Page 207 of Fractured Allegiance
Dom. Drazen.
Both dressed sharp, as though the night never ended. But their faces…
Not calm. Not collected. Wary. Like something isn’t right.
Dom’s smirk is thinner than usual, tugging at the edge of a jaw that looks clenched hard enough to crack. Drazen’s eyes sweep the hall once, before pinning on me.
The guard halts. Straightens.
Drazen flicks two fingers. “With us.”
The guard shifts, uncertain.
Drazen’s gaze doesn’t move. “Now.”
The man obeys. He falls in behind them, leaving me alone in the corridor with a directive tossed back over Drazen’s shoulder.
“Stay put. Go back to the library. Or your suite. We’ll come for you when it’s time.”
No explanation or context. Just dismissal.
Then they’re gone, moving down the hall with the guard at their flank, their voices dropping low, taut with urgency.
I stand frozen for a beat, the hush pressing in heavier than before.
Something’s wrong.
I retreat to my suite immediately, heart hammering like I’m already running.
I’m in my suite not more than two minutes when the first crack hits.
Not loud. Not obvious. Just a stutter in the lights above, a flicker that shouldn’t happen in a penthouse wired to perfection. The hum of the cameras skips for a fraction of a second, then steadies.
My chest tightens.
It’s starting.
The timing. The plan. Whatever Silas and maybe Elias set in motion — it’s here.
Another sound, closer this time. Metal scraping against metal, distant but deliberate. A door forced somewhere beyond this floor.
I move to the window, part the curtain just enough.
Below, the street that should be dead is alive — a van parked wrong, too close to the curb. A shadow moving where shadows don’t belong.
My pulse spikes.
They’re here.
The handle of door shifts.
I spin, a thousand thoughts racing through my mind.
Then—
Gunfire. Distant but echoing through the halls like thunder rolling closer. Shouts follow, muffled but piercing. The sound of boots hammering the marble floor.
It’s chaos. Real chaos. Not staged. Not planned by Drazen.
