The Price Of Seeing Too Much
1985 Words
Roman moved before Elena could scream.
One second, she stood beside him in total darkness.
The next, his arm locked around her waist and dragged her behind the nearest concrete pillar. Her back hit his chest as he forced both of them down.
“Stay still,” he ordered against her ear.
A sharp crack split the garage.
Elena flinched.
Another crack followed, louder this time, and something shattered across the room.
Gunfire.
The realization turned her blood cold.
Roman pressed her lower, shielding her with his body while men shouted through the darkness.
“East entrance!” Knox yelled.
“Seal it!”
“Someone cut the cameras!”
Boots pounded across concrete. Motorcycle engines roared to life, their headlights slicing through the garage in erratic white beams.
Elena’s breaths came too quickly.
Roman’s hand closed around the back of her neck.
“Look at me.”
She turned her face toward him, though she could barely make out his features.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
His thumb moved along her jaw, checking for blood.
The gesture was quick and practical, yet it steadied something inside her.
Another shot rang out.
Roman’s body tightened around hers.
Then emergency lights flickered on, bathing the garage in dim red.
The scene looked worse beneath the crimson glow.
Several bikers had taken cover behind vehicles and pillars. Two men guarded the steel door Roman had exited moments earlier. The bruised stranger remained on his knees, laughing softly while the men holding him searched the shadows.
Roman rose and pulled Elena up with him.
“Stay behind me.”
She wanted to tell him she had no intention of doing anything else.
He drew a gun from beneath his jacket.
Elena stared at it.
She had known, logically, that men like those surrounding her carried weapons. Seeing one in Roman’s hand was different.
The polished billionaire who signed acquisition deals and lectured executives about punctuality held the weapon with effortless familiarity.
He was not pretending to belong here.
This was his world.
A motorcycle headlight swept across the far wall.
A figure ran between two parked vehicles.
Roman fired.
The sound exploded beside Elena’s head.
The runner stumbled but disappeared behind a black van.
Roman shoved Elena toward Knox as the scarred biker approached.
“Take her into the vault.”
Knox reached for her.
Elena recoiled. “The what?”
“Now,” Roman snapped.
She stared at him. “You’re not coming?”
His expression turned lethal.
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
“It usually isn’t with you.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw.
Even in the middle of gunfire, she had managed to irritate him.
Somehow, that made the situation feel slightly less impossible.
Knox placed a hand near her elbow. “We need to move.”
Roman caught Elena’s chin before she could turn away.
His grip was firm, forcing her to meet his eyes.
“You stay with Knox. You do exactly what he tells you. You do not leave that room until I come for you.”
The intensity in his voice robbed her of a sarcastic response.
“What are you going to do?”
“Handle it.”
Another engine revved from the opposite side of the garage.
Roman released her and turned away.
Elena caught his sleeve.
He looked back.
For the first time, she saw the patch covering the back of his leather jacket.
A crowned skull. Dark wings. Kings of Ruin.
The word President arched beneath it.
“Roman.”
He glanced down at her hand gripping him.
She did not know what she intended to say. Be careful sounded ridiculous. She barely knew the man standing in front of her.
At least, she had believed she knew him until tonight.
His eyes lifted to hers.
Something unspoken passed between them.
Then his expression closed.
“Go.”
Knox pulled Elena toward the steel door.
She looked back once.
Roman had already disappeared into the red-lit garage, moving toward the gunfire instead of away from it.
Knox pressed his hand to a scanner beside the door. The lock disengaged with a heavy click.
He guided her through a concrete corridor and into a room reinforced with steel walls.
The vault was not filled with money.
It was filled with guns.
Elena stopped in the doorway.
Rifles lined one wall. Locked cabinets stood against another. A long table held ammunition, radios, maps, and several stacks of files.
“This is your safe room?” she asked.
“One of them.”
“One of them?”
Knox shoved the door closed. Multiple locks engaged automatically.
Elena backed away from the weapons.
“Who is attacking the building?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“The man Roman had on his knees seemed to know.”
Knox’s scar pulled as his mouth tightened.
“Darius Cole.”
“Who is he?”
“Someone who made a bad decision.”
“That explains absolutely nothing.”
“It explains enough.”
Elena folded her arms, partly from frustration and partly because her hands would not stop shaking.
Knox noticed.
His voice softened slightly. “You’re safe in here.”
“People are shooting at us.”
“They can’t reach this room.”
“That is not the same thing as being safe.”
“No,” he admitted. “It isn’t.”
The answer unsettled her more than false reassurance would have.
Knox moved to the surveillance monitors. Most displayed static, but two cameras remained active—one showing the lobby and another overlooking the garage’s west ramp.
Elena joined him.
Three black SUVs blocked the ramp. One had crashed through the security gate.
Men in dark clothing fired from behind the open doors.
The Kings of Ruin returned fire.
Elena searched the screens for Roman.
She found him near the center of the garage, crouched behind a concrete barrier with two other men.
“He could be killed.”
Knox glanced at her. “Reaper is difficult to kill.”
“His name is Roman.”
“In that building upstairs, maybe.”
Elena looked at Knox.
“And down here?”
“Down here, he’s Reaper.”
The name should have sounded theatrical.
It did not.
Not after seeing the transformation in Roman’s eyes.
A burst of static came through the radio on the table.
“Knox,” a voice said. “We found the breach.”
Knox grabbed the radio. “Where?”
“Service tunnel under the eastern garage. They had Vale security credentials.”
Knox’s gaze sharpened.
Elena understood the implication before he said anything.
Someone from Roman’s corporate world had helped the attackers enter his other one.
“Lock the tunnel,” Knox ordered.
“Can’t. Controls are dead.”
“Then collapse it.”
Elena stared at him.
Knox did not hesitate.
“Do it.”
The transmission ended.
A dull explosion shook the walls moments later.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Elena gripped the edge of the table.
“How deep does this go?”
Knox looked at her.
“What?”
“Roman’s involvement with the club. How deep does it go?”
Knox leaned back against the console.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
“What should I be asking?”
“How deep does the club’s involvement with Roman Vale go?”
Elena frowned.
Knox nodded toward the monitors.
“The club existed before Vale Dominion became the company it is now. Before the penthouses, private jets, and financial magazines.”
She looked at Roman’s blurred image on the screen.
“Roman built both?”
“Roman saved both.”
The vault door beeped.
Elena jumped.
Knox drew his gun.
A code entered from the other side. The locks released one by one.
The door opened.
Roman stepped inside.
Blood streaked one side of his face.
Elena’s heart stopped.
He closed the door behind him.
“Are you hurt?” she asked.
“It isn’t mine.”
He crossed the room and looked over her with the same ruthless focus he had used before.
His hand brushed her shoulder, her arm, her waist.
Elena caught his wrist.
“I told you I’m not hurt.”
“I decide when I’ve confirmed that.”
His tone was rougher than usual.
Knox watched them silently.
Roman seemed to remember they were not alone. He stepped back and looked at the monitors.
“Status?”
“East tunnel is gone. Two attackers are dead. One escaped through the west ramp.”
“Cole?”
“Still secured.”
Roman’s expression darkened.
“Someone used Vale credentials to open the service access,” Knox added.
Roman turned his gaze to Elena.
She saw the calculation enter his eyes.
The walls between billionaire CEO and motorcycle club president had vanished completely.
“Who knew you were working late tonight?” he asked.
Elena blinked. “What?”
“Who knew you were still in the building?”
“My sister. Possibly two people from accounting. Why?”
“Did anyone contact you after ten?”
She reached for her phone.
Roman took it from her first.
He scrolled through the messages.
“This is private.”
“Not anymore.”
Elena stepped closer. “You do not get to invade my entire life because I accidentally discovered yours.”
His gaze snapped to hers.
“You didn’t accidentally discover anything. You ignored a direct order, followed me into a restricted area, and walked into the middle of an attack.”
“You were acting suspiciously.”
“I am your employer. I don’t owe you an explanation every time I leave my own office.”
“You apparently owe me several explanations.”
Roman’s eyes lowered to her mouth before returning to her face.
The movement was so brief she almost missed it.
“You still think this is about satisfying your curiosity.”
“What is it about?”
“Keeping you alive.”
Elena’s anger faltered.
Roman turned her phone around.
A message filled the screen.
It had arrived three minutes earlier from an unknown number.
You should have gone home when he told you to.
Elena stared at the words.
A second message appeared beneath it.
Now we know who Reaper protects.
Roman’s face became terrifyingly still.
Knox swore under his breath.
Elena looked toward the sealed vault door.
“They know who I am.”
“Yes,” Roman said.
“What happens now?”
He slipped her phone into his jacket.
“You’re coming with me.”
“To where?”
“My penthouse.”
Elena shook her head. “No.”
Roman stepped closer until the table pressed against the backs of her thighs.
“You no longer have the luxury of refusing.”
“You cannot lock me inside your home.”
“I can keep you alive inside it.”
“And what happens when I want to leave?”
His hand settled beside hers on the table, caging her without touching her.
His voice dropped.
“Then you’ll discover exactly how far I’m willing to go to stop you.”
A sudden pounding struck the other side of the vault door.
Knox raised his weapon.
Roman moved in front of Elena.
“President,” a man shouted from the corridor. “Cole is gone.”
Silence filled the room.
Roman’s head turned slowly toward Knox.
“How?”
“He was secured.”
“He isn’t now.”
Another voice called through the door.
“And he left something behind.”
Roman entered the release code but kept Elena behind him as the door opened.
A biker stood in the corridor holding a folded piece of paper.
Roman took it.
His expression did not change as he read.
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