MARRY YOUR KILLER
Chapter Nineteen: The Fall
---
The raid happened at dawn.
Jay's team moved first. The warehouse in Navotas was supposed to be empty, her uncle's weapons moved, his men gone. But when the doors opened, the guns were still there. Twelve crates. Russian markings. Enough to start a war.
Her uncle's men were there too. Twenty of them. Waiting.
Jay dropped behind a crate as bullets tore through the air around her. Ci N was beside her, his gun drawn, his face pale. Felix was on her other side, his breathing fast, his hands steady. Freya was somewhere to the left, returning fire, her voice sharp over the radio. Rakki was covering the back door. Mica was in the van, tracking movement, her voice calm in Jay's ear.
"Fifteen in the main room. Five on the upper level. Three at the back. They knew we were coming."
"I know," Jay said.
She looked across the warehouse. Lyra was in the shadows, moving between crates, her knife in her hand. She had taken down three men already. Silently. Swiftly. She was a ghost in the chaos.
Care was at the entrance, her medical bag open, her eyes scanning for injuries. No one was hurt yet. That wouldn't last.
Jay raised her gun. She fired. A man dropped. Another. Another.
---
Keifer's team hit the Shadow Market's safe house at the same time.
The building was in Makati, a glass tower that looked like any other office. But the basement held servers, files, years of records that would expose everyone who had been pulling the strings of the war.
Percy kicked the door open. Keifer was behind him, his gun drawn, his eyes scanning. Aries was on his left. Yuri on his right.
The room was empty.
"They knew," Percy said.
The lights went out.
Keifer dropped to the ground. Gunfire erupted from somewhere above them, the flash of muzzles in the dark. Percy returned fire. Aries moved to cover. Yuri disappeared into the shadows.
Keifer's radio crackled. Jay's voice was thin, distant.
"They knew. They knew we were coming."
"Same here," Keifer said.
"We need to pull out."
"We can't. The files—"
The ceiling collapsed.
---
Jay heard the explosion through the radio.
Keifer's voice cut out. Static filled her ear. She pressed the radio against her face, her heart pounding, her hands shaking.
"Keifer. Keifer."
Silence.
"Keifer."
A man lunged at her. She dropped the radio. Her knife was in her hand. She moved. The man fell.
She grabbed the radio. Still static.
She looked across the warehouse. Her girls were still fighting. Lyra was in the center now, her knife moving, men falling around her. Care was pulling someone to safety. Freya was covering the door.
Jay ran.
---
Lyra was in the center of the warehouse when it happened.
She had taken down seven men. Seven. Her knife was slick with blood. Her face was calm. Her movements were precise. She was a machine, a weapon, something her father had built and her mother had abandoned.
The eighth man came at her from behind.
She turned. She moved. Her knife found his throat.
But there was a ninth man. A tenth. An eleventh.
She hadn't seen them. She had been so focused on the fight, on the chaos, on the blood, that she hadn't seen them gathering. They came at her from three sides. She took down two. The third hit her in the back of the head.
She fell.
Alex was across the warehouse when he saw her fall.
He wasn't supposed to be there. He wasn't a fighter. He was a businessman, a billionaire, a man who made deals and closed them. He wasn't supposed to be in a warehouse with guns and blood and men who wanted to kill him.
But when he saw Lyra fall, he ran.
He ran across the warehouse. Bullets flew past him. He didn't care. He reached her. He dropped to his knees. Her face was pale. Her eyes were closed. Blood was in her hair.
"Lyra. Lyra."
She didn't move.
He picked her up. She was light. Too light. He carried her to the entrance, where Care was waiting, her face pale, her hands ready.
"She's breathing," Care said. "She's breathing. Put her down. Put her down."
Alex put her down. Care worked. He stood there, watching, his hands covered in her blood.
---
Jay reached the entrance.
She saw Alex kneeling beside Lyra. She saw Care's hands moving, checking for wounds, checking for pulse. She saw the blood on Lyra's face, her hair, her hands.
"Is she—"
"She's alive," Care said. "She's alive. But she needs a hospital. Now."
Jay grabbed the radio. "We need extraction. Now. Lyra is down."
Freya was there. Rakki was there. The warehouse was quiet now. The men were down. The guns were still. But Lyra was on the ground, her face white, her eyes closed.
Jay knelt beside her. She took her hand.
"Lyra. Lyra, wake up."
Lyra's eyes opened. Just a slit. Just enough.
"Jay," she whispered.
"I'm here."
"The men—"
"Gone. All gone."
Lyra's eyes closed. Her hand went limp.
"Lyra."
No response.
Care pushed Jay aside. "We need to move. Now."
---
The van sped through the streets of Manila, sirens blaring, lights flashing. Care was in the back, her hands on Lyra's chest, her voice steady, counting breaths. Alex was beside her, his face pale, his hands shaking.
Jay was in the front, the radio pressed to her ear.
"Keifer. Keifer, come in."
Static.
"Keifer."
A crackle. Then his voice, thin and distant.
"I'm here."
She closed her eyes. Her hand tightened on the radio.
"Lyra's down. We're taking her to the hospital."
"Where?"
"St. Luke's. We're five minutes out."
"I'll be there."
The radio went silent.
---
The hospital was chaos.
Doctors and nurses met them at the entrance. Lyra was on a stretcher, her face pale, her hair dark with blood. Alex walked beside her, his hand on hers, his voice low.
"Lyra. Lyra, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
They took her through the doors. Alex stopped. He stood there, watching them go, his hands empty.
Jay was beside him. Her hand was on his arm.
"She's going to be okay," Jay said.
Alex didn't answer. He didn't move. He just stood there, watching the doors where she had disappeared.
---
Keifer arrived twenty minutes later.
His face was cut. His clothes were torn. He was limping. But he was alive. Percy was behind him, his arm around Aries, who was holding their ribs. Yuri was last, his face cold, his hands bloody.
Jay saw him. She crossed the waiting room. She stopped in front of him.
"You're bleeding," she said.
"It's not mine."
She looked at his face. At the cut above his eye. At the blood on his hands. At the way he was standing, like it cost him something.
"You're bleeding," she said again.
He looked at her. His face was tired. His eyes were dark.
"You're not," he said.
She almost laughed. She almost cried. She took his hand. His fingers were cold. She held them anyway.
---
The waiting room filled.
Percy sat in a chair, his head back, his eyes closed. Aries was beside him, their hand on his arm. Yuri stood by the window, watching the street, his face unreadable.
Ci N arrived with Felix. His face was pale. His hands were shaking. He sat beside Jay, his shoulder against hers, his hand in hers.
"She's going to be okay," Ci N said.
"She's going to be okay," Jay said.
They said it like a prayer. Like a promise. Like something they needed to believe.
---
Alex sat alone.
His hands were still covered in Lyra's blood. He hadn't washed them. He hadn't moved from the chair where he had been sitting since they took her through the doors. His face was pale. His eyes were fixed on the hallway where she had disappeared.
Cole sat beside him. He didn't say anything. He just sat there, his shoulder against Alex's, his presence a weight that kept him from falling.
"She was standing," Alex said. His voice was hoarse. "She was standing. And then she wasn't. And I—" He stopped.
Cole waited.
"I ran," Alex said. "I ran across the warehouse. I didn't think. I just—" His voice cracked. "I couldn't let her be alone."
Cole put his hand on Alex's shoulder. "She's not alone."
Alex looked at the hallway. At the doors where she had disappeared. At the place where she was fighting, somewhere in the bright lights and the white walls, to come back to him.
"She can't die," Alex said. "She can't. I just found her."
---
The hours passed.
The waiting room was quiet. No one left. No one slept. They sat in the hard plastic chairs, against the walls, on the floor. They waited.
Jay sat with Keifer. His hand was in hers. His shoulder was against hers. He had washed the blood from his hands, but there was still a smear on his collar that she hadn't told him about.
"The files," she said. "The safe house."
"Empty. They burned everything before we got there."
She closed her eyes. "He's always one step ahead."
Keifer's hand tightened on hers. "Not for long."
She looked at him. His face was tired. His eyes were dark. But there was something there that hadn't been there before. Something that looked like hope.
"We're going to find him," Keifer said. "We're going to end this."
She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Together," she said.
"Together."
---
The doctor came out at dawn.
He was young, tired, his scrubs wrinkled. He looked at the waiting room, at the people scattered across the chairs, the floor, the walls. He looked at Alex, sitting alone, his hands still red.
"Family of Lyra Kulkarni?" he asked.
Alex stood up. His legs were unsteady. His voice was hoarse.
"I'm here. I'm—" He stopped. He didn't know what he was. Not family. Not yet. Not ever, maybe.
The doctor looked at him. At his hands. At his face.
"She's stable," the doctor said. "She has a concussion. A bad one. But she's going to be okay."
Alex's knees buckled. Cole caught him. Held him up.
"She's going to be okay," Alex said. Like he was testing the words. Like he needed to hear them.
"She's going to be okay," the doctor said.
Alex looked at the hallway. At the doors where she had disappeared. At the place where she was waiting for him.
"Can I see her?" he asked.
The doctor nodded. "She's asking for you."
---
Lyra was awake when he walked in.
Her face was pale. Her head was bandaged. There were tubes in her arms, wires on her chest. She looked small. She looked fragile. She looked nothing like the woman who had held a knife to his throat and told him she would kill him.
Alex sat beside her. He took her hand. Her fingers were cold. He held them anyway.
"You're here," she said. Her voice was weak. Her eyes were tired.
"I'm here."
"You're bleeding."
He looked at his hands. The blood was dry now, brown against his skin. He had forgotten to wash it off.
"It's not mine," he said.
She looked at him. Her eyes moved across his face, his hands, his shirt. She saw the blood that wasn't his. She saw the way he was holding himself together.
"You ran," she said.
"I ran."
"You shouldn't have."
He almost smiled. "I know."
She closed her eyes. Her hand tightened on his.
"I'm not going anywhere," he said.
She opened her eyes. Just a slit. Just enough.
"I know," she said.
---
Jay stood in the doorway.
She watched Alex sit beside Lyra. Watched him hold her hand. Watched him talk to her in a voice so low she couldn't hear the words. Watched the way Lyra's face changed when she looked at him.
Keifer was behind her. His hand was on her shoulder.
"She's going to be okay," he said.
"She's going to be okay," Jay said.
She leaned back against him. His arms went around her. His chin rested on her head. They stood there, in the doorway of a hospital room, watching two people who had found something they didn't know they were looking for.
"We're going to find him," Jay said. "My uncle. We're going to end this."
"We are."
She turned. Her face was close to his. His eyes were steady.
"And then?" she asked.
He smiled. It was small. Tired. Real.
"And then we figure out the rest," he said.
She kissed him. In the doorway of the hospital room, with the sun rising over Manila, with her family scattered across the waiting room and her enemy still somewhere in the dark.
She kissed him.
And he kissed her back.
---
END OF CHAPTER NINETEEN