Chapter 80 Chapter Seventy-nine
ARA
The first shot shattered the night. It was not aimed at us, it was aimed at the ground. A warning.
Gravel and ice sprayed into the air as men shouted, boots scrambling against concrete.
“MOVE!” someone yelled.
Thayne reacted instantly.
He spun, dragging me down with him as Munroe and the others surged forward. Thayne’s body was a wall, solid and unyielding, one arm locked around my shoulders, the other reaching behind his back.
Gunfire erupted in sharp, deafening bursts.
I barely registered the sound before we were moving, fast and low, snow biting into my palms as Thayne hauled me toward the jet’s landing gear.
Bullets sparked against metal somewhere above us. I screamed when something whizzed past my ear, but the sound was ripped away by the roar of the helicopter dropping altitude.
“Stay down,” Thayne barked, his voice iron. “Do not move unless I tell you to.”
I nodded frantically, curling into myself as he pressed me flat against the tarmac, his body covering mine completely.
The cold seeped through my clothes, but his heat was everywhere, anchoring and furious. I didn't know if to find the whole thing hot or to feel scared for my life.
The helicopter’s spotlight snapped off and darkness swallowed us.
Then floodlights on the far end of the runway flared to life, different ones. It was brighter, higher…. and seemed to be moving.
Shouts erupted from the men surrounding us.
“What the hell—?”
A second helicopter thundered in low from the east, black against the sky, doors already open.
Ropes dropped in smooth, terrifying precision.
Men fast-roped down like flesh made from shadows.
These weren’t Slade Senior's men. These were Thayne’ men. That meant Thayne had made arrangements just in case his father decided to push too far.
Everything happened at once. Gunfire intensified, sharper now and more controlled. The intruders scattered, their formation breaking as they realized they’d lost the only advantage they had.
One of the SUVs lurched forward, the tires screeching, only to have its windshield spiderweb in a burst of glass.
Someone went down hard, another screamed.
Thayne lifted his head just enough to assess the chaos, his eyes burning with lethal focus.
“Munroe,” he snapped into his comm. “Contain. Do. Not. Let. A. Single. One. Escape.”
He seemed to be communicating with Munroe, and Thayne nodded at whatever Munroe must have said.
Thayne looked down at me then, his expression changing just slightly. The rage was still there, but it folded inward, sharpened into something terrifyingly calm.
“Can you move?” he asked.
“Yes,” I breathed, though my legs were shaking.
“Good.” He caressed my jaw. “On my count, okay? Three—”
An explosion rocked the far end of the tarmac as one of the SUVs detonated, flames licking up into the night. Heat washed over us in a violent wave.
“—now.”
He pulled me up and moved us fast, weaving through shadows, boots crunching over snow and debris. The world felt unreal, like I was watching it through glass. It was too loud, too bright, and too fast.
We reached the hangar wall just as the last of the intruders were disarmed and forced to their knees, their weapons kicked away.
Silence fell in jagged pieces.
The helicopter hovered overhead for another few seconds before banking away, its roar fading into the mountains.
I stood there, my chest heaving, fingers numb, staring at the men on their knees, the men who had come to take me.
To separate me from Thayne. Thayne stepped forward slowly.
The lead man, the one with the bullhorn, looked up, breathing hard. His mask was gone now, revealing a bloodied mouth and a deep set of wide, furious eyes.
“This isn’t over,” he spat. “Your father—”
Thayne stopped in front of him.
“You don’t get to say his name,” Thayne said quietly.
He crouched to the man’s level and spoke in a low voice.
“You tell him this,” Thayne continued. “You tell him he crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed.” His eyes flicked briefly to me, standing behind him. “And the next time he sends someone for what’s mine, I won’t stop at just warnings. I will destroy, I will main, I will kill.” Thayne's voice carried a lethal, dangerous edge that scared even me.
The man swallowed. Thayne stood and turned away, already done with him.
Munroe moved in, issuing clipped orders as the remaining intruders were restrained and loaded into one of their own vehicles.
Only then did Thayne come back to me.
He cupped my face with both hands and kissed me slowly.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice tight now, the control cracking just enough to show the fear beneath.
I shook my head. “No. I… I think I’m okay.”
He closed his eyes briefly, exhaling hard.
Then he pulled me into his chest, holding me with a ferocity that bordered on desperate.
“I told him,” he murmured into my hair. “I told him no one touches you.”
I wrapped my arms around him, my fingers fisting into his coat, the reality finally sinking in.
The rest of the night blurred into motion.
Thayne issued orders in clipped, precise bursts, his voice steady as if chaos hadn’t just torn the runway apart.
Vehicles were repositioned. The remaining helicopters circled once, then flew away. The intruders were driven off under armed escort, disappearing into the dark like a bad dream that refused to feel unreal.
We didn’t linger.
Within minutes, we were airborne again, this time in the waiting helicopter.
Thayne sat beside me, one arm firm around my shoulders, his other hand resting on his knee, fingers tapping once, twice, like he was already several steps ahead of the present.
I leaned into him, exhaustion finally catching up, my body heavy with shock.
The ranch appeared suddenly out of the darkness.
Lights bloomed across the valley below, outlining a massive lodge of stone and timber nestled against the mountains.
It looked ancient and immovable, like it had grown out of the land itself. A fortress disguised as a home. Or was it going to be my new cage?
The helicopter settled onto the private pad with a controlled thud.
As soon as we stepped inside, heat wrapped around me, chasing away the cold. The interior was expansive, vaulted ceilings, wide corridors, the scent of pine and leather, but there was no time to take it in.
Men moved everywhere, radios were murmuring, boots echoing softly against wood and stone.
Thayne guided me a few steps inside, then turned to Munroe.
“Double perimeter,” he said. “No rotations tonight. I want eyes on every approach, every corridor. No one gets near her unless I say so.”
“I got it.”
Thayne hesitated, then looked back at me, his expression softening just a fraction. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded, watching him walk away, authority settling over him like a second skin.
I was standing near the edge of the great hall when it happened.
One of the security men brushed past me, close enough that I flinched. His hand grazed mine, it was too deliberate to be accidental. Something thin and folded was pressed into my half-open palm.
My heart slammed violently against my ribs. For a split second, instinct screamed at me to drop it, to fling it away,.
I curled my fingers instead and forced myself to breathe.
No one reacted or even looked my way. The man didn’t pause or glance back, he disappeared down the corridor like he’d never touched me at all.
I stood there, my pulse roaring in my ears, the folded paper burning against my skin.
Slowly and carefully, I closed my hand around it and slipped it into the pocket of my coat.
I waited until Thayne finished issuing orders, and he was pulled aside by Munroe again. Then I unfolded the paper.
The handwriting was sharp and slanted, unmistakably masculine. The ink even looked fresh.
There were only three words:
The room seemed to tilt. My breath caught painfully in my throat as memories I’d buried clawed their way back to the surface, my mother’s silence, the truth she’d never said out loud, the man who had destroyed her and walked away untouched.
My biological father. A married man with a legitimate daughter, Nadia. The same Nadia who had once tried to trap Thayne with a lie. Another stepsister I never knew I had until that day in the hospital after the incident in the kitchen.
My fingers trembled as I folded the note back up. Why would he send me a note?
Why reach out now, here, of all places?
And how deep had he already embedded himself into Thayne’s world? For him to have used one of Thayne's men to deliver a note…
I looked up instinctively, suddenly certain of one thing.
The war Thayne was fighting wasn’t just about power anymore. It was about blood and something darker than what I'd thought it was.
And I had just been pulled directly into it.