Chapter 36 Bait in a trap
That night, I lay in the unfamiliar bed in the safe house, staring at the ceiling.
My phone a new one, issued by Cole security with encrypted everything sat on the nightstand. No contacts. No history. No connection to my old life.
Just a blank slate.
Like me.
I thought about Adrian, unconscious in that hospital bed. About the way his hand had tightened around mine, or at least I thought it had.
I thought about Ethan, somewhere out there, probably congratulating himself on a job well done.
And I thought about the baby growing inside me the child who would be born into this mess, this war, this family.
What kind of mother brought a child into a world like this?
But what choice did I have?
My phone buzzed a message from an unknown number.
My heart stopped.
Then I opened it and saw it was from Clara.
Clara: I know you can't tell me where you are, but I need you to know I'm not going anywhere. Whatever the Coles have planned, whatever they're asking you to do, you call me first. You hear me? You're my client, not theirs. Don't forget that.
Tears burned in my eyes.
I typed back:
Me: Thank you. I won't forget.
Clara: Good. Now get some rest. And eat something. Marcus says you're not eating enough.
Despite everything, I smiled.
Me: Marcus needs to mind his own business.
Clara: Marcus is trying to keep you alive. Let him.
I set the phone down and closed my eyes.
Tomorrow, I would have to decide whether to become bait in a trap designed to catch the man I'd once loved.
Tomorrow, I would have to choose between safety and justice, between hiding and fighting.
But tonight, I would rest.
Because Clara was right I needed to stay alive.
For Adrian. For the baby. For myself.
And maybe, just maybe, for the chance to become whoever Lila James was supposed to be.
Even if I had no idea who that was yet.
Adrian's POV - Subconscious
In the darkness where Adrian's consciousness floated, something had changed.
A voice. Her voice.
"I'm here. I'm safe."
The words echoed through the void, a lifeline pulling him toward something he couldn't quite reach.
She was safe. Lila was safe.
His mind grasped for that truth, held it close like a drowning man clutching driftwood.
But there was something else. Something she'd said that his fractured consciousness couldn't quite process.
"The baby's okay too."
Baby.
The word reverberated through his awareness, setting off cascades of neurons trying to fire, connections trying to form.
Baby. Lila. His.
The implications tried to surface, but the sedation pulled him back down, dragging him away from consciousness.
Not yet. He wasn't strong enough yet.
But soon.
Soon he would wake up.
And when he did, there would be hell to pay for everyone who had tried to take her from him.
His subconscious settled on that promise, that purpose.
And deep in the medical facility, Adrian Cole's heart rate steadied, his body choosing for now to heal.
Because he had something to wake up for.
Someone to wake up for.
And nothing not Stirling-Hale, not his injuries, not even death itself eas going to keep him from her.