the girl still in the driver's seat.
Before Jaden could answer, Knight emerged from the passenger side, expression carved from ice. His gaze locked on Jaden, recognition, fury, and something colder flickering across his face.
Jaden took a single step forward. "Kieran, listen…"
"Stay the fuck where you are," Leonardo roared, finger hovering on the trigger.
Jaden froze.
Then he saw it.
A flicker of movement in the treeline, maybe twenty yards behind Knight, dark shape shifting against the shadows. A muzzle flash, faint but unmistakable.
"KNIGHT, DUCK!" Jaden screamed.
Knight dropped instantly, instinct overriding everything. The bullet hissed past where his head had been a heartbeat earlier, clean, silenced and slammed into the open driver's door of the girl's car.
She'd been stepping out, confused, terrified, phone halfway to her ear.
The round punched through the metal and into her shoulder.
She screamed, a sharp, animal sound and staggered, blood blooming dark across her white tank top.
"NO!" Jaden lunged forward without thinking, catching her as her knees buckled. She collapsed into his arms, gasping, eyes wide with shock.
Knight was already moving, low, fast, barking orders.
"Inside! Now! Damon, cover the left flank! Leo, get the gate open!"
Gunfire cracked from the trees, multiple shooters now. Bullets pinged off the SUV, shattered a headlight. Damon returned fire, precise, controlled bursts.
Leonardo sprinted to the gate controls. The massive iron panels groaned open just wide enough.
Knight reached Jaden in three strides, Glock still up. "Move!"
Jaden scooped the girl fully into his arms, her head lolling against his chest, blood soaking his shirt and ran. Leonardo fell in beside him, shielding with his body, returning fire over his shoulder.
They piled into the SUV, Jaden in the back with the girl across his lap, Knight sliding into the driver's seat, Damon slamming the passenger door as the vehicle roared forward.
The gates clanged shut behind them.
Inside the estate, the compound lights snapped on, flooding the grounds in harsh white. Security scrambled, radios crackling, rifles up.
Knight floored it down the long driveway, tires screeching as he took the turn toward the medical wing.
"Damon, call Patel. Tell him gunshot wound, right shoulder, probable arterial bleed. ETA thirty seconds."
Damon was already on the phone, voice clipped.
Jaden stared down at the girl in his arms. Her breathing was shallow, face pale, blood pooling under her back. He pressed his ruined hand to the wound, hard ignoring the scream of pain from his own injury.
"Please," he whispered, voice breaking. "Please don't die. You saved me. Don't die on me."
She blinked up at him, eyes glassy. "I… I just wanted to go to the gym…"
"Shh. You're gonna be okay. Just hold on."
The SUV skidded to a stop outside the medical wing. Doors flew open.
Dr. Patel was already in the Estate for Donald treatment, scrubs on, trauma kit in hand, two nurses behind him with a gurney.
Knight lifted the girl from Jaden's arms and carried her inside, barking, "Shoulder wound, single entry, no exit visible. Heavy bleeding. She's civilian, non-combatant."
Patel took over immediately, pressing gauze to the wound as they wheeled her into the trauma bay.
"Prep OR two. Get me type and cross, stat. She's lost too much already."
Jaden stumbled after them, shoulder burning, blood dripping from both wounds now, his and hers.
Knight caught his arm, hard enough to make him wince.
"You don't move from my sight," Knight growled, low and lethal. "You explain everything. Now."
Jaden met his eyes, bloody, exhausted, but unflinching.
"I came to warn you," he rasped. "Keenan's coming for her. For Genesis. For all of you."
Knight's grip tightened, eyes narrowing.
"Then start talking. Every word. Or I finish what that bullet started."
Behind them, the doors of the room that Patel was going to use swung shut.
The girl's blood smeared the floor in a long, dark streak.
****
Jaden exhaled a long, shaky breath as he finished recounting everything, the basement, the beatings, the blood, the desperate escape. When he fell silent, the room felt heavier, thick with the weight of what he'd endured.
Genesis stared at him, eyes shimmering with pity and deep, aching guilt. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, voice cracking. "About what happened… and that I didn't call to check on you after your hand."
Jaden glanced down at the bandaged, mangled remains of his hand, then lifted his gaze to meet hers. A tired, crooked smile tugged at his split lip. "It's fine. I brought it on myself."
Genesis wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, then gently pulled away from Knight. She moved to sit beside Jaden on the couch, careful, gentle, as she reached for his injured hand. Her fingers closed around the bloodied bandages, thumb tracing slow, soothing circles over the stained gauze.
"Keenan is going to pay for what he's done," she said, voice low and fierce despite the tears. "To you. To all of us. And to that innocent woman still fighting for her life in there."
Jaden's throat worked. Fresh tears slipped down his bruised cheeks, silent and unstoppable. "Thank you," he rasped, barely audible.
Amelia, seated a few feet away on the edge of an armchair, leaned forward, eyes blazing. "So how the hell do we stop that motherfucker?"
But before Knight could answer, Revelation's voice cut through the tension like a spark.
"By destroying him with his own evidence," she said, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across her face. She lifted her hand, revealing a small ascot neatly wrapped in a transparent nylon bag. Glee shimmered in her eyes, sharp and victorious.
"Keenan just handed us his own downfall," she added softly. "And he doesn't even realize it."
The room stilled.
Then, one by one, the others leaned in, faces shifting from exhaustion and grief to something colder, harder, more determined.
A slow, dangerous plan was beginning to take shape.