Chapter 3: The Morning Threat
1759 Words
Three days. That’s how long it took for my perfectly ordered life to completely unravel.
Every passing car sounded like a rumbling motorcycle. Every stranger in a suit carried Ronan’s calculating stare. And every time I blinked, I saw Jaxon—the sweat, the blood, that unguarded moment in the alley that haunted me more than the violence.
My father, for his part, had been suspiciously quiet about my gala-night disappearing act. Either my security detail had spun a convincing lie, or the Commissioner was lying in wait, ready to pounce.
“You’re a million miles away,” he remarked over breakfast, not looking up from his financial times.
I jerked, nearly spilling my orange juice. “What?”
“I said, you’re distracted. Everything alright, sweetheart?”
The term of endearment now felt like a label on a cage. This man hunted monsters for a living, but after my taste of the Inferno, I was starting to question who the real monsters were.
“Just didn’t sleep well. That’s all.”
He nodded, but the look in his eyes said he wasn’t buying it. Then, something shifted in his expression—a flicker of genuine concern, which was somehow more alarming than his anger. “Maybe you should stay in today. Lie low.”
“I was actually going to go for a run. Clear my head.”
“Take Thompson with you. The city’s… tense.”
“Dad, I’ll be fine. It’s nine in the morning.”
“Alina.” His tone brooked no argument. “Take. Thompson.”
—
Four blocks from the sterile safety of our penthouse, my phone vibrated.
Unknown: Pretty little princess, out for a morning stroll. All alone.
My blood ran cold. Someone was watching me. Right now.
Another text buzzed in my hand. Unknown: Daddy’s security can’t be everywhere. Shame.
My fingers trembled as I typed. Who is this?
Unknown: Let’s just say we’re fans of your new friends. Keep walking straight. Turn right at the corner.
The Vultures. It had to be.
I glanced behind me for Thompson, but the sidewalk was empty. How had I gotten so far ahead of him?
Unknown: Stop.
I froze at the edge of a secluded grove in Millennium Park, shielded from the main path by a thicket of trees.
“Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.”
Three men materialized from the shadows, clad in leather vests adorned with a familiar, ugly patch. They had the look of men who enjoyed causing pain a little too much.
“Your babysitter is taking an unscheduled nap,” the leader said—a tall, gaunt man with a spiderweb of tattoos crawling up his neck. “Don’t worry. He’ll wake up. Probably.”
“What do you want?”
“We want to send a message. The Iron Serpents need to learn they can’t claim what isn’t theirs. And your daddy needs to understand that his war on clubs like ours has… collateral damage.”
“I’m not theirs. I met them once.”
“No?” One of his lackeys held up a phone, displaying a grainy still from a security camera. It was me, in the alley, standing with Jaxon, Ronan, and Maddox. “Looks pretty friendly to me.”
My cheeks burned. “It was just a conversation—”
“Here’s the plan. We’re going to have some fun with you. Nothing too permanent. Then you’re going to deliver a message to your new boyfriends.”
“What message?”
His smile was a cruel, thin line. “That the Vultures don’t share their toys.”
I ran.
It was stupid, panicked, and utterly hopeless—but I ran. I made it three whole steps before a meaty hand grabbed the back of my jacket, yanking me off my feet and slamming the air from my lungs.
They dragged me deeper into the trees. One of them pulled a knife, the steel winking in the dappled sunlight.
“Let’s talk about respect,” the leader sneered, bringing the blade toward my face.
I screamed.
The sound was cut short by a backhand that sent me stumbling to the ground, the coppery taste of blood filling my mouth. This was really happening.
“Scream all you want. No one’s coming to save a little—”
That’s when the world exploded.
One moment, three men were circling me. The next, it was a blur of flying limbs and the sickening crunch of bone meeting fist.
And in the center of the chaos was him.
Jaxon moved like a force of nature—all controlled fury and brutal efficiency. He seemed to bleed out of the shadows themselves, and the Vultures never stood a chance.
The first man dropped with a gurgle, his jaw hanging at a wrong angle.
The second fumbled for a weapon and found Jaxon’s elbow instead, collapsing like a sack of potatoes.
The leader lasted the longest, maybe ten seconds, before Jaxon had him pinned against an oak tree, one hand clamped around his throat.
“Care to explain why you’re putting your hands on what’s mine?” Jaxon’s voice was deceptively calm.
“She’s… not… yours…” the man choked out.
“No? Then why am I about to rearrange your face for touching her?”
I should have been horrified. But a treacherous, primal part of me was mesmerized. He’d called me his.
“Jax.” Ronan’s voice cut through the morning air, cool and commanding. He stepped into the clearing, looking as immaculate as if he’d just left a business meeting. “We need to go. Now.”
Maddox appeared behind him, wiping blood from his knuckles with a handkerchief. “Found three more scouts about fifty yards back. They’re taking a nap, but it won’t last.”
Three more? How many of them had been hunting me?
Jaxon leaned in, whispering something that made the Vulture leader’s eyes widen in pure terror. When Jaxon released him, the man crumpled to the ground and didn’t move.
“Come on, princess.” Maddox was suddenly at my side, his hands surprisingly gentle as he helped me up. “Field trip time.”
“I can’t. Thompson, my security—”
“Will wake up with a hell of a headache and a story about how you expertly ditched him,” Ronan stated, as if reading from a manual. “Standard procedure for rebellious heiresses. Don’t worry, we’re well-versed.”
—
The black SUV was idling at the curb. Jaxon slid behind the wheel while Ronan took the passenger seat, leaving me in the back with Maddox, who was examining my split lip.
“You okay? Anything broken?”
“I’m fine,” I said, but a tremor ran through my hands as the adrenaline faded.
“You’re not fine,” Jaxon’s voice came from the front, his eyes finding mine in the rearview mirror. “But you will be. No one lays a hand on you again without going through me first.”
Me. Not us. The distinction felt important.
“How did you even find me?”
“We’ve had someone on you since you left the Inferno,” Ronan said, his tone matter-of-fact. “Did you honestly think we’d let the police commissioner’s daughter, who now has a connection to us, just wander around unprotected?”
“So you’ve been stalking me.”
“We prefer the term ‘proactive asset management,’” Maddox corrected with a wink. “The Vultures? They stalk. What you saw back there was their version of a polite invitation.”
“That was them being polite?”
“They didn’t try to kidnap you. They didn’t kill you. By Vulture standards, that’s practically a marriage proposal,” Jaxon said, his bluntness a cold splash of reality.
My stomach churned. “You’re saying it’s going to get worse.”
“Your foray into the underworld has consequences, Miss Hart. They’ll use you to get to us, which means you are now a primary target.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Hide in my penthouse forever?”
“That’s one option,” Ronan said when I suggested it. “Go back to your gilded life. Pretend the last three days were a bad dream. We’ll make the Vultures… disappear.”
The way he said it left no doubt about his definition of ‘disappear.’
“What’s the other option?”
The three of them exchanged a look—a whole silent conversation in the span of a heartbeat.
“You come with us,” Jaxon said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “To the Serpent’s Den. Our compound.”
“You want me to move in with a motorcycle club I just met.”
“Yes,” Ronan stated, his honesty somehow more shocking than a lie.
The sheer insanity of it left me speechless. “That’s… completely insane.”
“So is being a walking target for every two-bit thug in Chicago who wants to make a name for himself,” Maddox pointed out, not unkindly.
The SUV slowed for a red light. This was my chance. I could open the door, run back to my sterile, predictable, suffocatingly safe life.
Instead, I heard myself ask, “What happens at this compound?”
“You’ll be safe,” Maddox said.
“That’s not what I asked.”
His grin was all wicked promise. “No, it’s not. So tell me, beautiful—what do you want to happen?”
What did I want? A week ago, my wants were simple: pass my finals, find a respectable internship, maybe date a nice boy from a good family.
Now, the only thing I knew for certain was…
“I want to understand. Why you saved me. Why they came after me. And why I feel safer in this car with the three of you than I did with my own security detail.”
Jaxon’s eyes met mine in the mirror, and for a fleeting second, the hardness in them softened. “That’s going to take more than one conversation, princess.”
“Then I guess you’d better start talking.”
The light turned green. As we pulled away, driving deeper into the heart of a city I suddenly realized I never really knew, I understood one thing clearly.
I had just made my choice. And I was going to find out exactly what happens when a good girl decides to fall.
- Writer
