Raina's POV
The panic room had always been meant to save me.
Tonight it felt like a coffin.
The air was too clean.
The walls too white.
The silence too loud.
I kept hearing Ethan's voice.
Not the one that kissed me..
The one that said "Da."
The more I remembered, the colder I felt.
Kabir told someone to protect me.
Ethan called the same someone.
My ex-husband and Ethan Hale were tied to the same darkness.
And I was the rope.
I wiped the tear slipping down my cheek and stood abruptly.
My legs were clumsy, like they didn't trust the floor.
I looked at the steel door where Ethan had disappeared.
He left so quickly.
No comfort.
No answer.
No explanation.
He just walked away.
Not because he didn't care..
but because caring was becoming too loud inside him.
And loud emotions make dangerous men reckless.
I curled into myself on the cold bench and held my knees.
The blanket Ethan left for me smelled faintly of his cologne..
subtle spice, clean linen.
For a moment, I let myself lean into that scent.
Let myself feel like the girl who once believed a kiss meant safety.
Then reality hit like a slap.
A man like Ethan doesn't kiss because he's in love.
He kisses because he's losing patience.
With the world.
With his enemies.
With me.
I don't think I've seen Ethan angry yet...
because his silence feels more dangerous.
Like he's holding back storms for my sake.
Like he's one decision away from letting them break open.
And I'm always the center.
I paced.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
My heartbeat a painful echo in my ribs.
Everything started to stitch itself painfully together:
Kabir...terrified of a voice that said "Da."
The Russians...obsessed with the necklace.
The Italians...stepping back when Ethan whispered the truth.
The media....calling me Ethan's four-year-hidden wife.
The panic room..designed like a bunker, not a room.
The kiss...neither apology nor impulse… but ownership.
This wasn't protection.
This was possession.
And the most terrifying part?
I wasn't sure I wanted to escape.
I pressed my forehead to the icy wall.
I thought coming to America would erase everything.
I changed my life.
I studied.
I worked.
I built something out of the ashes Kabir left.
But you can't bury things that bleed.
You can't hide from men who keep ledgers.
You can't outrun promises that weren't yours to make.
I breathed shakily, forcing myself to look at the steel door again.
If Ethan wasn't hurt…
If Ethan didn't look scared…
If Ethan didn't flinch when he heard "Da"…
Then he wasn't calling for help.
He was calling home.
A memory clawed its way up again:
Kabir in Russia, hand shaking on his phone, whispering...
"Please… don't take her. She doesn't know anything. She doesn't know what's inside."
Me.
He meant me.
My knees nearly buckled.
Maybe I was the secret.
Not the necklace.
Maybe the necklace was proof.
Of what?
Of who I am?
Of what blood I carry?
Of what someone did to me?
My pulse thundered so loud I pressed both hands to my ears.
"No..no, stop..." I whispered to myself.
But the thoughts didn't stop.
They multiplied.
Kabir kept me close because of that necklace.
Ethan keeps me close because of that necklace.
Both men feared the same man.
Both men obeyed the same order.
Protect her.
But why?
Protect me from what?
Or from who?
I sank down again, burying my face in my palms.
Every truth was turning poisonous.
What if Ethan doesn't want me…
What if Ethan needs me?
For a promise he made before he ever kissed me.
Before he ever said my name without mask.
Before he ever looked at me like I was the only real thing left in his life.
The door hissed.
I jolted upright....heart in my throat.
Ethan.
He stood in the doorway, filling it like a shadow built of decisions.
He didn't walk toward me.
He studied me.
Slowly.
His eyes moved from my trembling hands…
to my bitten lip…
to the fear I couldn't hide.
He looked… furious.
Not at me.
At the world for touching me.
"Raina," he said, voice quiet but sharp enough to cut bone.
I hated how much that voice calmed me.
I hated how much I needed it.
I hated how much he saw through me.
"I remembered something," I whispered, stepping back as if distance helped.
His eyes locked on mine, pupils expanding like a predator tracking prey.
"What did you remember?"
"My husband," I said.
"The call. The voice. The word."
His jaw tightened so hard I heard it.
"Saying 'Da'."
A breath left him...short, harsh.
He didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
It was written on his face:
We are no longer running from my past.
We are entering his.
I took a step closer without thinking.
"Ethan…" my voice cracked.
"What did you promise him?"
His silence answered everything.
He would burn down the world for me.
But something darker now owned his leash.
I lifted a trembling hand to his chest.
He caught my wrist in midair...not cruel, not soft.
A warning.
"I will keep you alive," he said.
"I don't care what I must become to do it."
His fingers slid up, gently closing around my throat...
not squeezing...
just a reminder of the pulse he now guarded like a secret.
The closeness made my pulse spike.
Heat unfurled low in my belly.
He leaned in, breath brushing my mouth.
Too close to breathe.
Too close to think.
Too close to lie.
"Raina," he murmured,
"stop fearing the wrong man."
My heart tripped over itself.
Because he didn't mean my ex.
He didn't mean the Italians.
He didn't even mean the Russians.
He meant himself.
I swallowed hard.
His eyes flickered down to my lips...just once...
and that one second nearly ruined me.
Then the universe shattered.
The lights flickered.
Hard.
Once.
Twice.
The panic room alarm flashed red..
EXTERNAL SECURITY BREACH DETECTED
PERIMETER COMPROMISED
LOCKDOWN ACTIVATED
Ethan's hand snapped from my throat to the handgun at his waistband.
His entire posture turned lethal.
War in human form.
He looked at me once...
a silent promise...
I will not let them take you.
Then he moved.
Fast.
Deadly.
Gone.
And I was left alone with the most horrifying truth of all:
The real danger had just arrived.