Page 173 of BounBound By Scars

When I reached the back gate, I pulled out my phone.

Unlocking the secure shell I opened the terminal.

One single command.

Phase 2: INITIATE

My thumb hovered for a breath.

Then—tap.

Boom.

The night sky behind me lit up.

The sound came a breath later. A deep, roaring detonation that shattered windows three blocks away.

The ground shook beneath my boots as Romano’s mansion erupted. Glass rained down like glittering ash.

Fire erupted from the main hall, swallowed the roof in a flash. Windows burst outward like glass shrapnel fired from a cannon. Stone cracked. Steel twisted.

I didn’t flinch.

Just smirked and kept walking.

I slipped through the tree line, where my black sedan waited under shadow and silence.

I slid into the driver’s seat, started the engine with one clean flick, and let the rumble bury the last echoes of the blast.

I didn’t look back.

Because I didn’t need to.

Romano was ash.

Swallowed whole by the same arrogance that made him trust me.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Amelia

“Three.”

Delara’s voice broke the stillness. Crisp. Sharp. No one breathed for a moment.

I blinked, forcing myself to focus. The lounge light felt too bright. The air, too still.

My head throbbed from days of no sleep. I was running on stale coffee and whatever rage I had left.

It had been a week since the Romano Estate op. Everyone else was still coming to terms with the way they’d failed Kabir.

Same self-deprecating conversations. Every fucking day.

For a week.

And still—nothing.

No word from Kabir.