Chapter 186 ~ What Next?

Chapter 186 ~ What Next?
{Daisy's POV}

I stared at the group in front of me, running my gaze from face to face like repetition might eventually make the lineup make sense.

Archer. Aria. Mabel. Tessa. And Nathan, standing there for reasons I genuinely could not begin to reconstruct.

"Master."

The hoarse-voiced man's voice pulled my attention sideways. I'd learned somewhere in the chaos that his actual name was Torres, though my brain still needed a full second every single time to remember that "master" meant me.

"We got them out," Torres said. "The two girls you mentioned."

"Yes." I nodded, still catching up to my own new vocabulary. "That's them."

Up close, I could see how battered he was too — a gash along his arm still weeping blood he hadn't bothered addressing. He opened his mouth to continue, then stopped as his phone buzzed.

"Excuse me. One of the men from the base."

He stepped away, and the others fanned out around the room's edges, standing like pillars at their posts. DeLuca shifted beside me, angling his body to face the group the same way I was.

That was when I noticed Mabel had abandoned the group entirely, crouched now beside DeLuca instead.

"Oh my goodness, are you okay?" Her voice pitched with genuine worry, hands already reaching for him. "I've been so worried, I couldn't get to you until now—"

DeLuca shook his head. "I'm fine."

He shifted, a clear, unmistakable gesture against her touch, and something tight and annoyed flickered across her face before she settled back, hands in her own lap, not touching him anymore.

"My goodness, Daisy." Tessa's voice, closer now, pulling my attention the other way. "I was so scared. We almost died."

I hadn't even managed a response before another voice cut through everything.

"This is what I've come to deal with."

Nathan's voice, loud, furious, echoing off the bare concrete around us.

"Mabel is mine," he continued. "We're supposed to be together. But she doesn't even see that anymore, because you've brainwashed her." His glare fixed on DeLuca. "And that's why, when I spotted them, I knew I had to follow. I knew they'd lead me straight to you."

He reached behind him and pulled out a baseball bat.

Everyone flinched at once, gasping, stiffening in place, though nobody actually moved to stop him — like we all needed a full extra second just to process that this was somehow also happening tonight.

"Now that I'm here," Nathan said, gripping the bat like it might steady something in him, "I'm going to fix this. End you, once and for all. You've ruined my life enough. You came in, stole my spotlight, stole my popularity, stole my girl—"

"We were not dating," Mabel said flatly.

"You were my girl."

She went quiet at that, jaw tight, and Nathan barreled forward without pausing.

"And you didn't stop there. Stole my spot as team captain. And when I finally thought you'd disappeared for good, you showed up again and blew up the entire championship, driving into the stadium with your little army of lunatics. And now you're here, doing whatever weird shit this is, with all these other freaks." His eyes cut toward me, sharp and accusing. 

“But I don't care anymore. I'm here to end this. Deal with you. And after that—" his gaze landed on me fully now, and I flinched under it "—I'll deal with her too. Since she had a role in this too."

He turned back to DeLuca, bat raised, his whole body coiled toward whatever he intended to do next.

Panic surged up my throat, but then…

"Now isn't the time for this, buddy."

DeLuca's voice, calm, almost bored, cutting through the tension like it weighed nothing at all.

"Read the room," he continued. "You can address whatever petty grievance this is some other time."

Torres reappeared beside me before Nathan could respond.

"Master." His voice stayed low, meant for me. "Our men defeated Nico and his group. But Nico got away. So did the girl. We're actively tracking them. The rest of our people are on their way here now. They are coming for your next instructions."

He said and I stared at him, wide-eyed, before managing a slow nod. He straightened, taking up position beside me like the rest of the men lining the walls.

DeLuca's attention returned to Nathan.

"I'm not in the mood to break anyone's neck tonight," he said, "so I'd cancel whatever plan is currently forming in your head." He gestured toward me without breaking eye contact with Nathan. "And I really wouldn't recommend making a move on her either. Every man in this room reacts to her voice, her body language, all of it. Think very carefully before you decide otherwise."

Nathan's grip on the bat visibly loosened, his whole frame shaking now, eyes darting around the room as the reality of exactly how outnumbered he was finally landed.

A voice tried to speak.

It broke into coughing instead, and I turned to find my mother struggling through it, one hand pressed to her chest.

I dropped to her side instantly, crouching, steadying her until the coughing eased and she could speak again.

"Violence isn't the answer right now, boys." Her voice came out thin but firm. "I don't know the history between you two, and frankly, there's far too much at stake tonight for it to matter. The only question that should matter right now is what we do next."

"Don't lump me in with all of you," Mabel snapped. "I'm not part of this group. I came here for DeLuca, to knock some sense into him, show him exactly what he's missing. I never signed up for whatever insane game this has turned into."

Beside me, Tessa spoke quietly, almost to herself.

"I don't even know why I'm still here anymore. I think it's just; safety, at this point."

Something in her voice cracked slightly around the edges, worn thin by everything tonight had put her through.

"Well," DeLuca said, "Mabel, everyone else, and our newest addition who's made himself known — Tessa's right. None of you should be here. But since you already are, going back to your old lives isn't exactly advisable anymore. For your own safety." A pause. "So, as much as it pains me to admit it, you're all part of this now."

Another beat.

"Liabilities, in plain terms."

I smacked his arm. "DeLuca."

He glanced at me, entirely unbothered, and offered a light shrug.

The room settled into silence after that, everyone quietly absorbing that particular truth in their own way.



"So what are we going to do now?”

“What next?”

Tessa's voice, quiet, breaking the silence, and I felt the question land on me specifically even though she hadn't said my name.

Before I could even begin forming an answer, the sound of engines rolled in from outside, multiplying fast, and every head in the room turned toward the source at once.

Panic flared in me instantly— old, reflexive, the kind that had kept me alive all night — before I remembered Torres's earlier briefing. 

The rest of the men, arriving.

They stepped out of the vehicles in waves, dozens of them, and even from the doorway I could see how rough most of them looked. Torn uniforms, cuts still bleeding, one man favoring a leg that clearly wasn't holding his weight properly. A few needed help walking. Most, though, moved under their own strength, tired but upright, the kind of exhaustion that comes after surviving something rather than losing to it.

They filed into the building one by one.

And one by one, each of them stopped in front of me and bowed.

Not a group gesture. Not something rehearsed or synchronized like the mass kneeling in the field had been. Individual. Deliberate. 

Each man pausing just long enough to lower his head, murmur "Master," and then move to the side to join the others gathering along the walls.

I stood there and watched it happen, over and over, unable to look away, unable to fully process the sheer accumulation of it. By the time the last one finished and stepped back, the room had gone completely, totally silent.

Nobody spoke.

Tessa's question still hung in the air, unanswered, and I could feel every single gaze in that room settling onto me — the arriving men, Aria, Archer, Tessa, Mabel, even Nathan, subdued now in the corner where he'd retreated.

They were waiting. All of them. Because somewhere in the last hour, without ever agreeing to it, I'd become the person they waited on.

I looked at DeLuca.

He wasn't speaking either. He was watching me, steady, and something in his expression told me exactly what he wasn't saying out loud — you can do this. I'm right here. But this one's yours.

He wasn't going to make the decision for me. He never had been, not really, not since the moment he'd first handed me the wheel of everything else tonight had asked of me.

I took a breath.

"Next," I said, "we end this war."

My voice came out steadier than I expected.

"We capture Nico. Lillian. And Mr. DeLuca himself — for the murder of his own wife, and for manipulating his son for years to cover it up."

DeLuca's eyes met mine.

The look that passed between us held longer than it needed to, tense in a way that had nothing to do with fear anymore. Then he nodded, slow, certain, an assurance passed silently between us.

I nodded back.

Understood.