Chapter 70 WE FIGHT… FOR BILLY
Lea’s voice still hung in the cold air when George reached out and touched her chin gently, lifting her eyes to his.
“There is no going back after this,” he told her quietly. “If you move against Corin, you become a direct enemy of the most powerful man in three countries.”
She did not flinch. “He made me his target long before I knew who he was. I am done running.”
George stared at her a long moment, pride and fear mixing in his eyes in a way she had never seen on his face before. Then he nodded once.
“Then we bring him down.”
A rustling sound came from outside the station, faint footsteps moving through the trees. George’s gaze sharpened. He grabbed her hand and pulled her behind a low concrete pillar.
“Stay still,” he whispered against her hair.
The footsteps stopped just beyond the entrance. Lea held her breath, heart pounding so hard she thought it might echo in the silence. A shadow crossed the doorway and she tightened her grip on George’s arm.
Minutes crawled. The forest wind shifted. The presence outside moved on.
George exhaled slowly. “We have a small window. When daylight comes, they will sweep the forest again and track every exit. We need to move before sunrise.”
“Where do we go,” she asked. Her voice was steady, but inside her heart was breaking in places she did not know existed.
“Back to the city,” he said. “To Corin’s accounts. We hit him where it hurts. His money. His power. His foundation. We end him from the inside.”
Lea swallowed. “And Billy?”
George lowered his eyes for the first time since they escaped the tunnel. Pain flickered across his expression like a silent bruise.
“If he is alive, he will find us.”
Lea closed her eyes and nodded. It was the only way she could stop herself from breaking.
George stood and offered his hand. “Come. Stay close and do exactly as I say.”
She took his hand without hesitation.
They left the station quietly, moving through the thinning trees as the sky slowly lightened to a dull silver. Morning was not far. Lea’s legs ached, her throat burned, but she pushed forward because stopping was no longer an option.
After half an hour of walking, the forest broke open to asphalt and rusted road signs. An old truck sat half-hidden behind an overgrown service shed. George checked it, found keys under the mat, and started the engine without a word.
“Did Cassian plant this,” Lea asked.
“Possibly. Or Billy. Either way it works in our favor.”
She got in beside him. The seat smelled of oil and cold metal. The windshield was cracked, but the engine was strong. George drove them to the nearest access road before speaking again.
“You need to know everything before we face him.”
She turned toward him. “Tell me.”
George tightened his hands around the wheel, and his voice came low and steady.
“Corin killed Adrian. Your father. Not because of betrayal, but because Adrian wanted out. He wanted to leave the business, and Corin could not risk losing the heart of his empire. So he staged an accident.”
Lea felt her stomach twist.
“You knew this,” she whispered.
“I found out two years into our marriage,” George said. “Cassian confirmed it. But by then, Corin was already looking for you.”
Lea stared out the window, watching trees blur into gray streaks.
“Why did you not tell me,” she asked.
George’s jaw tightened. “Because loving you was already dangerous. I thought keeping you ignorant would keep you safe.”
She faced him fully.
“Instead it made me a ghost in my own life, hunted without knowing why.”
His knuckles turned white around the steering wheel.
“I know,” he said quietly. “And I will regret that for the rest of my life.”
The honesty in his tone hit her harder than any revelation. She looked away, throat tight, eyes burning.
They drove for another twenty minutes in heavy silence. The sky brightened, streaks of pale gold breaking through the horizon.
George finally spoke. “The dossier is only step one. The person who stole it from your apartment is still out there. And whoever it is, they are one step ahead of Corin, and one step closer to you.”
“Do you think it was someone I know,” she asked.
George did not answer immediately. “It is possible. And more dangerous if true.”
Lea’s chest tightened. The thought that someone who had been close to her, someone she may have trusted, had walked into her apartment and taken something that sealed her fate, made her skin crawl.
She sat up straighter. “Then we find them too.”
George glanced at her, surprised by the steel in her voice.
“You are not the woman who walked away from a marriage anymore,” he said. “You are someone Corin should fear.”
She held his gaze.
“I intend to make him.”
Ahead of them, city lights began to glow through the thinning night. George pressed harder on the accelerator.
“We go to Cassian’s downtown contact first. He can decode the stolen ledger, find where Corin is bleeding money, and where he is hiding the rest. When that falls, Corin falls.”
Lea nodded.
“Tell me what to do.”
George looked at her slowly, like he was seeing her as a new person entirely.
“When the time comes,” he said, voice steady and final, “I need you to be willing to face him. Not as his blood. Not as a victim. But as the one person he never expected to fight back.”
Lea closed her fingers into a fist.
“Billy bought us time with his life. I will not waste it.”
George reached across the seat, just briefly, and touched her hand. It was not romantic. It was not possessive.
It was an oath.
The city grew larger ahead of them. Dawn broke fully, pale light washing the road.
Whatever came next, there was no turning back now.
The war had officially begun.