MY HEART ROB.

THE ESCAPE

CHAPTER SIX

At 2:00 AM, the city of Chicago was a sea of ink and neon. Elara stepped out onto her balcony, wearing a dark tactical jumpsuit she’d hidden under her bed. In her backpack were the encrypted hard drives containing her father’s illegal offshore accounts—evidence she had painstakingly gathered over years of managing the firm’s "special" audits.

A silent drone hovered outside her window. Attached to it was a high-tension cable.

"Going down?" a voice whispered through her earpiece.

She didn't hesitate. She clipped her harness to the cable and stepped off the thirty-second floor. The air whipped past her, cold and exhilarating. She wasn't an architect anymore; she was a ghost.

At the bottom, a matte-black motorcycle was idling in the shadows. Julian was waiting, his helmet visor up, his eyes burning with a fierce, protective light.

"You got the files?" he asked.

"I have enough to put my father in a federal cage for thirty years," she said, climbing on behind him. "And you?"

"I've rerouted the Syndicate’s digital laundry. By morning, the Thorne family bank accounts will be as empty as their souls."

The Collision

They didn't make it out of the city limits.

As they sped toward the private airfield, a black SUV slammed into their side, sending the bike skidding across the asphalt. Elara’s world spun into a blur of sparks and screaming metal.

When she opened her eyes, she was on the ground, the smell of burnt rubber thick in her lungs. Julian was already up, a handgun drawn from his jacket, his body shielding hers.

Three more SUVs screeched to a halt, forming a perimeter. Silas Vance stepped out of one; Lorenzo Thorne stepped out of another. The corporate shark and the mafia kingpin, united by a common threat to their empires.

"Enough of this theater!" Silas bellowed. "Elara, give me the drives and get in the car. You’re marryng Marcus tomorrow, or I will see you in a cell."

"And you," Lorenzo said to Julian, his voice a lethal hiss. "You’ve betrayed your blood for a woman. You know the price for that."

Julian didn't lower the gun. "The price is already paid, Pop. I sent the files to the Feds ten minutes ago. A delayed-release timer. Unless Elara and I check in at a secure location in one hour, the Vance and Thorne empires become public property of the Department of Justice."

A stunned silence fell over the docks. The two older men looked at each other—a sudden, desperate realization dawning on them. Their children hadn't just run away; they had performed a total demolition.

"You wouldn't," Silas whispered, his face pale. "You’d destroy everything I built for you?"

"You didn't build it for me, Dad," Elara said, standing up and leaning against Julian, her hand clutching his arm. "You built it for your ego. Julian and I? We build things that actually matter."