Chapter Four
908 Words
Chapter Four – Shadows in the Smoke
The mansion didn’t sleep that night.
Guards were on high alert, rotating shifts more frequently. Every creak in the wooden floors drew cautious eyes and quickened pulses. Serena stood in her room, arms wrapped around herself, eyes glued to the small security monitor Liam had placed beside her bed. Her heart pulsed a silent rhythm of dread.
At 2:36 a.m., the screen flickered.
“No,” she whispered.
Before she could reach her phone, Liam burst into her room. Gun drawn. Jaw clenched.
“East wing. Two intruders.”
She was already pulling on her boots.
---
This time, he didn’t stop her.
The air reeked of smoke — someone had triggered a fire to create chaos. The emergency sprinklers had engaged, leaving a shimmering sheen on the floors.
They moved like shadows, swift and soundless.
A body lay sprawled in the hallway — one of their guards, unconscious but alive. Serena recognized him: Mendez. Barely out of training.
Liam checked his pulse. “He’ll live.”
Gunshots echoed.
They ran.
When they turned the corner, Serena skidded to a stop.
A blood-red wolf had been spray-painted across the wall.
Beneath it, a chilling message:
WE’RE INSIDE ALREADY.
---
By sunrise, three guards were injured.
And the attackers were gone.
Serena sat on the kitchen floor, drenched and shaking. Blood dotted her sleeve — not hers. Liam paced the marble tiles, his phone glued to his hand, his voice low and urgent.
He’d called everyone — allies, old contacts, even families they hadn't spoken to in years.
But it was clear: someone was playing a long game.
---
“Where is he?” Serena’s voice cracked.
Liam didn’t look up. “Who?”
“My father. You keep saying he’s the reason they’re here. So where is he?”
Silence. Then:
“He left the country three months ago. Private jet. Disconnected all contact.”
Serena felt as if the ground beneath her split in two.
“He what?”
“He left instructions. Said if anything ever happened, I was to protect you at all costs.”
“Protect me? He left me as bait.”
“He believed they wouldn’t come.”
“He was wrong.”
Her fists clenched. “And you let me believe he was still here.”
Liam finally looked at her. His voice was raw. “Because I knew the truth would break you.”
She stepped back like he’d slapped her. “You don’t get to decide what breaks me.”
---
Later that afternoon, a drone dropped a package in the driveway.
Too fast to intercept.
Inside:
– A charred family photo of Serena as a child. – A single bullet. – A USB stick.
The footage played on Liam’s secured laptop.
Her father, tied to a chair, bruised, but alive.
Serena let out a guttural cry.
A distorted voice played:
“Serena Lombardi. Come find us. Alone. Seven days.”
Screen: static.
Liam stood frozen.
“It’s a trap,” he said.
“I don’t care.” Her voice was ice. “He’s still my father.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
---
They argued for hours.
He said she was reckless. She said he was a coward. Plates shattered. Walls cracked.
But underneath all of it… was fear.
---
That night, she found herself in the training room again. Liam was already there, dismantling a rifle.
“I thought we were past the point of secrets,” she said.
He didn’t answer.
“Do you know what it feels like to be abandoned by the only family you have left?”
Still, he said nothing.
Serena approached him, her voice trembling. “I need you to stop protecting me from the truth. I can handle it.”
He finally looked at her.
“I wasn’t protecting you from the truth,” he said. “I was protecting you from the weight of it.”
---
The next morning, a sealed envelope arrived.
No return address.
Inside: a photo of Serena. Taken from inside the estate — her bedroom. The angle was too familiar.
Beneath it, a note:
“We see you.”
Serena stared at it, her stomach churning.
“They’ve been here. In my room.”
Liam’s voice was low. “They’re not just watching. They’re hunting.”
---
Serena spent that night sleepless. Her room felt smaller, tighter. The silence pressed against her chest like a vice.
At 3:00 a.m., she made her way to the kitchen.
Liam was already there, standing by the glass doors, watching the garden. Rain slid down the panes.
She stood beside him.
“You don’t sleep?” she asked.
He didn’t look at her. “Sleep is a privilege I can’t afford.”
She swallowed. “Why do you stay?”
“Because I made a promise.”
“To my father?”
“To myself.”
Silence.
“Who did you lose, Liam?”
He finally met her eyes.
“Someone I couldn’t save.”
Pain flickered behind his expression — deep, buried pain.
She reached for his hand, tentatively.
He let her.
The connection between them sparked like flint to steel. Not romantic. Not yet. But something fierce and undeniable.
Outside, a wolf howled.
Inside, Serena whispered:
“Let them come. We won’t run.”
Liam tightened his grip.
“No. We fight.”
- Writer
