Page 215 of Fractured Allegiance

Silence follows. Heavy.

Elias shoves Lydia behind him, gun still raised, eyes cutting to me. “That wasn’t Bureau work,” he says flatly.

“No.” My voice is low, shredded. “That was mine.”

Lydia stares at me, pale, shaking, her hand pressed against her chest. She doesn’t speak. But the way she looks at me, like I just proved every fear she’s ever had, nearly drops me harder than Dom’s body.

I wipe my knife once against my pants and force myself to move. “We need to go. Now.”

Elias doesn’t argue. He takes Lydia’s arm, steady but rough. I fall into step beside them, the three of us moving fast down the fire escape, leaving Dom’s corpse cooling above.

Every step rattles with the weight of what just happened. Every second pulls us further from Drazen’s cage.

But it doesn’t feel like freedom.

It feels like the beginning of something worse.

The fire escape shudders with every step we take, Elias moves fast and steady, Lydia pressed close to his side. I cover the rear, knife still wet, gun back in hand.

The city yawns open below. Black alleys, flickers of neon, a dog barking somewhere blocks away. Civilization feels close, but up here, it might as well be another planet.

We hit the bottom landing. Elias checks the alley, weapon angled, shoulders rigid. Clear. He gestures Lydia forward, then rounds on me, eyes piercing.

“She knows now,” he says. “Bureau. You finally spit it out.”

I hold his stare. “I didn’t spit it. Dom did.”

“Doesn’t matter who said it. Matters that she heard it.”

Lydia stiffens at his words. She doesn’t look at me. She hasn’t since Dom’s last lunge. I can still see the mark on her wrist where he gripped her. The same wrist I’ve held too many times.

“Go on, tell her,” Elias pushes, tone edged with scorn. “Tell her she’s just another part of your assignment. Another file to crack open. Another piece of bait for your Bureau leash.”

My chest tightens. I want to put a bullet in him for saying it, but Lydia’s silence cuts deeper.

I finally answer, not for him. For her. “She’s not a file.”

Elias smirks, humorless. “That what you tell yourself to sleep at night?”

I step closer, every muscle pulled taut. “She’s the one person I’m breaking all protocol for right now.”

The words hang between us, dense enough to swallow the stillness. Elias’s smirk fades. Lydia recoils like I just admitted to more than betrayal.

And when she finally looks at me. It’s just a glance, brief but brutal. Like she’s seeing all the nights I stayed outside her door, all the lies I let her believe, all the things I took anyway.

Then she looks away.

Elias grips her arm, firm. “Safehouse. Now.”

She doesn’t resist.

We move down the alley, fast, every shadow a threat. I keep my weapon ready, my eyes on every corner. But the danger behind us feels louder than the danger ahead. Dom’s laughter still echoing in my head, Drazen’s reach, Lydia’s lack of words.

When we hit the mouth of the street, we don’t go to the van as planned. Elias signals a car. Dark, unmarked, already idling, he has back up prepared. He pushes her toward it. I cover the rear, and the knife is still in my fist like I’ll need it again.

She climbs in first, Elias second. I follow last, shutting the door with a crisp click.

The city rolls by outside, indifferent, neon smearing across the glass. Elias keeps his eyes forward. Lydia keeps hers down.