The rain was relentless. A storm brewing above the Valtor estate matched the tension inside the drawing room.
Rael stood with his jaw clenched, eyes burning holes into the crushed photo in his hand. Ananya sat calmly, notebook beside her, as if she were the eye of the hurricane.
"He's alive," Rael muttered. "And Cazmin wants me to know it."
Ananya nodded. "And he wants me to believe it's my fault."
Silence.
Not the kind that separates. The kind that binds two people facing the same fire.
---
"I need your help," Rael finally said.
"You said that before," she replied. "Now say what you mean."
"I don't want to do this without you."
Her eyes didn't soften. "You've already done everything without me."
He stepped closer. "But I can't win without you."
That mattered more.
---
Within an hour, the east wing of the mansion had turned into a war room.
Maps. Blueprints. Profiles.
Ananya moved through them like a strategist, while Rael barked orders into his encrypted comms line. Damon sent word from the field: "The location is rural. Guarded. Not government."
"Private militia?" Rael asked.
"Worse," Damon said. "Cult-like discipline. Looks like Cazmin's built an empire while you were too busy falling in love."
Rael's jaw tightened. He didn't respond.
---
Later that night, Ananya stood in the guest room—no longer hers. She opened a drawer, pulled out a pendant her father had given her. A symbol of her past. Her burden. Her blood.
She looked at her reflection.
"I'm not that girl anymore," she whispered. "But I'm still his daughter."
She stepped into the hallway—and ran into Rael.
He stared at the necklace.
"You're not going without me," he said.
"I wasn't planning to."
---
At 3:00 a.m., they entered the SUV.
Damon drove. Rael and Ananya sat in silence.
Neither apologized. Neither blamed.
It wasn't peace.
It was purpose.
---
The compound was hidden deep in the forest, surrounded by high walls and heat sensors. Rael studied the thermal scans Damon handed him.
"Three guards at the west entrance. Two on the roof. And a locked bunker beneath the house."
"That's where he is," Ananya said, voice steady.
Rael nodded.
She had never looked more dangerous. Or more alive.
---
They moved like shadows. No words. Just signals.
When the first guard fell, Rael didn't blink.
When Ananya slipped a tranquilizer into the second's neck, she didn't flinch.
Together, they made it to the bunker door.
Rael picked the lock in under a minute.
The door creaked open.
A low groan echoed from the dark.
"Papa?" Ananya whispered.
A broken voice answered. "Ananya?"
She rushed inside, tears finally falling.
Rael stood back, watching her cradle her father's weak body.
He turned away. Guilt clawing at him like a monster.
But then—
A sound. Behind him.
"Rael," Damon hissed through the comm. "Incoming. Five cars. Armed."
Rael pulled Ananya to her feet.
"Time's up. We move now."
---
Gunfire exploded in the distance as they raced through the trees.
Damon drove them out through a side trail.
Rael shielded Ananya as her father coughed blood into her lap.
"I can't lose him," she whispered.
"You won't," Rael said, holding her tighter.
But even as he said it—he knew the storm wasn't over.
It had only just begun.
---