Bound By Fate

EPISODE 005

Every decision I had made up to this point was a gamble, but this one was like playing cards in the dark, blindfolded, and with a knife to your throat. On the worn leather couch in my office, Alyssa was asleep—or at least pretending to be—her arm curled protectively around her side. In faint light, she seemed so small—a ghost caught in the half light between two worlds. Turning back to the map laid out on my desk, its faded lines and mysterious symbols poised and spoke.

The Veronas weren’t just hunting her anymore. They were hunting me. A message had come in earlier, delivered the way only the Veronas knew how: she’d picked up a severed hand wrapped in bloodstained cloth, with a note scrawled in Dominic Verona’s jagged scrawl. Crowe, you’re on dangerous ground. Walk away, or be buried.

I’d seen threats like this before. Hell, I’d sent a few myself. But this felt different. The Veronas weren’t just warning; they were tightening the nose. And Alyssa was the rope.

Her breathing was uneven; she stirred on the couch. Perhaps it was the nightmares once more. A few nights ago I’d caught her muttering in her sleep, words that didn’t make sense but that carried the weight of something unspeakable. The next morning I didn’t ask her about it. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, and it wasn’t my place.

Gareth stepped in, and the door creaked open, his expression just as grim as he usually was when bringing news.

He said without preamble, 'They've moved.' Three vehicles were spotted heading toward the east side in a convoy.” They’re checking every safehouse, every contact. “They’ll close in soon enough.”

I rubbed my temples, trying to push back the headache that had been building for days. “And Victor?”

Gareth sneered, “Leading the charge.” They say he’s not sleeping, not eating.” Rabid dog, just tearing through the city. He wants her back.”

My eyes flicked to Alyssa. Her dark hair was tangled against the couch cushions, her face pale. The woman Victor was probably describing to his men looked nothing like her. It was just a version of her that he wanted to reclaim. Control, obedience, silence. He couldn’t own the real Alyssa, and I think that pissed him off more than anything.

I stretched the stiffness from my shoulders and stood. “Put two guards in all warehouses.” I want scouts watching the Verona estate. I want to know if they so much as breathe in our direction.”

Gareth nodded but didn’t leave. He wasn’t saying something else.

“What?” I asked.

He looked at Alyssa, then lowered his voice. “The men are uneasy, Elias. They don’t know why she’s here, why we’re risking so much for... her.”

I clenched my jaw. They don’t need to understand the men. “They just need to follow orders.”

Gareth nodded again, but his face remained the same. Loyal, but loyalty didn’t mean blind faith.

I sat back down and stared at the map, not really seeing it, when he left. The symbols merged into meaningless shapes on a page. I could feel myself wanting to throw it against the wall, tear it apart, and scream at the near pointlessness. But I didn’t. I couldn’t afford to lose control.

Silence was broken by a soft voice. “He’s right, you know.”

I looked over to see Alyssa sitting up, her knees to her chest. Her eyes were steady, piercing, but she looked fragile.

“Right about what?” I asked.

‘That your men don’t trust me.’ And they shouldn’t.”

Her voice was not self-pitying but rather a resigned honesty that I wasn’t expecting.

I said, “They’re not paid to trust you.” “They get paid to do their job.”

Her smile was faint, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “And what about you, Elias? Do you trust me?”

The question remained, but felt so heavy, so blank, so uncomfortable. I could have lied, I could have deflected, but there was something about the way she was looking at me that wouldn't let me.

“No,” I said finally.

She didn’t look surprised, but her smile disappeared. “Good. “If you did, you’d be an idiot.”

I put my elbows on the desk and leaned forward. “Hiding?” Alyssa said as she turned her head back to his.

Her gaze flicked to the window where the city lights blinked faintly in the distance, and she looked away. I thought she wasn’t going to answer for a long moment. I had to listen hard because then she spoke.

She stopped, then, her fists curling: ‘My father...' “He wasn’t always like this. He used to take me to the park every Sunday when I was little. We’d play hide and seek and feed the ducks. He’d push me on the swings until I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.”

She broke then, her voice, and she paused to take a shaky breath. “But then the business grew. He got... harder. Colder. When my mother died, it was as if something inside him broke. He was no longer my father; he was... Dominic Verona.”

I didn’t interrupt. This wasn’t something she shared often, if ever, I could tell.

“And Victor?” I asked.

Her body grew tense, and her eyes darkened. “Victor was his solution. A way to keep me ‘safe.’ Or maybe it was just a way to control me. At first, you know, he was charming. It didn’t take long to see what he really was.”

She brushed her hand against her side, where the bruises were still fading.

“Why didn’t you leave earlier?” I already knew the answer, but I asked anyway.

Her eyes were defiant and in pain as she looked at me. “It’s not that simple,” he said. You don’t just walk away from the Veronas. ‘Not without a death sentence.’”

Her words weighed over me like a weight. The Veronas had always been an enemy, a rival to be destroyed. I’d never thought about what it was like to be stuck in their world, to have no other option but to follow their rules.

All of a sudden she said, ‘We’re not so different, you and I.’

I raised an eyebrow. “How do you figure that?”

She looked at me, her eyes never leaving mine. “You’ve built walls around yourself.” You think that keeping everyone at arm’s length makes you stronger. But I see it. The cracks. Always watching, always calculating, like if you were ever, even for a split second, to let your guard down, then you’re dead.”

She fished for the words she wanted to use, and they hit closer to home than I wanted to admit.

“And you?” I asked. “What’s your excuse?”

A sad, bitter thing, she smiled faintly. “I don’t have one. I’ve lived my whole life surviving other people’s decisions. Perhaps that’s why I’m still here, because for the first time, I’m making my own.”

The moment was broken by the sound of my phone vibrating. I looked at the screen, and my stomach dropped.

I answered the call, “It’s Gareth.” “What is it?”

His voice was grim; they've found us, he said. "The Victor’s men are closing in."

I hung up, my mind racing. We were running out of time, and the web was tightening.

With a pale, determined face, Alyssa stood. “What do we do?”

I slid my gun into its holster and grabbed it. “We fight. And we finish this.”

I saw a flicker of hope in her eyes for the first time, and something else. Resolve.

She wasn’t running anymore; she was sprinting. Neither was I.