Chapter 216 WHAT'S NEXT.
Chapter 216 WHAT'S NEXT.
AVERY’S POV:
I missed Sea more than I wanted to admit. Her tiny feet, the way her eyes lit up when she saw me—even her tantrums. My arms ached for her, my chest hollow with the kind of longing that felt dangerous. I’d already made up my mind—I was going to see her the moment this shipment was wrapped.
Eyes fixed on the security monitors, I stayed in constant communication with Baron. Everything was running smooth. The jet had landed in Italy without a hitch, and the cargo was already offloaded. They were now driving to the drop point before rerouting to Mexico.
Baron had insisted on overseeing the entire operation himself. Said it was too important—our first shipment of this scale. He wanted to make sure every second was tight. No hiccups.
“I’ll call when we’re heading out of Italy,” he’d said earlier. “I want you to be the first to know we made it.”
I smiled to myself, heart light with the sense of control I’d worked so damn hard to claim.
Just as I ended the call with Baron, my phone buzzed again. Logan.
I answered. “Logan.”
“Got your informant,” he said. His tone was clipped, serious.
“Talk to me.”
“It was Esmeraya,” he said without flinching. “She fed Harrington a string of false allegations. Enough to trigger that raid. I also sent you some files. You’re gonna want to see them. They’re about her whereabouts the last few weeks. Something’s not adding up.”
I blinked, startled. “Esmeraya?” I asked, feeling the first flicker of fury burn beneath my skin. “Why the hell would she—”
But just then, another call came in. Baron.
I held the phone away, heart suddenly leaping with excitement. “Hold on, Logan. I’ll check the files later. I have to take this.”
“Mrs—” he started to say, but I had already switched calls.
“Baron,” I said brightly, “that was fast. I thought you’d call when—”
“Avery—!” his voice was wild, frantic, broken.
Everything inside me froze. “Baron?”
“We’re under attack!” he yelled, his voice shattered with urgency. “It’s a trap! We were ambushed—fuck—they knew our route. We’re completely outnumbered, they’ve got heavier artillery than us. We didn’t see it coming!”
The air thinned around me. “What? What do you mean ambushed? Where the hell are you right now?!”
He was breathing hard, like he was running. “We just passed the last checkpoint. They blocked the back road and blew out the tires. Avery, they knew— they fucking knew! They’re trying to surround us. I’ve already lost three men. I—I’m trying to move the rest—”
I turned immediately to Serena, barking, “We’ve lost visual. All our cams just went dark. Hack into external feeds now—traffic cams, drone signals—anything.”
“I’m trying,” she said, fingers flying across her keyboard. “Give me a second—just one second—”
But I couldn’t wait. “Baron! Hold your position—help is coming, just stay alive, you hear me?!”
“I’ll do what I can,” he grunted. “But they came hard. Like they knew everything. We’re getting pinned from every—”
Static.
“Baron? Baron!”
Nothing.
We tried every signal, every line. Serena’s face was pale, tense, her hands moving fast but her voice tightening.
“They cut everything. I can’t even ping their location.”
“Fuck!”
There was only one thing left to do. I grabbed my phone and opened our secured line to the Italians. The buyers.
“We’ve been compromised,” I said, voice flat and ice-cold. “Someone hit our team. I need eyes on them now.”
The response came quick, almost too quick.
“That is… unfortunate. But we will get to the bottom of it. Whoever did this—we will find them. They will be delivered to you personally. Dead or breathing, your call.”
“I want reinforcements. I need someone to find my team. Bring anyone alive back to me. Especially Baron.”
“Consider it done.”
“As compensation, I’m adding two hundred thousand dollars' worth of product to the next shipment. That should cover the trouble.”
"Fair enough.”
The moment I ended that call, I dialed Thaddeus. “Get your team ready. Send backup to Baron’s location.”
He didn’t even blink before responding. “It’s a bad idea.”
My jaw clenched. “Excuse me?”
“You send more men out there and you’ll leave us exposed,” he said. “Baron had a full squad. If they were outnumbered, then so will we. We protect the base. Let the Italians handle it."
Logic. Brutal, heartless logic. And the worst part was—he was right.
I nodded slowly, even as my fists curled into themselves. “Fine. But you better pray they bring him back.”
Then came the waiting.
Six long, excruciating hours.
I didn’t sit. I couldn’t. I paced the floor in my heels, mind fractured, gut twisted. No one dared speak to me. No one even looked in my direction. They knew better. Serena kept glancing at her screen, muttering code like a prayer, but still—nothing.
I was going mad.
It wasn’t until I dropped onto my desk, breathing heavy and wired with adrenaline, that I remembered Logan’s files. I opened them, expecting little.
And then the world began to split open.
Encrypted. Layered in security. But the moment I cracked it, my jaw dropped.
Esmeraya. She was the informant. That I already knew.
What's next?
Damn!
She’d been secretly funding Lyra. New apartment, designer clothes—all flowing under fake names, ghost accounts, buried under layers of manipulation.
I stared at the screen, mouth parted in disbelief, shaking my head.
“What the hell…?”
Before I could even process it fully, another file blinked open—video footage. I almost skipped it. Almost.
But something made me pause. A still frame.
Three people exiting a private penthouse. One of them unmistakably Ryan.
The other two?
Esmeraya.
And Akira?
I froze.
"What the fuck?" I breathed, zooming in.
No matter how she tried to hide herself—hair different, makeup heavier—I knew her. I knew every line of her face. Every movement.
Before I could even reach for Serena, my phone dinged again. A new encrypted message.
“No survivors found.”
The bowl in my chest shattered.
Four days. Four agonizing, soul-splitting days.
No call. No report. No body.
Baron had simply... vanished.
We kept waiting for an update that never came, each minute bleeding into the next. I needed to leave for Orion to go after Akira once Baron was found.
Also, the whole operation had to be put on hold. He was the spine of it—the one who kept everything tight and seamless. Without him, everything was unstable.
The men waited for orders. Thaddeus kept things from falling apart. And me? I plastered on smiles and handled damage control like a pro.
Today was a company promotional interview—media awareness, outreach, controlled narratives, all the crap I hated. I smiled where I needed to, shook hands, answered questions about community outreach programs, and flashed the occasional laugh that made investors feel like their queen had everything under control.
It was a lie.
The moment the interview wrapped, I left the cameras behind and returned to my office, finally exhaling. “Ten-minute break,” I murmured to Ashley before slipping in.
But the second I walked through the door, my body froze.
A large box sat on my desk, dressed in black paper and a red ribbon. No label. No card.
“Ashley!” I called, more harshly than I meant to.
She appeared fast. “Yes, Mrs. Blackwood?”
“What is that doing in my office?”
“A package,” she said, too calmly. “It arrived an hour ago. They said it was for you.”
“From who?”
She frowned, glancing at her tablet. “It was dropped off anonymously. No name.”
Of course it was.
I glared at my assistant, incredulous at her lapse in judgment. "And you let it make its way to my office?" I demanded, my voice low and even, but laced with a hint of menace. "What if it's a bomb or something dangerous?" I raged, my eyes flashing with anger.
As a high-profile businesswoman with many rivals and enemies, I couldn't afford to take any risks. The thought of an anonymous package being delivered to my office, unchecked and unscreened, sent a chill down my spine.
My assistant, usually so competent and efficient, looked taken aback by my outburst. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Blackwood," she stammered. "I wasn't thinking thoroughly. I could have it taken out and scrutinized."
I raised an eyebrow, my expression unyielding. "No need," I said coolly. "It's already made it here. Now, let's open it."