Chapter 68: Smoke and Mirrors
Chapter 68: Smoke and Mirrors
The sky over Marseille was grey, thick with the memory of storms that had already passed. Evangeline stood on the rooftop of an abandoned cathedral, her coat whipping around her in the wind as she stared through binoculars at the harbor below.
Cargo moved. Cranes groaned. Men shouted. But her eyes weren’t on the shipments—they were on the woman walking beside them.
Alessandra Renault.
Elegant. Composed. Wrapped in a cashmere trench as though she were strolling through a Parisian boutique instead of orchestrating transnational crime.
It made Evangeline’s blood boil.
“She’s working under the Nova Baltic shell,” a voice crackled in her earpiece. “That container marked ‘Corrosion Materials’—she’s laundering weapons and crypto tech through it.”
“Copy,” Evangeline replied, lowering the binoculars. “Pull back. No contact. I want to do this myself.”
“Evangeline—”
“I said no contact.”
She pulled the hood over her head and moved quickly down the fire escape.
This wasn’t about tactical advantage.
This was about truth.
Alessandra stood near the edge of the shipping platform, murmuring into her phone. “Yes, I want it moved by nightfall. If Luca is alive, he’ll track this signal. Let him. He’s too emotionally compromised to make the right move now.”
“Are you sure he’s alive?” the voice asked.
Alessandra’s expression soured. “If he’s dead, we’ll find the boy and gut the empire anyway.”
She ended the call and turned—
Only to find Evangeline standing ten feet away.
No weapons. No armor. Just fire in her eyes and thunder in her chest.
“Well,” Alessandra said with an arched brow. “Look who’s finally unafraid to stand in the open.”
Evangeline stepped forward. “You held my hand at the funeral.”
“I did.”
“You kissed my forehead while knowing you’d lit the match that burned my world.”
Alessandra’s lips curled. “I did more than light it, darling. I made sure you were the one who choked on the smoke.”
Evangeline’s jaw clenched. “Why?”
Alessandra sighed, as if bored. “Because your father was weak. And weakness is contagious. It was only a matter of time before he passed it on to you. I did the world a favor.”
“You raised me like a daughter.”
“No,” Alessandra snapped. “I raised you like a weapon. But you misfired. You fell in love. You chose him.”
Evangeline took another step forward. “And now I’ll choose to end you.”
Suddenly, several of Alessandra’s guards emerged from behind the containers. Guns drawn. Tension crackled like a live wire.
Evangeline didn’t flinch.
Instead, she tapped her bracelet twice.
From across the harbor, three silencers popped. The guards dropped silently—one by one.
Alessandra barely had time to turn before Evangeline was on her.
The slap cracked through the air like thunder.
“That’s for my father.”
Another blow. “That’s for Leo.”
Alessandra staggered back, blood on her lip, laughing. “You named him Leo?”
“I named him after a lion. And he’s protected by one.”
Alessandra’s eyes narrowed. “So Luca is alive.”
Evangeline stepped in close. “You wanted me broken. Instead, you made me lethal.”
Behind her, a black SUV pulled up. Evangeline gave a sharp whistle. Two agents stepped out.
“Take her.”
Alessandra hissed like a serpent. “This isn’t over.”
Evangeline leaned in, voice like ice. “It is for you.”
Somewhere on the Mediterranean, Luca leaned over the rail of the yacht that had rescued him from Corsica’s cliffside dock. The makeshift bandages on his ribs were soaked, his shirt torn, his knuckles bruised—but he was alive.
He watched the coast disappear behind him, waves lapping like the seconds ticking down toward vengeance.
Angela sat beside him. “Leo’s asleep below deck.”
Luca didn’t look away from the horizon. “Does he hate me yet?”
“He asked me if the lion could bleed.”
Luca gave a bitter smile. “And what did you say?”
“I told him lions bleed more than anyone—because they never run.”
Luca finally turned. “Thank you. For getting him out.”
Angela placed a hand on his shoulder. “You have a chance now. Don’t waste it.”
Evangeline returned to the estate just after midnight. The wind had died, but the fire inside her had not. Alessandra was in custody, stripped of her assets, her networks crumbling. But Xavier… Xavier was still out there.
She entered quietly and found Leo asleep on the couch, curled up in a blanket too large for him, his small hand gripping a toy lion by the mane.
She stood there watching him until a movement from the hallway made her turn.
Luca.
His shirt was clean now. His face shaved. But the eyes—that storm of guilt and longing—remained.
He spoke first. “He asked for you in his sleep.”
Evangeline crossed to him slowly. “You found him.”
“I almost didn’t.”
“But you did.”
They stood in silence for a long moment, breathing each other in.
“He knows,” Luca said. “I told him I’m not just the lion. I’m his.”
Evangeline’s eyes glistened. “And what did he say?”
“He said lions don’t run from danger. They protect their pride.”
She let out a soft laugh that broke into a sob. “That’s you now. A lion.”
He looked at her like she was the only thing that had ever mattered. “No. That’s us.”
He reached into his coat and pulled something out—a small wooden box. Inside, a ring.
“Not for leverage. Not for control.”
He knelt.
“This time… for love.”