Chapter 31 Chapter 31

Chapter 31 Chapter 31
Mia's name burned on that screen like it was written in fire. I grabbed Marcus's phone and stared at it until the letters blurred. My best friend. The girl who had held my hand through my mother's funeral. The girl who had painted my nails purple when I turned sixteen and told me I deserved the world. Victor was going to kill her because of me.

"No," I whispered. "No, no, no."

Marcus took the phone back gently. "I am sorry," he said. "I thought you should know."

I looked at him and something broke inside my chest. "We have to warn her. We have to get her out of the city."

"Damien will never allow it."

"I do not care what Damien allows." My voice came out sharp. Desperate. "She is innocent. She has nothing to do with this war."

Marcus studied my face for a long moment. "Then you need to ask him yourself," he said quietly. "Because if you go behind his back, it will only make things worse."

He left before I could respond. I stood alone in my room with my heart pounding and my hands shaking. I had to try. I had to make Damien understand that Mia's life mattered more than whatever strategy he was playing. I went downstairs and found him in his office with maps spread across his desk. He looked up when I entered and his expression hardened.

"I need to talk to you," I said.

"Not now, Lisa."

"Yes, now." I closed the door behind me and walked to his desk. "Victor put Mia on his target list. You have to protect her."

Damien leaned back in his chair and watched me with cold eyes. "Who is Mia?"

"My best friend. The girl I grew up with. She has nothing to do with any of this."

"Then she has nothing to worry about."

His casual tone made anger flare hot in my chest. "Victor does not care if she is involved. He is going to kill her to hurt me. You know that."

"What I know," Damien said slowly, "is that I cannot protect everyone you have ever cared about. I have limited resources and unlimited enemies. Your friend is not my priority."

I slammed my hands on his desk. "She is my priority. And if you cared about me at all, you would help her."

Damien stood up fast. His chair scraped against the floor. "Do not question whether I care about you," he said. His voice was low. Dangerous. "Everything I do is to keep you alive."

"Then prove it. Send someone to get her out of the city. Put her somewhere safe."

"I cannot spare the men."

"You have dozens of men standing around this house doing nothing."

"They are protecting you."

"From what?" I shouted. "From Victor? From your enemies? Or from the truth that you are just as much a monster as he is?"

The words hung in the air between us. Damien's face went white. Then red. I had never seen him look at me like that before. Like I had just stabbed him in the chest. "Get out," he said quietly.

"No."

"Get out of my office, Lisa."

"Not until you promise me you will help her."

He walked around the desk and stood inches from me. I could see the veins in his neck. The tension in his jaw. "You do not get to make demands here," he said. "You do not get to tell me how to run my operation. And you certainly do not get to call me a monster when I am the only thing standing between you and a bullet."

"Then let me go," I said. My voice cracked. "Let me leave this house and warn Mia myself. Let me do something other than sit here and wait for people I love to die."

"You are not leaving."

"You cannot keep me here forever."

"Watch me."

I turned to walk away but he grabbed my arm. Not hard. Just firm enough to stop me. "You think I want this?" he asked. His voice was softer now. Strained. "You think I want to lock you in this house and watch you hate me a little more every day?"

I looked at him and saw something I had not expected. Fear. Real, raw fear in his eyes. "Then why are you doing it?" I whispered.

"Because losing you would destroy me." The words came out rough. Like they hurt to say. "I have lost everything in my life, Lisa. My family. My brother. My honor. I cannot lose you too."

My chest tightened. For the first time since I had met Damien, I saw past the cold exterior and the calculated control. I saw a man who was terrified of being alone. A man who had built walls so high he had forgotten how to let anyone in. "You are not losing me," I said quietly. "But you will if you keep treating me like a possession instead of a person."

He let go of my arm and stepped back. "Fine," he said. "I will send someone to check on your friend. But if this compromises our security, it is on you."

Relief flooded through me. "Thank you."

He nodded once and turned back to his desk. I left his office with my heart still racing and my hands still shaking. I went straight to my room and pulled out the old phone I had hidden in my drawer. The one Damien did not know about. I dialed Mia's number and prayed she would answer.

She picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Mia, it is Lisa."

"Oh my God, Lisa? Where have you been? I have been trying to call you for weeks."

"I know. I am sorry. Listen, you need to leave the city. Right now."

"What? Why?"

"I cannot explain everything but you are in danger. There are people looking for you because of me and if you stay, they will hurt you."

"Lisa, you are scaring me."

"Good. Be scared. Pack a bag and go somewhere far away. Do not tell anyone where you are going. Not your parents. Not your boyfriend. No one."

"I do not understand."

"You do not have to understand. You just have to trust me." My voice broke. "Please, Mia. I cannot lose you."

She was quiet for a long moment. "Okay," she said finally. "I will go. But you have to promise me you are safe."

I wanted to tell her the truth. I wanted to say I was trapped in a mansion with a man who loved me like a prize and hated me like a burden. But instead I said, "I am fine. Just go."

I hung up before she could ask more questions. My hands were shaking so hard I almost dropped the phone. I turned around to put it back in the drawer and froze.

Damien stood in the doorway. His face was dark with rage. "Who did you just call?" he asked.

"No one."

"Do not lie to me."

"I called Mia. I warned her to leave."

He crossed the room in three long strides and grabbed the phone from my hand. "You just told her everything. You just gave Victor a direct line to track her."

"I told her to run. That is all."

"And now he knows we are protecting her. Now he knows she matters to you." Damien threw the phone against the wall and it shattered into pieces. "Do you have any idea what you have done?"

"I saved her life."

"You painted a target on her back."

We stood there breathing hard and staring at each other. The air felt thick. Heavy. Like the room was closing in. "I am afraid of losing you," he said suddenly. The words came out broken. Desperate. "Every decision I make. Every order I give. It is all to keep you here. To keep you safe. Because if you leave, if something happens to you, I will have nothing left."

I saw the truth in his eyes. The fear. The loneliness. The desperate need to hold onto something that felt real. "Damien," I whispered.

But before I could say more, I heard footsteps in the hallway. Quick. Quiet. Someone had been listening. I turned toward the door just as the footsteps faded away.

Marcus had heard everything.