Chapter 171 TIME BOMB
Chapter 171 TIME BOMB
The laughter came up from the basement like smoke, low and dry and amused, and it filled the spaces between the sunlight in a way that made the whole house feel dirty.
Alex didn’t look at anyone else. He turned and walked toward the basement door, and Kane moved with him, two steps behind, because that was what they did. That was what they’d always done. The floorboards creaked under their weight and the sound was too loud.
The stairs down were concrete and cold and the air got heavier with every step. At the bottom, under a single bare bulb, Ivan sat on the floor with his back against the wall and his wrists cuffed to a pipe. Blood was drying at his temple and his lip was split and his clothes were ruined, but he was smiling. Not the careful smile he used in meetings. The real one. The one that meant he’d already won something.
“Look at you,” Ivan said when Alex appeared in the doorway. “Alpha. Avenger. Family man. You clean up nice for someone who was supposed to be dead.”
Alex stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He didn’t come any closer. “Why are you laughing.”
It wasn’t a question.
Ivan tilted his head, like he was considering it. “Because it’s funny. Because you walked right into it. Because Alessia and that bitch Seraphina finally did what I knew they would do.”
Kane’s hands curled into fists at his sides.
Alex didn’t move. “What did you do.”
“I planted a time bomb in your packhouse,” Ivan said, easy, like he was talking about the weather. “Little thing. Cute thing. Tucked it in the walls about three days ago when your security was busy looking for me in the east wing. You know how it is. Men get distracted.”
The words landed and for a second nothing happened. The bulb hummed. Water dripped somewhere in the dark.
“You’re lying,” Alex said. His voice was flat.
“Am I?” Ivan laughed again. “You think I didn’t know they’d betray me? I raised them, Alex. Fed them. Told them stories about what was theirs. Alessia with her little dreams of being a Black Fang princess, and Seraphina with her bitterness and her need to be wanted. I knew the moment you looked at them that they’d choose you. People always do. And people always break my toys when they’re done.”
Alex stepped forward then, and the movement was slow but it made Ivan flinch. “You think making Alessia believe she had something entitled to her in this house was helping her? You think that’s kindness? You used her. You used both of them. And now you’re sitting here like you’re proud of it.”
Ivan’s smile didn’t falter. “I’m proud I kept them alive. You wouldn’t have. Your father wouldn’t have. I did what needed to be done.”
“I don’t believe your cheap tricks,” Alex said. “You don’t have a bomb. You’re a dying man cuffed to a pipe and you want me to panic so you can feel important for five more minutes.”
“I like that you don’t believe me,” Ivan said, and his eyes were bright. “Really. It makes this better. Because dying men have nothing to lose, nephew. And I’ve got a lot to say before I go.”
Alex turned. He was done. He’d heard enough of Ivan’s voice for one lifetime. Kane was already on the stairs, and Alex took the first step up, because there was nothing left down here but a man who wanted attention.
“I needed to tell you something,” Ivan called after him. “Something you don’t want to hear.”
Alex didn’t stop.
“About your father,” Ivan said. “About what he signed. About why he really let me take the girls.”
Alex kept walking.
And then he heard it.
A sound. Faint at first, buried under the hum of the bulb and the drip of water. A ticking. Small, mechanical, steady. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just there. Counting.
Alex stopped mid-step.
Kane stopped too.
For half a second neither of them moved, because if it wasn’t real then moving was what Ivan wanted, and if it was real then moving was the only thing that mattered.
The ticking kept going.
Alex’s eyes went black.
“Go,” he said to Kane, voice low. “Check the walls. North wing. Now.”
Kane was already running.
Alex took the stairs three at a time and burst into the living room where the sunlight was still pouring in and Mia was still rubbing Alessia’s back and Seraphina was still on her knees on the floor and Sara was still asleep.
Everyone looked up when he came in.
“Leave,” Alex said. No preamble. No explanation. “Right now. Out the front door. To the cars. Don’t run. Walk. But go now.”
Mia didn’t ask questions. She stood, shifting Sara in her arms, and her eyes went to Alex’s face and she saw what was there. “Alessia,” she said, and pulled her up.
Alessia didn’t argue. She was pale and her hands were shaking but she moved.
Seraphina got to her feet too fast and stumbled. Alex caught her arm without thinking and pulled her upright. “Outside,” he said to her, and his grip was tight. “Now.”
“What is it?” Seraphina asked, but her voice was barely a whisper.
“Bomb,” Alex said, and the word felt wrong in his mouth. “We have to go.”
Kane came back through the hall, fast. “North wing, second floor. Behind the paneling in the old nursery. I can see the timer. It’s small. It’s real. It’s set for—” He checked his phone. “Eight minutes.”
Eight minutes.
The house was big. The driveway was long. Sara was asleep and Alessia could barely walk straight and Ivan was still laughing downstairs.
“Cars,” Alex said again, and this time it was an order. “Everyone to the cars. Kane, you drive the first one. Mia, second. I’m going to—”
“You’re not going back down there,” Mia said, and her voice was sharp.
Alex looked at her. “I have to make sure he doesn’t—”
“You have to make sure WE get out,” Mia cut him off. “That’s what matters.”
Alessia was crying again, silently, tears running down her face. Seraphina was staring at the basement door like she could see through it.
“Move,” Alex said, and this time nobody argued.
They went. Fast but not panicked. Out the front door into the harsh sunlight that now felt like an exposure instead of warmth. The heat hit them again and the air smelled like dust and cut grass and something else, something metallic that Alex couldn’t place.
Kane had the keys out and was already unlocking the first SUV. Mia had Sara strapped into the backseat of the second. Alessia sat in the passenger seat and stared straight ahead. Seraphina stood by the driver’s side door and didn’t get in.
Alex was the last one out. He paused on the top step and looked back at the house. Big. Full of memories.
From inside, muffled by the walls, Ivan’s laughter came again.