Chapter 140 Chapter One hundred and thirty-nine
ARA
Jimmy’s gun clattered to the floor. For a man who had always carried himself like a king, he suddenly looked small, shivering, pale, blood trickling down his cheek from where Thayne must have cut him with a knife or something like that.
“How do I know you’re not bluffing?” he demanded, nodding toward the cassette in Nick’s hand. His voice tried for steady and failed.
Nick didn’t even glance at it.
“We’re not negotiating,” he said flatly. “You don’t get terms.”
Jimmy’s breathing quickened. “You wouldn’t dare—”
“I already did,” Nick cut in.
Silence swallowed the corridor.
Nick turned to Thayne. “He’s yours. Do what you need to do.”
His voice shifted then. He didn't soften his tone, but it was distant. Detached.
“I’m going to meet my daughters.” The words landed heavily.
Jimmy’s eyes flicked to me again, calculating, desperate. “Ara, you can’t seriously—”
“Don’t,” I snapped, my voice breaking despite my effort to steady it. “You don’t get to say my name.”
Thayne stepped forward, picking up Jimmy’s discarded weapon with controlled precision.
“You spent years thinking you were untouchable,” Thayne said quietly. “You’re about to learn otherwise.”
Jimmy backed up until the wall met his spine.
For the first time in my life, I saw it. Fear.Real fear.
And it wasn’t because of the gun. It was because the truth was finally louder than him.
“Ara… what should we do with him?” Thayne asked.
The question wrapped around me like something warm in the middle of all that chaos. Even now , with the gun in his hand and his enemy at his feet, he was still putting me first.
“He’s going to jail,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “He needs to be locked away.”
Jimmy let out a strangled sound as Thayne twisted his arms behind his back and forced him to his knees.
“No… no, you can’t…” His eyes darted wildly between us. “You should be terrified of me.”
“I can, and I’m not.” I stepped closer, meeting his stare. “Does that sound clear?”
Thayne tightened his grip, his voice dropping into something cold enough to frost glass.
“We’re not done with you. Not even close. Now, tell me, what’s my father’s next move?”
Jimmy swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“How would I know my enemy’s strategy?” he sneered, though the bravado didn’t reach his eyes.
“Jimmy,” Thayne said quietly, “don’t underestimate me. I will end you right here if I have to.”
A sudden chill crawled up my spine. No, it wasn't because of Thayne's lethal, cold threat.
“Thayne,” I said, my voice suddenly small against the tension vibrating through the room. “We need to go. I have a bad feeling.”
He didn’t look at me.
“I can handle this. Stuart will be outside in five minutes to take you.” He said, drilling holes with his eyes on my father's stubborn face.
“You’re not coming?”
“I have to deal with your father.”
The feeling was growing stronger until I could feel it in my chest, beating with my heart.
“Thayne, please. Let’s leave now. We’re the only ones here and—” I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to slow my breathing. “Something feels wrong.”
It wasn’t logic. It was instinct. Maybe what they said about maternal instincts was real, you felt things before they happened.
Every nerve in my body was screaming RUN!
Jimmy barked out a laugh, struggling uselessly against Thayne’s hold. “She’s crazy. Just like her mother.”
Thayne’s reaction was instant, I noticed he always went bonkers whenever someone insulted me to his face.
“Shut your fucking mouth, old man.” He snarled.
“Thayne,” I pleaded, stepping closer. “Just listen to me this once. Please.”
For a moment, he didn’t move. Then he exhaled, tension bleeding from his shoulders as he hauled Jimmy upright.
“Fine.”
Relief barely had time to settle before—
Beep. Soft. Rhythmic. And Wrong. So wrong.
A voice shouted from somewhere beyond the corridor. “Mr. Slade!”
It sounded like Stuart, but it was too far, as if he was getting out of the building.
The door trembled against its hinges. I felt the sound more than heard it, that faint electronic ticking threading through the air.
“Thayne, I think—”
His expression changed. It was subtle. A narrowing of his eyes. A flicker of realization.
Time fractured. He shoved Jimmy away so hard he toppled and rolled across the floor. I didn't even pity him.
Then Thayne’s arms were around me. The world tilted as he lifted me, already running.
The hallway blurred. My heart hammered against my ribs as the beeping followed us, louder now, or maybe that was my imagination.
The air felt thick and heavy, like the building itself was holding its breath.
We burst through the exit and into the parking lot, cold air slamming into my lungs.
Two more steps. Then three. The building exploded.
The sound tore through the world, a monstrous roar that swallowed everything else. Heat chased us across the asphalt, glass and debris erupting outward like shrapnel rain.
Thayne dropped to his knees, folding over me, his body forming a shield. His arms tightened around me, unbreakable, as fragments clattered around us.
For a moment, there was nothing but ringing silence. Smoke. Fire.
The distant wail of sirens filled the air. Thayne’s chest heaved against my back before he forced himself upright, still holding me as he staggered forward.
“Stuart!” he shouted into the smoky air.
Lights flashed in the distance. An ambulance screamed closer.
“My pregnant wife!” Thayne roared at the approaching responders. “Check her!”
His panic wrapped around me like another explosion.
I cupped his face, grounding him.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, though my ears still rang and my hands trembled. “I’m okay.”
But Thayne didn’t seem convinced. Not until paramedics reached us. Despite the fact that he'd covered me with his body when the building exploded, he was still worried that there might be injuries he wasn't seeing.
Only then did the steel begin to crack. Behind us, the building burned.
And somewhere inside the smoke and ruin… the past was still refusing to die.
Firefighters were at work around us, fast and efficient, like machines.
“I need to know if Jimmy Ackerman's body has been recovered from the debris!” I heard Thayne telling one of the medics.
There weren't any casualties because everyone had been evacuated. Thayne, Jimmy and I were the only ones in the building before the explosion.
“With all due respect, sir, we can't say until we've dug every inch—”
Thayne interrupted the man calmly. “I want a straightforward answer.”
“Nobody has been recovered yet.” The man finally said, wiping sweat from his stained forehead.
That was…. That wasn't supposed to be. We left Jimmy in that building. If he'd escaped, we would have seen him.
Thayne had thrown him so hard that he passed out for a few seconds.
So where was he? How did he disappear?
“He's going to come after the tape.” I heard Stuart say to Thayne.
Ah. That was the new problem now, on top of the ones we were already dealing with. Jimmy somehow, escaped from the building. And his next target would be Nick, to get rid of that tape.