***
The image on the screen didn't move. It didn't need to. The headline alone was enough to send the oxygen in the room vanishing:
BREAKING: SAVANNAH LANGFORD ESCAPES CUSTODY DURING TRANSPORT TO MAXIMUM SECURITY. TWO GUARDS DEAD. VEHICLE TORCHED.
I dropped the remote.
Jace stood still beside me, his hand tightening around the back of the couch. Theo paced behind us, already pulling up secondary surveillance feeds from god-knows-where.
"It can't be her," I whispered. "We saw Roman die. His entire network fell apart. She had no one left."
"That," Theo said without looking up, "is what makes her dangerous now. Savannah was always more venom than fang. Without a leash? She's unpredictable."
Jace leaned forward. "Any chance she had help?"
Theo nodded. "Someone coordinated that breakout. Cops don't just get ambushed like that without inside knowledge."
My stomach sank. "So she's not alone."
Theo turned the screen. "Far from it."
***
Later That Night – Safehouse Loft
Sleep refused to come. I lay on the mattress, sheets twisted around my legs, heart pounding. The ghosts weren't done with me.
Jace came in quietly, hair damp from the shower, a towel slung low on his hips. The moonlight slanted across his chest, highlighting every scar, every line of ink. And even in the darkness, I could see the weight behind his eyes.
He lay beside me, didn't speak.
So I did. "What if she comes for Ivy? Or my mom?"
"Then we stop her. Like we always do."
I turned to him, pressing my forehead to his. "I can't lose anyone else."
"You're not losing me. Not now. Not ever."
His mouth found mine—not soft, not sweet. Desperate. Needed. He rolled me onto my back, his hand sliding up my thigh, his kiss devouring my fear.
"Let me remind you," he murmured against my skin, "that you're not alone in this."
He moved over me like a storm. My hands tangled in his hair, his tongue teased mine into surrender. When he pushed inside me, slow and deep, I gasped—not from pain, not from pleasure, but from the ache of knowing he was the only place I felt whole.
Every thrust was a vow.
Every moan a confession.
And when I came undone beneath him, trembling and breathless, he whispered, "You're my addiction too, Leah."
***
The Next Morning
Theo burst through the door before the coffee even brewed.
"We found her."
I bolted upright, heart skipping. "Where?"
"An abandoned estate upstate. Former Crow safehouse. She's not hiding—she's gathering."
"Gathering what?"
He hesitated. Then dropped a dossier on the table.
New Faces. New Blood.
Photos. Profiles. Names.
Teenagers. All ex-Crow recruits. Some were just kids when the program collapsed. And now?
They were hers.
Jace swore under his breath. "She's rebuilding the Crows."
I flipped the last photo.
My breath stopped.
"No," I whispered. "That can't be right."
The picture showed a girl with dark hair. Familiar eyes. Hollow smile.
"Who is that?" Jace asked.
Theo answered, voice low.
"Her name is Dani Vale. Roman's daughter."
***
Flashback – Years Ago
I remembered her now.
A little girl in pigtails. Always clinging to Roman's leg. A ghost in lace and silence. He never spoke about her. Never acknowledged her as anything but a liability.
She disappeared before the first trial.
Everyone thought she died with her mother.
But she didn't.
She grew up.
And now, she was Savannah's new queen.
***
Nightfall – Preparing for War
"She's trying to finish what Roman started," I said as Jace strapped a weapon to his thigh.
"She doesn't have his money," Theo said.
"No," I replied. "But she has his daughter."
Theo pulled up a video file.
Savannah. Standing in front of a group of teens in combat gear. Her voice amplified.
> "The world took everything from us. But now? We take it back."
She raised a fist. The kids roared.
Jace looked at me. "What do we do?"
I inhaled slowly. "We cut off the crown before it fits."
***
We loaded into a black SUV.
Destination: Hollow Pines.
The estate where Savannah was birthing a new empire.
As the wheels rolled over the cracked highway, I stared out the window.
This wasn't revenge anymore.
This was survival.
And somewhere deep inside me, something else stirred.
Not fear.
Not rage.
Purpose.
Jace took my hand as the trees swallowed the road.
"We finish this," he said.
I nodded, gaze locked on the darkness ahead.
"Let the queen come."