GUARDED FLAMES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

EVANGELINE

Vasin’s hideout was an old warehouse near the docks. Cold metal. Rusted gates. Smelled like oil and old blood.

We parked two blocks away.

Nikolai checked every weapon twice. I checked my pulse.

Still there.

Still fast.

Still his.

“You don’t have to go in with me,” he said.

“Don’t even try,” I said, loading my gun.

He didn’t smile this time.

He just kissed me.

Rough. Desperate. Like we might die tonight.

-------

NIKOLAI

There were six men at the gate.

Four inside.

I’d seen the blueprints. Knew the exits. Knew how Vasin thought.

But he’d changed something.

There were new cameras. New locks.

He knew we were coming.

“Go through the south side,” I told her in a whisper. “Take the service stairwell. Wait for my signal.”

“I won’t leave you.”

“Didn’t ask you to. Just asked you to follow the plan.”

She hesitated. Then nodded.

I watched her disappear into the shadows like a ghost in combat boots.

------

EVANGELINE

I climbed the stairwell slowly, heart pounding like a drum in a war movie. Every creak of the metal felt like a scream.

Then I heard shouting downstairs.

Gunfire.

His signal.

I moved fast.

Found the room with the servers.

The tapes.

The evidence.

I pulled a flash drive from my pocket. Plugged it in.

The data downloaded slower than sin.

I heard footsteps.

I turned, gun raised—

It wasn’t Vasin.

It was her.

Rosa. My father’s assistant. Always quiet. Always polite.

But now?

She aimed her gun at me like she wanted me dead.

-----

NIKOLAI

Three down.

Two more came at me with batons. Idiots.

One shot in the knee. The other, I let bleed.

I reached the hallway where Vasin’s office was.

Empty.

Too empty.

Then I saw the red light.

A timer.

Bomb.

I ran.

Fast.

“Evie! Abort! Abort—!”

Static.

No answer.

I kicked open the server room door—

And found her holding a gun to Rosa.

“What the hell is this?” I barked.

Rosa laughed.

“She’s got her daddy’s fire,” she said, smiling even with a busted lip.

“We need to go,” I growled. “Now.”

Evie looked at me.

Then back at Rosa.

And fired.

Right into her shoulder.

“I don’t miss twice,” she said coldly

-----,-

OUTSIDE

We ran like hell.

The flash drive clutched in her hand. My arm bleeding.

The warehouse exploded behind us, fire lighting up the bay.

We didn’t stop running.

Didn’t stop breathing.

Didn’t stop burning.

-----

MEANWHILE- ANTONIO MORETTI

He watched the fire on the news, hands clenched.

“Send a car,” he said. “My daughter’s at war.”

His advisor asked, “With who?”

Antonio stared out the window.

“With everyone.”