Chapter 6 - TRUST IN THE LINE OF FIRE
The abandoned venue smelled of river water, dust, and old wood.
Mara walked through the front entrance beside Marcus.
Owen’s people waited outside.
June sat tied to a chair beneath a broken chandelier.
Tristan stood beside her.
And behind him stood Declan Rourke.
Marcus barely reacted.
“Cousin.”
Declan smiled.
“You always were impossible to surprise.”
“You sold information about my family.”
“Your family?”
Declan laughed.
“You mean your empire.”
Marcus’s expression remained calm.
“My father chose you,” Declan said. “Everyone chose you. Every contract. Every decision. Every room.”
“So this is jealousy?”
“This is correction.”
Tristan stepped closer to Mara.
“You really traded me for this?”
Mara almost laughed.
“I left you a year before I met him.”
“You always thought you deserved better.”
“No.”
Her voice steadied.
“I finally realized I deserved peace.”
His face twisted.
Marcus moved subtly closer.
Tristan noticed.
“Don’t.”
Marcus stopped.
“You think you’re powerful because people fear you?” Tristan said.
Marcus glanced at Mara.
“No.”
For the first time, Tristan looked confused.
Marcus continued.
“I used to.”
The lights went out.
Mara dropped immediately, exactly as planned.
A crash exploded from the rear entrance.
Men shouted.
Gunshots cracked through the darkness.
Marcus found her, dragging her behind a stone column.
“Stay low.”
“June.”
“Owen has her.”
Another shot struck stone above them.
Fragments rained down.
Mara heard her sister scream.
Then Owen shouted, “She’s clear!”
Relief nearly collapsed Mara’s knees.
Marcus turned.
That was when Tristan appeared from the darkness.
He grabbed Mara from behind.
His arm locked around her chest.
A gun pressed against her side.
“Mara.”
Marcus stopped.
Tristan dragged her backward.
“Drop it.”
Marcus placed his weapon on the floor.
Slowly.
“Mara, look at me.”
She did.
His face was calm.
His eyes were not.
Tristan laughed nervously.
“Look at the great Marcus Rourke.”
Mara felt Tristan’s hand shaking.
“He’d burn the whole city for you.”
Marcus looked only at her.
“No.”
Tristan frowned.
Marcus’s voice remained quiet.
“I would have once.”
Something shifted in Mara.
Marcus continued.
“But she never asked me to burn anything.”
His eyes held hers.
“She asked me to trust her.”
Mara understood.
She brought her heel down hard on Tristan’s foot.
He shouted.
She twisted exactly as Marcus had shown her earlier in the week when she insisted on learning how to break a wrist grip.
The gun moved away.
Mara dropped.
Owen fired toward the ceiling.
Tristan flinched.
Marcus crossed the distance between them.
Seconds later, Tristan was face-down on the floor.
Across the room, investigators and city detectives entered through both doors.
Declan tried to run.
He didn’t make it outside.
Marcus had turned over the financial records before they arrived.
Tristan’s money transfers.
Celia’s communications.
Declan’s signatures.
Accounts.
Dates.
Photographs.
Evidence.
Not revenge.
Evidence.
For Marcus, that choice cost more than anyone there understood.
Testifying meant exposing pieces of his own family network.
Closing businesses.
Losing allies.
Possibly losing millions.
Perhaps more.
He did it anyway.
Because Mara had once told him that protecting someone did not mean controlling what happened around them.
Sometimes it meant telling the truth even when the truth cost you power.
Then Mara gasped.
Pain ripped through her side.
Marcus turned.
She grabbed the edge of a table.
“Mara?”
“My stomach.”
His face emptied.
She pressed both hands over her belly.
“She’s not moving.”
Marcus reached her before she could fall.
For the first time since Mara had known him, his composure vanished completely.
“No.”
“Marcus—”
“No, no. Look at me.”
He lifted her into his arms.
Outside, rain hammered the pavement.
“Mara, stay with me.”
“I’m awake.”
“Stay with me anyway.”
She almost laughed.
Then another pain cut through her.
Marcus lowered his face against her hair.
May you like
And whispered the words he had been too afraid to say.
“I love you.”
