Reverence In Ruin

Chapter Ten

The door exploded with a thunderous earsplitting bang.

Rino searched the drawers first with flashlight slicing across the empty apartment. Drawers hung open. A single box lay tipped over on the floor. Rain poured in through the wide open back window.

“They’re gone,” he said into his coming, his voice low and clipped.

Up in the tower, Voss’s phone rang. He answered it without greeting, eyes fixed on the storm outside.

“She is not here,” Rino told him. “And the kid too.”

Voss’s grip tightened until the phone case groaned. A cold, ugly laugh scraped out of him. She thought she could just vanish? After everything he’d built? For a split second the old Adrian stirred,but Voss buried it fast. That man was dead. Only the V Lord remained, and he didn’t lose what was his.

“Seal every exit out of the district,” Voss said, voice smooth but laced with venom. “Smoke them out if you have to. Bring them both to me alive. If she fights… make her feel it. The kid stays untouched for now. She’s the only leverage we need.”

Rino hesitated on the line. “Adrian… she’s just a little girl.”

“She’s bait,” Voss snapped, thumb brushing the heavy gold ring like a curse. “Use her if you have to.”

He ended the call and stood there in the dark, his jaw locked, letting the rage burn hotter. Amelia ran because she was scared. Good. Fear would bring her back where she belonged and that is right under his control.

Down in the Southern District, rain pounded the streets . Amelia walked fast, she held Lila tight against her chest, the little girl’s arms wrapped around her neck. Her shoes slid on the greasy cobblestones, lungs burning, but she didn’t slow. The wooden boat in Lila’s hand kept bumping against her ribs with every step.

“Mama, where are we going?” Lila asked, like a whisper and she was so tense.

Amelia’s throat tightened painfully. She ducked into a narrow gap between two buildings, pressing her daughter against the wet brick wall and shielding her with her own body.

“Because it’s not safe anymore, baby,” she whispered, voice cracking.

Lila’s dark eyes, the same wild, beautiful eyes she had inherited, looked up at her mother, confused.

Footsteps got closer through the rain. The rain was sharp against the beams of light.

“Spread out! They’re close!”

Amelia pushed away from the wall and ran again, turning corner after desperate corner until the alley slammed into a dead end at a tall, soot-stained wall blocking any escape.

She turned around, hitting the bricks hard with her back and pulling Lila all the way behind her.

Five men walked into the alley, their heavy coats soaked with rain. They held their guns low but ready.

"End of the road," the leader said in a flat voice. "Voss wants you back, alive. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be."

Amelia's heart pounded against her ribs. She kept her voice steady for her daughter.

“Stay behind me, Lila. Close your eyes.”

Then a sixth person came out of the storm. tall, with a coat collar turned up to keep the rain off and a black fedora that was dripping water.

Voss.

He walked slowly and on purpose, his eyes locked on Amelia with a raw, possessive hunger. Up close, all the softness she used to see in him was gone. The monster was the only one who looked back.

"Amelia," he said in a low, rough voice that could be heard over the rain. It still made her shiver, though. "You really thought you could get away from me?"

He reached out and grabbed her wrist with a strong grip.

Lila peeked out from behind her mother and saw him for the first time with her big, dark eyes.

Voss stopped moving. His face recognition mixed with rage showed something raw and dangerous.

Before he could say anything more, his phone vibrated loudly in his pocket.

He looked down. Number not known. A video stream started.

A man’s face appeared on the screen cold, calculated, smiling like he had already won. “Tick tock, Adrian. The trap closes the moment you destroy what you love most.”

The screen split. Tower security systems flashed red as every exit locked down. Then back to the man’s smirk.

“Watch the prey pull the trigger on himself.”

Sharp electronic beeps suddenly echoed off the alley walls. Once. Twice. Faster and faster.

Explosives.

Voss’s eyes widened as the realization slammed into him. The entire alley had been wired. Someone had played him perfectly.

The beeps merged into one long, screaming tone.

Amelia held Lila tighter and stared at the man who still had Adrian's face, which was now pale with shock as fire prepared to rain down.

The last sound before the explosion shook the night was the stranger's soft, happy laugh cutting through the rain.

“Burn it all.