Chapter 30 Chapter 30
I shoved the note under my pillow and crossed to the door. My hands were cold. My heart beat so loud I thought whoever stood on the other side could hear it. I pressed my ear against the wood and listened. Breathing. Slow and steady. Someone waiting.
I opened the door fast, hoping to catch them off guard. The hallway was empty. No guards. No Elena. No one. Just shadows stretching long across the floor and the faint smell of cigarette smoke drifting from somewhere downstairs. I looked left, then right. Nothing moved. Whoever had been standing there was gone.
I closed the door and locked it. My hands shook as I turned the bolt. Someone in this house was trying to warn me, and someone else was watching to make sure I stayed put. I did not know which was worse.
The next morning, I went looking for answers. I found Elena in the laundry room, folding sheets with quick, nervous movements. When she saw me, her face went pale. "Miss Lisa," she said quietly. "You should not be down here."
"Did you leave a note under my door last night?" I asked.
Her eyes widened. "What note?"
"Someone slipped a note under my door telling me to leave. Was it you?"
She shook her head fast. "No. I would never. If Mister Damien found out, he would..." She stopped herself and looked away. "I have a family to feed. I cannot risk that."
I believed her. The fear in her voice was too real to fake. I tried asking two of the guards, but they barely looked at me. One of them told me to go back to my room. The other just turned his back and walked away. No one in this house wanted to talk. No one wanted to be seen helping me.
Damien found me in the library that afternoon. I was sitting by the window pretending to read when he walked in and closed the door behind him. His face was hard. His jaw tight. "Why are you questioning my staff?" he asked.
"I am trying to understand what is happening in this house," I said.
"What is happening is that I am keeping you alive." His voice was sharp. "And you are making it harder by wandering around and asking questions that put people on edge."
I stood up and faced him. "Someone left a note under my door last night. They told me to leave."
His expression did not change, but something flickered in his eyes. Anger. Or maybe fear. "Show me," he said.
I did not move. "I threw it away."
"You are lying."
"And you are hiding something."
The silence between us felt like glass about to shatter. Damien took a step closer, and I could smell the cologne he always wore. Expensive. Cold. "Lisa," he said slowly. "I have given you everything. Safety. Protection. A roof over your head. And this is how you repay me? By believing some anonymous note over my word?"
"Your word does not mean much when people keep dying around you," I said.
His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. Not hard enough to hurt but firm enough to remind me who had the power here. "Watch your mouth," he said quietly. "You do not know what I have sacrificed to keep you breathing."
I pulled my hand away. "Then tell me. Stop keeping secrets and just tell me the truth."
He stared at me for a long moment. Then he turned and walked to the window. "Victor is escalating," he said. "He bombed one of my warehouses last night. Killed eight of my men. Good men who had families waiting for them to come home."
The words hit me like a punch. Eight people dead. Eight families destroyed. "Why?" I whispered.
"Because he wants me to know he is serious." Damien's voice was flat. Emotionless. Like he had said, these words so many times they had lost their meaning. "He wants me to hand you over, and when I refuse, he takes something from me. That is how this works."
I sat down slowly. My legs felt weak. "This has to stop."
"It will stop when Victor is dead."
"And how many more people have to die before that happens?"
Damien turned to look at me. "As many as it takes."
The coldness in his voice made my stomach turn. This was not about protecting me anymore. This was about pride. About power. About two men playing a game with lives that did not belong to them. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to tell him he was just as bad as Victor. But the words stuck in my throat because part of me knew he would not care.
He left without saying anything else. I sat in the library alone and listened to the clock tick. Every second felt heavier than the last. I thought about the note. About leaving. About running as far from this mansion as I could and never looking back. But where would I go? Victor had a bounty on my head. Damien had guards watching my every move. I was trapped between two monsters, and neither one cared if I survived.
That evening, I turned on the small television in my room. The news was reporting on the warehouse bombing. Eight confirmed dead. Dozens injured. The reporter stood in front of the charred remains and talked about escalating gang violence. About innocent workers caught in the crossfire. About a city on the edge of chaos. I turned it off before I could hear more.
A knock came at my door. Soft. Familiar. I opened it to find Marcus standing there with his hands in his pockets. He looked tired. Older than I remembered. "Can I come in?" he asked.
I stepped aside and let him enter. He closed the door and leaned against it. "You need to be more careful," he said. "Damien is on edge. He thinks someone inside the house is working against him."
"Are they?" I asked.
Marcus did not answer right away. He looked at me like he was trying to decide how much truth I could handle. "There are people in this house who want him gone," he said finally. "People who think he has lost his way. But most of them are too scared to do anything about it."
"And you?" I asked. "Are you scared?"
He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. "Terrified," he said. "But fear does not change what needs to be done."
Before I could ask what he meant, his phone buzzed. He pulled it out, and his face went pale. "No," he whispered.
"What?" I asked. "What is it?"
He looked at me, and I saw something break behind his eyes. "Victor just released a new list," he said quietly. "A list of targets he plans to hit next."
My chest tightened. "Who is on it?"
Marcus hesitated. Then he turned the phone toward me. I looked at the screen, and my world stopped moving. There were five names listed in cold black text. Five people Victor had marked for death.
The last name on the list was Mia.