Chapter 6 - The Night Elias Chose Her
“Elias!”
Ava dropped to the ground.
Another gunshot exploded overhead.
Metal sparked.
Someone grabbed her arm.
She fought wildly.
“Ava, it’s me.”
Daniel.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Red.
Dim.
Victor was gone.
Marcus lay near a pillar clutching his shoulder.
Elias was on one knee.
Alive.
Blood marked the side of his face where a bullet had grazed him.
Ava ran to him.
“You were hit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You fell.”
“I was trying not to get shot twice.”
Despite everything, Ava almost laughed.
Then Elias touched her face.
Not possessively.
Not urgently.
As if he needed proof she was real.
“You’re alive.”
Ava swallowed.
“So are you.”
His eyes moved over her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Naomi?”
“Safe.”
“Peter?”
“Victor has him.”
Elias stood.
Pain crossed his face.
Ava saw it.
“You are not fine.”
“Later.”
Marcus groaned.
Daniel checked him.
“Through the shoulder.”
Marcus looked at Elias.
“I didn’t know about Ava.”
Elias’s expression became ice.
“You betrayed me.”
“I gave Victor business information.”
“You gave him access.”
“I thought he wanted the ports.”
“He put a camera in my bedroom.”
Marcus looked sick.
“I didn’t know.”
Elias stepped closer.
Ava touched his arm.
“Elias.”
He stopped.
She whispered, “Peter first.”
For once, Elias obeyed.
Marcus gave them Victor’s location.
An old Kwon warehouse near the river.
“He’ll kill Peter before leaving the country,” Marcus said.
“Why?”
“Because Peter knows the accounts.”
Ava held up the key.
“So do I.”
Marcus stared at it.
“You opened it?”
“Yes.”
“Then Victor won’t leave without you.”
Elias immediately turned to Ava.
“You’re not coming.”
She almost smiled.
“There he is.”
“Ava.”
“You don’t get to lock me away now.”
“I’m not locking you away.”
“You just gave me an order.”
“Because Victor wants you.”
“And he already knows I have the key.”
Elias’s jaw tightened.
“Exactly.”
Ava stepped close.
“You once told me never to bring only what my enemy expects.”
He stared at her.
She held up the key.
“He expects this.”
“What does he not expect?”
Ava looked at Marcus.
“A witness.”
Marcus understood.
“No.”
Ava said, “You want to make this right?”
Marcus looked away.
“You testify.”
Against Victor.
Against every corrupted officer and politician in the ledger.
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“I’d be dead before breakfast.”
Elias spoke.
“No.”
Marcus looked at him.
“If you testify, you live.”
“You can’t guarantee that.”
“I can.”
Ava watched Elias.
This was the man she had married.
Terrifying.
Certain.
But now she understood something she had missed.
Elias did not promise lightly.
He protected what he claimed responsibility for.
Sometimes ruthlessly.
The warehouse stood beside the river.
Midnight fog hung over the water.
Elias insisted Ava wear body armor beneath her coat.
She did not argue.
That surprised him.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“You thought I’d fight you.”
“Yes.”
“I’m learning.”
“Dangerous.”
“Apparently.”
For half a second, the old warmth returned.
Then the warehouse doors appeared ahead.
Daniel remained outside with a team Elias trusted personally.
Marcus stayed in the vehicle.
Ava and Elias approached alone.
“Why us?” she whispered.
“Victor believes everyone else is compromised.”
“Is he right?”
“Yes.”
Inside, Peter sat beneath a single hanging light.
Victor stood behind him.
Four armed men surrounded the room.
Victor looked at Ava.
Then at Elias.
“A love story.”
Elias’s face did not change.
Victor smiled.
“You spent years pretending she meant nothing.”
“I underestimated how stupid you were.”
Victor’s smile thinned.
“Give me the key.”
Ava held it up.
“Release Peter.”
Victor pressed a pistol against Peter’s head.
“Key first.”
Ava stepped forward.
Elias caught her hand.
She looked at him.
He did not pull her back.
He simply held on.
Victor noticed.
“There it is.”
Elias’s eyes remained on him.
“What?”
“The weakness.”
Elias glanced at Ava.
Then back at Victor.
“No.”
Victor laughed.
“She is.”
“No. She’s the reason I finally know what matters.”
Ava’s throat tightened.
Victor looked disgusted.
“Your father would be ashamed.”
“My father is dead.”
“He built everything you have.”
“He built fear.”
“And you built what?”
Elias looked at Ava again.
“A choice.”
Victor raised the gun.
“Then choose.”
A second guard dragged Peter upright.
Victor pointed toward Ava.
“Your empire or your wife.”
Elias answered instantly.
“Her.”
Victor blinked.
So did Ava.
“No negotiation?” Victor asked.
“No.”
“The ports?”
“Take them.”
“Your companies?”
“Take them.”
“Your name?”
“Keep it.”
Victor stared at him.
Elias continued.
“You want everything I inherited? Have it.”
His fingers tightened around Ava’s hand.
“But you don’t touch her.”
Ava could barely breathe.
Four years.
Thousands of unanswered questions.
One sentence behind a door had shattered her.
Now one answer in a warehouse rebuilt something she had thought was gone forever.
Victor laughed.
“Romantic.”
“No.”
Elias’s voice was calm.
“Expensive.”
Ava looked at him.
He gave the smallest nod.
Signal.
She dropped the hardware key.
It struck the concrete.
Victor instinctively looked down.
The warehouse lights died.
Daniel’s team moved.
Shouts.
Boots.
A gun fired.
Ava dropped as Elias pulled her behind a steel column.
Two more shots.
Then silence.
Emergency lights came on.
Victor was gone again.
Peter was alive.
Three guards lay disarmed.
The fourth had surrendered.
Daniel swore.
“Back exit.”
Elias ran.
Ava followed despite him shouting her name.
Outside, Victor reached the river dock.
A speedboat waited.
He jumped aboard.
The engine roared.
Ava saw him turn.
Gun raised.
Toward Elias.
She screamed.
Elias twisted.
The shot missed.
Daniel fired at the boat’s engine.
Victor disappeared into the fog.
Elias grabbed Ava.
“What did I tell you?”
“I don’t remember.”
“I told you to stay inside.”
“You were being shot at.”
“That does not improve the argument.”
She stared at him.
Then suddenly she laughed.
Elias looked stunned.
It became a sob.
Then another laugh.
Ava pressed both hands over her face.
Elias pulled her against him.
She resisted for one second.
Then stopped.
His arms closed around her.
Not like a captor.
Like a man holding the only thing left after a fire.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Ava froze.
Elias almost never apologized.
“I’m sorry you heard those words.”
She pulled back.
“You said them.”
“Yes.”
“So don’t apologize because I heard them.”
He absorbed that.
“You’re right.”
“Why did you say it?”
“To convince Victor.”
“You could have told me.”
“Yes.”
“You could have trusted me.”
“Yes.”
“You made decisions about my life without me.”
“Yes.”
Ava’s eyes filled.
“That isn’t love, Elias.”
“No.”
His answer surprised her.
He touched her bare ring finger.
“That was fear.”
She looked at him.
He continued.
“I was so afraid someone would learn what you meant to me that I turned protecting you into another form of lying.”
Ava whispered, “And what do I mean to you?”
Elias struggled.
She could see the words were difficult.
Finally he said, “Everything I was afraid to lose.”
Ava closed her eyes.
It was not enough.
Not yet.
But it was true.
For tonight, truth was something.
Daniel approached.
“We found Peter’s records. Marcus is ready to cooperate.”
“And Victor?” Elias asked.
Daniel looked toward the river.
“Boat abandoned three miles south.”
Elias’s face hardened.
“So he’s still here.”
Ava’s phone rang.
Everyone froze.
Only Naomi had the number.
Ava answered.
“Naomi?”
No response.
Then Victor’s voice.
“You forgot something.”
Ava’s blood went cold.
“What?”
A muffled cry sounded.
Naomi.
Victor continued.
“You have thirty minutes.”
“Where?”
He gave an address.
Elias took the phone.
“If you hurt her—”
Victor laughed.
“You chose your wife.”
Then he said, “Now let’s see who Ava chooses.”
The call ended.
Ava looked at Elias.
He already knew what she was going to say.
“No,” he said.
Ava picked up the key.
“Yes.”
Then Daniel’s phone buzzed.
He looked at the message and went pale.
“What?” Elias demanded.
Daniel turned the screen toward them.
Victor had sent a photograph of Naomi.
Behind her stood someone else.
May you like
Someone Ava recognized instantly.
Her younger brother.
